Day 2

The boat jerked and I immediately flew up from my sleep, panting from the nightmare I just had. It was pitch dark and I couldn’t make out a thing apart from the fact that I was still in the rescue boat.

A tingling sensation ran up my legs and through my spine, signalizing that I was no longer moving. The surface beneath the boat was still and the noise of waves crashing down onto shore sounded in both of my ears. I realised that I had come onto solid land in the middle of the night.

Lacking a torch, I squinted into the darkness and bent over the edge of the boat to run my fingers along dampened sand. Relief washed over me and I silently plopped back into the boat, my heart leaping for joy.

It turns out that the waves wanted the best for me and decided to drop me off at some island. I smiled and raised my hand, placing it down onto my thumping chest. Then I pinched myself to check if I wasn’t dreaming. Surely enough, a miracle had occurred, literally over night. And now here I am, all in one piece without being eaten or starved.

I close my eyes and feel every bone in my body sink into the wooden base of the boat and surprisingly I managed to sleep for a few more hours only to wake up to the beaming sun once again.

7 o’clock AM.

I stick one foot out of the boat and grin when my toes dig beneath the sand. Then I bring my other foot out and wriggle my toes within the soft grains, glad that I was safe from the ocean. I drag my boat further up onto the sand so that it didn’t end up drifting away, then I hop off into the bushes to explore and find fruit.

A whole day of canned food was enough to make me sick.

The thought of drinking the fresh flesh of a ripe coconut made my mouth water from thirst. I climb through the thick branches and push my way through thick philodendrons and butterfly bushes, eager to find anything edible.

I fuss at the tropical insects landing on my arms and cringe before flicking them off by the back of my hand.

I hated insects just as much as I hated the sea.

Just as I forced my way through some prickly aloe Vera plants and alocasia, I stumbled over a bunch of bright yellow bananas. I gasped and looked up to find the tree that they had fallen from…but there weren’t any in the perimeter.

I furrowed my eyebrows and picked up the bananas, still scanning the area to find a banana tree hidden somewhere. But then I realised. This place is a jungle; it’s bound to contain wild animals and monkeys.

I shrugged and decided to weave my way back through the plants to get back out onto the beach, peeling and eating a banana whilst doing so. 

I plopped onto my bottom in a dry patch of sand and rested the bananas between my calves, listening to the orioles and the parakeets sing their songs in the bushes and trees behind me. Something about being out here was majestic…like some kind of heavenly dream.

The island was incredibly beautiful, with vibrant flowers and golden sands flittering all around me. I would live here all my life if the wild animals and poisonous insects didn’t endanger me.

But then again, my parents will definitely send out search parties and I’ll eventually be found by God knows how many helicopters and SWAT teams. I sigh and lay down onto my back, feeling the soft flutter of sand brush through my hair. 

This was nice.

I might as well make the most out of it while it lasts.

I bring my forearm up to shade my eyes from the bright sun and frown when I realise that my pale skin is turning brown.

I’m so used to my skin being a milky white that it makes me a bit edgy when I notice myself going even 1 shade darker. It looked good but it just didn’t suit me in my own opinion.

I sit up and look over my shoulder to see if I should go back into the forest and make myself a shelter. But then I change my mind when I hear the rustling of leaves and branches being snapped from behind.

My curious side was urging me to go and see what animal was spying on me but my precautious side told me that it could be dangerous, so I stayed put, slightly petrified.

What if there’s a hidden tribe on this island that is aware of my presence? Would they come and kill me for taking their bananas?

I swallowed a thick glob of saliva and shakily stand to my feet. It’s probably safe to go back into my boat…

A solid hour went by with me shivering like a pathetic sap in the boat. It wasn’t noon yet and I had absolutely nothing to do apart from explore the palms and the exotica’s on the lining of the beach.

I crack open a can of food and entirely peel the lid off in a neat sharp circle to use as a weapon in case I was attacked by some beast with rabies or a crazy guy wearing a feather hat and a leaf strapped around his s.  The sharp edge of the lid could easily slice through anything.

I hop back in between the bushes and allow my eyes to roam around the greenery. The air was damp and humid. I felt like I was struggling to breath as the heavy air missioned through my windpipes. 

As I inched closer, I managed to pick up on a scent…

I’m not a dog, but I recognised that the scent was of…cooking? It smelled like someone had been cooking something…like fish.

And then I found it.

A big leaf with a fat steaming salmon nestled on top of it. I raised an eyebrow and looked around to witness absolutely no form of life. Not even a bird or a bug. Everything was silent and still, as though I was the only form of life venturing through these woods when I clearly wasn’t.

This fish couldn’t have hopped out of the ocean and land itself all the way over here coincidentally on a leaf. It got here by someone. And not only was it cooked, but it had been steaming as though it had just came out of an oven and had been deliberately placed onto this leaf. 

My Yoo Youngjae instincts were telling me that there was a tribe trying to lure me into this trap so that they could use my body for a sacrifice towards their voodoo gods.

It was obvious.

The bate was the fish, and I was clearly the prey. I blinked a couple times and gave a remorseful look to the gorgeously cooked slab of meat on the leaf before slowly backing away.

Then I made a dash into a random direction and came across a shelter.

An actual shelter, with huge fan palm leaves draping over tall bamboo sticks tied up by their stalks and a neatly woven hammock hanging in between. Footprints, bigger than mine, were printed along the shingle and I felt my breath hitch within my throat.

Someone was living here…

Befuddled and weary, I backed away from the shelter and began running back through the heavy trees and bushes to get back onto the beach.

You can never trust anything or anyone you haven’t met before…they could be dangerous. I pounced onto the boat and began dragging it away, towards the furthest end of the beach to keep away from the tribe...

I do not want to get tangled in their webs. 

Unfortunately, I spent the entire evening rubbing two twigs together. A spark had not appeared for the entire two hours as I sat there and I became pretty damn peeved off for my unsuccessful attempts of creating a fire. I ended up having a tantrum and snapping the twigs in half with my knee until I spotted an orange flicker further up the beach.

If only I had a pair of binoculars on me.

I threw the twigs away and squinted into the darkness to see if I could spot the shadow of the person who created it, but to no avail, my squinting was useless.

I blew out my cheeks and climbed into my boat, defeated after a very unproductive day of lingering around on an exotic island owned by a mysterious stranger...

~*~