Lost in Aspiration

Jordan is on a yacht, on a trip with his parents to the Bahamas. He is an aspiring photographer, but he hasn’t really gotten any exclusive photos. As the boat is sailing across the ocean, he sees a seagull soaring around. He pulls out his camera and snaps the button, but, again, the photo is blurry.

    Jordan hopes that he can get a good photo on the island, already imagining the great photos to come about. Just before the trip, he had spent his savings on as new camera, believing that he should get great photos. 

    After about ten minutes, the yacht finally arrives at the docks. He immediately rushes to find his parents so that he can get to taking his photos. Unfortunately for him, they had to check into the hotel, and even then he had to wait until the next morning.

    The next morning, when Jordan wakes up, he rushes to his parent’s bed and awakens them. 

    “Can we go to the forest today?”

    “Yes, Jordan.” responds his parents.

    They all eat breakfast at the breakfast bar in the lobby and drive down in the rental car to the forest. They reach the forest. They approach the entrance to the forest, and Jordan drags his parents along, deeper into the forest. Jordan sees a hummingbird, the most beautiful he has seen. Jordan chases after it, hoping to get a picture of it mid-flight. Focused on his camera, he trips and falls onto the snow. He gets up, persistent to get his best photo yet. 

    “Jordan! Don’t get lost!” yelled his parents, chasing after him.

    Jordan keeps on running without a thought, but the hummingbird finally lands. He aims the photo, and just as the photo snaps the bird flies away. He looks at the photo, and it is a perfect, mid-flight photo. He looks back and sees that his parents are nowhere in sight.

    “Mom! Dad! I got a good photo, where are you?” he shouts.

    He starts to walk back in the direction he came, but he doesn’t see his parents. Starting to get worried, he starts running, nearly tripping many times in the snow. He finally finds the path after nearly twenty minutes of searching. He follows it for a long time, but doesn’t reach an end. Had he gone the wrong way? He goes back the other way and follows the trail for what feels like half an hour, but he can’t tell, because the sun is going down. He continues, hoping to get out and back at the entrance. He sees a light and hopes that it’s his parents.

    Unfortunately, it is just a reflection of the moon on the ground. He tries to search until it is too late, and falls asleep under a fallen log, cold and alone until morning. As dawn approaches, he starts waking to the sound of snow crunching under the weight of boots. He scurries out from under the log as fast as he can and sees a person seeming to be a firefighter. He steps out of the woods and follows him.

    The man hears a noise behind him, and whips around. He sees Jordan and says, “What are you doing alone out here?”

    “My parents are gone because I got lost trying to get a picture of a hummingbird. I don’t know where they went, and I searched for what felt like an hour last night until I just gave up and fell asleep under a fallen log.”

    The man leads him to the entrance of the woods and he runs off before the man takes him anywhere else. He travels back to the hotel they were staying at, hoping to find his parents there. He asks the clerk if they came back and they say no. He wonders why they haven’t come back, but before the clerk can question him being by himself, he runs off and starts to search around the main entrance to the forest. 

    A voice sounds behind him, “Are you Jordan?”

    He turns around to see a police officer, and he answers, “Yes.”

    “Follow me to the police station, Jordan”

    He obeys and proceeds to the police station where his parents are waiting. He rushes up to them and gives them a large hug, and he learns to never do something like that again. Within the next few days, he gathers a lot of great photos, and shows his parents the one that he got lost for. They ask him, “Was that photo really worth the scare, Jordan?”