Shipwrecked

Waves crash violently against the sailboat as lightning strikes the raging sea, lighting up  the night sky. The boat continues to rock back and forth violently. The two passengers on board hold onto whatever they can find, fighting for their life. Water fills the boat threatening to sink the boat and drown the couple. After putting up quite a fight, the sailboat topples over and starts to drown. They are now on their own in the middle of the sea with no shred of hope left. Their hands are tightly intertwined, but a huge wave tears them apart pushing them in different directions. Both of them were looking back to what happened before this moment. 

This couple knew they were too far out. However, they didn’t expect to get caught in a storm and dragged out even further. Their trip had not been planned properly. Life was hard as they came from families who hated each other. It was like a Romeo and Juliet type situation, but without any of the violence. Jake’s family is extremely strict and controlling; he has a small list of girls that his family has handpicked for him to date. Ella is not on that list. Her family is extremely open, adventurous, and accepting of pretty much everything. Nothing goes unsaid in that family no matter how uncomfortable the topic might be. The main reason that her family isn’t accepting of Jake is because of all the negative things that have come from his family. 

Because of the complications of their family, their relationship has been quite a challenge. They like the way they grew up and want to be like that whenever they have a family, but they wanted to make their relationship work. However, a few days ago they got into a huge argument dealing with their families. Instead of breaking things off with each other, they thought it would be a better idea to just get away from all of it and get some personal time with each other. So a few days later, they hopped on Jake’s little sailboat and set out on the sea. They left in such a hurry that they didn’t even check to make sure the weather was going to be clear which led to them getting caught up in the storm. 

As the night went on, the storm slowly calms down until it disappears as the sun rises. In the morning, there is almost no sign of the atrocious storm that occurred during the night before. The sky is clear as birds make their way across the ocean. Less than a mile away from where that sailboat crashed, the remains of what was left floats lazily onto the shore of an island. Not too far away from the wreckage the passengers lay covered in sand, bruises, and scratches. One of them is a young woman, Ella, who is barely breathing. Her body is way more bruised than the young man’s. The young man, Jake, has some scratches and seems to be having no trouble breathing. The sea was easier on him than it was on her. 

He finally gains consciousness and starts to sit up. Rubbing his eyes, he looks around trying to understand where he is. On his left, he sees Ella still unconscious. Jumping on his feet, he rushes over to her. His heartbeat quickens as he struggles to find her heartbeat. After what feels like an eternity, he finds it. Sitting her up and laying her against him, he holds her tightly as he prays that she will wake up. Her hand twitches and Jake is filled with even more hope. She starts to stir and a smile spreads across his face. Thank goodness, she is going to be okay.

“Where am I?” she stutters.

“We’re on an island, I think,” he replies.

“How did this happen?”

“We got caught in a storm and this is where we ended up.”

“Oh,” she says quietly.

Everything that happened came rushing back to her and she becomes overcome with rage. Normally, she doesn’t get angry, not even a little bit. She is the type of person that just holds everything in. However, she is at an unfamiliar place and all that pushed down anger has finally risen to the surface.

“This is all your fault,” she says while glaring at him.

“How is this my fault? This trip was your idea. I went along with it to make you happy and try to be adventurous like you tell me to be.”

“I know nothing about being on a sailboat. You should have known to check the weather or not go so far away from the shore. Now we are lost, in pain, and probably going to die out here.”

“No, we won’t. I promised to take care of you and that is what I plan on doing. We will be okay, just take a deep breath and calm down.”

Holding her tighter in his arms, she takes a deep breath and begins to calm down. She managed to quickly calm down and relax. They decide to get up and look around the wreckage to see if there was anything that they would be able to use. When Jake first learned how to sail, his parents gave him a box that was supposed to be able to survive a crash and keep the objects inside completely safe and undamaged. He never thought to use it until they went on this trip. It would be better to still be very careful even while going on an adventure. Hoping the box made it shore with them, he searches under every broken piece of the sailboat. 

“I don’t think we are going to find anything Jake.”

“No, we will. It has to be here somewhere.” He walks toward the last piece that is left to check.

“What is it that we are looking for?”

“This.” That last piece was covering the box that he was so desperately trying to find. Opening up the box, he sees that all the items in the box are perfectly fine. They now have some food, clothes, flashlights, a backpack to hold everything, and two small pocket knives. Even though that isn’t a lot, it will be enough to help keep them alive until they can figure out what to do. 

“Now what?” Ella asks.

“Now we go on an adventure and explore this island.” 

Because they know that their chances of survival have greatly increased, they are both in happy moods and ready to explore. Deciding it would be best to see how big the island is first, they mark where they are and start to walk around the edge by the water. It only takes them an hour to make it all the way around. Not really finding much, they decide to head towards the middle of the island.

“Do you think this is safe?” Ella asks.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t be safe.” 

“What do you we do if we find dangerous wild animals?”

“Don’t worry about it because I will protect you. I will always protect you.”

Giving him a questioning look, she grabs his hand tightly. Carefully they make their way through a wall of trees. So far there is nothing special about this area. They have seen very few bugs along with some wild and colorful birds. Jake has given up hope on actually being able to get off the island. Starting to turn around, he gets pulled forward by Ella’s excitement.

“Is that a small house? Do you see it? Let’s go!” she screams.

Letting go of Jake’s hand, she dashes towards the house. The closer she gets, the more excited she gets. They might be able to find someone to help get them off of the island. Her mind is focused on getting inside that she doesn’t pay attention to where she is running. Before Jake had the chance to warn her, she trips over a big tree root. Putting her hands out to try and break her fall, she lands face to face with an unknown animal. This animal looks similar to a sloth but has incredibly long fingers and toes. Ella shuts her mouth tightly, trying to fight the urge to scream. 

The sloth-like animal walks over to her slowly. Jake is frozen in terror. He wants to help her but he also doesn’t want to scare the animal and make the situation worse than it already is. The animal is just inches away from Ella when it stops. Looking back and forth between the couple, it stares. A few moments later, it turns and walks away from them calmly and Ella can breathe again. 

“That was close,” she says. 

“Yeah, at least it was friendly.”

“Let’s go check out the house now.”

They continue towards the house eager to see what they will find. As they knock on the old wooden door, it creaks open. Inside everything is covered in a thick layer of dust like it has been vacant for a long time. In the center of the room sets a huge treasure chest. With some effort, they were able to pry open the box and were amazed by the contents. 

“Wow, this is a lot of stuff,” Ella says, looking at several survival kits and an opened envelope. 

“Looks like there is a letter in the envelope,” he says reading through it. 

“Well, what does it say?”

“It has instructions on how to get off this island. Apparently every morning there is a boat that goes by. We can find flares in the survival kits to get their attention. The letter also says to only take what we need so that there are kits available for anyone else that might get stuck on this island.”

“So all we have to do is just wait for the morning and we will be able to get a ride back home?”

“Yes. Since all the animals are friendly, we really don’t have much to worry about.” 

Looking relieved that they will be able to head back home soon, they grab a kit and head out back to the beach as the sun is starting to set. They spend the rest of the night talking and finding solutions to their family problems. Cuddled up underneath the bright stars, they drift off to sleep in good moods. The sound of a boat jolts them awake. Jake quickly jumps up and grabs the flare. Lighting it immediately he waves it frantically in the air. The boat slowly starts to turn around and heads toward the couple. Finally, they are getting off the island. 

“How long were you guys stuck on this island?” the captain asks.

“Well, we woke up here sometime yesterday morning. So probably close to twenty-four hours,” Jake replies.  

“Wow, that was a long twenty-four hours,” Ella says.

While it had been a long twenty-four hours, they were able to solve their issues. All they needed was some time away from everything. It was refreshing for them. Even though it started off rough, it all ended well. They actually enjoyed their one day adventure on this shipwrecked island.