The Ocean

At last I could row no further. My hands were blistered, my back was burned, my body ached. With a sigh making barely a splash, I slipped overboard. With slow strokes my long hair floating about me like a jellyfish you see in the waters of Brazil, I swam towards the strange island, for a while swimming as I had rowed, against the current, then all at once free of its grip, carried by the waves into the bay and on to the beach.

I lay on that beach, allowing time to pass and allowing each wave that came in with the rising tide to carry me further and further up the beach. Sleep came all at once without invite, but when I woke, the sun was beginning to come up over the ocean. As I lay there on my back, I evaluated my body, my situation, and the ironic beauty I found myself in the presence of. The oranges reds and yellow blurred into the most miraculous sunrise I had seen in my relatively short life, and it reminded me of the sunrises and sunsets of the desert and my home. I wondered how far from home I was, and as I sat up I could feel the aches and pains for the day before, and knew that they would become worse as the hours passed this day. I heard no sound outside of the waves crashing quietly on the beach, and I focused solely on the peace this moment brought. But, as always, a nagging voice continuously reminded me that no sounds meant no people. I would need to find civilizations.

This was not a mysterious island in the middle of no where, I knew I was not all alone. Even as my hyper conscious mind was beginning to draw up gruesome notions of zombies and vampires and werewolves attacking all at once I carefully picked myself up and walked to the ocean to wash the sand from my body. As the dirt disappeared it became clear what about my body were bruises and what about my body was the dirt and grim.

I made my way across the shore line to where my boat had finally come to rest and pulled it further on to my new little island. I evaluated the contents of the boat, gathered the belongings I needed, and walked towards the forest. Using what little knowledge I had of geography I attempted to draw educated conclusions as to where I had crashed landed and what part of the world I might be in. I also wondered where the rest of my crew had gone, and how I had made it into the inflatable life boat. All the questions came to me at once and the only way I could put them to rest, was to focus on one idea at a time, where was I?