“Lizz,” Brian half whispered, quietly yelled, “don’t move any further, any movement will draw the shark towards you!”
“Let’s try to paddle the raft towards them,” Howie suggested in a whisper.
“AJ you just stay sitting,” Kevin advised as he caught AJ out the corner of his eye, still cradling his hurt arm.
“Hold up guys, it’s okay,” I yelled out triumphantly.
By the looks I was getting from the raft and Lizz, I guess they thought I’d pretty much lost it. The fin was only five feet away from me now and I got a closer look at my attacker.
I started laughing looking at their shocked faces. “It’s a dolphin!”
The vision relieved me and I smiled in spite of myself. I remember when I was about eleven or twelve, we were at a beach at Ana Marie Island and a bunch of us kids were playing in the water when some parents started to scream and holler at us to get out of the water. We ran out in a big hurry, sort of reminescent of the movie Jaws and I recall seeing about four or five fins jutting out of the gulf water. Almost on cue, the fins leapt into the air and there were dolphins out playing in the water. They have that way about them where they can be mistaken for sharks.
As quickly as the dolphin appeared, it disappeared again, swimming off. Hanging onto the prized green back pack, I swam towards the yellow raft, Lizz swimming ahead of me. When we reached the raft, I heaved the backpack into the boat and then helped to shove Lizz up into it with Brian and Kevin grabbing her by the arms, pulling her in.
Me getting into the raft wasn’t as easy and AJ started off on a stream of curse words as his side of the raft lifted up on his side. After three or four tries, I managed to drag myself over the edge and laid on the bottom of the boat once I was aboard.
“Nick can you take your meds without water?” Brian asked as he fumbled through the bag.
“It doesn’t matter, he’s going to have to,” Kevin stated in a stern voice.
I shot a dirty look over at Kevin.
“Nick, we really don’t have the time or the facilities right now to take care of your butt if you having a seizure, do we?”
“Okay, alright, I’ll take the damn thing without water, but if I choke, it’s your ass buddy,” I sputtered.
“Good idea,” Brian replied as he popped one of his water medications into his mouth. The irony struck me as being odd, him taking a “water pill” without water. Brian needed to take that pill every day for the rest of his life. Because of his heart condition, his body wasn’t able to get rid of fluids effectively and without taking the pills he would swell up and the risk of his lungs filling up with fluid was always hanging in the balance.
“Gimme mine,” I ordered as I held my open hand out towards Brian.
“Here you go,” Brian remarked cheerfully as he handed the backpack over towards me. I dragged my body over towards the edge of the boat and propped my back against the side. All was quiet for the time being, the only sounds were the water lapping against the sides the raft.
Breaking the “ice” Howie started calling out in a British accent, “Is anyone out there?..... Is anyone alive?”
Lizz playfully smacked Howie in the shoulder. “Watch Titanic much?”
Startled, I was awakened by AJ’s yelling.
“LAND GUYS! I SEE LAND!”
I narrowed my eyes towards the direction he was pointing. Sure enough, there was a spot of green roughly a mile away from us.
“Yeah! We’re saved!” Lizz and Brian cried out.
“I hope there’s a McDonald’s there, cause I’m starving,” was the only observation I could think of.
“You and your stomach Nick, honestly,” Kevin reprimanded.
Almost on cue, my stomach growled in reply. “Well, I am, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but I try not think about it,” AJ snapped.
I glared at AJ and mouthed his words back at him with the ugliest look I could put on my face. He raised his hand up to flip me off, momentarily forgetting about his injured shoulder and quickly howled in pain when the movement caught up to his brain.
“Ha ha.”
“You sonofabitch!” AJ growled.
“For christsake, would you two just knock it off for a day!?” Kevin and Howie said in unison.
As we drifted closer towards the island, I couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t look like there were any buildings or signs of life dotting the landscape. It looked like it was covered in a dense forest. The aquamarine colored water provided a nice backdrop to the sandy beach that outlined the island.
By the time we reached the island, it was growing dusky, night would be setting upon us soon. When we got close enough, Brian, Howie, Kevin and I jumped out of the raft and towed Lizz and AJ towards the shore. I could tell by Lizz’s reaction she wanted to jump out of the boat and kiss the sand.
“Guys, I have the weirdest feeling that this island is desserted,” I observed.
Howie made light of the predicament we were in as he started singing the theme song to Gilligan’s Island.
“Howie! This is serious!” I reprimanded.
“Nick chill out, would ya? I’m sure they will be looking for us, I mean we crashed a plane out in the freakin ocean,” he replied with a stupid grin on his face.
“Nick, I think we should get some wood and build a fire,” Lizz quietly suggested, taking ahold of my arm.
I looked at the shoreline briefly, listening to the squawking gulls overhead.
“Nick?”
I blinked when I realized that she was waving her hand in front of my face, breaking me from my trance. “Oh, shit, yeah and I’m not going to have a seizure either so get that thought out of your head!”
“I didn’t,” Lizz sighed. “Come on, let’s go get that wood.”
“I’ll help you,” Brian happily offered and joined us as we walked into the woods.
