String of Hope

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. I gasped for air but gulped water instead. As the waves continued to crash, the salinity burned my eyes. My life jacket was the only thing keeping me afloat, but the waves were too intense. At this moment, my life flashed before my eyes.

Erik and I met in kindergarten. Since our senior year of high school, we always talked about going on a trip when we graduated from college. His dream was to sail around the Caribbean islands. I wasn't fussy; all I wanted to do was travel somewhere, anywhere. Erik was studying architecture while I was pursuing an engineering degree.

I reached for a piece of the boat floating next to me and held on with the little strength I had left. The waves were still crashing up against me and it was dark, so dark, it was almost pitch black if it wasn’t for the moonlight.

My Grandma raised me on her farm when my parents died. Erik lived on a nearby farm. I would get up early in the morning before school to help my Grandma in preparing the animal feed and clean the horse stables.

My face was buried in the sand when I opened my eyes, the waves had slowed down, and I could feel the ground beneath me. Along with Erik's life jacket, some bits of the boat had washed up beside me. “Erik!” I yelled. “Erik, where are you?” I cried. “Erik?” The silence was so loud. Erik was nowhere to be found. I fought to slither and raise my head. Everything seemed to be spinning around me while I experienced a pounding headache. I finally gained enough strength to lean against a palm tree and tried to get a sense of where I was.

On the farm, I would build shelters in the trees from the dead branches. I would read my favourite books and Grandma would bring me grilled cheese sandwiches. “Make sure you eat all of it” she would say to me. I could stay there for hours reading and forget to eat, it was my escape.

I was startled awake by a loud bang. I must have fallen asleep but had no idea how much time had passed. I noticed a coconut had fallen and broken in two on a jagged rock to my right. I reached over and trickled the sweet water onto my dry lips.

One day, as I was reading and eating my grilled cheese, I heard a loud crash. When I peered out I noticed a barn owl limping on the forest floor. It had come crashing down from a tree, and his wing appeared to be damaged. I took him into the barn, found an old shoebox, and lined it with a fleece blanket. I built him a temporary splint and gave him a bottle cap of water. I offered him the remains of my grilled cheese sandwich, by the way he ate it, I know he enjoyed it. His eyes were large and dark, his body was pale, almost white. He wasn't particularly large, and he appeared to be young. He had a downward-curving beak with a little scratch on the top. He regained part of his strength after a few days. I gave him the name Freddie, and he became a bigger part of my life than I had anticipated. Even though we didn't speak the same language, Freddie became one of my best friends. As I read my books, he would sleep in the branches above me, then fly to the barn after I left. We enjoyed being in one another's company. Freddie once gave me a blue string. I knew it was his way of thanking me. I wore it around my wrist all the time and never took it off.

I knew I needed to build a shelter so I started to gather materials. I found some old driftwood and some large palm branches. It reminded me of the shelters I used to build on the farm, and the shelter came together easily for me. I stopped to take a break and noticed there was still some coconut meat left. I thought about Freddie as I gazed down at my wrist. All I had left of him was a faded blue string. It was time to retire as the sun began to set. I laid down in the damp sand and imagined Freddie in the trees above me. Freddie gave me hope.

When I woke up, my mouth was so parched it was hard to swallow. I looked around me and noticed a few more coconuts in the trees nearby. I steadily tried to climb a tree when my foot failed to hold grip and I came tumbling down like a hailstone shower in August. My leg landed on an uneven rock and a pool of red started to surround me. I could feel the adrenaline running through my veins as I sat up against the tree. I continued to fade in and out of consciousness. When I closed my eyes, I imagined myself sprinting to my forest shelter in the warm, fresh breeze in order to keep my mind away from the agonizing pain.

The next few days I sat against the tree unable to move, like a barnacle on Erik’s sailboat.

I didn’t have enough energy to keep my eyes open. I could feel the infection taking over my body. As I struggled to fill my lungs, the heat of the sun made everything unbearably bright and everything became white. As I lay there and looked up at the sun, I saw a blue string falling from the sky like a feather in the wind. That's the moment I knew everything was going to be okay. Freddie and I were together down to the end.