A SHORT FALL OFF THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

They sailed the green juggernaut ocean for sixteen weeks, searching for an eternal island. Their tiny ship trembled violently in the waves, and it was starting to fall apart, mainly because their ship was made from simple tree logs, rope, string, etc.

“She will not hold!” Jean cried and desperately held on to her sailor’s hat. The winds were wild and kept slapping her around. Stretching one of her legs, Jean tried to catch a fish that had flopped into their ship. The fish flopped forlornly next to Kyle, who had been fervently scooping seawater out of their ship.

“Can you please do something, Jean!” Kyle shouted over the tumult of gust and waves.

“I am! I want to get that stupid fish and eat it since we’re going to die anyway!”

“We are not dying. We may be sinking, though.”

“Your stupid ship is not as good as I thought!” Jean shouted over the slapping wind, slapping her sailor’s hat high into the sky, then, flopping down into the water, floating away.

“Great. That was my last HAT!” Jean cried and picked up the fish and threw it out into the sea.

“I’ll get you another one!”

“I’M SICK OF STUPID FISH!”

“I’LL GET YOU ANOTHER HAT!”

Kyle looked portside at sea. He knew they were close to their eternal destination: The Island of Giant Pears.

Jean loved pear trees and had always wanted to visit The Island of Giant Pears. It was said that the island was hard to reach because it was located near the edge of the world, and one had to have good nautical skills, and a good ship to even get there. Kyle terribly realized that their homemade ship had been slapped together too hastily. Jean had helped tie wooden branches craftily to the bow. “Hey, that’s a pretty figurehead, Jean!”

The juggernaut ocean now slapped and destroyed her work.

“Well, that’s great,” she remarked. “Our protection just went out the bow!”

“Jean, I know I said I liked your figurehead, but I think you could have taken more time on it,” Kyle remarked matter-of-factly.

“WHAT?”

Next, the sea slowly poured into their ship. They were soon up to their necks in seawater.

“We might now have a problem,” Kyle bubbled in the foam.

The juggernaut ocean now slapped and pulled apart the rest of their ship, sinking into the heavy green ocean grave. They were left bobbing in the desolation of the emotionless incarnation of the ocean.

Lo! Hark!

Kyle spotted a cool apparition beyond the wake of waves. It was The Island of Giant Pears!

“Look!” Kyle boomed triumphantly.

“What?! I can’t see anything with these stupid waves slapping us around!”

“Ready? Hold on to your hat, Jean!”

“KYLE! KYLE! THE WIND SLAPPED MY HAT OFF!”

“We’re going to make a break for it. All you have to do is keep your eyes on me, Jean. Do you understand? Do not take your eyes off me. Just swim. Just swim and look at me and keep swimming!”

They swam like topographic animals, fighting the desperate swim of their lives. At some point, Jean imagined that she would not have the strength to make it to shore due to her lackadaisical and unworthy body against the whorls of the infinite ocean.

“Kyle! I’m not going to make it!” she cried and decided to give up. “I would rather just fall off the edge of the world! At least that way would be a quicker way to go!”

“Don’t go, Jean. Plus, the edge of the world is the other way. We’re going to The Island of Giant Pears. Don’t you want to see all the pear trees? I bet we will be so hungry as soon as we make it to the island. I bet a giant pear would taste so good right now, don’t you think, Jean?”

Jean splashed around, looking momentarily confused. Seawater kept slapping up against her nose, which annoyed her.

“Okay, fine, but can I ride on your back till we get there?”

Kyle thought about this for a moment because he was starting to get tired, as well. He did not know if he would have the strength to get them both to shore.

“Kyle, come on! Or I will just sink right down!” Jean splashed theatrically, acting like she was sinking down, but Kyle could tell that she wasn’t actually sinking. “Kyle, Come on! Let me ride you like a sea turtle! It’ll be fun!”

“Well, since you said it like that: I am Kyle Turtle of the Eternal Sea!”

“I like the sound of that,” Jean said in a pretty voice and swam onto his back. Thinking he was an actual sea turtle, Kyle surprised himself with super energy and got them both safely to shore (it was a shorter swim than he had imagined). They jumped away from the waves and ran up the sandy beach. Kyle slapped the ground and kissed the sand. Jean stretched into the sun, looking resplendent and pleased. They were at The Island of Giant Pears!

“We’re here! The Island of Giant Pears!” Kyle boomed triumphantly.

Horribly, they looked upon the island. Horribly, not a single pear tree was on the island. There was just sand. A million tons of tiny quartz-like particles gleamed and whistled under the bright and burning sun.

“Kyle, is this the right island?” Jean questioned with a weird feeling in her stomach, but that was probably from swallowing too much seawater. She threw up on the beach.

“Jean, watch out,” Kyle said warily, tugging away from the quivering Jean.

“Yeah. I’m okay. Thanks,” said the quivering Jean.

Meanwhile, the waves tossed small pieces of broken logs and debris onto the beach.

Noticing this, Kyle said, “Maybe we should collect those logs. They’re probably from our ship, and we might need them for survival. Until we can at least find the trees.”

“I don’t care about that, Kyle! I just want my giant pears!” Jean cried and stomped on the sand. In an angry sequence, she stomped and stomped. Plumes of sandy dust gathered up around Jean the Queen of Sand.

“Jean, maybe you shouldn’t do that,” Kyle said nervously. “We don’t want to disturb the spirits of the island.”

“I would have believed you about those spirits if this island had any archetypal life to it! Clearly, it does not,” Jean pouted and continued to stomp on the beach.

Kyle noticed that the sky was turning an odd galaxy green color, and the sun went away in fear.

Suddenly, the ground slowly groaned beneath them. The island started to shudder and shake. The sand vibrated and slapped their bodies viciously. Kyle tried to keep his balance by hopping around the juggernaut shooting sand. Jean kept falling down, getting up, falling down, etc.

Now, a great hole grew from the maw of the ground, slowly expanding between their feet. They had to move further from each other to keep from falling into the eternal chasm. Once the event had passed, they got up and went over to the hole in the sand and peered down the hole.

“What do you think is down there, Kyle?” Jean asked fearfully, wishing she was on the other side of the hole, closer to Kyle.

“Jean! You’re a genius!” Kyle exclaimed.

“WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Jean screamed.

“I SAID YOU ARE A GENIUS! I WAS GIVING YOU A COMPLIMENT!”

“YOU’RE STILL THE CAPTAIN, RIGHT?!”

Jean decided to walk over to Kyle. They peered down the hole again.

“This is it, Jean! This is the actual entrance to The Island of Giant Pears! This is how we get there,” Kyle explained with his arms around her. She blinked astoundingly and listened to Kyle, not really understanding. She had not read up too much about eternal island entrances in the Book of Eternal Islands. Otherwise, she would have known that the island was a short way down the edge of the world. All you had to do was command the earth with the foot of your travels for the right number of stomps, which was what Jean had unknowing done, thus, creating the hole (or entrance). This acted as a portal into the mirror world of eternal islands, furthermore, into The Island of Giant Pears.

“Okay, Kyle. You’re saying if we jump into this here hole right here, we would wormhole boogey into another juggernaut dimension and end up at the Island of Giant Pears?” Jean asked dubiously.

“Well, you didn’t use the right words, but you got the idea right,” Kyle blinked and bent down and picked up a quartz rock and tossed it into the hole to show Jean that the hole was not an actual hole. Nothing happened.

“Nothing happened, Kyle.”

“It was too small to see, Jean.”

“Kyle, we’re wasting our time! We’re going to die on this island, aren’t we?”

“We won’t die. We’ve come too far to die and give up. We have to do this, Jean. We have to jump in.”

“I don’t know if I can!” Jean cried and started to cry.

“Do you trust me, Jean?”

“Of course, I trust you! I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust you!”

They held each other’s hand and turned and faced the swallowing eternal depths. They took a deep breath and looked at each other. Then, Kyle and Jean jumped in.