Chapter 2

The Island

Julia woke up on the beach, and she heard a squeaking sound when she moved. She looked down to see herself on a popped section of the lifeboat. Suddenly, yesterdays events came back to her. It was about mid-day, and the sun was beginning to burn her skin.

She sat up and looked around. Her two sisters weren't in the boat with her. After looking around the beach she spotted them laying a few yards from the boat.

I got out of the boat and called out to my sisters. "Katherine, Abby"!

They stirred, but only Abby woke, sitting up slowly. Her hair was tangled and matted, sand covering her body.

"Julia! What happened? My goodness! You're a mess!"

I looked down at myself and saw my wrinkled clothing, some tears at the bottom of my skirt.

"Oh," was all I said in response to seeing the tragic condition my clothing was in.

I heard a groan to my right. Abby and I looked to the right to see Katherine, sit up slowly, holding her head, only to sink back into the sand. I was the youngest at 16. Katherine was the middle child in age, although not much younger than Abby, both at 19. They were fraternal twins, with Katherine born 15 minutes after Abby.

I ran to my sister and placed a hand on her pale forehead. She didn't look well, and I knew she needed immediate medical attention with her condition. I tried to remember when the last time she had her medicine was, but all memory of such, was gone.

"Abby! We need to get her into the shade over there."

Abby picked up her skirts and ran to Katherine's side. We pulled Kathy up, which was not a hard task considering her delicate and light frame. We placed both of her arms over our necks, and took her under some foreign type of tree, whose full branches gave a solid cover.

It was at least 10 degrees cooler under the tree. We set her down on the ground, leaning her against the trunk.

The first thing the two conscious of us did, was retrieving what we could from the wreckage on the beach. This would not be so much however. Our entire luggage sunk with the Traum. All of our belongings had sunk to the ocean floor. A first-aid pack was supplied in each raft, so we searched for it.

We looked in each raft, but it wasn't there. I started searching around the perimeter of where we ran aground, and I started to panic.

There were several items in the bag that would come in handy. Not only did the pack contain medical supplies, but tools such as fishing hooks, and pocket knives. There was also a small bag of crackers too, but there is no use to these things if we could not find them. We gave up, and instead we dragged the partially deflated raft toward the trees.

Kathy had been roused by then, and she seemed a little better, but appearances can be deceiving.

"How are you doing Kathy?" I asked, walking over to her.

"Okay," she croaked out. "I need food."

"Abby, I'm going out to find some food. Can you stay with Kathy?"

"Yes. Be careful."

"I'll be back later with food", I said. But as an afterthought I mumbled, "If any."

I walked away from the beach, and into the trees. I heard a few birds and other critters scattering away at my approach.

A twig snapped, and I stilled, looking for danger, but then I spied a rabbit. I was over-reacting, and to the littlest things. I kept walking, smiling at my brief period of anxiety.

I froze. Wait. Since when did rabbits live on the beach? I was getting distracted from my mission, over something so trivial. There were snow bunnies. Who was to say there weren't sand bunnies, too?

The strange green trees began to thicken. Several trees were intertwined with each other, making an interesting pole of bark.

As I walked up to the base of the tree to feel its tough hide, I felt something soft squish out onto my foot. Looking down I saw a strange fruit I had never before seen. I looked back up into the tree I was standing under, and saw more of these fruits. I am an excellent rock climber, so who says I can't climb trees, too?

My mother disapproved of such activities, but I refused to let her stubbornness and values from times of old, get in my way. Taking off my sandals, which would only prove to be a mistake in the climb, I rubbed my hands together, trying to find the best way to go about this. There were no great holding spots, only bark that might tear away at my fingers. The branches we too high up to pull me up. The first branches were about 15 feet above my head, and all though I did track and field in school, I could not jump that high. I didn't have any supernatural abilities. My best part of field was the pole vaulting. Then suddenly, it hit me. Well, two things actually. First I realized I could find a good branch to use to 'fling' myself into the tree, as my sisters called it. But the second thing that 'hit' me, was a piece of that strange fruit. I was knocked down by the force of it, which was strange because it was such a small fruit.

When I got up and inspected the fruit, I discovered it was not the same fruit. It was a pumpkin! Wait! What the hell?!?! Since when did pumpkins grow on trees? Well, okay then…

Pushing aside the realization that a pumpkin had fallen out of a tree and hit me in the head, I looked around for a good branch to use. Finding one, I positioned myself the needed distance away from the tree, ran, and vaulted into its branches. The only difference between this and track and field, was that this was an object I was going at not over. Naturally I smacked into a branch, and fell down to the next branch. I caught myself and just sat there, straddling the limb of the tree, catching my breath. I didn't think about the fact that I was flinging myself into a solid object.

Looking up, I saw that only two branches up were the first fruits. I pulled myself up to the next branch and then the next. When I reached my goal, I started picking fruits. Since I had no where to put them, I had to just drop them onto the ground below, and hope that they didn't bruise to badly.

What I discovered as I was picking the fruits, was that some of them were pumpkins, and some peaches, and some that I didn't recognize, much like the one at the base of the tree that I had stepped on.

When I thought that I had picked enough fruits, I looked for a good route for getting down. Again, I didn't think before I acted. My plan was no where near full proof. I hadn't thought of the way down. While I was contemplating my next move, I felt the tree bend over. Then a little more, and a little more, until the tree was so far bent that my feet were six inches off the ground. Bewildered, I hoped of the tree. As soon as my feet touched the ground, the tree snapped back up. I gathered my fruits and headed back towards the beach.

I felt like I was being watched so I looked around, but of course no one was there, so I continued on, but the feeling of being watched closely never faded.

I made it back to camp exhausted and provided my sisters with the food I had found. They took it great fully and ate it.

After eating, we lay down in the sand, too tired to do anything else, and fell asleep.