Water is my favorite element. Except, perhaps, for air, since I wouldn’t last long without breathing. But water is more than just necessary for life. It’s beautiful, soothing, powerful, refreshing, tasty, and lots of fun.
We’re at the beach this week, and every morning I can’t wait to get back out on the sand and feast my eyes on the ocean. Its incredible beauty takes my breath away each time I see it.
So what could be more appropriate for this week’s prompt than the ocean?
Cindy stared over the ocean waves. The ever-changing colors were unnoticed, the beauty of the glistening surface unseen. All she could think about was water. Drinking water, to be precise. She licked her chapped lips with her dry tongue. Her small bottle of water hadn’t last more than a few of her 67 hours on a raft under the burning sun. She lifted her hand to shade her eyes and once more scanned the horizon. Could there be speck of brown to the right? Or was it just hopeful imagination? The spot seemed to grow, and Cindy caught her breath. Could it truly be land?
She cupped her hands and tried to row by pushing the water on either side of her raft. Soon her arms ached and her thirst grew extreme. A cool breeze brushed her face and she glanced up at the sky. Ominous dark clouds roiled in the west and choppy waves bounced her life raft like a small twig in a rippling brook. She eyed the speck of land in the distance. It seemed closer, but could she make it before the storm hit?
Be creative and have fun. I am looking forward to hearing the rest of Cindy’s story.
As the storm came close, the waves got bigger and it became hard to steer. As if anything could get worse, then the raft broke in half.
Cindy screamed. “No one can hear me,” she thought. But the water became even rougher. Cindy swam hard, but the water was too strong.
A boat finally appeared. Cindy sighed and accidentally swam into a rock and blacked out. When she woke up, she was on land.
Cindy smiled. She had made it.
Great job, Lily! A happy ending.
Cindy knew her options were pretty limited: remain in the life raft and hope that it could survive the storm (unlikely), or use the last of her energy to push toward that tiny speck of brown, which would probably turn out to be nothing. Stalling, she pulled off the rubber band that held back her usually frizzy red hair. After so many hours at sea, it was matted with salt and unusually flat. Fastening the band more securely around her stubby ponytail, she swallowed the lump of fear in her throat and leaned forward, stretching her back as she bent her head toward her knees. Her athletic body felt strangely weak and stiff, and she wasn’t entirely sure she could trust her dehydrated senses. In the few seconds of distraction, she never even saw the mammoth wave that slammed into the side of her tiny raft, overturning it. As the water closed over her head, Cindy was tempted to just let go and stop fighting. She was so very tired. But a face, the most important face, appeared in her mind’s eye. It was as though she could hear his raspy voice telling her to try, to fight. She kicked toward the surface and broke out of the water, gasping and choking. All she could see were waves crashing around and over her, and her heart beat faster. Frantically searching, she finally spotted the remains of her raft, half submerged. With a great leap, Cindy managed to grasp it and held on, quite literally, for dear life. There was just enough air left to keep her head out of the water and, as a wave lifted the raft higher above the surface of the water, she again spotted that dark shape against the horizon. Grasping the raft with both hands, she began to kick her legs, propelling the boat toward that one tiny speck of hope. Her training as a long distance runner worked in her favor as she fought against the exhaustion. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as the dark shape, miraculously, continued growing larger. It was not, as she’d expected, an island in the sea. The shape was all wrong. It was a ship! She yelled in her excitement and waved her arms. She could make out a figure on the deck, and tried desperately to get its attention. Rain began pelting her face and the sky was growing darker. A flash of light, followed by a rumble of thunder, told her she needed to get out of the water, and soon. Cindy’s legs were aching, and she felt she would have cried if her body had had enough moisture left to create tears. She gritted her teeth, and with one last burst of energy she kicked with all her might. Finally, she came within earshot of the boat, which she could see now was one of those old-fashioned sailing ships, complete with billowing white sails. A shout from the deck told her she had been spotted, and the tears she didn’t think could come filled her eyes. A rope splashed down a few feet ahead, and she loosened her stiff fingers from the sad remains of her life raft to grasp it. She felt a tug, and within seconds she was hoisted up and over the side of the ship. Cindy fell to her knees and kissed the rough boards, then lifted a grateful face up toward her rescuer. His dark eyes met her green ones, and it it was another moment before she took in the rest of his form. He stood tall, his navy coat with its gold frogging dripping with rain water. He wore white…knickers, was it?…with shiny black boots, and his sandy hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Cindy searched her brain for the right terminology, which she only knew from the occasional period film. She shook her head as if to clear it, then finally managed to gasp out a few words.
“Th…thank you so much!”
The man frowned down at her, then motioned toward a deck hand who brought over a wooden bucket and cup. Cindy grasped the cup and drank her fill of the clear water. Somewhat restored, she managed to scramble to her feet. The man was still staring at her with what seemed to be confused disapproval, and she nervously pulled her pink “Race for the Cure” t-shirt and shorts back into place. The rain was still pelting her head, and when the man turned and strode toward a door she followed closely behind. To her relief the room was warm, thanks to a fire burning in the metal stove. The man tossed a blanket toward her.
“Here, woman. Cover thyself.”
Cindy wrapped herself in the blanket, then sat down on a wooden chair near the stove. Her shoes had long since been lost, and she set her toes with their sparkly pink polish right near the hot metal.
The man, who still refused to meet her gaze, was digging through a trunk in the corner. He tossed a folded pile of material next to Cindy’s chair, then left the cabin and closed the door. Confused, Cindy unfolded the pile only to find an old-fashioned dress and bloomers. It was the type of garment that the BBC must keep in stock for all of their Austen movies. “They really keep everything in character on these replica boats,” she thought, slipping out of her wet clothes and struggling into the dry ones. A knock sounded at the cabin door, and the man once more entered the room.
“Madam, if it is not too tiring for you, I should like to ask you a few questions.” His voice was curt.
“Um, yeah…sure,” mumbled Cindy, who was beginning to feel guilty, but wasn’t sure about what.
The man seated himself behind an intricately carved desk. He moved confidently, and seemed impervious to the rocking of the ship in the storm.
“How came you to be in these waters?” he barked.
Cindy’s eyes filled with laughter. It was just too ludicrous.
“How came I to be? First – it’s really impressive that you can stick in character like this. You must have been doing these reenactment things for a long time.” She smiled, but it quickly faltered under his intense glare.
“Okay, fine. I was out with some friends on my boyfriend’s yacht. Steve and I…well, we had a fight. I was stupid and decided to hide out in the life raft to get away from him. Then a storm blew up and the whole thing tipped, and then there I was, stuck on a tiny blow-up boat in a rainstorm. They couldn’t hear me yelling.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, and thought she saw a momentary flick of concern in the man’s eyes, but then thought she must have imagined it. His face was as stern as ever.
“Be ye a patriot or a Tory?” He barked.
“Excuse me?” Cindy’s glare now equaled his. “Seriously, let it go. I nearly drowned! I don’t want to play this silly game with you. Just let me borrow your phone and I’m sure Steve will come meet up with us and take me off your hands.”
“Madam, much as I would appreciate having you taken ‘off my hands’ as you put it, I know not of what you speak. I have no way of notifying this Steve of our location. My belongings are, of course, at your disposal.”
Cindy stared at him in irritation, then a cold feeling crept up her spine.
“I’m sorry… but can you tell me? What year is it?”
His brows furrowed, the spark of concern returned to his eyes.
“Why, tis the Year of our Lord 1781.”
That was the moment Cindy fainted.
Ha! Couldn’t say I didn’t see that coming after the “thyself,” but it’s still funny.
Cindy took the oar and rowed. She was farther away than she thought she was from the island.
“Help!”Cindy yelled, hoping the island was not a island, but a boat. “Help! Please!”
The wind began to blow, pushing her raft the way she wanted it to go. Then, the wind got so strong that it turned the raft over. Cindy tried to get her head above water, gasping for breath. Waves crashed over her head as Cindy swam towards the boat as best she could.
“Help!”She cried.”Help!”
A faint siren came from the speck and it slowly grew bigger.
“It is a boat!”Cindy cried.
She waved her arms to the captain of the boat, but then went underwater. Her head poked up again and she saw one lifeboat coming down from the big boat. It was a boat, and not a raft, so it got through the waves a bit more easily. It soon reached her and two men pulled her up and onto the boat. They rowed back to the boat with no trouble and Cindy was given some water and food.
“Where have you come from?”the captain asked.
“From a raft.”Cindy said, sleepily.
“You need some rest. We will talk about it in the morning.”the captain said.
“Thanks.”Cindy was led to a cabin with a bed.
After Cindy was in dry clothes, she a fell asleep.
The next morning she opened the cabin door, and she could see land!
She got off the boat and found that she was at the island she was trying to get to before her boat sunk.
Great story, Laurel. Thanks for posting!
Cindy desperately paddled with her hands, thrashing through the water to get to the brown spot of land. She continued to drag at the water, pulling herself towards the land, but no matter how hard she paddled, the land didn’t move. It kept itself a safe distance away from her.
She increased her paddling rate, but seemed to be going backwards. She then realized that the waves were pulling her back, away from her deliverance. It was going away. Far, far away. And the rain clouds were thickening.
The speed of the raft flowing through the current quickened, going faster and faster until Cindy started to get dizzy. The raft was spinning around in circles and her strength was withering, fading away. She felt like she’d black out, or maybe puke first.
The dark gray rain clouds turned black. The deep green sea grew darker and darker. Everything went black as night until there was nothing around her. Emptiness.
Cindy saw a light in the midst of the darkness. It grew brighter and brighter as there was no longer anything around her. The only sound she could hear was her own heart beating. Until that sound as well stopped.
Well, yours is by far the most realistic! Well done.