The sky was a clear blue and fluffy white clouds sailed effortlessly from one end of the world to another and disappeared behind the looming mountains. The waves crashed on the shore, and rested for a moment before being pulled right back into the tide. The omnipresent wind fought long and hard with the trees and ruffled their leaves before giving up, only for a while, before it started again. Every element seemed to have a purpose, a well-defined path for it to navigate. Every element…except me.
It feels like I’m looking through the eyes of a paralyzed man – it’s been days, no weeks, and I’ve been staring at the same sights, wondering how and why I landed here. The island seems to have become a home for me. I spent the first couple of days exploring the island – trying to find some clue to my whereabouts – and the following days merely lying around, waiting for the answers to hit me like a splash of cold water. But time had passed, and I had nothing. What was even more frightening was that I was stranded on this island and I didn’t even know where I wanted to go, who I wanted to meet – all the memories before coming to this island had been wiped clean. For all I know, I could have just been thrown into this world, and landed directly on this island.
I stumbled upon a ray of light a few days after I found myself here – a bottle. For some it holds what can quench their thirst, for some it holds some warm drink for a cold, winter day, for some it even holds the answer to their stressful week, but for me, it held hope. Without any other medium of communication, it seemed like I would have to resort to the old-fashioned ‘message in a bottle’.
But what would I write? And with what? I didn’t know where I was, where I wanted to go or even my name for that matter. I took a long leaf and with a stone, wrote “Lost – Need Help!” When crushing the leaf to fit it into the bottle, the leaf bent just near the writing and the L now looked liked a U. I needed HEUP. Well if not to save me, maybe someone would come to correct my English. With one look at the blue sky, crashing waves, rustling leaves and the bottle that could save me from it all, I threw it as far as I possibly could. As I stood there waiting for the bottle to disappear, I noticed the sun turn into a fiery yellow. Another day had come to an end – and it was the most hopeful one yet.
That was several weeks back, and I still scan the seas and skies for a fruitful outcome. But alas! The waves keep crashing, the leaves keep rustling, and the clouds keep moving. That is – until now.
The tired waves had washed up to my feet while I was lying down, and brought along with it, well, a bottle. As I stumble to grab the bottle and sit upright, I gather my thoughts – Whose bottle is this? Was someone else stranded on another side of this island? Or on another island? Did it even have a message in it? Could it perhaps be someone playing a sick joke? I half expected a message in the bottle to read ‘No! Help Yourself’. I quickly cracked open the bottle, and what I saw completely shocked me! It’s what I least expected; and yet something I should I have been prepared for.
Without another thought, I walked up the hill I’d been climbing for so many weeks now, bottle in my hand. I was frustrated with myself, I was frustrated with the island. Surely during the time in my life which I don’t remember, I had asked for serenity, a place to unwind, and perhaps even to get lost, but this seemed like a sick joke. I finally reached the top of the hill and stood there, as I had on many such fiery evenings.
I blamed the bottle for giving me hope and keeping me there all this time. In anger, I threw the bottle at the rocks below and watched as it was smashed into smithereens. As I thought what would happen to me if I fell, I already felt gravity pulling me down, writing my destiny with the rocks. The last image that flashed through my mind was the message in the crushed bottle, which read, ‘Lost! Need HeUp!’
Faye Rodrigues is employed full-time, but makes time to put pen to paper in pursuing her passion for writing. Her dream is to travel the world and write about her adventures. Her passion for travel goes beyond merely reaching a destination – it lies in the adventure of getting there. She believes in the motto – “Live like everyday is your last… Love as though no one is watching you… Write like it’s your only means of communication… Travel as though the world is next door.”