Diary of a Castaway

Chapter 8

DAY 140

     There is not a day that Nuriel's frightened eyes appear in my nightmares.

     The men were barbaric towards the islanders. I saw how they pulled their hair and kicked them trying to put them in their boats and take their jewelry.

     Arael and Haniel saw me and in their language said that I had betrayed them. My son stained one of the town's young women. It was hell. I just stood there looking scared, unable to do anything, watching everything burn.
     A lightning struck the field of plants and the shed where they kept the golden drink, burning everything. It was the only thing they didn't get from that island.

     The boat trip was complicated by large storms and some men sank after falling over the port side. I recognized those men as those who had defiled the women.

     Then I saw my son, yelling at the rest of the crew telling them to keep sailing and not worry about the other boats. At that same moment, lightning struck his head and instead of killing him, it blinded him. I heard his screams calling me, while tears of blood were flowing from his eyes and they had turned completely white. He cried like a little child seeking comfort, but I didn't say anything. I just watched how he looked for me, hooking himself on every man he touched.

     I waited and waited for my punishment, but it never came.

     The men sold the Resurrectors to the Egyptians as slaves. I tried to at least be able to reach Nuriel's hand, who was looking for me to help her, but they took her away.

     They will separate her from her parents and put her to work for who knows what.

     I cry right now knowing that I haven't been able to do anything. My friends, all of them, have been kept away from paradise because of me.

     I will never forgive myself.

DAY 155

     I have told Ruth that I plan to go see Pharaoh and negotiate Nuriel's freedom.
     That girl is like my niece, I can't leave her at the hands of being a slave.

     Ruth thinks it's the right thing to do, but she fears that maybe they could arrest me. I have decided that part of what I catch and my profits will go to Pharaoh. I may earn less, but for that girl, I would do anything.

     Isaac has wished me luck and that he hopes that I return with the girl so that he can have a friend to play with. I told him about her and that our culture could teach her. We all want to give that girl a home.

     Gerson has taken refuge in the old house without letting anyone come to see him. My wife usually brings him food and picks up the empty plate the next day. He doesn't want to know anything about us and he lives in seclusion hurling insults at God.

     Hewill be grounded until the day he dies.