Elisabeth

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 Will was picking fresh fruit and making a fire. He seemed so calm and relaxed. Almost like what happened earlier this morning was a dream, but she was sure it was not. She could still feel his cold, wet hands, clamping hers. She could still feel his heart pounding against her head in his chest. She still got chills and goosebumps from the cold wind a few hours before. She had experienced worse storms, this one had been relatively small, but it had been bad enough. She rubbed her arms, trying to warm her arms and get rid of her goosebumps. The sun was shining bright again, there was no sign of the storm left, except for a few broken branches here and there and the remains of their raft. The barrels had come back, they were all on the beach. Most of the wood was back as well, but their food was gone. She gathered all the pieces of wood and the soaked ropes.

Why was it so easy to get lost, but so hard to get back? It felt like the ocean's currents all led to this island, and they couldn't fight against them. However, she was sure they didn't. When you looked at it from the other side, no current seemed to flow towards this island at all. Because if everything led to this island, there would have been more people around. Ships always went around the island, never even visible at the horizon. Sometimes she wondered if the outside world still used ships, because she hadn't seen one in all those nine years. Ever. 

She put the barrels next to each other, knotting them together with the wet ropes. She was smart enough to build the raft further away from the water, so it could not be taken by the water again. She build a construction of the wood and lifted it, with a lot of effort, onto the barrels. She attached it to the barrels and tied the ropes tightly. She sat on it and shuffled, moved and wobbled till she was sure it was secure and stable. Satisfied, she got some water bottles and filled them with water from the lake. Again. It was a lot of work to rebuild the raft, but she was not giving up that fast. She had seen a movie once, a few weeks before she came here, where they also build a raft. It had been so easy. There were five people, and they finished it in ten minutes. They all just smiled and joked around, while working on the raft. She had loved the movie. It was not until she build her very first raft that she realized it was so fake. She had taken all day when she was six, and even now, she still had taken all morning.

Building rafts was not as easy as it looked like on television. Far from it. Chopping trees and searching branches, waiting for barrels to wash ashore and gathering bottles every morning after a storm had occured. Which was exactly why she had given up after the second time. But that was nine, maybe eight years ago. Elisa was almost sixteen now, and she was stronger, smarter and more determined now. She walked into the garden to get some fruit, when Will turned his head. He must have been working in the garden all morning. 

'Hey! Where were you?' He asked, a million-dollarsmile plastered on his face. Elisa chuckled.

'Rebuilding our raft, where were you?' His face dropped.

'Rebuilding... the raft.' He repeated, frowning at her response.

'Yes. That's what I said.' She said, sudenly not certain if he was okay with that. She wondered why he wouldn't be.

'Elisa, it's a lost case. We are a lost case. We are doomed to stay on this island forever. Our raft, is gone. Gone, Elisa.' The last words he said slowly, as if she was stupid.

'Why are you giving up after just one try?' She questioned, challenging him a bit.

'Elisa. That was not just a storm. It was fate. Do you believe in fate? I do. Everything happens for a reason. And that storm happened because we are meant to stay here.' He looked serious. Though she really thought he was kidding.

'You believe in fate?'

'Yes.' He doubted his answer for a few seconds, not knowing where this was going.