Love Me Tender (On Hold)

The sand.... and then some.

This is my first little story ever, unedited, so please be kind when you comment. Thanks!

{Thursday}

I let the surf crash around my ankles. I knew my sea legs would cause me to fall over, so I stepped cautiously out of the small wave. One step, then another. Dry land. I smiled. I stepped further up the beach, relishing the feel of the warm white sand under my feet. I squished the sand between my toes and laughed.

"Amore! Do not take too long, the boat leaves in an hour!" "Ey-ah Papi!" As if my grandfather, my only family, would leave me behind. I laughed again, almost falling over. Yes, it would take me a while to get used to being off his boat. I started walking through the brush of the beautiful little island. So many of these islands looked the same, but each one exquisitely different in its own way. This island smelled different. I inhaled deeply. I was sure there would be flowers to pick.

I walked on, leaving my grandfather and Paulo, the engineer, on the beach. With nothing around for at least three hundred miles, it was no threat for a girl to go walking alone. A girl. No, I was much older than that. But being with my grandfather made me feel young. It didn't help that he was always trying to baby me. I was almost twenty-two, and you would think he didn't know, the way he carried on sometimes.

I felt giddy, twenty-two, with no limitations. Of course Grandfathers money had a lot to do with that. The money I made him keep away from me. God forbid I turn into one of THOSE kind of girls. Bleh. I looked down at my simple white sun dress, my worn sandals hanging in my hand. Tanya could say what she wanted, I liked being comfortable over stylish. Although my cousin would buy a new outfit for every day of the year, the reason always eluded me. I had worn this outfit almost every other day for the last year on the boat.

The boat was gorgeous and big, but not as big as the one I had made Papi leave behind. It had been a little too flashy for me. Honestly, like I would ever use the stupid helicopter anyways. It was scary. I jumped over a fallen log and came through a small clearing. "Perfect." I looked around the small break in the trees. There were lovely pink and yellow flowers all over. I pulled the small knife out of the pouch tied at my ankle, silently thanking Gerard, our chef, for making me take it. I started to slice the stems of the fragrant flowers. So beautiful.

I started humming, some random happy tune, just to pass the time. I carefully laid the flowers in a bunch, tying the stems together with the bow from my hair. Perfect. A moment later there was a loud honk from the ship, a timer so that I would know when to head back. I heard a strange snapping behind me, I turned in time to see a man walk into the clearing. I gasped. He was rugged and dirty, his clothes torn and stained.

There shouldn't be anyone on this island.

"You're not real..." I jumped at the sound. His voice was raspy. His face was torn between pain and obvious confusion. Then he glared at me. "Your. Not. Real." It was the anger in his tone that started me running. I couldn't scream, it felt like I couldn't breathe. My feet made no noise as I ran for the beach. Just a few minutes, oh God, please let me make it to the beach. My mind was racing. Who was he? The loud footfalls behind me finally made me scream.

He slammed into me with enough force to knock us both down a small slope. He landed on top of me, his face wild. He turned and grabbed my arms, then shook me. "Your not real, your not!" He was screaming into my face. I started crying. Where was my knife? "I am...." I tried unconvincingly to defend my existence. He stopped shaking me.

"What?"

I tried to sound more sure, "I am real." His face froze, and then crumpled. He collapsed against me, sobbing. I heard a click.

"You have two seconds to get off of her before I kill you." Paulo's voice was shaking. I looked up to see Paulo, gun in hand, ready to kill the man. My grandfather was having a harder time making it up the slope, his cane slowing his pace. The man was crying so hard, there was no way he could have heard the engineer. "NO!" My arms flew around the man. He jumped at the sound of my voice. Good grief, what was I doing? But I knew. He was lost, he needed help, and I couldn't just let Paulo kill him. He pulled himself up and looked at Paulo. "I'm sorry..."