Stranded

"Ahhhhhh!" I screamed when I opened my eyes to find myself somewhere that I had never been before.
I found myself laying on a makeshift bed, created from soft green leaves in a small stone room. I lifted my head from the bed and moaned in agony from the pain. Every single part of my body was screaming at me not to move another inch and lie back down. An older woman entered the room with water inside of a coconut shell and gestured for me to take it. I took the water from her and put it up to my lips, letting a little sip of water drip between my dry, cracked lips. "Thank you," I expressed to the woman.
She had long, gray, curly hair and wore dirty, brown pants, with a faded white tank top. She seemed lonely and as if she hadn't talked to another person in decades because she acted awkwardly. The woman stood with her hands down by her sides, fidgeting with her pants as she looked down by my feet, avoiding eye contact and humming quietly to herself. I introduced myself unsurely, "Hi, um, I'm Haley... Thanks again for the water."
The woman nodded her head subtly back at me and briskly walked out of the bedroom to the main area of the stone house. I rolled up off the bed, letting my feet touch the chilly floor and I followed her through the tiny, stone home. We came upon a room that must have been the kitchen and living area, as there was a table made out of stones and leaves in the center of the room, along with two tree stumps used as stools next to it. There were stone counters that ran along the outside of the room with berries and animal meat laid in an organized fashion on top of them. I wandered towards the next small room. The last room consisted of a hole in the floor and a small bucket of water, that I suspected were to be used as a toilet and a sink.
That woman must get extremely lonely being all by herself out here for a long time. Speaking of which, I had no idea how I had ended up getting to this island and in the woman's house. The last thing I remember is being on an enormous cruise ship with my fellow family members and eating supper on the top deck. My family and I had been on one of our annual vacations and were eating our last delicious supper of steak, potatoes, and salad, looking out at the beautiful Caribbean Sea. I clearly remember my parents paying the waitress, and my little brother, Jacob, and I glancing at the water rushing below the boat. Jacob leaned over to get a closer look and slipped, almost falling overboard and he screamed for help, "Haley, help me!!!!!" Right then and there, I made a promise that I was unable to keep, "I will never let you fall, Jacob. Don't worry."
I grabbed his hand, but I couldn't pull him up so instead, I held on as tight as I could to his hand. All of a sudden I could no longer hold his weight, so both he and I fell off the top deck down into the Caribbean Sea. As we fell at least two hundred feet into the sea, our hands had drifted apart, and that was the final time I remember seeing Jacob. It felt like I nearly sank to the bottom of the sea from the impact of the fall, and trying to swim up to the surface took all of my strength. The current from the boat was pulling me under, but I was committed to breaking the surface and making sure my little brother was fine.
I fought the current for what felt like forever and finally broke the surface, gasping for air, as my lungs acted as though air was a foreign substance to them. I looked up and scanned the dark sea for Jacob in the vague light, but he was nowhere to be found. I cried out, "Jacob! Jacob! Please come back to me," I kept screaming for Jacob, bobbing in and out of the water as the waves crashed on top of my head, "Please, Jacob. I need you. Please come back to me. Please."
There was no response and I felt a hole form in my heart that used to be filled by the joy that little Jacob had brought me. I looked around and thought about what to do now and thankfully I saw an island. I swam slowly to the shore of the island, praying silently that Jacob would be on its shore. That was the last thing I remember, but I guess I must have made it onto the shore as that was where I am now.
I left the tiny bathroom of the stone house and went outside to the beach to search for Jacob, and hoped with every single part of my soul that he would be there. While I scanned the beach for Jacob, I thought, my parents must be worried sick about what happened to their children. I suspected that they thought that we had both fallen overboard and died. Meanwhile, I felt guilty and responsible for Jacob's death as I was the one who promised to not let him fall and then we had regretfully fallen. Of course, Jacob was nowhere to be found on the breathtaking beach and must've been down at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea by now. Even though I knew he was long gone, I tried calling for him one more time, "Jacob! Jacob! Please reply, just let me know if you're okay."
I wrote the word "HELP" in the sand as large as I could in hopes that someone would see it and help me find Jacob. I slowly and sluggishly strolled across the beach through the trees and bushes towards the elderly woman's shack on the far end of the island. I returned to the woman's house and planned to demand answers from her about what was going on. I stormed in to find the woman gathering berries from the bushes near the shack and placing them in a large coconut. "Where are we?" I questioned the woman.
"On an abandoned island in the middle of the Carribean Sea," the woman replied back calmly.
I questioned her further, "Who are you?"
"My name is Dorthy," she replied, calmly and sophisticated.
"How did I end up in your house?" I asked, starting to calm down as I realized that Dorthy would answer any further questions that I had for her.
Dorthy continued to reply calmly as I interrogated her, "I heard you yelling that night and came over to the beach to see what all the noise was about. I saw you thrashing around in the water, yelling for your brother and screaming about the pain you were in from the hard fall. I yelled for you to swim over to where I was, but you didn't hear me because you were focused on saving your brother. I saw you swimming in and planned to rescue you if you needed my help getting to the shore. Once you made it to the beach, you passed out and I carried you from the beach back to my place."
"Why didn't you come to help me look for Jacob?" I asked her angrily.
She responded while keeping her calm, "The water looked extremely rough, so I didn't want to risk swimming out there to help you and then dying, leaving you without anyone to help you once you made it to the abandoned island all by yourself. Additionally, if you and Jacob fell from that high of a ship, I doubt that anyone would have survived. You were very lucky you survived and I doubted your brother would ever break the surface."
"You just gave up on my brother and left him to die?"
"I could tell he was already gone because he hadn't swam up for air for countless minutes."
"How did you end up on the island?"
"I'll just start from the beginning of my life to make it easier for you to follow. Once upon a time, there was a lovely beautiful girl born along the coast of Florida to joyful and expecting parents, Shelly and Burt Lee."
"Was that child you?"
"Yes, Haley it was. Please let me continue my narrative. Don't you want to know how I got here? I had a childhood that most kids dream of having, making me the girl that everyone was jealous of. Every year my family and I would sail across the Caribbean Sea and enjoy a peaceful and relaxing vacation, just the three of us. In high school I met the love of my life, Kyle Gregory; he was extremely sweet, charming, romantic, and amazing in every way possible. Every Sunday evening, we would go on a date to a different place together and it was wonderful no matter where we went. Whether it was to the movie theatre, out for supper, to an amusement park, to the art gallery, or even just talking at the park, it was always the highlight of my week," Dorthy smiled at the memory of sweet Kyle and then continued her narrative, "Right out of high school we got married and we planned to sail across the Caribbean Sea, just like my family always did, because we had never done this together before."
"He sounds like the perfect guy!" I added.
"Oh, he was. I was so lucky to have found and married him," tears started to well in her eyes as she thought about what was coming next in her life story, "A storm hit about a week into our trip and we were unsure of what to do because I had never experienced a storm on a sailboat. We prepared the best we could for the storm and hid in the covered part of the sailboat. The sailboat was small and had an open deck with a railing. It had one small room with wrap-around windows that consisted of two hammocks, a couch, a small bathroom, and a steering wheel. When the storm hit, the waves were at least twenty feet tall, causing water to slowly and steadily seep through the crack at the bottom of the door. Eventually, the water in the room was up to our necks and we opened the door to release the water buildup. We both made a mad dash to the rail on the outer edge of the boat and held onto it, along with each other like our lives depended on it, as they did," steady tears began to fall down her cheeks as she mumbled to me, "Sorry, I just need a minute."
I replied empathetically, totally understanding how horrible it is to lose someone close to you, "Take all the time you need."
Dorthy took a couple of deep breaths, wiped the tears from under her eyes with the back of her hand and continued, "The storm intensified and it started raining, getting windier, and thunder and lightning began to strike. My husband, Kyle, whispered into my ear, "I love you, Dorthy. Please seek safety for yourself no matter what happens to me."
"Don't be silly, Kyle. We are both going to make it out of this storm alive," I whispered back to him as we held onto each other tightly.
All of a sudden a wave bigger than any of the previous ones hit the boat and knocked it over onto its side. Kyle and I both fell into the sea and were struggling to stay afloat with the large waves crashing upon us repeatedly. He grabbed me and held my head out of the water so I could breathe, sacrificing himself. Those moments where he held me up by the waist, struggling to keep me above the surface gave me the chance to catch my breath and glance around us to see where we could swim from here. I noticed a small island, this very one that we are on now, and reached down to pull Kyle up. But Kyle was gone as he must have sunk all of the way to the bottom of the sea. I swam under the water and strained my eyes to look for his body, but the waves crashed hard against me and kept knocking me around, blurring my vision. I looked for what seemed like forever, I would scan the water for him and then come back up for a breath of air. Eventually, I came to the terrifying realization that Kyle was very likely too deep for me to ever find him, get him back to the surface, and swim him in with me towards the island. My whole entire body shook was filled with fear and sadness as I regretfully decided to swim towards the island, leaving my perfect Kyle behind.
The journey towards the island was a struggle, as I had to swim against the current and fight the tears rising in my eyes. I made it to the shore and crawled lifelessly onto the beach. I watched the storm thrive and finally die down, bawling my eyes out about the fact that I would never see Kyle again.
For the next week, I searched the water around the island, but as I suspected he was nowhere to be found and I forced myself to move on. On the island, I built this shelter and hunted for food in order to stay alive and live my life for Kyle. Then the other day, when I heard you calling for your brother and then barely make it to the shore, I revived you and carried you back to my shelter."
I replied, stunned, "Wow, you are so brave."
She laughed and explained, while putting a brave face on, "I had to be in order to stay alive."
"How are we going to get home? Did you ever try to seek help?" I asked her.
"I never tried to get rescued because I wanted to stay as close as I could to where Kyle rests at the bottom of the sea. But I'm sure I could help you get home to your family and friends."
I smiled up at her, "Thank you so much for sharing your story, that must have been very hard for you."
"You're welcome. Now let's get you back home."
We walked over from her shelter towards the beach and she began to start a fire with only twigs, rocks, and leaves. On Dorthy's first try, a fire started and she added logs to keep it going and make it larger, in hopes that somebody would see the smoke and send help. We then went back to her shelter and ate some berries and animal meat that she had already cooked a couple of days ago.
As the day faded into the night we both started yawning and decided to sleep out on the beach near the fire, just in case help came for us.
In the morning I woke up to the most amazing sound, the sound of a helicopter flying towards the island. The small, metallic helicopter landed near us and we walked happily towards it. I gave Dorthy one last hug and thanked her, "Thank you so much for everything you've done for me. Are you sure you don't want to come back with me?"
"I'm sure. Have a good trip home," Dorthy replied back.
I boarded the helicopter and it ascended into the air back to my home in Florida. I thought to myself as I glanced out the window waving back at Dorthy, I am extremely thankful Dorthy was there to help me. What would I have done without her? I never did ask her how long she had been stuck on the island. But I imagined it had been a while because she said she had got married and went on her honeymoon right out of high school, and therefore she would probably be in her early sixties now. Anyhow, I was excited to return home, but also apprehensive about how I was going to tell my parents what happened to Jacob. Right then and there I looked down at the Caribbean Sea and saw something bobbing up and down in the water. I turned to the pilot and asked, "Do you see that object bobbing up and down?"
He replied, "Yes. What is it?"
It was Jacob!!!!!!!!!!! I enthusiastically yelled at the pilot, "That's my brother!!!!!!"
He started driving the helicopter down to Jacob and landed on the water right beside him. I opened the heavy door to the helicopter and pulled Jacob in next to me, giving him the longest hug I have ever given anyone before. I asked him, "How are you alive?"
Jacob explained, "I swam up to the surface to find you gone. I didn't know what to do so I just kept swimming and trying to stay afloat."
I gushed to him, "I'm so sorry. I should've waited and searched for you longer, but I assumed you were long gone."
"It's okay," he replied.
"I can't imagine how difficult that must've been for you," I commented tears welling up in my eyes.
He responded, "It was all worth it now that I'm back with you. But ya, it was challenging, I felt like just giving up multiple times."
We hugged again as the helicopter ascended into the air back towards our home. I was so thankful that Jacob was safe, it was a miracle.