The Shipwreck

Chapter 1

A shipwreck could be easily associate to someone who had been living their life on the verge of exhaustion. When the ship you are leading is not responding anymore, and the crew you once thought was your ally is now nowhere to be seen. You try to spin the helm to the right, and what it can only do it's to go to the opposite direction. And in the exact moment you think that nothing could be worse than this, there you see, in the distance, a storm coming. And you thank God when you finally find yourself on a firm land, a desolate one, somewhere to start anew; and maybe, just maybe that's what storms are for. They push you right toward something you weren't expecting at all, and you just lay there, witnessing the giant mess that is happening right before your eyes. The ship is gone, most of your crew is out of sight, only a couple of people are there. You just need to figure out which one of them are soon to be your worst enemy. Apart from that, this is where everything new starts.

That's what happened to me that day, figuratively and literally. Literally, because I was actually on a ship, my father was a researcher - not at the same levels as Darwin - but he was nonetheless good. He needed me to keep track of his discoveries, on my notebooks. I always worshipped him, he could make me forget I was by then a 30-years-old with all the stories he liked to tell me, I felt like a little girl. Figuratively, because I just needed to find a place in the world, and the storm happened that day was just like the one swirling inside myself.

We left England to go search for new species - it was the year of the great discoveries. Born in America, my grandparents then moved to London in the early years of the '800, and there we were now, carrying on the job my grandfather started.

"It's going to be a great discovery, my dear Christina, I just feel it" my father told me that day.

"It sure will, father" I believed him.

But something went wrong, and we suddenly find ourselves clinging to our lives. The storm came as strong as she could and left us on an island we could not precisely recognize. Lots of men of the crew lost their lives; there were only me, my father, the captain and a bunch of his men left. The ship became only a pointless mass of wood.

We surely spent some days laying on the shore, fainted, for when I woke up I had an evil headache. But we couldn't waste time.

"If I am not mistaking", I started talking, while consulting the map I was holding "we should probably be on one of the islands of Cambodia" I added squinting my eyes as I couldn't bare the pain anymore.

"Let me see..." my father came close, caressing his white mustache, something he could always do while thinking profoundly. "Yes! I think you're right, we were here, just some hours ago" he added, pointing to someplace on the map, near to the hypothetical island we were walking on.

"Enough with the coordinates thing!" captain Young said with his usual arrogant tone. "We need to get settled up, first. It's going to be dark soon, we don't know what's hiding around here"

He could be right, but I couldn't help the stern look I gave him. God, I hated that man! I spent the whole trip trying to avoid his tedious gaze. There was no place in which I didn't feel his stare on me; he would look at me from head to feet, and I could swear I saw him licking his own lips once. Ugh! Disgusting. Not to mention how nonchalantly he left his hands accidentally touch my butt or breast, every now and then, and how he excused himself: "Pardon, my dear, didn't mean that". Of course, he did.

We spent the evening fitting the camping tents, while the captain and his men were keeping themselves busy trying to figure out some security settlements to keep the all of us safe. I could see a bunch of boxes full of weapons. Little did they know they did anything but make me feel secure.

"Did they need to bring all those things with us?" I said to my father.

"My dear, they make a living out of that, without weapons they are nothing. Besides, captain Young knows what he's doing. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here telling you this" he got a point, the man got his back since he started to leave our country for his researches and I remember how often he risked his life to save my father's. Still, I couldn't bring myself to liking him. On the other hand, my father loved him. So, I decided to keep my urge of punching the asshole in the face just for the sake of my beloved father.

"Of course, I will, Mr. Kennard" then I heard one of the men say to my father. He asked him and two others to keep him company why he tried to discover on which island we were.  "If we are fortunate we might stay here and start my researches. This place seems to be a good home for a lot of species; we could as well find something new here."

"Father, please, be safe" I recommended.

"Don't worry honey, they are with me" he said, patting one of them on the shoulder. It was a strong pat, but the giant guy on his left didn't even move. Not a surprise, my father was a little man, he couldn't hurt a fly. "We will be walking by the shore, as I only need to track the outlines of the island, just to see if I can recognize it on the map"

And so, they left. Leaving me by the fire, near my tent, with the disgusting man watching me by the distance, holding his rifle and showing off his annoying smug face. Of course, he started to walk toward me. I rolled my eyes. 

"So, Chrissy"

"I told you not to call me that!" I snapped, crossing my arms.

"My, my, why are you always so mean to me?"

And why don't you stop being such a dickhead. Oh, I would have liked to tell him that. I went with a polite phrase, instead. "I am tired and stressed. And my clothes are dirty, the only water I see here is salty water and..." I was rattling.

"Ok" he raised his hands. "My apologies"

At that I raised an eyebrow. Since when did he become so docile? There were times in which he couldn't have any of it and kept going on annoying me. I guessed he was tired, too. But I let it go. It wasn't my problem.

"You should get some rest" then he added. "Tomorrow we need to go find something to eat if we don't want to starve to death. Our stocks are at the bottom of the ocean"

And sleep I did. I can't tell you how much, but it must have been a lot because when I woke up I could already hear my father's voice. He seemed excited by something. I groggily got up, fixed my hair and dress, and exited my tent.

"It's new! It's new!" my father yelled. "It's not on the map! We discovered an island!"