Afloat

By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

I don’t know how long I’ve been afloat. Days, a week, more. I stopped counting at seven. Well, I couldn’t remember what came after seven and it didn’t seem to matter anyway. Seven dwarfs, seven seas, seven wonders of the world, lucky seven, seemed a good place to stop.

My life raft was nearly deflated, it wouldn’t hold me up for much longer. My emergency food had run out days ago, I don’t remember when; maybe seven days ago. My fresh water was almost gone too.

I had a really good tan now, I think. I had burned, blistered, peeled then burned, blistered and peeled so many times. The first time I cried and screamed in agony. The second time I cried and wailed. The third and forth time I whimpered softly and then, somehow, it didn’t hurt anymore. I think I’m on my seventh peel now, and I barely even noticed; my skin becoming so tough and thick.

My feet became uncomfortable. I looked down to see they were covered in sea water, dark and gray. They were neither cold nor hot but, had that unpleasant pruning feeling you get when you stay in the bath too long. I wondered how long my feet had been under water.

An orange glow in the distance caught my attention. Hallucinating again I was sure. So far I’d sung Puff The Magic Dragon with Puff himself floating along beside me. When I asked him if he would carry me home, he disappeared.

Another time, the Angel Gabriel hovered just above me. I was cold and he wrapped his wings around my shivering wet body and warmed me. I fell asleep in his arms and when I awoke, he had disappeared too.

I made out luscious, tall palm trees; seven large ones right on the point. Breakers lapped lazily on what looked to be, a pink sand beach. It was dusk, the sky turned creamy orange marbled with the blackness of the coming night. The Island seemed to be moving closer to me, beckoning me.
The rhythm of the soft roiling sea, broken into short breaths of ascending and descending waves, sounded real. Perhaps the Island was real. Perhaps I had not imagined it after all.

Bump! Something knocked into my rapidly sinking raft. Bump! Bump! My raft spun in a circle, taking on more salty ocean water. Bump! Bump! Bump!

Sharks circled me and what was left of my raft. I gazed longingly at the magnificence and promise of all the Island offered; as my raft succumbed and slipped beneath the clear, blue, pristine water.