Curs Island
Denisse Zelaya
Your eyes are closed and you feel nothing but warmth. You smile at the sensation of it all. The hot sun kissing your face makes you feel at ease. You lie gracefully on some kind of soft grainy material. You are unable to open your eyes completely. You feel as if you are in a deep trance. You move your head to the side and sand grinds on your lips like lip balm. Water rushes against your toes as you slowly regain consciousness. You sit up and find yourself on a beach. No one is in sight. Water continues to touch your feet in a playful motion of tag. Suddenly, you are engulfed in fear. All the happiness that you once felt has drifted away. Your whole body aches. You examine yourself and find that your pants are rolled up inadequately. You are wearing no shoes or socks. You are wearing a long sleeve blue hoodie that is partially wet and covered by tiny grains of sand. It is torn on the right side. “What happened?” you ask yourself, “this is a dream... it has to be.” The clothing you are wearing confuses you, “I don’t even have a blue hoodie,” you think to yourself. You are blown by a flashback. You are alone on the bow of a ship. You can hear indistinct conversations from passengers that are sitting on some benches on the deck. You stare at the waves caressing the ship. The sound of the upsurge from the waters is music to your ears. You are so distracted by the melody that when a woman comes and taps your shoulders your body jolts. “Sorry I did not mean to scare you,” she says very politely. You press your lips together to form a small smile. “Are you not cold?” she asks. “Kind of,” you respond, “my jacket is on the second floor but I am too lazy to go downstairs and get it.” The strange lady chuckles and hands you a blue hoodie. “Here, this is my sons,” she says, “I bought it for him but it turns out it is too small. I saw you from a distance and happened to have the hoodie in my bag. I thought, ‘that man has been sitting there for a while warming his hands together and would probably enjoy this,’ so, here I am,” she finishes with a smile. She notices that you hesitate to take the hoodie. “Don’t worry! It’s clean, it’s brand new and he hasn’t worn it at all!” she says as she walks away. She seemed so sweet and gave a warm vibe with every action she had made. You stare at the warm fabric in your hands. “Thank you!” you yell as she is now quite a distance away. The flashback blurs and you are brought back to reality where you are on the beach. Your eyes widen and you are brimming with panic. “This is real!” you shout as you stand up. You are filled with glimpses of all that had happened. You were in a shipwreck. The ship had hit some rocks just moments after the woman gave you the hoodie. Your body was swung out into the sea from the impact. The last thing you remember was sinking and continously sinking. You shake your head trying to process it all. “Where is everyone?” you think to yourself. You observe your surroundings and find nothing. There are no footprints indicating that another person. There are no other sounds but the waves greeting the sands and the trees dancing with the winds. You see something shiny in the distance so you start to walk towards it. It is a cell phone. You press the middle button and on/off switch but nothing happens and it does not turn on.
You are shaken up by a strange huffing sound in the jungle.