Mike and Graci sea story
We
are trying to escape this sad reality and drama of life. You and me out
at this beach looking out at the the ocean. No islands, just water as
far as you can see. Lets say we have been walking along the beach
thinking about finding a way to get away from civilization and sail out
to some deserted island some where. We are trying to find an old ship
wreck to try and fix the boat so we can use it to get out on the ocean
to get to our island. We don't have money to buy a new boat. We don't
have money to buy anything. The beach is littered with junk and debris
and we are hoping to find something valueable that we might be able to
sell to get some money. And we are hoping to find some treasure or old
gold coins or something.
Everything
has a White wash faded look and all we hear is the breaking waves. We
walk as far as we can until we come to the end of the beach where no one
else has gone and we can't go any further because of the cliff and
giant rocks in our way. We decide to climb over the the rocks to see if
there any more beach to walk down. We get over the rock to find there is
a little more sand to stand on but we can't get past the cliff and
rocks. We see a dead mermaid that is lying on the sand next to some
drift would and rocks. The mermaid is almost mumified it has been laying
there so long.
I
believe I left off where we had just found a dead mermaid. Also I
forgot to mention that we had just escaped a prison where we were
serving 20 years for crimes we didn’t commit. There is law enforcement
hunting us down with dogs and they’re not too far behind us closeting in
on us. We maybe have a day head start. Also we have a big chain and
shackles on our ankles holding us together. A big heave rusty iron metal
chain. We walked all the way to this point with that on our legs.
So we are looking down at this mermaid, amazed at what we are looking at.
You: Is that what I think it is?
Me: I think so. I don’t know if its real.
I reach down and feel her fin which has the only color thats not faded. It has a pretty gold and turquoise colors.
Me: It feels real
Her
fin is wet and feels like a big fish but her upper body is propped up a
little and has been kept out of the water and is dry. It almost has an
egg carton look to it. You lean over and get a closer look at her face.
You: She was pretty
Just
then a creepy looking crab crawls out of her mouth. I let out a
chuckle that is mixed with a sound of being grossed out and cover my
mouth with the upper side of my wrist.
Me: Yeah she’s a knock out. (I say with sarcasm)
You
look at the thing that has crawled out of her mouth and are creeped out
by it. You kick it off her. Then you kneel down and start pulling sea
weed out of her scraggly hair. Her hair is filled with sand shells and
sea weed.
You; Poor thing. I wonder how she died.
Me: I don’t know.
You can’t turn away from this incredible discovery and start to break a smile.
You: “This is neat!” You say looking up and down at it in fascination.
I turn my attention away from the mermaid and start looking at the big rocks ahead of us not able to see past them.
Me:
“We have to keep moving and get over those rocks to see what’s on the
other side. Are you ready?” I ask looking back to you.
You
look up at me, disconcerted that I am not interested in the mermaid.
“What about this?” you ask pointing your open hand down at the mermaid.
“Huh?” I say not understanding what you want me to say.
“What about this?” You repeat and reach down caringly putting your hand on the mermaid.
I
look down at it half fascinated by the mermaid as well but still
worried about the law catching up to us. “Well yeah that thing is
cool.... but we have to get out of here before the bounty hunters catch
up us.”
You
continue to study the creature unaffected by my statement of the search
party after us. “This thing is straight out of mythology. And it’s just
lying here dead right in front of us.”
I
look down the beach at the path we just came from as if I’m afraid of
seeing the bounty hunters. “We’re going to be mythological creatures too
in the form of ghosts if we don’t keep moving. You know how those
bounty hunters are, they don’t care if they bring you in dead or
alive.”
I
lean over and put my hand on the rocks ready to start climbing and pull
tension on the chain and shackles trying to prod you to come along. You
take one last look at the mermaid then reluctantly stand up and move up
to the rocks to start climbing.
We
awkwardly make our way up the rock face, doing the best two people
could do who are chained together at the ankle. We get to the top and
are happy to see another stretch of beach but still can’t see how for
the peninsula goes. We shuffle down the rock and onto the forgiving
sand. The cliff the to right of us goes straight up 60 feet and I study
it looking for a way we might climb up it to get off the beach. I don’t
see any way. I put my attention back on the beach which is covered with
junk….. fishing nets, a broken bucket. Plastic bottles, and dented old
oil drum, a torn up sandal, empty pill bottles and drug needles…………. A
lot of garbage.
“It
would be nice if you could find something worth some money in all
this.” I say scanning the ground. I kick over some torn up plastic to
see what’s underneath it. You see what I’m doing and you too start
looking around for something valuable. You spot an old doll lying on the
sand and pick it up to examine it. Its dirty and the dress is all torn
up. A lot of the hair has been pulled out and its missing on eye.
“How about this? Can we get any money for this?” You ask me holding up the doll.
I
stop what I am doing and look at you like your crazy. “Are you joking?”
I ask you. “That’s too beat up…. And who around here would want a doll
anyway.”
“I
would!” You say squeezing the doll tight against your chest. “I’ll just
keep it for myself then.” I notice fire ants crawling on the doll and
knock the doll out of your hands onto the ground. “Heeyy!” You blurt out
in disapproval.
“That thing is crawling with fire ants! You don’t want that.” I try to explain to you.
You
see the ants crawling on and around the doll and cross your arms and
have a hang down look like a scolded child. I look around at the meager
stuff on the ground and realize its hopeless. “We’re not going to find
anything good here. I think we should start looking for stuff that we
might be able to make a raft with so we can get out of here.”
I
start looking around for wood to make the raft out of. You just gaze at
the ground in thought, then look up at me. "Do you have the weed on ya
still?"
I look at you and Pat my back pocket like I'm checking to see. "Yeah I still have it." I tell you then continue to look around.
You are still looking at me expecting to pull the weed out and give you some.
"Can I have some? I could really use it right now."
I
hesitate to give you any. "Well we only have two smokes left. We should
probably save them for later when we have nothing to do."
You
get a look of disappointment on your face and close your eyes and tilt
your head back in frustration. Then start helping me search.
I
saw some drift wood over by that mermaid and there is a little here.
We'll carry some of this back and try to put something together.
We
get back to the mermaid area with armfuls of washed up wood pieces and
drop them at the base of the big rock we just climbed back over. The
mermaid still there, unmoved. Once again your eyes are fixated on her.
I find a rusted up hammer head half buried in the sand. The wooden handle long since rotted away.
"try
and find a handle for this." I say handing the hammer head to you while
I try collect some more wood. You find a good sized sliver of wood
about the size of a steak, big on one end and tapered at the other, just
small enough to jam into the hammer head to use as a handle. You put
the hammer head upside down in the sand and pound the wood steak down
into it with a rock. I pick out some of the wood that has old nails it
them still and use the hammer to pry them out to use on our raft.
"There
is plenty of wood and plastic bottles here to make a good enough raft. I
think there is enough rope lying around too. I......
I notice you gazing at the mermaid.
"You want to help me gather some of this rope?" I ask you.
You
break your attention of the dead creature and start helping me pick up
loose strands of rope lying here and there. We throw all of it down next
to the wood.
"Hmm
how are we going to do this?" I say looking down at our pile of stuff.
You study the pile along with me. Then you start poking around at the
wood and rolling the logs around. "What do you have a plan?" I ask.
"No not really. I'm just trying to get this stuff into position."
I see something and get an idea and move in front of you taking the log you had a hold of out of your hands.
"what I think we should do is put all the small stuff on the bottom so we can use the big pieces of wood for the top." I say.
Time goes by and as we put the raft together I am telling you to do this and that bossing you around.....
"Here,
can you start nailing these pieces to the top back there?" I say to you
handing you the hammer trying to get you to do something without
letting you do any significant work, afraid that you might mess
something up.
You
take the hammer and pile of nails we pulled out of some of the wood. As
I work I hear you pounding on things with the hammer behind me,
thinking you are just randomly pounding on the raft making an effort but
not getting much accomplished.
The
raft finally gets complete and I had put most of it together because I
hardly let you do anything. We stand back and look at my workmanship.
The raft doesn't look much better than the pile of junk we started with.
"Let's
get it in the water." I say. We both grab hold and push it into the
sea. It's hard to move but the round arm sized logs we put underneath to
roll on make it manageable. We push it far enough to where it's free of
the ground and floating on its own. One end is almost submerged and the
other end of the raft is sticking way up in the air.
"That's
not right." I say. I push down on the high side of the raft hard then
throw myself onto it before it comes back up to keep it down. It still
is sitting in the water cricked. "There that should fix the problem.
I'll just sit on this end the whole time to keep it flat."
Then
a creeking noise starts coming from the middle of the raft. It gets
loader combined with the sound of whining nails being pulled out of the
wood. Then all of a sudden the raft buckles in the middle and splits
apart , sending me hurdling face first into the water with a splash. I
thrash around in the water for a minute like a dying walrus then manage
to get to my feet dripping with water with seaweed hanging off my neck.
The raft is a wreck with logs sticking out every witch way and we
helplessly watch it float out of reach and out to sea. I watch it in
defeet panting hard and slobber dripping down from my mouth .
It
gets past some big tall rocks then a current changes it's course and we
watch it float to the side behind the rocks and out of sight.
-------------------------
"You let it float away!" You say to me.
"I
didn't let it float away. It started moving away from me when I fell in
the water. Why didn't you grab it when I was under the water?"
I say leaned over with my hands on my knees still out of breath.
"I couldn't reach it because of this chain on my ankle. You almost pulled me under." You say.
We
stand there for a time not knowing what to do next, almost giving up on
the whole thing. We both would almost rather let the bounty Hunters get
us then continue with this.
I
look down at the water, then lift my head and look out to sea, not
knowing what to do. I turn and slowly walk out of the water. You walk
out after me. I plop down in the sand next to where we built the raft in
defeat. You walk up to the pile of left over wood. "I think we have
enough for another raft here." You say.
"You want to build another raft after that disaster?" I ask. You start moving the wood around.
"What else can we do. We have no choice."
I ponder your words and realize of course your right. "Just let me rest a bit then I'll help you."
You continue to fumble about at the wood and I start to disapprove at the way your positioning it.
"No
no you can't put......." I start to say as I step on an unsecured log
and it suddenly rolls out from under my foot. I go hurtling towards the
ground and I land face first in the sand.
I
feel a surge of pain coming from my knee because I twisted it when I
tripped on the log. I lay there for a moment then put my palms in the
sand and slowly push myself up. I spit sand out of my mouth and put my
hands over my knee trying shake off the pain. I drop down in the sand
leaning against some rocks. I'm panting hard and have sand all over my
face and head.... I'm in a pathetic looking state. At this point I
pretty much look worse than that dead mermaid.
"Are you okay?" You ask me as you look at me fumble about the ground.
"Yeah I just need a minute." I say.
You turn away from me and continue to figure out the wood pile.
Tiered and red faced, I watch You move things around
-_------_------------------
Leave out for now
I stop talking because I see something bobbing in the water around the rock barely visible.
What's that?" I ask you causing you to take your attention off the mermaid to look.
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