It's Not My Island

by Charlie Dillard

  It’s Not My Island

  (Book 1 in the Callahan Family Series)

  By

  Charlie A. Dillard

  Copyright 2014 By Charlie A. Dillard

  Smashwords Edition

  Dedication:

  I love my kids. You guys are my life.

  Chapter 1 (Marissa)

  “Marissa, just please think about coming on this trip with me.”

  “But Daisy its on a boat. I can’t go on a boat,” I say.

  My best friend since we were babies looks at me with a look of exasperation. She has been trying for years to get me to go on a trip with her. Whether it was fishing or sailing, we always had the same conversation. Me telling her no, that I was too afraid; and her explaining to me that everything will be ok. That its just a fishing trip. That there were always life jackets, flares, and a radio if there were every any problems. No matter what she said I could never muster up enough courage to agree to go. When I was younger, her and I were at the YMCA swimming one summer and as I was jumping on the diving board I slipped and fell hitting my head on the board as I went in the water. Every since that day I could never get anywhere near water.

  “Marissa, please its my 21st birthday, and I’ve been dying to take out the boat Daddy bought me for my birthday,” she explains, looking at me with her big puppy dog eyes.

  Sucking in a deep breath, and through my teeth I say, “Daisy don’t look at me like that.”

  She lower her head a little more,and bats her eyes.

  “Why Marissa, I have no idea what you mean,” she says smiling shyly, acting like she wasn’t trying to talk me into gong with her this weekend.

  I study her as I think about going on the trip with her. I mean I’ve known her all my life; and she has always been into sailing and things. It really couldn’t hurt. Plus, it would be kinda nice to finally take a vacation. I’ve had this job here as a secretary at Harvard since after High School; and I’ve never taken a vacation or a sick day. Maybe it would be ok to take a few days off and enjoy myself for once.

  “Well, I have some vacation time saved up, so I guess it will be ok to go with you this weekend,” I say, but before I got it all out Daisy was hugging me.

  “Oh, Marissa we are going to have so much fun this weekend,” she screams in my ear, then goes on to rambling about all the things that she already did and still had to do to get ready for this weekend. She rambled on for more than an hour about all the fun we would have.

  “Well Marissa, I need to get going,” Daisy says grunting as she got up off the floor like she was tired.

  “Stop acting like your tired. You know you can run circles around Tyson Gay right now if you wanted to,” I said laughing and shaking my head.

  She smiles and hugs me then opens the door to my apartment, ready to leave. Then she turns around and points at me.

  “You Marissa better start packing as soon as I leave, cause I don’t want any excuses about you not being able to come with me.”

  I put my hands on her shoulders and push her out of the door and say, “I told you I was coming. If you don’t quit bugging me I’ll change my mind and stay here.”

  She just grins and walks to the elevator. I stand there and watch her while she waits for the door to open. When it does and she gets on, I finally go back inside and dive into my bed.

  I am plenty tired. I think I can just pack later. Tomorrow is Friday, so I can just do it before we leave at 6pm. While Daisy was here she had already picked out a few things she said that I would need. A few pairs of pants, shirts, summer dresses, and a bathing suit. The suit was somewhat sinful, if I say so myself. She bought me this tiny two piece leopard print purple bikini for my birthday last year as a joke, because she knew that I would never wear something like that. So when she was grabbing things out of my closet for me to take she saw it and told me to bring it. When I protested she told me that it was only going to be her and I, so wearing the suit wouldn’t be that big a deal. So It should be easy enough to get everything packed tomorrow seeing that she picked everything out already.

  As I felt myself drifting off, I reminded myself to stop and get a new battery for my cell before we left tomorrow.

  ~~~~~~~~

  “Marissa, come on and hop in the boat,” Daisy says to me with her hand outstretched for me to take for help getting over the edge of the boat.

  I suddenly feel sick thinking about getting in the boat and taking this trip with her. “I don’t think I can do this,” I say shaking my head and taking a few step back.

  “Oh no you don’t,” she says grabbing my hand and pulling me into the boat.

  I almost trip, but both of my feet land safely on the deck of the boat. Taking a couple seconds to calm myself before I go off on her for yanking me in like that, I let out a few deep breaths and look up at her. She looked happy but concerned.

  “Before you say anything Rissa, I just want to spend as much time with you as I can before I go back to school after next fall. I’ve missed us.”

  Here I am being all panicky and selfish, when my best friend in all the whole world is only wanting to spend some time with me. How rude am I?

  “Oh Daisy it’s ok; lets just get this show on the road,” I say weakly smiling up at her, hoping the nausea and fear don’t show on my face.

  With that she gave me a hug and we both put our things inside were the bed was, then we came back up to get going.

  “So Daisy tell me again why we left so late,” I ask as she starts up the boat and we pull off from the dock.

  “You, Marissa; I wanted for you to see how beautiful the Charles River is at sunset,” she says looking to the horizon.

  When I looked to see what she was speaking on, my heart just about stopped. Looking out over the Charles River was a sight all of its own, but this right here was amazing. I never knew it could be so peaceful and soothing; it was absolutely breath-taking. I’ve always thought of water as a death trap waiting to swallow up the first person who dares to step a foot into it. But seeing all of its beauty on this night was magnificent.

  We cruised on out into the water, driving toward that beautiful sunset for what seemed like a life time. I couldn’t complain except for the fact that I was tired and I could see that Daisy was dozing.

  “Maybe we should turn in for the night,” I suggest.

  “Sounds like a great idea,” she says turning off the boat, and leading the both of us down to the bed.

  “I know this isn’t the biggest bedroom area, but we will be ok,” she says tossing back the covers and diving into the bed.

  I look at her for no more than 20 seconds before I climb into the bed beside her, clothes and all, and pull the cover up and over the both of us; and doze off for the first of many of our nights at sea.

  ~~~~~~

  “Marissa, wake up, I need your help up here,” Daisy yells down from up top.

  Stretching out of the bed, I sluggishly stomp up the steps and onto the deck to see Daisy with a fishing pole in her hand trying to reel a fish in. I don’t fish, nor have I ever wanted to try. So I have no idea of how to help her.

  “What should I do?”

  She pointed off to her left and said, “Get that net right there, and catch when I say catch.”

  What!

  I hope she doesn’t think I’m catching a fish.

  “Huh,” I say.

  “Marissa, quite being a baby,” she says smiling.

  So I guess she wasn’t going to clarify, I thought to myself as I walk over and grab the net. Then I just stood beside her, watching her grunt and struggle with the pole and the fish.

  Now seeing how much she is struggling with that fish, it leads me to believe that the thing is massive. I don’t know how she thinks tha
t I’m going to be able to help her catch it, when she finally reels it in.

  No sooner than the thought left my mind, she was yelling for me to get ready to catch it in the net. I looked over at her incredulously, but steady myself because I knew she wouldn’t stop what she was doing to make sure I was ready.

  Without pause, she whipped her pole back and what looked like a damn baby whale rocketed into the boat, hitting the deck with a doom; causing me to freak out and forget what my purpose was and scramble backwards. Making me fall and hit my head as I stumbled down those stairs into the bedroom area. I was instantly knocked out cold.

  ~~~~~~

  At first I thought I was dreaming when I smelled the aroma of the most delectable fish wafting through the air. But when I, all to rapidly, sat up in bed, I was quickly reminded that I wasn’t dreaming. I was in bed under the covers and my head was wrapped in gauze. When I peeled the covers back to slowly get up I noticed that I was changed from the clothes that I had on earlier. I now had on a comfortable long summer type dress and my leopard print purple bikini was on underneath.

  Wait, why do I have my bikini on?

  I’m going to have to ask her as soon as I get up out of this bed. When I try, the heaviness of my head causes me to lay back down and groan at the throbbing in my head.

  “Marissa, are you up,” Daisy calls down to me?

  “Yes,” I barely choke out through the dryness of my throat.

  “I can give you a pain pill if you need it,” she says as she comes downstairs looking guilty as ever.

  “Ok.”

  She digs through a small drawer, coming out with a small bottle in her hand.

  “Here we are,” she says to herself opening the bottle and fishing out two pills.

  She hands them to me and says, “Marissa I’m so sorry for making you come out here with me. I just thought it would be nice to spend time with each other before the summer was over.”

  I cut her off and said, “Daisy, stop worrying. I did want to come, scared or not. It’s my fault for being such a klutz. I’ve missed you something fierce. You are me best friend, my sister; my life wouldn’t be what it is without you in it.”

  Then I give her a tight squeeze, and sit back on the bed. I was about to pop the pills in my mouth, when I realized that I didn’t have anything to take them with. Daisy must have knew what I was looking around for, because she swiftly got up and ran up the stairs. A few moments later, she was coming down the steps carefully balancing a tray. That had a glass of water, a plate of that delicious smelling fish, rice, and what looked like a flower made out of paper. I couldn’t help but smile. She is so sweet.

  “A peace offering,” she says sitting the tray on my lap.

  “A peace offering for what,” I ask, trying to ease some of her guilt about the situation by acting like I had no idea why she was doing this. It wasn’t her fault that I am so freaked out about sailing and anything that goes along with it. I really should be apologizing to her for ruining her trip.

  “Oh maybe for you falling and busting your head.”

  “I should apologize to you D. I’m the one ruining all this for you,” I say motioning around the room.

  “Maybe tomorrow, you can show me how to fish again. I promise I won’t freak out this time,” I say taking a bite of the melt in your mouth fish.

  “Ummmm, Daisy this is amazing; how did you cook this?”

  “I used one of those Nu Wave things to cook with,” she said smiling at herself.

  “Are you eating,” I asked with a mouthful?

  “I ate while you were sleeping. But I have to go up top and check on a few things, why don’t you eat and take your pain pills. I will be back to check on you soon,” she says getting up off of the bed and walking up the short set of stairs.

  I grin and finish eating the rest of the fish dinner; and quickly take the two pills that she gave me.

  Within a few minutes I could feel the effect of the pain pills wash over me, and I close my eyes, hoping that I will soon be well enough to enjoy the rest of our time together.

  ~~~~~~

  I feel cool water splash on my face, and it instantly wakes me up from my sleep. I pop straight up in the bed to see what it was and I see something that was utterly terrifying.

  The boat was thrashing back and forth with a vengeance. It took all the strength I had in me to keep myself upright as I crawled my way off the bed to see what was going on up top. As I finally made my way off of the bed and up to the top step, I was more frightened then I was before. It looked like a hurricane slash tornado was going on outside. Not only was the boat being tossed around like a rag doll in this massive ocean, but the water around us was doing a death dance like it was waiting to swallow us whole. When I say dance I mean the water thrashing all around us something fierce.

  Wait, where is Daisy?

  A new fear welled up inside me as I looked around for her. She wasn’t inside the bedroom where I just came from. On the deck there were remnants of the fish meal she cooked. Although with each whirl of the ocean, more of it was thrown into the water. Off to the right I notice a small movement, it looked like a hand.

  “Daisy,” I screamed as I stammered my way over to try and help her.

  I slipped as I slowly inched my way closer to her, falling down hard to my knees. My right knee buckled underneath me. If it weren’t for the roaring of the ocean, I would have heard it snap.

  I was now crawling over to the hand that I saw; when I was only inches away, I could see through the cold pelting rain Daisy’s whole body; and she was limp. She looked different. Almost like she was sleeping, but not.

  “Daisy, Daisy wake up,” I say touching her shoulder.

  Something is wrong. She felt stiff. I touched her face, then pushed it over to the side so I could see her face straight on. Her beautiful face was all cut up. There was a long slash down the left side of her face; and her eyes were dim. I am immediately filled with sadness of her being gone, and guilty because I was so weak and scary that I caused her to be off of her game, taking care of me. Instead of her being focused on sailing.

  What am I going to do? I don’t even know how to steer this stupid thing, let alone navigate it through a raging storm.

  As I try to get up, I cringe at the pain that shot up from my knee all the way up my side. A sudden gust of wind and rain tossed me overboard. I was clutching wildly trying grab or hold onto anything I could. The first thing that came in contact with my hand I latched onto. It was cold and squishy. It was Daisy’s leg. My initial reaction was to let go. I didn’t want to be holding onto her dead body, even though I loved her. But I knew I couldn’t let her go. I needed to make sure she got home. I had to make sure she wasn’t lost in this ocean of destruction. So I grab ahold of her and hold on and swim, kick, and try and claw my way through the murky tumultuous ocean. I am pulled under water, choking as I franticly try and get back to the top, and I reluctantly let Daisy go.

  Please, let me make it. Please.

  I give my last effort and kick my way to the surface, only to be smacked in the face with a massive wave and pushed back down under water. I could feel myself losing my grip on life as I swallow a mouthful of water, fighting to get one last breath. Enough to make it back to the surface of the ocean; and maybe make it to safety.

  But my hopes are be dashed as I slowly am overcome with the feeling of darkness.

  I am scared, and alone. I never thought things would end like this for me. I always thought that I would die old, and next to the man of my dreams.

  I guess I was wrong.

  Chapter 2 (Carrick)

  Yesterday was quite a crazy day. The storm that sudden formed last night damn near tore this island in two. So the sunshine that is shining through today is welcomed whole heartedly.

  I walk around the beach and access the damage. There is were massive amounts of debris slew around the shore. There seemed to be hundreds of coconuts all over the beach; as well as a few of the coconut trees brok
en in half or simply uprooted and thrown all over the place. The sand dipped in places that it hadn’t before, leaving different sized holes throughout the shoreline. It would take most of my holiday to clean all this up; and that was definitely something I don’t want to do.

  A brisk wind stirred a bunch of coconut leaves up, causing me to walk over and check out the area. Looking down I see feet sticking out from underneath the rest of the pile of leaves.

  Feet, what hell is going on here?

  I fall to my knees and clear the debris from around the feet to reveal a woman clothed in a tattered pink dress and something purple printed underneath; from what I could see. I reached down and brushed a bit of sand and hair from her face, to reveal a bruise on the side of her face; as well as a cut above her eyebrow that was oozing blood. There was also more sand caked in her hair and on her face. She was beautiful, sand and all.

  “Miss, are you ok,” I say placing my hand on her shoulder and gently nudging her.

  There was no movement from her, so I lean in closer and put my head to her chest to see if I can hear or feel her breathing. At first nothing, but when I moved my hand up to her neck a moan escaped her lips.

  I stumble backwards falling on my butt. Shit.

  “Miss,” I stammer and she moans again.

  “Umm.”

  “Are you ok,” I ask, now kneeling next to her.

  She didn’t answer; she just lay there looking peaceful.

  So I gingerly scooped her up and carefully walked across the beach to my cabin. Easing my way into the bedroom, then I gently lay her on the bed.

  What am I going to do? How can I help her? What if I can’t help her like she needs?

  I start by looking the whole of her over. She had the cut above her left eyebrow, that needed fixing. She had bruises all over her face. Her right eye was swollen shut. Her arms had small cuts all over them. I didn’t want to violate her by taking off her dress, but I could see that her knee was swollen; through a rip in her dress. That will definitely need a brace or something. She also had scrapes on the tops of her feet.