Hunger soccer-punched me in the stomach and thirst strangled me, but Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard was bare. I had nothing. Not even a piece of orange skin left in my pocket that I could chew on. It really was a sad state of affairs.
“Daniel!” It was worth a shot.
Moving out onto the sand further enabled me to look down the length of the mile-long beach.
It was massive. Not just long but wide.
A knot tied itself up inside my stomach at the sight of the rough waves powering in to shore. This was the closest I’d been since the accident. I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, fighting the tightening in my chest as I moved closer.
“Don’t think. Just move. Keep going. The water can’t hurt you anymore.”
I spoke these words over and over out loud, staying on the dry sand to make it easier on the crutches.
Halfway down a large bird sat digging for crabs.
I screamed again. “Daniel!” It was useless. The bird looked up for a second and then kept foraging. Only as I neared it did the shape change. Was it a bird? Maybe it was a seal. It was hard to tell. I wouldn’t have thought there would be seals on a tropical island. I associated them more with colder climates.
Something in me stirred.
I hobbled faster, fingers gripping tighter, legs burning like acid. My heart matched the increased pace. That was no bird! No seal either!
“Daniel!” Sweet Jesus! It was him! I’d found him. I almost collapsed to the ground.
I called out again and he looked up.
“Can you come here, please? I need to see you.” The thunderous surf threatened to drown out my voice.
He stayed put, looking up and out to the ocean. He obviously didn’t want any company but that didn’t deter me. I had come this far. I wasn’t leaving.
“I know you’re embarrassed and ashamed about what I saw, but it’s okay. I won’t judge you, Daniel. I’ve been a victim myself and I know what you’re feeling. You feel like you’re alone and that no one else understands. I understand, Daniel. I do. Please talk to me so I don’t have to keep yelling.”
“Go away! I want to be alone!” he hollered back, not letting his barrier down.
“Meet me halfway. I want to tell you some good news. I have a way to get you off this island.”
Those words had him look at me.
“Why don’t you come and talk to me and I’ll tell you all about it. I promise you can go back to being alone after I’ve finished.”
I waited a couple of minutes. It looked like he was going to make me go right up to him but then, tentatively, he rose and started closing the gap. His shoulders were slumped forward, causing his frame to appear infant-like.
He approached me and stopped a little distance away, looking everywhere but my eyes, so I took the steps he couldn’t.
“I’ve decided to leave the village and live over on this side of the island. I hate your father for what he’s done to you and I don’t want to be near him. I want us to be a team now. I know what you are going through. You see, Daniel, I too was beaten. Not by my father, but by my own husband. He used to hit me and torture me with cigarette lighters and then force me to do things to him that I didn’t want to.”
I swallowed the urge to cry. At least I had Daniel’s attention.
“I lived with the pain for years until he nearly killed me and I had to call my dad to come and get me. My family saved me and helped me get through it. I know that your family are the ones hurting you, but if you’ll let me, I’d like to be your family now. I want to take you away from here when the supply helicopter arrives. We can have a great life in the modern world. What do you say?” I had thought about it long and hard. I didn’t know if I was being selfish in my wanting to protect the boy and take him away from his home. My intentions felt right. I wanted to save him.
I could see his mouth shaking and knew he was on the verge of tears, so I reached out for him and drew him into an embrace. “It’s all right, Daniel. I’m here to help you. I’m not letting you go back. You don’t have to put up with that anymore.”
He clung to me, causing both crutches to fall to the sand. I had to steady myself and counter-balance against him to stay upright. He wept hard into my chest, letting me comfort him.
I kissed his head and brushed his fringe back from his tear-stained face, thrilled that he’d been found safe.
“Will you be all right?”
He nodded, still holding onto me. I let him cry it out for a long time, knowing he needed to let it out. He probably wasn’t allowed to cry to anyone back in the village. I imagined they would see it as weak rather than human.
“I have a wonderful man in America who will be only too happy to give you a good life: A life that you have only dreamt of. We’ll enroll you in school so you can mix with other kids your age. You’ll get to drive in a car, eat candy, and watch television.”
Listening to my own words, I only hoped that I still had a man to go to.
Daniel looked up at me with tear-stained eyes, as if all his prayers had been answered. “You mean it? I can come and live with you in America?” he asked, not entirely convinced.
I nodded, hugging his fragile frame, feeling the bond deepen. We held onto each other, craving the human contact.
“But where will we live until then?” he asked, finally pulling back. I reached down to get my crutches.
That was a fair question. I truly didn’t know.
Things would be pretty tough, having to catch our own fish and forage for fruit. Daniel would need to shoulder most of the physical work.
Silence marked our indecision before Daniel cried out with an idea.
“I know where there is a cave! We can stay in there and make it our home until we leave. My parents will never find us. Come on, I’ll show you where it is.”
His mood had lifted already, confirming to me that I had done the right thing by taking him away from his home. He would suffer no more.
Daniel led me back along the beach toward a rocky headland. It jutted out like a nose with a huge bump. I didn’t know how I was going to maneuver it. Had he forgotten I was on crutches? I stopped when we reached it, sighing with resignation. This was the end of the road.
Daniel was already halfway around when he turned to check on me.
“It’s no good. I won’t be able to climb over all those rocks with my leg the way it is.”
“Give me your crutches.”
“What? But I need them. I can’t move without them.”
“Please, Dakota. Trust me. I’ll take them and put them in the cave around the corner and then I’ll be back to help you. We’re nearly there.”
I was too tired to argue, so I handed them over and sat on a rock, watching him disappear, grateful to be sitting but feeling a little vulnerable with my crutches removed. I was so used to having them now. They were my security. My liberty. My liberty in a sea-shrouded cage. A cage that had just become so much smaller now as we were limited to our own corner of such an already small blip in the ocean.
Where was Daniel’s father? How far away was he? Was he watching us now? Would he even bother to come looking for his son? Something told me he would. It was just a matter of when. Sitting out in the open made me an easy target.
Hurry up, Daniel! Don’t leave me out here too long!
Not only was I nervous about unwanted visitors, I wasn’t exactly comfortable sitting this close to the ocean. My breathing had quickened, my back turned towards it so I couldn’t see the turquoise depths that haunted even my waking dreams.
Even with the cloud cover my brow dripped with sweat. Or maybe it was more to do with the incoming tide that I worried might sweep me away in my sleep.
Thankfully, Daniel’s sooty mass of curls came into sight minutes later. He chewed up the craggy rocks with little effort and reached me with calloused, outstretched fingers.
“Here, let me help you. Hold onto me and hop on one leg. We’ll go very slowly. When you need to get ove
r the big rocks you can use your bottom and sidle along. It’s the only way.”
I wasn’t sure how to pull it off but was left with little option. We needed to get to the safety of the cave.
“What’s the matter?” His question was aimed at my hesitation.
“I don’t think you’ll be strong enough to hold me.”
“Just try, please!” It was an order more than encouragement.
“Hmm.”
Standing up, I put my arm over his shoulders and he eased his hand around my waist.
His broadness caught me off guard. Shielded by an oversized tee shirt, I had underestimated his size. He had always appeared slight. His spindly, short legs had failed to catch up with his expanding chest that bordered on adolescence. Hard work was shaping him mentally and physically. The boy was becoming a man.
“Hop!”
I hopped, still avoiding transferring all my weight to him. He held me fast though, not letting go, gripping my waist protectively.
“Again!” And so it went. On his commands, we inched forward, up onto small rocks and then down into watery pools, sitting to get over bigger ones, Daniel’s patience a virtue. Our new home appeared as we rounded the bend. Tall enough to stand in and wide enough to swing a cat in, it would suffice as our shelter and hideout. It was tucked away enough to keep us safe from danger.
Who on earth would ever come here? It was a marathon in itself. No one in their right mind would tackle such a trek.
On the home stretch, Daniel heaved me over the last hurdle before we both fell onto the soft sand just outside the cave, exhausted.
“How is your leg?” He panted the words out.
“My good one or the bad one? At the moment, both legs feel like two bad ones.”
“Your bad one. Have you tried walking on it lately?” His mind appeared to be ticking over.
“No. The last time I tried, it ended in disaster. I haven’t been game since.”
“Well, I think you should try again soon.”
“I will, Doctor. Thanks for your concern.”
He laughed at the moniker, flashing me his white teeth in a full smile.
“Here, I’ll help you into the cave and then go get us some food. There are a couple of coconut trees not too far from here that I can climb. Coconuts will provide us with milk and nourishment.”
The thought did not appeal to me at all. I was nearly over coconut milk. It was all I’d had to drink in a month. The only water I’d ingested had come from whatever fruits I’d eaten. If I never saw another coconut for the rest of my life, it wouldn’t bother me. I craved a coffee. God help me when I returned to Sapphire Island. I was going to overdose and be high for a week on the stuff. In fact, if there was a way to feed it into my neglected system via an intravenous line, I would be first in line. A few heaped teaspoons of sugar wouldn’t go astray either.
Once we were safe in the grotto, Daniel was up again. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
I slumped back against the solid wall of the cave, happy to be in some sort of shelter, hidden and safe. My head was swimming with dizziness, my body urgently needing sustenance. Even lifting my hand was a cumbersome chore.
While I waited for Daniel, I looked at my skinny arms and legs. My weight had plummeted since the plane crash. I wasn’t a big hulk of a woman to start with so it was weight I couldn’t afford to lose. My elbows jutted out sharply, as did my wrist bones and my once shapely legs now appeared knobby-kneed and waifish. I’d have to tuck into a few Big Macs in LA to gain it back. My mind hummed to that happy tune. LA. Kyle. Each hour felt like a day. Each day a year.
I ached for Kyle more than my next meal. I’d give up a thousand coconuts and bananas right now to feel his masculine jaw with its two-day growth. To search those startling eyes and to feel his warm, protective arms around me.
What if he has already fallen in love with someone else? Does he know yet that I’m dead? He’d have to. It would surely have been in the news. Will he have the same feelings for me that he had before? I can’t expect him to drop everything for me. Can I?
The thought of losing him to another was numbing. I realized the agony he must have gone through when he found out that he’d lost me. Poor Kyle! I couldn’t begin to imagine what he and my parents were going through. If only I could put them out of their misery.
Daniel saved me from brain trauma by emerging with two large, bearded coconuts and a couple of fat bananas. One for each of us.
“There’s more where these came from. I hope you like bananas and coconut.”
The bananas appealed to me far greater than the coconut but I was in no position to start being fussy. At that point I could have eaten grubs, the hunger was so fierce.
“Well done, Daniel! I’m starving. How are you going to break the coconuts open?” It appeared to be another dumb question as he walked over to the rocky outcrop and started smashing them on the jagged edges.
Before you could say, “She sells sea shells” ten times fast, we were devouring the juice that had been reserved into the expertly cut halves of coconut and slicing into the flesh with our teeth like rabid dogs, the milk oozing down our chins. There were no manners needed, just gluttony. I was saving the banana till last to help take away the taste of the coconut.
Daniel grinned triumphantly at his find like the cat that got the mouse. Thank heavens for small mercies.
“It’s not much, but it will have to do for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll make a spear and catch us some fish. We can make a fire to cook it on.”
While we sat enjoying our fill, there was a question plaguing me.
“How long do you think it will be before your parents find us?”
“They won’t find us here. No one knows this cave exists. You can’t see it from up top and besides, my father is due to go to work fishing for a while so he won’t be around. I doubt whether my mother would even bother. It’s not the first time I’ve run away. She knows I can take care of myself.”
It was hard to believe that they just didn’t care. It seemed incomprehensible. If it were my child, I’d be an absolute wreck, searching frantically until he was found. There were other dangers on the island besides his parents. High cliffs he could fall from and an angry ocean he could drown in, just to name a couple. They certainly shouldn’t just assume he would be okay and could take care of himself. He was still just a boy, albeit one growing into a teenager, but still…that didn’t stop accidents from happening.
Chapter Thirteen
Kyle
My parents were slowly convincing me to get out more. Days were blurring into weeks, and as time wore on, the pain eased to bearable.
The premiere of an earlier movie was coming up and my parents were trying to set me up with my old girlfriend, but I was fighting them all the way. I didn’t want to ask Beth. She’d moved on, just like I had. It was years since I’d seen her or spoken to her.
“You don’t have to date or have a romantic interest in her; just take her for company. She’s a lovely girl and you would have a great time, I’m sure. I see her mother at the store nearly every week and she always asks how you are doing.”
“I’m not asking Beth, Mom. End of story. I’ll go to the premiere on my own if I have to.”
I watched Mom sigh and give in to me for now but I knew the subject would come up again soon. While I appreciated her concern, it was starting to annoy me.
A week later as I was sitting in the living room with the house to myself, there was a knock at the door.
I flicked off the television and went to answer it.
“Hey there, Kyle! How are you? Remember me?”
It was my old neighborhood buddy, Kurt Holloway, whom I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. He still lived at home with his parents and was a couple of years younger than I. His father had managed to get him a job in his publishing company with Kurt following in his footsteps, climbing the corporate ladder. When Mr. Holloway eventually retired, Kurt would take over the role as managing direct
or. His life was set.
Kurt was engaged to his high school sweetheart, Jennifer Wallen, whom he’d been dating since his senior year. It was all very sweet but very predictable.
Kurt stood in front of me, waiting for a response.
“Well, can I come in?”
“Oh yeah, sure. Sorry,” I apologized, opening the door further so Kurt could enter. We hugged each other briefly, doing the whole manly back slap thing before walking over to the sofa and sitting down.
“Do you want a drink of something? Soda? Beer?” I offered.
“Nah. I can’t stay too long. Just popped in to tell you the good news.”
“Oh?” I raised my eyebrows expectantly, happy that someone’s life was rolling along merrily.
“Well, as you may have heard, Jennifer and I got engaged last spring. We plan on getting married in three months. I wanted to bring you your invite.” Putting his hand into his jacket pocket, he pulled out an envelope and handed it to me.
“Thank you! That’s great!” I enthused, trying to sound happy for my friend. It wasn’t that I was jealous or anything. I just didn’t feel like talking about weddings at the present time.
“We’ll probably end up with a small apartment until the kids come along and then look for something bigger. Jennifer wants to start a family right away, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’d like some time to get used to being married before we have any kids. Hey, anyway, enough about me. How are you doing? Your mom told me you were at home for a while to cope with some personal things. Anything I can help with?”
I eyed my bulky friend with his crew-cut, tanned skin, and all-American good looks. He hadn’t changed since high school. A few more wrinkles, that’s all.
I was tempted to blurt everything out and unburden my heavy heart but I didn’t want to burst Kurt’s happy bubble.
“Ah no, not really. Just something I have to deal with. I’ll be fine. I’m getting through it and moving forward in my own way.” I could feel the frown deepen on my brow and Kurt didn’t miss it, either.
He placed a hand on my shoulder and asked, “Are you sure you’re okay, man?”
Losing You (Finding You Series Book 2) Page 10
