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MANUSCRIPT 5/23

  • May 23, 2010

THE ISLAND

The Island – 1st draft******

June 1, 2000

My name is Anna Elliott. I was thirty years old when Tom and Sharon Callahan hired me to tutor their son T.J. for the summer. He was fifteen and one month into remission from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

When they had told me they were looking for someone to accompany them on an extended vacation at a resort in the Indian Ocean, I didn’t have to think it over for very long before I agreed to go with them. I had my own reasons for getting out of Chicago.

T.J. and I were traveling to the resort together. His parents and younger sisters had flown down a week earlier but I had to attend an end of the year meeting at the high school where I teach. T.J. wanted to go to a party at his friend Ben’s and convinced his parents to let him stay behind and fly down with me instead.

My sister Sarah drove me to the airport. She pulled up to the curb and helped me take my suitcases out of the trunk. “Are you sure you don’t want me to park and go in with you?”

“No, I’ll be fine. You and David can meet me at the gate when I get back. Bring the kids. Have them make a welcome home sign.”

“They’ll love that.”

“I know.”

Sarah put her hand on my arm. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“It’s too late now, I’ve accepted the job. I’m going,” I said.

“I meant leaving Chicago. Leaving John. Sarah hesitated. “Ultimatums seldom end well.”

“It wasn’t an ultimatum. Why does everyone think that? I just need a break.”

“Never mind, just forget it. Call me when you get there.” Sarah gave me a hug. “Wear sunscreen.” I hugged her back and smiled.

“Okay. Thanks for taking me to the airport.”

“You’re welcome.” I watched Sarah drive away and then I picked up my suitcases and walked into the airport.

T.J. and his friend Ben were waiting for me at the gate. “Hi T.J.,” I said. It’s good to see you again. Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, sure”.

“You must be Ben,” I said to the boy sitting next to T.J. How was your party?” I asked

“Uh, it was okay,” he said.

“I’m going to check on our flight,” I said to T.J. I’ll be right back.”

As I walked away Ben said, “Dude, you were right. Your tutor’s hot.”

“Thanks, asshole. She probably heard you.”

When I returned T.J. was alone. He was looking down at the ground. “Did Ben leave?” I asked.

“Yeah, his mom got tired of circling the airport. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?”

“It was okay.”

“Do you want to get something to eat?” I asked.

“I’m not hungry.”

When we boarded the plane, T.J. put his ear buds in and ignored me. He always answered me when I asked him a question – he was too polite not to – but he wasn’t interested in having a conversation. I didn’t take it personally.

We stayed on schedule until Frankfurt and then we were delayed for twelve hours while the airline attempted to untangle the mechanical problems and weather delays that rendered our original itinerary obsolete; T.J. slept on a row of hard plastic chairs while we waited to be re-routed. There were more delays in Sri Lanka – this time a shortage of flight crew – and by the time we arrived at Mal’e International Airport, our final destination an hour away by air taxi, I had been awake for thirty-three hours. When they said they had no reservation for us, I blinked back tears.

“But I have the confirmation number,” I said to the ticket agent as I slid the scrap of paper across the counter. “I updated our reservation before we left Sri Lanka. Two seats. T.J. Callahan and Anna Elliott. Will you please look again?”

The ticket agent checked the computer. “I am sorry; your names are not on the list. The air taxi is full. I have no more seats,” he said.

“What about the next flight. “

“There are no other flights tonight. Seaplanes do not fly after sunset.” He looked at me. The tears I had been trying to hold back threatened to run down my face. “I’ll see if the other carrier has any seats but I can’t promise anything,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said, wiping my eyes.

I bought two large bottles of water. “Do you want one?” I asked T.J.

“No thanks.”

“Well here, put it in your backpack,” I said, handing him a bottle. “You might want it later.”

We sat down on a bench and I called T.J.’s mom and told her not to expect us until morning. “There’s a chance they’ll find us a flight but I don’t think we’ll get out tonight. The seaplanes don’t fly after dark so we may have to spend the night at the airport.”

“I’m sorry Anna. You must be exhausted,” Sharon said. I should have stayed behind with you and T.J. and let Tom fly ahead with the girls.”

“It’s okay, really. We’ll be there tomorrow for sure.”

I noticed the ticket agent waving at me. He was smiling. “Sharon, listen I think we might –,” and then my cell phone dropped the call.

The ticket agent told us one of the charter pilots was able to fly us to the resort. “The passengers he was supposed to take are delayed in Sri Lanka and won’t get here until tomorrow morning.”

“That’s great,” I told him. “Thank you for finding us a flight, I really appreciate it.” I tried to call T.J.’s parents again but I couldn’t get a signal and my cell phone roamed without connecting. I put it back in my purse.

“Can I borrow your phone T.J.?” I asked.

“Sorry, it’s dead.”

“That’s okay, it probably wouldn’t get a signal either. Are you ready?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, and grabbed his backpack.

T.J. and I boarded a mini-bus which dropped us off at the air taxi terminal. We checked in at the counter and walked outside to a seaplane bobbing on the water’s surface.

The heat was oppressive and I started sweating immediately. The airport in Germany had been freezing and I’d changed into a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Now I wished I was wearing something cooler.

The pilot was sitting in the cockpit when we walked through the door. He smiled at us around a mouthful of cheeseburger. “Hi, I’m Mick.” He finished chewing and swallowed. “Hope you don’t mind if I finish my dinner.” He looked like he was in his late fifties and he was so big I wondered how he fit in the pilot’s seat. He was wearing cargo shorts and the largest tie dye t-shirt I had ever seen. His feet were bare. Beads of sweat dotted his upper lip and forehead. He ate the last bite of his cheeseburger and wiped his face with a napkin.

“I’m Anna and this is T.J.,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand. “Of course we don’t mind.

The plane seated ten. T.J. buckled himself into a seat and fell asleep immediately. I buckled in next to him and rubbed my eyes. Mick started the engines. I couldn’t hear him over the noise but when he turned his head to the side I saw his lips moving as he communicated with someone on the radio.

I looked over at T.J. as the seaplane lifted off. He was using his backpack for a pillow. He had braces on his teeth and a small scar on his chin. When I met him he was bald and thin and pale. He was still thin but his color was better and I smiled because his hair had grown into a dark brown crew cut.

Exhausted, I closed my eyes and dozed but my body clock was off and I had never been able to sleep well on an airplane. I wanted to get to the resort, take a shower, and crawl into bed.

I hoped I’d be able to get a cell signal when we landed so I could call T.J.’s parents to pick us up. I unbuckled my seat belt and went to ask Mick how long it would be until we landed.

“Not too much longer,” he said. He motioned toward the co-pilot’s seat. “Sit down if you want.”

I sat down, buckled my seat belt, and looked out the windshield. The view was incredible. The sun was blinding but the huge expanse of water below was a swirl of mint and dark green and turquoise blue.

Mick rubbed the center of his chest with his fist and reached for a roll of antacids. He put one in his mouth. “Heartburn. That’s what I get for eating cheeseburgers. But they just taste so much better than a damn salad, you know?” He laughed and I nodded my head in agreement.

“So, where are you two from?”

“Chicago.”

“What do you do there in Chicago?” He popped another antacid into his mouth.

“I teach ninth grade English.”

“Ah, summers off.”

“Sometimes.” I motioned toward T.J. “I’m tutoring him this summer. He’s in remission from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He missed a lot of school so I’m going to try to get him caught up.

“I thought you looked too young to be his mom.”

“His parents are already at the resort. They flew down a few days ago with his younger sisters.”

We sat in silence for a while. “How many islands are down there?” I asked. I looked over at Mick. He didn’t seem to have heard me. “Mick?”

“What? Oh, about twelve hundred. Only two hundred of them are inhabited though.” Mick took his left arm off the wheel and stretched it out in front of him.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“No. My arm just aches,” he said. He was sweating and it also looked like he couldn’t get a deep breath. He rubbed his chest again.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“My chest hurts. I’ve never had heartburn this bad before.”

Mick was wearing a radio headset. “Do you want to call someone? The airport, or the resort, or somebody? If you show me how to use the radio I can call for you.”

“No, I’ll be fine once these antacids start working. Thank you though.”

For a while he seemed better. His breathing was steady but then I saw him take his right hand off the wheel and rub his left shoulder. I didn’t think it was heartburn.

T.J. woke up then. “Anna,” he said, loud enough so I could hear him over the noise of the engines. I turned around. “Are we almost there?”

I unbuckled and went back to sit beside T.J. “I don’t know how much farther it is but listen; I think Mick’s having a heart attack. He’s got chest pains and he looks awful. He’s blaming it on heartburn.

“Shit, are you serious?”

“Well, my dad survived a major heart attack last year. I know what to watch for. He said he didn’t want me to call for help. I think he’s scared to admit it’s not heartburn.”

“What about flying the plane?”

“I don’t know.”

T.J. and I went up front. Mick was rubbing his chest again and his eyes were closed. “Mick? Is the pain worse?” I asked. “Just tell us if it is so we can help you.”

“I’m going to land on the water and radio for help.” His voice was barely a whisper and we had to strain to hear him. He was gasping as he spoke each word. “Put on life jackets. They’re in the overhead compartment. Then go back to your seats and buckle in. Hurry up.” T.J. and I looked at each other in alarm. My heart started beating faster as adrenaline flowed through my body. I was scared that Mick would die and even more scared he might die while we were up in the air. Telling us to put on life jackets meant he was scared about that too.

We rifled quickly through the overhead compartment. “Why do we have to put on life jackets?” T.J. asked. “The plane has floats, right?”

I didn’t tell T.J. my theory about the life jackets. “I don’t know, maybe it’s standard operating procedure. We’re landing in the middle of the ocean.” I saw a cylinder shaped container that said LIFE RAFT and several blankets. Next to them were the life jackets. “Here.” I handed a life jacket to T.J. and then put mine on. “Maybe he’s just being cautious. I’m going to try to put a life jacket on him too.” T.J. and I hurried back to Mick. He was moaning and his breath was coming in gasps again.

“Mick, here’s a life jacket.” His hands were gripped tightly on the wheel so I draped it over his head, reached around him, and fastened it. He was sweating profusely and his skin was grey. “It’s going to be okay Mick. I know CPR and T.J. can figure out the radio. We’ll get help.” I couldn’t tell if he heard me or not. We went back to our seats.

I sat down next to T.J. and we fastened our seatbelts. I gripped the armrests of my seat and looked out the window to see how low we were. Landing was imminent. When I looked up toward the cockpit I saw Mick slumped forward over the wheel. He wasn’t moving. I unbuckled my seat belt and rushed forward.

“Anna!” T.J. yelled.

When I was halfway there, Mick jerked backward in his seat, his hands still on the wheel as a massive spasm wracked his chest. It was too late. We hit the water tail first and skipped across the waves. The tip of one of the wings caught the surface and the plane cartwheeled out of control and broke apart.

I was knocked off my feet. I heard the sound of shattering glass and felt searing pain and then I was underwater.

Seawater poured down my throat. Completely disoriented, it was only the buoyancy of my life jacket that lifted me slowly toward the surface. When my head was finally above water I took huge, gasping breaths.

T.J! Oh God, where was T.J.? I pictured him trapped in his seat, unable to get his seatbelt unbuckled.

The water was filled with debris. I looked frantically for him and screamed his name over and over and just when I thought he had most certainly drowned, he surfaced, coughing and choking.

I swam toward him even though every movement caused severe pain. I tasted blood in my mouth and my head was throbbing so hard it felt like it might explode, as if there was pressure building inside that needed to be released. When I reached T.J., I grabbed his hand and tried to tell him how happy I was that he was alive but my words wouldn’t come out right. Blood was pouring from a cut on my head faster than I could wipe it out of my eyes. Everything was hazy as I drifted in and out. T.J. looped his arm through the straps of my life jacket and yelled at me to wake up. I remembered high waves and swallowing more water and the sun going down and then I remembered nothing at all until we got to the shore of the island.

Chapter two

Day 1

“Anna can you hear me?” I was lying on my back on the sand and when I opened my eyes I was looking up at the sun. I turned my head toward the voice and saw two images of T.J. He was leaning over me and I blinked until the two images merged into one. His face was cut in several places and his left eye was swollen shut. He had taken off his life jacket.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Some island. We’ve been here since the sun came up.”

“I don’t remember anything.”

“You wouldn’t wake up. I was afraid you were dead.”

“My head hurts.” I touched my forehead and winced when I felt a large bump.

“I think you went through the windshield. Your face is really cut up. When we hit the water you just disappeared.”

“How did we get here?”

“We drifted all night. We finally floated into calmer water and I saw the shore. I dragged you up on the sand.”

“Thank you for not letting go of me. I probably would have died if we’d gotten separated.” I hugged him and he awkwardly hugged me back. I knew I had embarrassed him a little.

I didn’t say anything for a minute as I looked out at the water. I thought about what could have happened to us if there hadn’t been an island. I had to force myself not to dwell on it.

“What about Mick?”

T.J. shook his head. “What was left of the plane sank fast.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay. I think I hit my head on the seat in front of me.”

I sat up and took off my life jacket. Moving made the pain in my head worse and I moaned. I closed my eyes and breathed in and out slowly until the worst of it had passed.

I tried to stand up but I was so dizzy I fell down. T.J. helped me up and this time I stayed on my feet. My head throbbed and my vision was blurry.

I turned away from the shore and looked inland. The island was beautiful. It was just like the pictures I’d seen when I’d pulled up the resort on the computer, except there wasn’t a luxury hotel sitting on it. The beach was white, pristine. I was barefoot – I had no idea where my shoes were – and the sand felt like sugar under my feet. It wasn’t a very large island and I thought we could cover the distance across in less than ten minutes. The beach gave way to shrubs and tropical vegetation and then finally a forest where trees grew close together, their leaves forming a green canopy. The sun was high in the sky and I thought it must be close to noon. Small pieces of the wreckage had washed up on shore.

I sat down again. My head was pounding and I was dizzy and my whole body hurt. T.J. sat next to me. “I’m thirsty,” I said.”

“Me too.”

I looked at him. “Don’t worry. They’ll be searching for us,” I said. “They have to know we didn’t make it to the resort and they’ll send a plane to find us.”

“I hope so.”

“Did you see any other land when we were in the water?”

“No.”

“Was the current fast or slow?”

“It was moving pretty fast. Do you know where we are?”

“I know where we’re supposed to be.” I took my finger and drew a diagram in the sand. “The islands are grouped in a chain running north to south. They’re atolls which is a coral island that surrounds a lagoon.” I pointed at one of the marks I’d made in the sand. “This is where we were headed. I don’t know how close we were when we went down and I have no idea what direction we drifted. I don’t know if we’re beyond the chain or on the outer edge of it. All the islands are small and they’re separated by a lot of water. Lots of them are uninhabited.”

“My mom and dad have got to be freaking out.”

“Yes.” T.J.’s parents had probably tried to call our cell phones but T.J.’s was dead and mine was at the bottom of the ocean. I could barely comprehend what his parents must be feeling. I prayed that we would be found before anyone thought to contact my parents and sister. And John. I wasn’t willing to process what that kind of news would do to them.

We waited all day. My face burned in the sun and T.J.’s arms and legs were turning red so we moved away from the shore and sat underneath a coconut tree. I didn’t like being off the beach, in case a plane came, but T.J. and I had no protection from the sun. I had never been so hot in life. Sweat ran down my face and my hair was plastered to the back of my neck. Late in the afternoon, with little warning, the sky opened up and rain poured down on us. We opened our mouths but the raindrops did little to satisfy our growing thirst. The rain ended as abruptly as it had begun. It was monsoon season and I knew it would rain several times a day.

There were coconuts on the ground under the trees. We tried to crack them open but there wasn’t a hard enough surface to hit them against. We tried the trunk of a tree but what we really needed was a large rock. T.J. found a baseball sized stone and he hit the coconut repeatedly but it didn’t work.

“I wish we had something to collect the water in when it rains,” I said. “If we could get these coconuts open we could eat the meat and use the empty shells to collect water.” We gave up and sat there, not saying much.

“Where are they?” T.J. asked when it was fully dark.

“I don’t know.”

We stretched out on the sand, using our life jackets as pillows. “Are those bats?” T.J. asked, pointing at the shapes flying in the air above us.

“I think so.” I hated bats. I hoped they stayed away from us.

T.J. fell asleep but I couldn’t. I looked up at the sky although I knew no plane would be looking for us in the dark. My mouth was dry and my stomach was empty and my head hurt.

The middle of nowhere.

It was a phrase I’d never fully comprehended until now. I curled up on my side, my head resting on my life jacket, and cried.

Day 2

I woke as soon as the sun came up the next morning. T.J. was already awake.

“Hey.” I said as I sat up.

How’s your head?” he asked.

“Better I think.” I still had a dull headache and my face stung with yesterday’s sunburn.

“Someone will come today,” I told T.J. “Your parents probably have the coast guard searching for us by now.”

“I hope so.”

We waited under the coconut trees again. I had never been so thirsty before. I didn’t want to go any farther inland but we needed to find something to collect water in. We decided to take a look around and started walking toward the center of the island.

I had to rest often. My whole body hurt, not just my head. T.J. moved faster and he stopped frequently so I could catch up with him. I was still barefoot so I had to walk carefully. The forest floor was covered in small sticks and larger branches.

We saw the pond when we came to a small clearing. It was more like a large puddle and it was filled with murky still water. We hadn’t had anything to drink for over two days and seeing the water was unbearable.

T.J. got excited. “Can we drink that?”

“I don’t know.”

We walked to the pond. I knelt at the water’s edge and scooped some into my hand. It was warm. I knew it was probably a bad idea but I raised my hand to my mouth and took a small drink anyway. It wasn’t saltwater and it didn’t taste very good but I immediately wanted more. T.J. knelt down beside me and scooped his own handful out of the pond. Once we started drinking neither of us could stop. We drank until our thirst was satisfied and then we rested by the edge of the pond. The mosquitoes swarmed and I slapped them away from my face.

“We should go back,” I said. Now that we knew where the pond was I felt a little better. I knew we could go without food for a while as long as we had water.

“Okay.”

We walked back to the coconut tree and sat down. “Do you think we should try to build a signal fire?” I asked T.J. I wondered if we should have done that first. I was so convinced they would find us right away, and that we’d be sitting on the sand when they flew over that I hadn’t even thought about it.

“I was thinking about that too,” he said.

“Do you have any idea how to start a fire?”

He shrugged. “I’ve watched people do it on T.V. I know you can’t just rub two sticks together. They always use a curved stick, kind of like a bow, to spin another stick really fast. We might as well try.”

T.J. went to find some sticks and I gathered anything I could find to make a nest for an ember. The air was so humid that everything I picked up felt wet but I finally found some leaves on a flowering bush that were dry. I added some grass to the pile but I needed something else. I pulled the pockets of my jeans inside out and found a bit of lint.

T.J. returned with two sticks but they were both straight. “I couldn’t find a curved one.” He also had two chunks of wood. He sat down and took off his tennis shoes, then pulled the laces out of them. He tied the laces together to make one long string and then tied each end onto opposite ends of the stick. It sort of looked like the kind of bow you’d use if you were shooting arrows

“Wow, I’m impressed,” I said.”

“Don’t be. I don’t know if it will work.”

“Do you have any lint in your pockets?” I asked him. He checked the pockets of his shorts and pulled some out. He handed it to me. “Thanks.” I added the lint to my nest.

T.J. made a loop in the string and threaded the other stick through it so that it was resting on a chunk of wood on the ground. He placed another chunk of wood on top of the stick with his hand, and then pulled back on the bow.

The whole thing fell apart.

He tried repeatedly to make it work. He adjusted the tension on the string, he held the sticks at different angles and he varied his speed. “Fuck! This is impossible?” He picked the whole thing up and threw it. He used the bottom of his t-shirt to wipe the sweat out of his eyes.

After he calmed down he gathered everything up, made more adjustments, and tried again. This time it worked and he found a rhythm quickly. After about thirty minutes, the notch T.J. had worn in the chunk of wood was filled with dark wood dust. Not long after that, a wisp of smoke could be seen and shortly after that, there was a lot more. Sweat was running into his eyes and I knew he was tired so I covered his left hand with mine, to hold the stick down harder, and I used my right hand to help him saw back and forth with the bow.

“Where’s the nest Anna?”

I set it down next to him and watched as he blew gently on the piece of wood that was glowing red. He used the stick to dig it out and transfer it into the nest. He picked up the nest and held it in front of his mouth and continued to blow, and suddenly, the nest burst into flames in his hands.

“Oh my God, you did it T.J., you really did it!” He was smiling and I knew he was proud of himself. He set the burning nest down and we carefully piled little pieces of tinder on top of it. It was growing fast and we quickly used up the firewood I’d collected. We ran to find more. We each had an armful, and were running as fast as we could back to the fire when the sky opened up and poured. In seconds, the fire turned into a soggy pile of charred wood.

We stared at what was left of it. I wanted to cry. T.J. sunk to his knees on the sand and hung his head. I sat down next to him and we both lifted our heads and tried to catch the raindrops in our mouth. When the rain ended I looked over at T.J. and said, “I guess we need a shelter.”

He nodded. “Yep.”

It was dark by then so we decided we would build the shelter and another fire in the morning. We stretched out next to each other on the sand.

Then my stomach cramped. I ignored it and rolled onto my side. Another cramp hit me, this one more intense. I sat up and sweat broke out on my forehead. T.J. sat up too. “What’s wrong?”

“My stomach hurts.” I sat there on the sand praying the cramping would stop but it only got worse. Suddenly, I knew what was going to happen. “Don’t follow me,” I said, and I prayed he wouldn’t. I stumbled away from the beach into the trees and barely got my jeans and underwear down before my body purged everything in it. I writhed on the ground after that as the cramps came in waves one after the other. I was drenched in sweat and the pain radiated from my stomach down each leg. For a long time I could do nothing but lay there, afraid the slightest movement would cause more misery. The constant pain in my head, which had been temporarily displaced by the cramping, also returned. The mosquitoes descended upon me.

Then I saw the rats.

Everywhere I looked there were pairs of glowing eyes. I thought I felt one run over my foot and I screamed. I staggered to my feet and pulled my jeans and underwear back up but the movement brought another round of cramps and I collapsed onto the ground. I was afraid to move again and I thought I might be dying, that whatever had contaminated the pond water wasn’t something I could survive. I stayed still after that. I had no idea whether T.J. was still on the beach or somewhere in the woods. Exhausted and weak, I fell asleep.

Day 3

The noise woke me. I thought it was the swarm of mosquitoes but the sun was up and most of the bugs, and the rats, were gone. I was lying on my side, with my knees pulled up to my chest. I struggled to lift my head so I could figure out where the noise was coming from.

It was the sound of a plane.

I pushed myself up on all fours and crawled toward the beach. I screamed for T.J. but my throat was dry and no sound came out. I got to my feet and stumbled toward the shore, trying with the last of my strength to raise my arms above my head and wave them back and forth. I couldn’t see the plane anymore although I could still hear it, the sound moving farther and farther away. They were looking for us. They were looking for us and they saw me. They saw me and they would turn around any minute. But they didn’t.

The sound of the plane grew fainter until I could no longer hear it. I collapsed onto the sand and cried until I hyperventilated. Exhausted, my sobs tapered off and I lay on my side, staring at the water in a daze. I fell asleep for a while and when I woke up, T.J. was beside me. “There was a plane,” I said.

“I heard it. I couldn’t move.”

“They’ll come back.”

But they didn’t. I cried again but I was so dehydrated I couldn’t produce tears. T.J. and I didn’t talk much. It rained in the late afternoon and I thought of all the water that was soaking into the sand. The rainwater was our only chance for survival now that the pond was no longer an option.

We were too weak to make another fire, or build a shelter. We lay under the coconut tree all day and moved back down to the beach when it got dark. I couldn’t sleep. I was scared they would never come back for us and I was scared that T.J. and I would die soon. I dozed fitfully throughout the night and when I finally fell asleep I dreamt of rats.

Day 4

When the sun came up I struggled to lift my head off the sand. We were close to the shore and I could see more debris littering the white sand. Two seat cushions from the plane had washed up overnight. I saw something that didn’t look like the rest. I rolled toward T.J. and shook his shoulder to wake him up. His eyes looked sunken and his lips were cracked and bleeding.

“What is that?” I pointed to the object but the effort required to hold my hand up was too much and I let my arm drop back onto the sand.

“Where?”

“Over there. That tan thing.”

“I don’t know,” he said. He struggled to lift his head up. He shielded his eyes from the sun and focused. “That’s my backpack. Anna that’s my backpack!” T.J. got up and walked to the water’s edge and grabbed it. He brought it back and I slowly sat up. And just when I remembered why he was so excited, T.J. reached in and pulled out the bottle of water I’d bought him at the Male airport.

He twisted the cap off the water bottle and we took turns drinking. It was a thirty-two ounce bottle and we finished it, being careful not to drink it too fast. It wasn’t nearly enough but it would keep us going until we could figure out how to find more.

Inside T.J.’s backpack was a Chicago Cubs baseball cap and a grey sweatshirt which he put on immediately, to protect his head and arms from the sun and the mosquitoes. There were two more t-shirts, a pair of shorts, underwear and socks, and his MP3 player. T.J.’s cell phone was at the bottom of the backpack. He pulled it out and flipped it open. We both knew it was dead but I still held my breath, hoping to see the lights come on. They didn’t.

Strangely, I felt hopeful. I smiled at T.J. and said, “They will be back. I don’t know when, but they will.”

But we can’t make any more mistakes. We need water we can drink, more food, fire, and shelter.”

“Do you think they’ve found the wreckage?” T.J. asked. “And if they have, what would they think happened to us?”

“I don’t know. They wouldn’t know we were wearing life jackets when the plane went down.”

“I hope they don’t think we’re dead.”

He nodded. “I know. Because then they’ll stop searching.”

We had done everything wrong. We hadn’t made a signal fire and we hadn’t spelled out SOS on the beach because we assumed we’d be on it when a rescue plane flew over.

We spent another night on the beach.

CHAPTER THREE

T.J. and I looked up at the tree with the spiny grapefruit things. “If you stand on my shoulders you might be able to reach,” he said.

T.J. was about five foot nine which was taller than me by at least five inches but he was bone thin, and scrawny, and even though I was average weight for my height, I wasn’t sure he could hold me.

He seemed to know what I was thinking. “Just try.”

I climbed onto his shoulders and grabbed a branch before I tried to stand up. He might have been skinny but he was surprisingly steady, considering how little we had eaten and how sick he’d been. He held onto my ankles and I stood up slowly. My knees were shaking. I reached up as high as I could and just when I was about to grab the fruit, I lost my balance and had to jump off T.J.’s shoulders.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

I climbed up again and stretched toward the fruit slowly. My fingertips grazed it but I couldn’t get a good grip. I decided to hit it instead, hoping I could knock it loose. The first two times I tried, it didn’t budge. My knees were shaking and I was starting to wobble. I hit the fruit one last time, as hard as I could, and it went flying. I jumped off T.J.’s shoulders and we ran to it.

T.J. picked it up. “What is it?”

I looked closer. “I think it might be breadfruit.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a fruit that supposedly tastes a little like bread.”

We used our fingernails to peel the outer skin away. The raw breadfruit was fragrant and reminded me of guava. We put pieces in our mouth and chewed. The texture was rubbery and I didn’t think it was ripe enough but it wasn’t bad. “This doesn’t taste like bread to me,” T.J. said.

“I think it might if it was cooked.”

After we ate it I climbed back on T.J.’s shoulders again. I knocked down two more breadfruit, which we consumed immediately, and I also pulled a large leaf from the tree to use as a funnel so we could collect rainwater in the empty water bottle.

When we got back to the beach, T.J. rolled up the breadfruit leaf but it was too big to fit in the mouth of the bottle. He tore it until it was the right size and made sure there were no openings for water to escape. I hoped it would work. I was thirsty again.

We checked our leaf funnel after it had been raining a while. It worked perfectly. When the bottle had filled up all the way, T.J. drank half of it, handed it to me, and I drank the rest. We put the leaf back in and before the rain stopped, it filled up again. We drank that too.

Our thirst was satisfied, we had a little food in our stomachs, although not enough, and we had made fire. But without a shelter to protect the flame, the fire would never stay lit, especially during the rainy season.

We didn’t build the shelter in the forest. The mosquitoes were worse there and T.J. and I were already covered in bites. And the rats were something I could hardly think about without sending myself into a full blown panic attack.

We built on the beach instead and found two Y-shaped branches that were tall enough to drive down into the sand. We placed a long branch between them and constructed a crude lean-to out of more branches. We lined the floor with palm fronds, except for a small circle where we could build our fire, and I collected stones to place in a ring around it. It would be smoky inside but we could handle that, especially if it helped keep the mosquitoes away. We were exhausted when we finished and decided to wait until the next morning to make another fire.

I stood on T.J.’s shoulders again and knocked down more breadfruit for us to eat. The amount of work it would take to keep us fed and hydrated was almost incomprehensible.

We put the seat cushions and the life jackets in the lean-to and then T.J. and I stretched out next to each other and fell asleep.

I had to go to the bathroom when I woke up the next morning. My urine smelled strong and I knew I wasn’t drinking enough but I was glad I was able to pee at all. I didn’t get any of it on my jeans this time.

We knocked down more breadfruit and I was aware of a pattern starting. Food, hopefully followed later today by water. Food. Water. At least our shelter was complete and wouldn’t require much more work.

T.J. repeated the steps he’d followed the day before and soon we were feeding another fire. It was smoky in the lean-to but at least the fire wouldn’t go out when it rained.

We smelled horrible and went down to the water to bathe. We took turns, both for privacy and so that one of us could watch the fire.

I went first and I stripped my clothes off and waded into the ocean. There were fish everywhere and they scattered when I got near them. The water was as warm as bathwater and didn’t cool me off but I felt a little cleaner when I came out. T.J. had given me a t-shirt from his backpack and I put that on, along with the rest of my stinky clothes when I got out of the water. I was much cooler in short sleeves.

When I returned to the lean-to I said, “I wish we had something to fish with. Now that we have a fire, we could cook them.” Just the thought of it made my mouth water and my stomach growl.

“We could try and spear them,” he said. “Let’s look for some long sticks when I get back? We might as well get more firewood too.” He glanced at the fire. “We’re going to need it.”

T.J. left to bathe and came back wearing clean clothes from his backpack. He was also carrying something. “What is that?” He set it down next to me and I realized immediately what it was, even before I read the words LIFE RAFT on the side. We opened the container and pulled out the life raft. There was a waterproof bag attached to the life raft. I ripped it open and pulled out a sheet of paper that listed the contents. Raft canopy, located inside accessories case, features two roll up doors and a rain water collector in the top of the roof panel. Custom packs available including radio beacons and emergency locators.

“Where is the accessories case?” T.J. looked in the container and pulled out a nylon bag. “This might have an emergency locator in it!” We opened it and dumped everything out on the sand.

There was no emergency locator.

No radio beacon, no satellite phone, no transmitter, nothing that would lead to rescue. “I guess they figured the custom pack wasn’t necessary,” I said. I was so used to being disappointed that I didn’t even cry this time.

T.J. and I sat in silence for a minute and then examined the rest of the contents. There was a Swiss army knife, a flashlight, a first aid kit, a tarp, a blanket, and two collapsible sixty-four ounce plastic containers. That raised my spirits a little.

We inflated the life raft and attached the canopy and rain water collector. The life raft was like a big tent, and the roll down doors on the canopy would keep the bugs out. We could put it next to the lean-to and sleep in it.

We put more wood on the fire and walked into the forest. The first thing we did was use the knife to cut the husk off a coconut and then split it open. We caught the water that spilled out of it in one of the plastic containers. We drank it and shared the meat. We opened three more and ate them too. I couldn’t believe how full I was. In the late afternoon, when it rained, T.J. and I were stunned at how much water we had. We had set out the two plastic containers and they were full. So were the water collector and water bottle, all the empty coconut shells, and the container that held the life raft. I was amazed by how much our situation had improved. We drank half of all the water we collected and within an hour we both had to pee. We celebrated by eating another coconut. “I like coconut better than breadfruit,” I said.

“Me too, although now that we have fire, maybe we can roast it and see if it tastes better.”

“Good idea.”

We gathered more firewood and found sturdy sticks that might work for spearing fish.

Next: sleeping in the life raft. Mention putting tarp over lean-to roof (or making the tarp be some kind of awning for the fire)

Then: pooping and getting her period. “Did you decide being cooler wasn’t worth the mosquito bites?” “Something like that.”

After that: bone’s shack and anna’s suitcase. Make sure there’s a saw in bone’s shack so t.j. can build muscle by sawing by hand all the time.

5/9/10

  • May 9, 2010

THE ISLAND

The Island – 1st draft******

June 1, 2000

My name is Anna Elliott. I was thirty years old when Tom and Sharon Callahan hired me to tutor their son T.J. for the summer. He was fifteen and one month into remission with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

T.J. and I flew out of Chicago together. We were on our way to join the rest of his family at a resort west of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean.

My sister Sarah drove me to the airport. She pulled up to the curb and helped me take my suitcases out of the trunk. “Are you sure you don’t want me to park and go in with you?”

“No, I’ll be fine. You and David can meet me at the gate when I get back. Bring the kids. Have them make a welcome home sign.

“They’ll love that.”

“I know.”

Sarah put her hand on my arm. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve accepted the job. I’m going,” I said.

Sarah hesitated. “I know. It’s just that ultimatums seldom end well.”

“It wasn’t an ultimatum. Why does everyone think that?”

“I’m sorry, just forget it. Call me when you get there.” Sarah gave me a hug. “Wear sunscreen.” I hugged her back and smiled.

“Okay. Thanks for taking me to the airport.”

“You’re welcome.” I watched Sarah drive away and then I picked up my suitcases and walked into the airport.

T.J. and his friend Ben were waiting for me at the gate. “Hi T.J.,” I said. It’s nice to see you again. Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, sure”.

“You must be Ben,” I said to the boy sitting next to T.J. How was the party?” I asked

“Uh, it was okay,” he said.

“I’m going to check on our flight,” I said to T.J. I’ll be right back.”

When I turned to walk away Ben said loudly, “Dude, your tutor’s smokin’ hot.”

“Thanks, asshole. She probably heard you,” T.J. said.

When I returned T.J. was alone. He wouldn’t look at me. “Did Ben leave?” I asked.

“Yeah, his mom got tired of circling the airport. He told her she couldn’t come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?”

“It was okay.”

“Do you want to get something to eat?” I asked.

“I’m not hungry.”

When we boarded the plane, T.J. put his ear buds in and ignored me. He always answered me when I asked him a question – he was too polite not to – but he wasn’t interested in having a conversation. I didn’t take it personally.

We stayed on schedule until Frankfurt and then we were delayed for twelve hours while the airline attempted to untangle the mechanical problems and weather delays that rendered our original itinerary obsolete; T.J. slept on a row of hard plastic chairs while we waited to be re-routed. There were more delays in Sri Lanka – this time a shortage of flight crew – and by the time we arrived at Mal’e International Airport, our final destination two hours away by air taxi, I had been awake for thirty-three hours. When they said they had no reservation for us, I blinked back tears.

“But I have the confirmation number,” I said to the ticket agent as I slid the scrap of paper across the counter. “I updated our reservation before we left Sri Lanka. Two seats. T.J. Callahan and Anna Elliott. Will you please look again?”

The ticket agent checked the computer. “I am sorry; your names are not on the list. The air taxi is full. I have no more seats,” he said.

“What about the next flight. “

“There are no other flights tonight. Seaplanes do not fly after sunset.” He looked at me. The tears I had been trying to hold back threatened to run down my face. “I’ll see if our other carrier has any seats but I can’t promise anything,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said, wiping my eyes.

We went into the gift shop. T.J. bought a candy bar a several Slim Jims. I bought two large bottles of water. “Do you want one?” I asked T.J.

“No thanks Anna.”

“Well here,” I said, handing it to him. “Put it in your backpack. You might want it later.” We sat down on a bench and I called T.J.’s mom and told her not to expect us until morning. “There’s a chance they’ll find us a flight but I don’t think we’ll get out tonight. The seaplanes don’t fly after dark so we may have to spend the night at the airport.”

“I’m so sorry Anna. You must be exhausted,” Sharon said. I should have stayed behind with you and T.J. and let Tom fly ahead with the girls.”

T.J. was waving the Slim Jims in front of me. “Do you want one? “ I made a face at him and shook my head. He put them in his backpack.

“It’s okay, really. We’ll be there tomorrow for sure.”

I noticed the ticket agent waving at me. He was smiling. “Sharon, listen I think we might –,” and then my cell phone dropped the call.

The ticket agent told us one of the charter pilots was able to fly us to the resort. “The passengers he was supposed to take are delayed in Sri Lanka and won’t get here until tomorrow morning.”

“That’s great,” I told him. “Thank you for finding us a flight, I really appreciate it.” I tried to call T.J.’s parents again but I couldn’t get a signal and my cell phone roamed without connecting. I put it back in my purse.

“T.J., can I borrow your phone?” I asked.

“Sorry Anna, it’s dead.”

“That’s okay, it probably wouldn’t get a signal either. Are you ready?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, and grabbed his backpack.

T.J. and I boarded a mini-bus which dropped us off at the air taxi terminal. We checked in at the counter and were escorted outside to a seaplane bobbing gently on the water’s surface.

The heat was oppressive and the humidity was high. I started sweating immediately. The airport in Germany had been freezing and I’d changed into a long-sleeved shirt and jeans. Now I wished I was wearing something cooler.

The pilot was sitting in the cockpit when we walked through the door. He smiled at us around a mouthful of cheeseburger. “Hi, I’m Mick.” He finished chewing and swallowed. “Hope you don’t mind if I finish my dinner.” He looked like he was in his early fifties and he was so big I wondered how he fit in the pilot’s seat. He was wearing cargo shorts and the largest tie dye t-shirt I had ever seen. His feet were bare. Beads of sweat dotted his upper lip and forehead. He ate the last bite of his cheeseburger and wiped his face with a napkin.

“I’m Anna and this is T.J.,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand. “Of course we don’t mind. We’re so glad you had room for us. This is the only good luck we’ve had the whole trip.”

The plane seated ten. T.J. buckled himself into a seat and fell asleep immediately. I buckled in next to him and rubbed my eyes. Mick started the engines. I couldn’t hear him over the noise but when he turned his head to the side I saw his lips moving as he communicated with someone on the radio.

The seaplane lifted off and I glanced at T.J. He was using his backpack for a pillow. He looked younger than fifteen. I’d only met him once, when I’d interviewed with his parents, and though he was still thin, he wasn’t as pale as he was when I first met him. I smiled when I noticed his hair was starting to grow back. It was light brown.

I closed my eyes and dozed but I had never been able to sleep well on planes. I was exhausted but my body clock was completely thrown off and it was still light out. I couldn’t wait to get to the resort so I could crawl into bed and get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. I hoped I’d be able to get a cell signal when we landed so I could call T.J.’s parents to pick us up. I unbuckled my seat belt and went up to ask the pilot how long it would be until we landed.

“Not too much longer,” Mick said. He motioned toward the co-pilot’s seat. “Sit down if you want.”

I sat down in the co-pilot’s seat, buckled my seat belt, and looked out the windshield. The view was incredible. The huge expanse of water in front of us was a swirl of mint green and turquoise blue.

Mick rubbed the center of his chest with his fist and reached for a roll of antacids. He put one in his mouth. “Heartburn. That’s what I get for eating cheeseburgers. But they just taste so much better than a damn salad, you know?” He laughed and I nodded my head in agreement.

“So, where are you two from?”

“Chicago.”

“What do you do there in Chicago?” He popped another antacid into his mouth.

“I teach ninth grade.”

“Ah, summers off.”

“Sort of.” I motioned toward T.J. “I’m tutoring him this summer. He had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and he’s in remission now but he missed a lot of school. His dad is the architect who designed the resort and his family is vacationing there for the next two months. They hired me to come with them.”

“Sounds like a nice location for a tutoring gig.”

“Beats the library,” I agreed.

“Where are his parents?”

“They flew down with his younger sisters a week ago. I had to stay in Chicago to finish up a few things at school and T.J. wanted to stay behind and go to a party at a friend’s house so he convinced his parents to let him fly down with me instead.

“That was nice of them to let him.”

“I get the impression they’d do anything to make him happy right now. He’s had a tough year.”

We flew in silence for a while. “How many islands are down there?” I asked. I looked over at Mick. He didn’t seem to have heard me. “Mick?”

“What? Oh, about twelve hundred. Only two hundred of them are inhabited though. They’re spread out over ninety-thousand square kilometers.” Mick took his left arm off the stick that controlled the plane’s movements and stretched it out in front of him.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine. My arm just aches,” he said.

He tried to act like nothing was wrong but I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He was sweating and it looked like he couldn’t get a deep breath. He rubbed his chest again and I felt the first prickle of alarm. “Mick, what’s wrong?”

“My chest hurts. I’ve never had heartburn this bad before.”

“Do you want to call someone? The airport, or the resort, or somebody?” Mick was wearing a radio headset. “If you show me how to use the radio I can call for you.”

“No, I’m sure it’ll go away once these antacids start working. I’m fine. Thank you though.” For a while he seemed better. His breathing was steady but then I saw him take his right hand off the stick and rub his left shoulder which scared me. I didn’t think it was heartburn.

T.J. woke up then. “Anna,” he said, loud enough so I could hear him over the noise of the engines. I turned around. “Are we almost there?”

I unbuckled and went back to sit beside T.J. “I don’t know how much farther it is to the resort but listen, I think Mick’s having a heart attack and won’t admit it. He’s having chest pains and he looks awful. He’s blaming his symptoms on heartburn.

“What! Are you sure?”

“I’m not positive but my dad survived a mild heart attack last year and now I know what to watch for. Mick’s symptoms are similar. He said he didn’t want me to call for help. I think he’s scared and afraid to admit that’s it’s not heartburn.”

“Can he still fly the plane?”

“I hope so.”

T.J. and I went up to the cockpit. Mick was rubbing his chest again and his eyes were closed. “Mick? Is the pain worse?” I asked. “Please tell us if it is so we can try to help you.”

“I want us out of the air,” he said. I’m going to put the plane down on the water and then radio for help.” His voice was barely a whisper and I had to strain to hear him. He was gasping as he spoke each word. “Put on life jackets. They’re in the overhead compartment. Then go back to your seats and buckle in.” His words terrified me. My heart started beating faster as adrenaline flowed through my body.

T.J. and I rifled through the overhead compartment. “Why do we have to put on life jackets?” he asked. “The plane has skis, right?”

“Yes but we’re landing in the middle of the ocean. Maybe its standard operating procedure, I don’t know.” I saw a cylinder shaped container that said LIFE RAFT and several blankets. Next to them were the life jackets. “Here.” I handed a life jacket to T.J. and then put mine on. “I think he’s just being cautious. I’m going to try to put a life jacket on him too.” T.J. and I hurried to the cockpit. Mick was moaning a little and his breath was coming in gasps again.

“Mick, here’s a life jacket. Can I help you put it on?” His hands were gripped tightly around the stick. He was sweating profusely and his skin was grey. “Just leave it. Go sit down and buckle in.”

I sat down next to T.J. and we both fastened our seatbelts. I would feel a lot better once we landed on the water and could call for help. I was trying to remember the CPR I’d learned when I felt the plane descend and when I looked up at the cockpit I saw Mick slumped forward on the stick. We were gaining speed and we seemed to be coming in too steep and too fast. I unbuckled my seat belt and rushed forward.

“Anna!” T.J. yelled.

When I was halfway to the cockpit, Mick jerked his head up and flew backward in his seat, his hands still gripped firmly on the stick as a massive spasm wracked his chest. The nose of the plane pulled up but it was too late. We hit the water tail first and skipped across the waves like a rock across a pond. When the plane touched the water again the tip of one of the wings caught the surface and the plane cartwheeled out of control. My feet were knocked out from underneath me and I heard the sound of breaking glass followed by seawater pouring down my throat and up my nose. I was completely disoriented and it was only the buoyancy of my life jacket that lifted me slowly toward the surface. When my head was finally above water I took huge, gasping breaths but couldn’t get my breathing regulated.

“T.J.! I screamed. “T.J.! Oh God, where was T.J.? I pictured him trapped in his seat, unable to get his seatbelt unbuckled. I felt the hysteria build.

The water was filled with debris. I looked frantically for him and screamed his name over and over and just when the hysteria threatened to overtake me, he surfaced, coughing and choking.

I swam toward him even though every movement caused severe pain. I tasted blood in my mouth and my head was throbbing so hard it felt like it might explode, as if there was pressure building inside that needed to be released. When I reached T.J., I grabbed his hand and told him how happy I was that he was alive. I asked him to help me search for Mick even though I was almost certain he had died before we hit the water. But my words wouldn’t come out right and my voice sounded garbled. Blood was pouring from a cut on my head faster than I could wipe it out of my eyes. Everything was hazy as I drifted in and out. T.J. looped his arm through the straps of my life jacket and yelled at me to wake up. I remembered being tossed in the high waves and swallowing more sea water and the sun going down and then I remembered nothing at all until we washed up on the shore of the island.

Chapter two

“Anna can you hear me?” I was lying on my back and when I opened my eyes I was looking at the sun. I turned my head toward the voice and saw two images of T.J. He was leaning over me and I blinked until the two images merged into one. His face was cut in several places and his left eye was swollen shut. He had taken off his life jacket.

“Where are we?” I asked. My throat felt like it was scratched on the inside and my voice was a whisper.

“Some island. We were in the water all night. We’ve been here since the sun came up.”

“I don’t remember anything.”

“I was scared Anna. When you wouldn’t wake up I thought you were dead.”

“My throat hurts. Did I swallow a lot of water?”

“Yes, we both did. I puked. So did you.”

“I remember my head bleeding.” I raised my hand to my forehead and winced in pain when I felt a large bump. “How did we get here?”

“We drifted with the current. We finally floated into calmer water and when I turned around I saw the shore.

“What about Mick?”

“I never saw him. What was left of the plane sank fast.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m sore. I think I hit my head on the seat in front of me.”

I sat up and took off my life jacket. Moving made the pain in my head worse and I moaned. I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out slowly until the worst of it had passed.

I tried to stand up but I was so dizzy I fell down. T.J. helped me up and this time I stayed on my feet. My head throbbed and my vision was still blurry.

The sun was high in the sky and I thought it must be close to noon. Small pieces of the wreckage had washed up on shore. If they knew where we went down, I wondered, couldn’t they follow the path of debris to us?

We walked inland, away from the shore, although I wasn’t sure what we thought we’d find. The white sand was soft under my bare feet; I had no idea what had happened to my shoes. The beach gave way to shrubs and tropical vegetation and then finally trees that grew close together, their leaves forming a green canopy. The island was small and I thought we could probably walk across it in less than ten minutes.

I had to rest often. My whole body hurt, not just my head. T.J. moved faster than me and he stopped frequently so I could catch up with him.

We saw the pond when we came to a small clearing. It was small, more like a large puddle then a pond, and filled with brackish water

“Do you think it’s safe to drink?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said. Maybe we could drink it if we had to but I hoped they’d find us before it came to that.

“I think we should go back to the beach,” I said. “If they’re looking for us I want to make it easier for a plane to spot us.”

“Okay,” T.J. agreed. “Let’s go back.”

We were almost out of the trees when I stopped walking. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute,” I told T.J.

“I can wait,” he said. “What’s wrong?”

“I have to pee.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll wait for you on the beach.”

I was so thirsty I was surprised I was hydrated enough to make pee but maybe the thirst and the urge to urinate were both effects of ingesting so much salt water. I squatted unsteadily behind a tree and accidentally peed on my foot and the hem of my jeans. I didn’t even care.

T.J. and I sat near the shore all day and waited. I felt my face burning in the sun. T.J. was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and his arms and legs were turning red but neither of us wanted to leave the beach. Late in the afternoon, with little warning, the sky opened up and rain poured down on us for about a half hour. We looked up at the sky and opened our mouths but the raindrops did little to satisfy our growing thirst. The rain ended as abruptly as it had begun.

We slept for a while. “I thought there would be a plane today,” T.J. said when we woke up.

“Me too.” But what I didn’t mention was that I wasn’t positive anyone knew what had happened to us yet. T.J.’s parents weren’t expecting us to arrive until today and when they didn’t get a call from us with our arrival time, they probably tried to reach us on our cell phones. But T.J.’s cell phone was already dead when we crashed and mine was probably at the bottom of the ocean. I wasn’t sure how long it would take the charter carrier to realize Mick’s plane had gone down or how long it would take T.J.’s parents to figure out we were on it.

When it was fully dark we stretched out on the sand, using our life jackets as pillows. T.J. fell asleep.

I couldn’t sleep. I thought about my mom and dad, and my sister and her family. They probably had no idea I was missing. I had given Sarah the phone number of the resort, in case I couldn’t be reached on my cell, but how long would it be before she called? One day, maybe two? My mom and dad would have been expecting to hear from me too and they would have called Sarah to see if she had talked to me.

I looked up at the sky although I knew no plane would be looking for us now that it was dark. I was thirsty and hungry and scared. T.J. and I were in the middle of nowhere, a phrase I’d never fully comprehended until now. I curled up on my side, my head resting on my life jacket, and cried.

I woke as soon as the sun came up the next morning. T.J. was already awake.

“Hey.” I said as I sat up.

How’s your head?” he asked.

“Better I think.” I felt my lip split when I talked and the inside of my mouth was as dry as cotton. I was also very hungry. I prayed there would be a plane today and if they were searching for us, I hoped they’d start at first light.

“Someone will come today,” I told T.J. Your parents probably have the coast guard searching for us by now.”

“I hope so Anna.”

Again we waited. When the sun was high in the sky we moved away from the shore and took shelter under the trees because T.J.’s exposed skin was starting to blister. I was sweltering in my long sleeved shirt and jeans but at least I was protected from the sun. It rained in the late afternoon and once again we tried to catch as many of the drops in our mouths as we could.

“We need to find water,” I said. “Or some way to collect it when it rains.” I knew we could survive without food for a while, although I didn’t like to think about that, but without fresh water, or rescue, T.J. and I could be in real trouble soon.

I remembered the pond. The water smelled bad. It was probably stagnant and warm but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

T.J. must not have been able to stop thinking about it either because he said, “Do you think we could drink the water in that pond?”

“Maybe a little, just to see if it’s saltwater or fresh. If it’s safe it would solve one of our problems. I’m really hungry too. See those trees over there?” I pointed at a cluster of trees at the edge of the forest area of the island. “With those grapefruit sized things on it? We might be able to eat those. And the leaves might work for collecting water but I don’t know how we can get up that high. The other trees look like coconut trees but again, I don’t know how we’re going to reach them or get them open.”

We walked to the pond. I knelt at the water’s edge and scooped some into my hand. It was warm. I raised my hand to my mouth and took a small drink. It wasn’t saltwater and it didn’t taste good but I immediately wanted more. T.J. knelt down beside me and scooped his own handful out of the pond. Once we started drinking neither of us could stop. We drank until our thirst was satisfied and then we rested by the edge of the pond. The mosquitoes swarmed and I slapped them away from my face. We returned to the beach.

“We need to make a signal fire,” I said. “Maybe we should have done that first. I know it will be dark soon, and they won’t be looking for us then, but if we have fire the smoke will make it easier for them to see us tomorrow. Do you have any idea how to start a fire?”

“No. Does rubbing two sticks together actually work or is that just something they do on T.V.?”

“I know it’s possible but I’m sure it’s not easy.”

T.J. and I found some long sticks and broke them into a more appropriate length. We each took two sticks and sat down beside each other on the sand. Back and forth we rubbed them together but after a few minutes we were both exhausted and our sticks were still as cool as they’d been when we started. I knew there was a better method and I thought I remembered something about a bow but I wasn’t sure what it was.

We kept trying long after it got dark. T.J. was slightly more successful than me because his sticks felt warm to the touch after a half hour of vigorous rubbing while mine remained the same temperature as when I started. I didn’t have the energy to rub the sticks as fast as T.J. and my headache was back.

T.J. wouldn’t give up. He kept rubbing the sticks but finally, after they got hot enough to burn his finger but not hot enough to produce an ember he threw them across the sand. “Fuck! How do people do this?” He used the bottom of his t-shirt to wipe the sweat out of his eyes.

“I don’t know. We can try again tomorrow. I think you were close to getting a spark T.J. Much closer than me.”

T.J. exhaled loudly and wiped his forehead with his arm. He stretched out beside me and put his head down on his life jacket. I did the same.

I was almost asleep when my stomach cramped. I ignored it and rolled onto my side. Another cramp hit me, this one more intense. I sat up. Sweat broke out on my forehead. My moving around woke T.J. “Anna what’s wrong?”

“My stomach hurts.” I sat there on the sand praying the cramping would stop but it only got worse. Suddenly, I knew what was about to happen. “Don’t come with me,” I said, and I prayed he wouldn’t follow. I stumbled away from the beach into the trees and barely got my jeans and underwear pulled down before my body started purging everything in it. I writhed on the ground and the cramps came in waves one after the other. I was drenched in sweat and the pain radiated from my stomach down each leg. For a long time I could do nothing but lay there, afraid the slightest movement would cause more misery. The constant pain in my head, which had been temporarily displaced by the cramping, also returned. I had no idea where T.J. was. The mosquitoes had descended upon me as soon as I left the beach but there were too many to swat them all away.

Then I saw the rats. Everywhere I looked there were pairs of glowing eyes. I thought I felt one run over my foot and I screamed. I stood and pulled my jeans and underwear back up but the movement brought another round of cramps and I collapsed onto my hands and knees and then lay back down. I was too afraid to move again. I thought I might be dying, that whatever had contaminated the pond water wasn’t something I could survive. I stayed still after that. I assumed T.J. had suffered the same fate as me and I hoped he was okay.

The noise woke me. I thought it was the swarm of mosquitoes but the sun was up and most of the bugs, and the rats, were gone. I was lying on my side, with my knees pulled up to my chest. I struggled to lift my head so I could figure out where the noise was coming from. I realized it was the sound of a plane.

I pushed myself up on all fours and crawled toward the beach. I screamed for T.J. but my throat was dry again and no sound came out. I got up and stumbled toward the shore, trying with the last of my strength to raise my arms above my head and wave them back and forth. I couldn’t see the plane anymore although I could still hear it, the sound moving farther and farther away. They were looking for us. They were looking for us and they saw me. They saw me and they would be turning around any minute.

I collapsed onto the sand and cried. I was hysterical and then I hyperventilated. I cried harder than I ever had in my entire life. I had never felt such despair. Exhausted, my sobs tapered off and I lay on the beach staring at the water. I fell asleep again and when I woke up, T.J. was lying beside me. His eyes looked sunken.

“There was a plane,” I said. “If they’re searching they’re not just going to make one pass. They’ll try again.”

“I heard the plane. I couldn’t move. I’ve never been that sick before. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize T.J. I didn’t get to the beach in time either. They’ll come back.”

But they didn’t. I realized then that we had done everything wrong. We hadn’t made a signal fire and we hadn’t thought to spell out help or SOS on the beach because we assumed we’d be on the beach when a rescue plane flew over.

I cried frequently while we waited on the beach. I was scared because I was so dehydrated I couldn’t produce tears. If the plane didn’t come back, I thought T.J. and I would surely die on the island. T.J. didn’t speak. He had his back turned to me and I wondered if he was crying too. It rained in the late afternoon and I thought of all the water that was soaking into the sand. Water we desperately needed to stay alive. We spent another night on the beach.

When the sun came up I struggled to lift my head off the sand. We were close to the shore and I could see more debris littering the white sand. Two white seat cushions from the plane had washed up overnight. I saw something that didn’t look like the rest. I shook T.J.’s shoulder and woke him up. “T.J.,” I said. “What is that?” I pointed to the object but the effort required to hold my hand up was too much and I let my arm drop back onto the sand.

“Where?”

“Over there. That tan thing.”

“I don’t know,” he said. He struggled to lift his head off the sand. He shielded his eyes from the sun and focused. “Oh my God, that’s my backpack. Anna that’s my backpack!” T.J. got up and walked to the water’s edge and grabbed it. He brought it back and I slowly sat up. And just when I remembered why he was so excited, T.J. reached in and pulled out the bottle of water I’d bought him at the Male airport. He reached his hand in again and pulled out two Slim Jims.

He twisted off the cap and we took turns drinking. It was a thirty-two ounce bottle and we finished it, being careful not to drink it too fast. It wasn’t enough but it would keep us going until we could figure out how to find more. We ate the Slim Jims next, even though they were salty and would make us thirsty again. “Thank God for shrink wrapped food,” I said. It tasted wonderful.

Inside T.J.’s backpack was a baseball cap and a sweatshirt which he put on immediately, to protect his head and arms from the sun and the mosquitoes. There was another t-shirt, a pair of shorts, underwear and socks, and his MP3 player. T.J.’s cell phone was at the bottom of the backpack. He pulled it out and flipped it open. I knew it was dead and I knew it had been in the ocean which would have ruined it but I still held my breath, hoping to see the lights come on. They didn’t.

Strangely, I was suddenly hopeful. The contaminated water hadn’t killed us and T.J.’s backpack washing up, and the bottle of water and the Slim Jims, felt like a sign.

I smiled at T.J. and said, “I honestly believe someone will find us. Whether it’s today or tomorrow or longer is out of our control but in the meantime, we can do everything we’re capable of to stay alive until they do. This is our fourth day on the island and we’re not dead. That has to count for something, Right?”

T.J. smiled back at me. “I think it does.”

“We can’t keep making mistakes,” I said. “We need water we can drink and food, fire, and shelter. If we’re going to find safe water I think we’ll have to dig for it. The water in the pond was stagnant and probably full of bacteria but if we dig down until we hit fresh water, maybe we can drink it. What would be even better is if we could find a way to collect the water when it rains. If we can do that, we might be okay until we’re rescued.”

“Do you think they’ve found the wreckage?” T.J. asked. “The plane pretty much sank but if there was debris floating on the surface, would they send divers down to try and find it? And if they only found Mick, what would they think happened to us?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they’d think we drowned and that our bodies drifted.

“Or that the sharks got us.”

I hadn’t even thought of that. “Did you see any sharks when we were in the water?”

“No, but I was worried about it. Your head was bleeding a lot.”

It was a good thing I had been unconscious. I wouldn’t have been able to handle worrying about sharks.

“T.J.?”

“Yeah?”

“We better pray they don’t think we’re dead.”

“I know. Because then they’ll stop looking.”

CHAPTER THREE

T.J. and I looked up at the tree with the spiny grapefruit things. “If you get on my shoulders you might be able to reach,” he said.

Who was he kidding? If our situation hadn’t been so dire I would have laughed. At five foot eight, I had three inches and probably fifteen pounds on him. My weight was slightly below average for my height but he was short and scrawny.

He seemed to know what I was thinking. “I’m stronger than I look. Just try it.”

T.J. positioned himself under the lowest hanging fruit. I climbed onto his shoulders and grabbed a branch before I tried to stand up. He might have been skinny but he was surprisingly steady, considering how little we had eaten and how sick he’d been. He held onto my ankles and I stood up slowly. My knees were shaking. I reached up as high as I could and just when I was about to grab the fruit, I lost my balance and had to jump off T.J.’s shoulders.

“Sorry,” I said.

“That’s okay.”

I climbed up again and this time I stretched toward the fruit more slowly. My fingertips were touching it but I couldn’t get a good grip. I decided to hit it instead, hoping I could knock it loose. The first two times I tried, it didn’t budge. My knees were shaking and I was starting to wobble. I hit the fruit one last time, as hard as I could, and it went flying. I jumped off T.J.’s shoulders and we ran to it.

T.J. picked it up. “What is it?”

“I think it might be breadfruit.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a fruit that actually tastes a little like potato. Some say it tastes like bread which I suppose is how it got its name.”

We used our fingernails to peel the outer skin from the fruit. The raw breadfruit smelled fragrant. We put pieces in our mouth and chewed. The texture was rubbery but it wasn’t bad. “This doesn’t taste like bread to me,” T.J. said.

“I think it might if it was cooked.”

After we ate the breadfruit I climbed back up on T.J.’s shoulders one more time. I knocked down two more, which we ate immediately, and I also pulled several leaves from the tree. We were going to use one of them as a funnel so we could collect rainwater in the empty water bottle. I wasn’t sure what we could do with the other two but we had time to think of something.

When we got back to the beach, T.J. rolled up one of the breadfruit leaves but it was too big to fit in the mouth of the bottle. He tore it until it was the right size and made sure there were no openings for water to escape. It hadn’t rained yet that day so I hoped we would be able to collect a full bottle of water. I was thirsty again.

We picked a spot and started digging, using our hands and T.J.’s cell phone, which, when flipped open, made a decent utensil for scooping out the soil and, as we dug lower, the sand. We dug for a long time and we had to continually widen the hole so the dirt and sand didn’t fall back in. I noticed that the sand at the bottom of the hole was darker and when I looked closer, I noticed a tiny layer of water in the bottom. “There it is T.J.! There’s water down there.”

We dug faster and harder and we increased the circumference of the hole. It filled with sand faster than we could scoop it out and we needed something to shore up the sides. “What about the seat cushions that washed up?” I asked T.J. “Do you think we could use those to hold the sand back?”

“That’s a good idea Anna.”

“I’ll go get them,” I said. When I returned T.J. and I wedged the two cushions down into the hole and made a makeshift wall on two sides. I wished we had two more cushions. The sand stopped falling in and the water level rose as we continued to dig.

Eventually, we had over eighteen inches of sandy water in the bottom of the hole. I reached my hand in; the water wasn’t cold but it wasn’t hot either. Now we needed a way to get it out so we could drink it.

“We can fill up the empty water bottle,” T.J. said. He went back to the beach and got the bottle. We put it in the hole and watched it fill with water. When it was full I held it up. The water was tan with floating sand particles.

“Let it settle,” T.J. said. Maybe the sand will float to the bottom.

We waited as long as we could and then T.J. said, “Take a drink.” I put the bottle to my lips and tried some.

“How is it?” he asked.

“It’s okay,” I said as I handed it to him. I smiled at T.J and watched him take a drink. “It tastes better that the water in the pond.”

“Yeah, it does,” he said. We continued taking turns drinking and we finished the bottle but I was afraid to go back for more until we knew for sure that it wasn’t contaminated. My thirst had abated somewhat but I was hungry again. It seemed like once we got our thirst satisfied our hunger would then dominate. Later, as I lay on the beach next to T.J., with an almost unbearable gnawing in my stomach, I thought of a conversation I’d had with my sister Sarah. We were at our favorite Mexican restaurant having margaritas and chips and salsa. I told her I had agreed to spend the summer at the resort with the Callahan’s. “I’m going to tutor the student I told you about. The one with Hodgkin’s.” I took a sip of my margarita.

Sarah had thought I was crazy. “This is not a normal response to a breakup,” she said.

“Yes it is,” I said. “It’s perfectly normal. And it’s not so much a response to a break-up as it is a desire to get out of town. I don’t want to run in to John and I’ll be far enough away that I won’t have to worry about it.”

“Are you hoping he’ll change his mind while you’re gone?”

“No, because I know he won’t,” I said. I knew Sarah didn’t believe me but it was the truth. John would never change his mind. I had, in fact, spent the last eight years hoping to convince him that he wanted a wife and a family someday. In the end I had to be true to myself too. To ask myself the hard question of whether my life would be better off with him or without him. I knew he loved me but I wanted to be married and I wanted a family and I had to be true to myself too, no matter how easy it would have been to stay and how much it hurt to leave. I needed distance and enough literal space between us so that I could start over and would have time to get used.

“I’m going to tutor T.J. because it’s a great opportunity to travel and spend two months at a beautiful resort.”

Sarah sighed. “Oh, to be able to jet off whenever you feel like it. To be free of responsibilities and do whatever you please. I could never leave David and the kids to do something so exciting. I’m happy for you Anna, I really am. It’s an amazing opportunity.

I thought that maybe just this once, my grass was a little bit greener. That if there was an upside to ending an eight year relationship, it was having the freedom to fly to a beautiful resort for the summer if I felt like it.

Evidently I was wrong.

Water collection system works!

Try to make fire. Fail miserably. Eat something. How long have we been here? Try to figure it out and then carve notches into a tree. Spend time on the beach searching for planes. Get really tan. Cuts healed. Smell. Mouth tastes horrible.

“What do you know about this place? Did you read anything about it before we came?”

“Yes. I know a little. It’s the rainy season, which we obviously already know. There are a lot of islands, most of them small, separated by large stretches of water. Something like 90K square kilometers.

They make a bathroom. Have you, uh, you know. Done anything other than pee? No. Not since the bad water. Why, have you? No. Briefly describe her having to go and thinking it couldn’t get much worse. And then I got my period. She uses her t-shirt, which she tears into strips, for pads. Later, her suitcase will have tampons and eventually she’ll stop getting her period because of malnutrition. She can mention something at the end when she talks about using t.J’s sperm about how her period came back and nothing was permanently damaged from their years on the island.

Next they find bone’s shack. Anna almost steps on his eyeglasses and realizes they are saved once again.

When Anna’s suitcase washes up, make sure she expresses, through dialogue or internal thoughts, that it’s the right one (the one with the jewelry).

Conversation about Hodgkin’s (when she asks him when the next dr. appt. is). Have him tell her everything, including banking sperm and how embarrassing it was.

Later, “Bones brought a ukulele but he didn’t bring scissors!”

“How do you know Bones was a guy? Maybe Bones was a woman.”

“Bones was a guy, believe me. A woman would never bring a ukulele to an uninhabited island and not scissors. Women are very practical that way.”

T.J. and Anna find the cave

T.J. had to crawl to fit through the opening. “It’s narrower than I thought,” he yelled out to me. “I had to inch along on my stomach for a while. It’s bigger once you get all the way in though. Come on.”

“Just so you know,” I yelled back. “There’s no way I will ever go in that cave.” My heart was beating faster and I was sweating just thinking about it.

“I’m feeling around,” T.J. said. I can’t see anything.”

“Why would you do that? What if there’s a snake or a rat? Or a monster. “Okay, you’ve had your look around, you should come out now.

“I don’t think there’s anything in here but rocks and sticks. I can’t tell though.”

“If the sticks are dry bring them out. We can add them to the woodpile.”

“Okay.”

But it wasn’t rocks and sticks. When T.J. wiggled out of the cave on his stomach, he was holding something that looked like a shin bone in one hand and something that was definitely a skull in the other. T.J. dropped them and said, “Holy shit! Who is this?”

“I don’t know,” I said. But it didn’t end well for them.”

“Do you think it’s the person who built the shack?” T.J. asked.

“Probably.”

We walked back to the shelter and fashioned a torch out of a piece of driftwood. It wouldn’t stay lit for long so T.J. and I hurried back to the cave. T.J. took the torch, got down on his hands and knees and crawled in.

“Don’t burn yourself,” I called after him.

“I won’t.”

“Are you in?”

“Yes.”

“What do you see?”

“It’s definitely a skeleton. But there’s nothing else in here.” T.J. crawled out and handed me the torch. “I’m going to put the other bones back in the cave with the rest of it.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said.

I was amazed at how quickly I’d gotten used to standing on the beach naked. It was weird thinking that a plane or a boat could see me unless of course you realized I was hoping for a plane or a boat. I’d gladly parade around naked if it meant we’d be spotted and rescued.

I walked waist deep into the ocean and ducked under the surface to get my hair wet. I washed my hair and rinsed it. When my hair was clean I returned to the beach to trade the shampoo bottle for the soap. I stood near the shore, rubbed the bar of soap in my hands and washed my body. When I was done, I walked out to deeper water again and rinsed.

When I came out of the water I stood there for a minute air drying, wishing I had a towel. I wanted to lie down on the sand and let the sun dry me but I’d had enough sand up my ass to last a lifetime. If we ever got off the island, I didn’t plan on going anywhere near a beach for a very long time.

When I was dry, I leaned over and stepped into my clean underwear. I pulled on the rest of my clothes and as I turned to head back to the shelter, I saw a flash of navy blue that stood out against the green of the trees. When I looked again it was gone.

When I got back to the shelter, T.J. threw another log on the fire and said, “I’m going fishing.”

“Okay,” I said as he gathered up the fishing gear.” He was wearing my navy blue REO Speedwagon t-shirt.

I sat at the water’s edge, shaving my legs with seawater and a dull disposable razor. I had just cut myself when T.J. walked up with some fish he’d caught. He watched the blood run down my leg and said, “Don’t go in the water Anna.”

“I won’t,” I said. And I knew the shark was back.

I was standing on the bluff looking out over the island when I saw T.J. —————

I ran down from the bluff and when I got to the beach I yelled, “What the hell are you doing?” Are you trying to get yourself killed?

“Jesus Christ Anna, calm down.”

“Well guess what? I don’t have to answer to you Anna. I don’t have to answer to anybody. I can do anything I want!”

“How very ‘Lord of the Flies’ T.J.”

“What?”

“It’s a book.”

“I know it’s a book Anna. But I don’t know what it’s about because I was having chemo when the rest of my class read it. He turned and walked back toward the beach.

I remembered, then, that reading the book and writing the essay was on our list of make-up work. I felt awful that he mentioned Emma. I often forgot that T.J. had been fighting to stay alive a lot longer than I had. I walked back to the shelter alone.

I put some wood on the fire and ————- but T.J. stayed on the beach. I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep but I crawled into bed anyway

When I woke up and rolled over, T.J. was lying beside me with his eyes open. We both said “I’m sorry” at the same time.

“Jinx, you owe me a coke,” I said and he smiled. “I want a Big Gulp from seven eleven. Extra ice.

“I’ll pay up when we get off the island. I promise.”

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I was scared. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”

“It’s okay Anna. I’m sorry too. I was being stupid. He put his hand on my hip. “I couldn’t handle it if anything happened to you.” He pulled me into his arms then and I buried my face in his chest and cried. I cried because we had a fight and I cried because we said we were sorry. I cried because I was thirsty and I cried because I was hungry and because I was exhausted from never sleeping more than four or five hours at a time. I cried because we hadn’t been rescued, because I missed my family and because crying made me feel better. I cried until there were no more tears and then I lay in his arms feeling calmer than I had in a long time.

When I finally looked up at him, he cupped my face in his hands and used his thumbs to wipe the tears from my face. “Better?” he asked as he looked into my eyes.

“Yes,” I said. But I didn’t move away from him, and I didn’t want him to let go of me. I wanted to lie back down on his chest and stay there with his arms around me. But then he took his thumb and dragged it, slowly and gently, across my lower lip.

Desire flooded my entire body. I knew he heard my sudden intake of breath. My heart started beating faster.

I got out of bed immediately and went to check the fire. Because if there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that nothing felt better after a fight than makeup sex.

“Let’s go,” I said.

“Where?”

“The beach.”

“Why?”

“Because I want that shark out of our fucking lagoon.”

T.J. smiled. “That’s the spirit.”

“Come on Anna. Let’s get in the water.”

“What if the shark has a brother? And he’s pissed.”

T.J. smiled. “The shark does not have a brother.” He held out his hand to me and I took it and let him lead me into the water. When we were chest deep I thought I felt something brush up against my leg and I screamed. T.J. started laughing. “That was my foot Anna.”

“I’m glad you think this is funny,” I said. “Because when the pissed off brother shark gets here I’m going to make sure he eats you first.”

“I’ve never seen so much lightning,” T.J. said. “ I think we should go to the cave Anna.”

“No! I don’t want to go to the cave.” There was so much electricity in the air the hair on my arms and the back of my neck was standing up.

When I got all the way in the cave I was breathing hard and felt like I was having a panic attack. T.J. came in behind me and he grabbed my shoulders and said, “Breathe in slowly Anna. Now breathe out. Do it again but slower this time. Do you want to lie down or sit up?”

“Lie down,” I said.

T.J. stretched out beside me as I watched the lightning zigzag across the sky through the narrow opening. I concentrated on slowing my breathing and not thinking about how small the cave was. I was shaking all over partly because of my fear of enclosed spaces and partly because my clothes were wet and the temperature had dropped.

T.J. put his arms around me. “It’s okay Anna. Just keep breathing. We’ll go back as soon as the lightning stops.” He held me tight until the shaking stopped and then he rubbed my back. I felt my body relax and my breathing slowed.

“I want you so much I can’t stand it Anna,” T.J. whispered in my ear.

“I can’t,” I said. But I want to. Oh my God I want to.

“Yes you can,” he said as he kissed his way down my neck. You can do anything you want.” He kissed my lips.

Why shouldn’t I? No one would know.

T.J. peeled off my wet tank top and unsnapped my shorts. He unzipped them and pulled them off. He slid his fingers inside the waistband of my underwear and pulled them down.

I took off his clothes then and I crossed the line between teacher and student with T.J. and I crossed it for hours.

After they discover the shark is a tiger shark, T.J. says “So what do we do now?”

Anna says something like, “Uh, go down to the water and wave the white flag. Tell the shark “hey bad-ass, you can have the lagoon. We’re out. I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

T.J. is still in bed after our nap (t.j. has been tired the last day or so).

“I’m going swimming. Are you coming?”

“I’m tired. Why don’t you crawl back in this bed beside me? I bet that will make me wake up

“You’re insatiable.”

“Yes I am. Now come here,” he said, smiling at me. I could always go swimming later, I told myself. It wasn’t like the ocean was going anywhere.

I got back in bed and T.J. smiled and pulled my shirt off. I lay on top of him and kissed his neck, the way I knew he liked. I stopped suddenly.

T.J.’s voice was husky. “What’s wrong?”

“I felt a lump.”

I was certain T.J. would die sometime today. I cradled his head in my lap and cried.

chapter one 5/4/10

  • May 5, 2010

THE ISLAND

The Island – 1st draft******

June 1, 2000

My name is Anna Elliott. I was thirty years old when Tom and Sharon Callahan hired me to tutor their son T.J. for the summer. He was fifteen and one month into remission with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

T.J. and I flew out of Chicago together. We were on our way to join his family at a resort southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean.

My sister Sarah drove me to the airport. She pulled up to the curb and helped me take my suitcases out of the trunk. “Are you sure you don’t want me to park and go in with you?”

“No, I’ll be fine. You and David can meet me at the gate when I get back. Bring the kids. Have them make a welcome home sign.

“They’ll love that.”

“I know.”

Sarah put her hand on my arm. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve accepted the job. I’m going,” I said.

“I know.” Sarah hesitated. “It’s just that ultimatums seldom end well.”

“It wasn’t an ultimatum. Why does everyone think that?”

“I’m sorry, just forget it. Call me when you get there.” Sarah gave me a hug. “Wear sunscreen.” I hugged her back and smiled.

“Okay. Thanks for taking me to the airport.”

“You’re welcome.” I watched Sarah drive away and then picked up my suitcases and walked into the airport.

T.J. and his friend Ben were waiting for me at the gate. “Hi T.J.,” I said. It’s nice to see you again. Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, sure”.

“You must be Ben,” I said to the boy sitting next to T.J. How was the party?” I asked

“Uh, it was okay,” he said.

“I’m going to check on our flight,” I said to T.J. I’ll be right back.”

As I walked away I heard Ben say, “Dude, you were right. Your tutor is hot.”

“Thanks, asshole,” T.J. muttered.

When I returned T.J. was alone. He wouldn’t look at me. “Did Ben leave?” I asked.

“Yeah, his mom got tired of circling the airport. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?”

“It was okay.”

“Do you want to get something to eat?” I asked.

“I’m not hungry.”

When we boarded the plane, T.J. put his ear buds in and ignored me. He always answered me when I asked him a question – he was too polite not to – but he wasn’t interested in having a conversation. I didn’t take it personally.

We stayed on schedule until Frankfurt and then we were delayed for twelve hours while the airline attempted to untangle the mechanical problems and weather delays that rendered our original itinerary obsolete; T.J. slept on a row of hard plastic chairs while we waited to be re-routed. There were more delays in Sri Lanka – this time a shortage of flight crew – and by the time we arrived at Mal’e International Airport, our final destination less than an hour away by air taxi, I had been awake for thirty-three hours. When they said they had no reservation for us, I blinked back tears.

“But I have the confirmation number,” I said to the ticket agent as I slid the scrap of paper across the counter. “I updated our reservation before we left Sri Lanka. Two seats. T.J. Callahan and Anna Elliott. Will you please look again?”

The ticket agent checked the computer. “I am sorry; your names are not on the list. The air taxi is full. I have no more seats,” he said.

“What about the next flight. “

“There are no other flights tonight. Seaplanes do not fly after sunset. He looked at me. The tears I had been trying to hold back threatened to run down my face. “I’ll see if the other carrier has any seats but I can’t promise anything,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said, wiping my eyes.

We waited on a bench near the gift shop. I bought two large bottles of water. “Do you want one?” I asked T.J.

“No thanks Anna.”

“Well here,” I said, handing it to him. “Put it in your backpack. You might want it later.” I called Sharon Callahan and told her not to expect us until morning. “There’s a chance they’ll find us a flight but I don’t think we’ll get out tonight. The seaplanes don’t fly after dark so we may have to spend the night at the airport.”

“I’m so sorry Anna. You must be exhausted,” Sharon said. I should have stayed behind with you and T.J. and let Tom fly ahead with the girls.”

“It’s okay, really. We’ll be there tomorrow for sure.”

I noticed the ticket agent waving at me. He was smiling. “Sharon, listen I think we might –,” and then my cell phone dropped the call.

The ticket agent told us one of the charter pilots was able to fly us to the resort. “The passengers he was supposed to take are delayed in Sri Lanka and won’t get here until tomorrow morning.”

“That’s great,” I told him. “Thank you for finding us a flight, I really appreciate it.” I tried to call T.J.’s parents again but I couldn’t get a signal and my cell phone roamed without connecting. I put it back in my purse.

“T.J., can I borrow your phone?” I asked.

“Sorry Anna, it’s dead.”

“That’s okay, it probably wouldn’t get a signal anyway. Are you ready?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, and grabbed his backpack.

T.J. and I boarded a mini-bus which dropped us off at the air taxi terminal. We checked in at the counter and were escorted outside to a seaplane bobbing gently on the water’s surface.

The heat was oppressive and the humidity was high. I started sweating immediately. The airport in Germany had been freezing and I’d changed into a long-sleeved shirt and jeans. Now I wished I was wearing something cooler.

The pilot was sitting in the cockpit when we walked through the door. He smiled at us around a mouthful of cheeseburger. “Hi, I’m Mick.” He finished chewing and swallowed. “Hope you don’t mind if I finish my burger.” He looked like he was in his early sixties and he was so big I wondered how he fit in the pilot’s seat. He was wearing cargo shorts and the largest tie dye t-shirt I had ever seen. His feet were bare. Beads of sweat dotted his upper lip and forehead. He ate the last bite of his cheeseburger and wiped his face with a napkin.

“I’m Anna and this is T.J.,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand. “Of course we don’t mind. We’re so glad you had room for us. This is the only good luck we’ve had the whole trip.”

The plane seated ten. T.J. buckled himself into a seat and fell asleep immediately. I buckled in next to him and rubbed my eyes. The pilot started the engines and even though I couldn’t hear him over the noise, when he turned his head to the side I saw his lips moving as he communicated with someone on the radio.

The seaplane lifted off and I looked over at T.J. He was using his backpack for a pillow. He looked younger than fifteen and was short for his age, and I wondered if the cancer had temporarily affected his growth. I’d only met him once, when I’d interviewed with his parents, and even though he was still thin, he wasn’t as pale as he was when I met him the first time. I smiled when I noticed his hair was starting to grow back. It was light brown.

I closed my eyes and dozed but I had never been able to sleep well on an airplane. I was exhausted but my body clock was completely thrown off and it was still light out. I couldn’t wait to get to the resort so I could crawl into bed and get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. I hoped I’d be able to get a cell signal when we landed so I could call T.J.’s parents to pick us up. I unbuckled my seat belt and went up to ask the pilot how long it would be until we landed.

“Not too much longer, maybe a half hour,” Mick said. He motioned toward the co-pilot’s seat. “Sit down if you want.”

I sat down, buckled my seat belt, and looked out the windshield. The view was incredible. We were flying low and islands were scattered throughout the huge expanse of turquoise water in front of us.

Mick rubbed the center of his chest with his fist and reached for a roll of antacids. He put one in his mouth. “Heartburn. That’s what I get for eating cheeseburgers. But they just taste so much better than a damn salad, you know?” He laughed and I nodded my head in agreement.

“So, where are you two from?”

“Chicago.”

“What do you do there in Chicago?” He popped another antacid into his mouth.

“I teach ninth grade.”

“Ah, summers off.”

“Sort of.” I motioned toward T.J. “I’m tutoring him this summer. He has Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He’s in remission now but he missed a lot of school. His dad is the architect who designed the resort and his family is vacationing there for the next two months. I agreed to come too.

“Sounds like a nice location for a tutoring gig.”

“I thought so. Sure beats the library.”

“Where are his parents?”

“They flew down a week ago. I had to stay in Chicago to finish up a few things at school and T.J. wanted to stay behind and go to a party at his friend Ben’s so he convinced his parents to let him fly down with me instead.

“That was nice of them.”

“I get the impression they’d do anything to make him happy right now. He’s had a tough year.”

We flew in silence for a while. “How many islands are down there?” I asked. I looked over at Mick. He didn’t seem to have heard me. “Mick?”

“What? Oh, almost twelve hundred but only about two hundred of them are inhabited. They’re spread out over ninety-thousand square kilometers. The beaches are white sand and the snorkeling is amazing.” Mick took his left arm off the stick that controlled the plane’s movements and stretched it out in front of him.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine. My arm just aches,” he said.

He tried to act like nothing was wrong but I watched him out of the corner of my eye. My dad had survived a mild heart attack a few years ago and I knew the signs.

Mick was sweating and it looked like he couldn’t get a deep breath. He rubbed his chest again and I felt the first prickle of alarm. “Mick, what’s wrong?”

“My chest hurts. I’ve never had heartburn this bad before.”

“Do you want to call someone? The airport, or the resort, or somebody?” Mick was wearing a radio headset. “If you show me how to use the radio I can call for you.”

“No, I’m sure it’ll go away once these antacids start working. I’m fine. Thank you though.” For a while he seemed better. His breathing was steady but I saw him take his right hand off the stick and rub his left shoulder which scared me. I was almost positive it wasn’t heartburn.

T.J. woke up then. “Anna,” he said, loud enough so I could hear him over the noise of the engines. I turned around. “Are we almost there?”

I unbuckled and went back to sit beside T.J. “I don’t know how much farther it is to the resort but listen, I think Mick’s having a heart attack and doesn’t want to admit it. He’s having chest pains and he looks awful. He’s blaming his symptoms on heartburn.

“What! Are you sure?”

“No but my dad has had one and Mick’s symptoms are similar. He said he didn’t want me to call for help. I think he’s scared and afraid to admit it might be a heart attack.”

“Shit, can he fly the plane?”

“I hope so.”

T.J. and I went up to the cockpit. Mick was rubbing his chest again and his eyes were closed. “Mick? Is the pain worse? Please tell us if it is so we can try to help you.”

“I want us out of the air,” he said. I’m going to put the plane down on the water and then radio for help.” His voice was barely a whisper and I had to strain to hear him. He was gasping as he spoke each word. “I want you both to put on life jackets. They’re in the overhead compartment. Then go back to your seats and buckle in.” His words terrified me. My heart started beating faster as adrenaline flowed through my body.

T.J. and I rifled through the overhead compartment. “Why do we have to put on life jackets?” he asked. “The plane has skis, right?”

“We’re landing in the middle of the ocean. Maybe the sea will be rough or maybe its standard operating procedure, I don’t know.” I saw a cylinder shaped container that said LIFE RAFT and several blankets. Next to them were the life jackets. “Here.” I handed a life jacket to T.J. and then put mine on. “I think he’s just being cautious. I’m going to try to put a life jacket on him too.” T.J. and I walked to the cockpit. Mick was moaning a little and his breath was coming in gasps again.

“Mick, here’s a life jacket. Can I help you put it on?” His hands were gripped tightly around the stick. He was sweating profusely and his skin was grey. “Just leave it. Go sit down and buckle in.”

I sat down next to T.J. and we both fastened our seatbelts. I would feel a lot better once we landed on the water and could call for help. I was trying to remember the CPR I’d learned when I felt the plane descend and when I looked up at the cockpit I saw Mick slumped forward on the stick. We were gaining speed and coming in way too steep. I unbuckled my seat belt and rushed forward.

“Anna!” T.J. screamed.

Before I could make it to the cockpit, Mick jerked his head up and flew backward in his seat, his hands still gripped firmly on the stick as one last massive spasm wracked his chest. The nose of the plane pulled up but it was too late. The plane hit the water tail first and we skipped across the waves like a rock across a pond. When the plane hit the water the second time the tip of one of the wings caught the surface and the plane cartwheeled out of control and broke apart and I was thrown from the plane in a deafening explosion of shattered glass and twisted metal.

Seawater poured down my throat and up my nose. I was completely disoriented and it was only the buoyancy of my life jacket that lifted me slowly toward the surface. When my head was finally above water I took huge, gasping breaths but couldn’t get my breathing regulated.

“T.J.! I screamed. “T.J.! Oh God, where was T.J.? I pictured him trapped in his seat, unable to get his seatbelt unbuckled. I felt the hysteria build.

The water was filled with debris. I looked frantically for him and screamed his name over and over and just when the hysteria threatened to overtake me, he surfaced, coughing and choking.

I swam toward him even though every movement caused severe pain. I tasted blood in my mouth and my head was throbbing so hard it felt like it might explode, as if there was pressure building inside that needed to be released. When I reached T.J., I grabbed his hand and told him how happy I was that he was alive. I asked him to help me search for Mick even though I was almost certain he had died before we hit the water. But my words wouldn’t come out right and my voice sounded garbled. Everything was hazy as I drifted in and out. T.J. looped his arm through the straps of my life jacket and yelled at me to wake up. I remembered being tossed in the waves and swallowing more sea water and the sun going down and then I remembered nothing at all until we washed up on the shore of the island.

MANUSCRIPT

  • April 19, 2010

THE ISLAND

The Island – 1st draft******

CHAPTER ONE

My name is Anna Elliott. I teach ninth grade and I was thirty years old when T.J. Callahan’s parents hired me to tutor him for the summer. T.J. was fifteen and one month into remission with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

T.J.’s dad Tom was the lead architect for a luxury hotel nearing completion at a resort west of Sri Lanka, in the Indian Ocean. T.J., his parents, two younger sisters, and I were staying at the resort for the summer while Tom supervised the final details on the project.

My sister Sarah drove me to the airport.

“I still don’t understand why you agreed to go so far away,” she said. “I think you should be near your family right now.”

“I want to get out of the city for a while.”

Sarah pulled up to the curb when we reached the airport. She helped me take my suitcases out of the trunk. “Do you want me to park and go in with you?”

“No. I’ll be fine. You and David can bring the girls and meet me at the gate when I get back. Tell them I’ll have souvenirs. Have them make a welcome home sign or something.”

“They’ll love that.”

“I know.”

“Call me when you get there.” Sarah gave me a big hug. I hugged her back and smiled.

“I will. Thanks for taking me to the airport.”

“You’re welcome.” I watched Sarah get into her car and drive away and then I grabbed my suitcases and walked into the airport.

We were supposed to fly out as soon as the school year ended but T.J.’s mom Sharon called me and said that T.J. wanted to stay behind a few days to attend a party at his friend Ben’s house. “I hate to delay our arrival,” she said. I’m supposed to meet the property manager and get the keys to the rental house but I may have to push back our departure date. T.J. isn’t happy that we’re leaving Chicago for the summer so letting him go to this party is something Tom and I want to do for him. We’re thankful he’s healthy enough to go.”

“I can fly down with him if you want to go on ahead,” I said. “We’d only be a couple of days behind you.”

“It’s not an easy trip,” she said. “It takes over twenty-four hours to get there.”

“That’s okay,” I said. I was used to traveling and managed to get at least one new stamp in my passport every year. “T.J. and I will have a chance to get to know each other better.” T.J. didn’t attend the high school where I taught and I’d only met him once, when I’d interviewed with the Callahan’s.

“Are you sure this would be okay with you?”

“Really, I wouldn’t have offered if it wasn’t.”

“T.J. could probably stay with Ben after we leave. I’ll see if Ben’s mom can take him to the airport. I suppose you could meet him there.”

“Sure,” I said.

“Thank you Anna. I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

T.J. and Ben were waiting for me at the gate. T.J.’s bald head made him look younger than fifteen. He was short, maybe five feet four, with a slim build.

“Hi T.J.,” I said. It’s good to see you again. Are you ready to go?”

“Oh hey, sure”.

“You must be Ben,” I said to the boy sitting next to T.J. “I’m Anna Elliott.” I offered my hand and he shook it awkwardly.

“How was the party?” I asked

“Uh, it was okay,” he said.

I turned back to T.J. “I’m going to check on our flight. I’ll be right back.”

As I walked away Ben said, “Dude. Your babysitter is hot.”

“She’s my tutor, asshole.”

When I returned T.J. was sitting alone. “Did Ben leave?” I asked.

“Yeah. His mom got tired of circling the airport. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?”

“Yeah.”

Do you want to get something to eat?” I asked.

“I’m not hungry,” he said.

“Okay.”

When we boarded the plane, T.J. put his headphones on and ignored me. He always answered me when I asked him a question – he was too polite not to – but he wasn’t interested in having a conversation. I assumed being able to go to the party hadn’t changed the fact that he wasn’t happy about leaving his friends for the summer and it was understandable that I wouldn’t be his favorite person. I didn’t take it personally.

We stayed on schedule until Frankfurt and then we were delayed for twelve hours while the airline attempted to untangle the mechanical problems and weather delays that rendered our original itinerary obsolete; T.J. slept on a row of hard plastic chairs while we waited to be re-routed. There were more delays in Sri Lanka – this time a shortage of flight crew – and by the time we arrived at Mal’e International Airport at nine thirty P.M., our final destination less than two hours away by air taxi, I had been awake for thirty-three hours. When I was told they had no reservation for us, I felt the tears build and blinked them back.

“But I have the confirmation number,” I said to the ticket agent as I slid the scrap of paper across the counter. “I updated our reservation before we left Sri Lanka. Two seats. T.J. Callahan and Anna Elliott. Please look again.” I tapped the counter for emphasis.

“The ticket agent checked the computer. “I am sorry; your names are not on the list. The air taxi is full. I have no more seats,” he said.

“What about the next flight. I was told there was another one. “

“There is no other flight tonight. “

“Is there a boat?” I asked. “A ferry?”

“No boats at night. Too dangerous with the reef. Planes only,” he said.

“What about the other charter carriers?” I asked.

“It’s Saturday night. Lots of pilots make plans for after they’ve landed at the resorts. They don’t fly back until the morning.” I saw him glance at my eyes. The tears I had been trying to hold back were close to running down my face. “I’ll send a message out and see what I can do,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said, wiping my eyes. “I really appreciate it. We’ll take anything.”

I bought two large bottles of water. “Do you want one?” I asked T.J.

“No thanks Anna.”

“Put it in your backpack, you might want it later.” We sat down on a bench and I called Sharon Callahan and told her not to expect us until morning. “There’s a chance they’ll find us a flight but I don’t think we’ll get out tonight.”

“I feel terrible Anna. You must be exhausted,” Sharon said. I should have stayed behind with you and T.J. and let Tom fly ahead with the girls.”

“It’s okay. We’ll be there tomorrow for sure.”

I noticed the ticket agent waving at me. He was smiling. “Sharon, listen I think we might –,” and then my cell phone dropped the call.

The ticket agent told us a pilot had agreed to fly us to the resort. “It’s a small plane, not an air taxi, but it will get you there safely.”

“Thank you so much,” I told him. “We really appreciate it.” Shortly before we boarded the plane I tried to call T.J.’s parents again but I couldn’t get a signal and my cell phone roamed without connecting.

“T.J., can I borrow your phone?” I asked.

“Sorry Anna, it’s dead,” he said.

Great. We’re going to show up at two in the morning and wake everyone in the house. “That’s okay, it probably wouldn’t get a signal either. Are you ready?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, and grabbed his backpack. “Let’s go.”

T.J. and I walked onto the tarmac. We were close to the equator and the air was hot and humid. I was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans and I wished I’d changed into something cooler. My hair was sticking to the back of my neck.

The pilot was sitting in the cockpit when we walked through the door. He was older than me, maybe forty-five, and he was drinking something out of a large plastic cup. He was wearing sunglasses, even though it was almost midnight. He did not greet us but he stared at me and though I couldn’t be sure – because of the sunglasses – I got the uncomfortable feeling his eyes lingered where they shouldn’t have. I was too tired to care. My eyes felt grainy and I rubbed them with my fists.

The plane was a six seater and the cockpit didn’t have a barrier to separate the pilot from us. He started the engines and it was loud inside the cabin. When he turned his head to the side I saw his lips moving as he communicated with someone on the radio.

T.J. buckled himself into a seat and fell asleep immediately. I buckled in next to him and tried to hold my eyes open. I wanted to ask the pilot how long it would take us to reach the resort but I closed my eyes instead.

Loud rock music woke me up. I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and checked the time. 1:14 AM. What the hell was going on? I looked over at T.J. but he was still asleep.

The pilot had turned around in his seat and was staring at me. I looked back at him. He smiled and motioned for me to come forward and when I reached the cockpit I smelled the rum. He was no longer wearing his sunglasses and his eyes were bloodshot and watery.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Nothin’ baby,” he said. “Just wanted to say hi.”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“We’re cruisin’ baby. Just takin’ the bird out for a moonlight flight. You want a drink?” he asked.

My heart beat faster as the adrenaline started flowing through my body. How long had he been drinking?

“Listen to me,” I said. “I need you to answer my question: Where are we?”

“Now don’t be like that baby. I noticed you earlier, at the airport with the kid. I interrupted my Saturday night to come back and help you out. I did you a favor and now you can do me a favor. You know what kind of favor I mean baby?”

“Listen,” I said again. “I want you to call the airport on your radio. Tell them we are going to need some assistance when we land at the resort. Tell them you’re not feeling well and may not be able to land the plane safely. Get on the radio right now.”

“The radio is already on, can’t you hear the music? Maybe you want to do some slow dancing?” He grabbed my wrist to pull me closer and tried to kiss me.

I pushed him away. “I don’t want to dance. I want you to call the airport and give them our location and then tell them you’re not feeling well,” I said, this time a bit more urgently. Instead of doing what I asked, he grabbed me by my hair and pushed my face into his lap.

“T.J.!” I screamed. I looked toward the back of the plane and saw that T.J. was still asleep. “T.J.!” I screamed again, louder, and this time, T.J. woke up. He looked half asleep and confused. The pilot was probably eight inches taller and eighty pounds heavier than T.J but the two of us together could put up a decent fight.

“Why did you wake the kid?” the pilot yelled. “Why did you wake up the goddamn kid!”

“Look, I can call the airport myself.”

“You’re not calling anybody.”

He grabbed the bottle of rum from under his seat and tried to take a drink but it was empty.

“How far away is the resort?” Maybe if we flew for a while he would sober up enough to land the plane.

“I dunno. It’s down there somewhere,” he said and laughed. He reached under the seat again and found a new bottle of rum. He cracked the seal and started to take a drink.

“Let me have some,” I said. “Hand me the bottle.” He smiled and stared at my breasts.

“Now you’re talkin’ baby.”

He handed me the rum. I pretended to take a drink and set the bottle down on the floor.

“Once you land the plane, and we’re safely on the ground, we can go get another drink.”

“The kid can’t come.”

“No, it will just be the two of us. But you can’t drink anymore because you need to land the plane.”

An alarm sounded in the cockpit but he ignored it. “You think I can’t fly this plane? You think I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ll put this plane down so soft you won’t feel the wheels touch baby.” He reminded me of the way a drunk driver insists he’s able to drive home and then crashes his car into a concrete embankment or goes the wrong direction on the freeway. I wasn’t scared he would try to sexually assault me – he was far too drunk to be successful – but I was terrified that he didn’t seem to realize how drunk he was.

“Where is the alarm going off?” I wasn’t sure if we were flying too low or running out of fuel. The pilot looked at me with a strange expression and then projectile vomited all over the windshield, the instrument panel, and me. I recoiled and wiped my face with the sleeve of my shirt. I turned around and said to T.J., “Look for life jackets, seat cushions, anything that will float.” T.J.rifled through the overhead compartments and looked under the seats.

I turned back toward the pilot and watched his head fall forward and jerk back. “Wake up! I yelled.

“Anna, I found the life jackets,” T.J. said. He handed one to me, then put on his own.

“Good job T.J. Is there a raft?” I asked as I put my life jacket on.

“I don’t know. I’ll keep looking.”

I looked out the windshield to see how low we were but I couldn’t see anything because of the vomit. I looked out the side window but the sky was as black as the ocean and I couldn’t tell where one stopped and the other began. I wiped the instrument panel off with the hem of my t-shirt but I couldn’t tell why the alarm was going off. I grabbed the radio and pushed the buttons. “Can anyone hear me? We are in trouble, can anyone hear me?” There was nothing but static in return.

“Don’t worry about the raft T.J. Get in your seat and buckle up!” I said. I shook the pilot by the shoulders. “Wake up!” If he could call the airport they could talk me through it so I could try and land the plane myself. Or ditch it in the ocean, an option that scared me more than trying to land. I wondered which choice was more likely to kill us when I heard the engines sputter twice and go silent. We glided for a while and then the plane hit the water, skipping once like a rock across a pond. When the plane hit the water a second time the tip of one of the wings caught the surface and the plane cartwheeled out of control. I was ejected from the plane, through the shattered windshield, in a deafening explosion of glass and metal.

Seawater slammed down my throat and up my nose. I was disoriented and incapacitated by pain; it was only the buoyancy of my life jacket that lifted me toward the surface. When my head was finally above water I took huge, gasping breaths but couldn’t get my breathing regulated.

“T.J.! I screamed. “T.J.! Oh God, where was T.J.? I pictured him trapped in his seat, unable to get his seatbelt unbuckled. I felt the hysteria build.

The plane was in pieces around me and the water was filled with debris. I looked frantically for T.J., and screamed his name over and over and just when the hysteria threatened to overtake me, he surfaced nearby, coughing and choking.

I swam toward him even though every movement caused severe pain. I tasted blood in my mouth and my head was throbbing so hard it felt like it might literally explode, as if there was pressure building inside that needed to be released. When I reached T.J., I grabbed his hand and tried to tell him how happy I was that he was alive. But my words wouldn’t come out right and my voice sounded garbled. Everything was hazy as I drifted in and out. I was aware of T.J. looping his arm through the straps of my life jacket and yelling at me to wake up and then I remembered nothing at all until we washed up on the island.

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO (work in rainy season)

“Anna can you hear me?” I turned toward his voice and saw T.J. lying on the white sand shore next to me. His face was blistered and his lips were swollen. His head was sunburned and cut in several places and he had a black eye.

“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

“How long?” I asked.

“We were in the water for over a day and we’ve been on shore for a few hours. You were out the whole time.”

“I probably have a concussion. Did I throw up?”

“Yes, several times,” he said. “Do you think they’re looking for us?”

“I’m sure they are.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t find the life raft,” T.J. said.

I smiled even though my face hurt. “It’s okay T.J. You found the life jackets. You did fine.”

“We need to see if there’s any water here,” I said. I stood up but I was so dizzy I fell. I got up again, slower this time, and we walked away from the water’s edge. My head throbbed and my vision was blurry. My shoes were missing.

The white sand beach gave way to shrubs and tropical vegetation the further we walked from the shore. Trees grew close together and their leaves formed a green canopy over our head. I was unsteady when I walked and T. J.’s left eye was swollen shut.

We found the pond when we came to a small clearing. It was small and filled with brackish still water. “Can we drink it?” T.J. asked.

“I don’t know. “ I knelt at the water’s edge and scooped some into my hand. It was as warm as bathwater. I raised my hand to my mouth and took a small drink. Even though the water tasted terrible I wanted more. T.J. knelt down beside me and scooped his own handful out of the pond. We drank as much as we could hold and then we lay on the ground by the pond to rest. The mosquitoes buzzed around my face. We both dozed for a while.

When we woke up we drank more. My head still hurt but my vision was clearer. I wanted to get back to the beach where a plane or a ship could see us. It would be dark soon and we needed a fire although I had no idea how to go about building one.

When we returned to the beach I noticed that debris from the crash had started washing up on shore. If they knew where we went down, could they follow the path of debris to us? Had they been tracking us on radar? I had no idea what the protocol was for small planes and if the pilot had filed a flight plan.

The mosquitoes were everywhere and I slapped them away from my face. I was tired and I wanted to lie down. “I don’t know if we have time to make a shelter before it gets dark. And we need to light a signal fire somehow,” I said to T.J. Then my stomach cramped. I ignored it, hoping it was because I was hungry. “I think we should stay on the beach so it’s easier to see us.” Another cramp hit me, this one more intense. My legs felt wobbly and I felt a line of sweat break out on my forehead. A final cramp hit me, this one painful enough to bring me to my knees.

“Anna what’s wrong?” T.J. bent down beside me as waves of pain slammed into me.

“Don’t follow me,” I said. As severe as the pain was I was still horrified by what was about to happen and I didn’t want him anywhere near me. I stumbled into the trees and barely got my jeans off before my body purged everything in it.

It was dark when I crawled back to the beach. My face, hands, and feet were mosquito bitten but my stomach was empty and no longer cramping. I had no idea where T.J. was. I drifted in and out of sleep and when I woke up, T.J. was lying beside me. I assumed he had suffered the same fate as me. We lay next to each other for the rest of the night, dehydrated and weak. I realized that although we had survived the crash, if we weren’t rescued soon, or couldn’t find fresh water, we would die on the beach.

When the sun came up I struggled to lift my head off the sand. We were close to the shore and I could see more debris littering the white sand. I saw something that didn’t look like the rest. “T.J.,” I said. “What is that?” I pointed to the object.

“Where?”

“Over there. That tan thing.”

“That’s my backpack. He smiled at me. Anna that’s my backpack!” T.J. walked to the water’s edge and grabbed it. He brought it back and I sat up. And just when I remembered why he was so excited, T.J. reached in and pulled out the bottle of water I’d bought him at the Male airport.

He twisted off the cap and we took turns drinking. It was a thirty-two ounce bottle and we drank the whole thing, being careful not to drink it too fast. It wasn’t a lot but it would keep us going until we could figure out how to find more. T.J.’s backpack also had a baseball cap and a sweatshirt which he put on immediately, to protect his head and arms from the sun and the mosquitoes, despite the sweltering heat. When we crashed he had been wearing shorts and a t-shirt and his arm and legs were covered in bites. There was another t-shirt and pair of shorts, underwear and socks, and his MP3 player and headphones. T.J.’s cell phone was at the bottom of the backpack. He pulled it out and flipped it open. I knew it was dead because I’d asked to borrow it at the airport and I knew it had been in the ocean which would have ruined it anyway but I still held my breath, hoping to see the lights come on. They didn’t.

“We need to find water we can drink,” I said. “And shelter. And fire.” I had no idea how we were going to accomplish this.

An hour later, after we’d come back from searching for water, we found two seat cushions on the shore. Next to them was an empty bottle of rum. I saved it because I knew we could use it for something.

Chapter 1

  • April 18, 2010

The Island – 1st draft******

CHAPTER ONE

My name is Anna Elliott. I’m a ninth grade English teacher and I was thirty years old when T.J. Callahan’s parents hired me to tutor him for the summer. T.J. was fifteen and one month into remission with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

T.J.’s dad Tom was the lead architect for a luxury hotel nearing completion at a resort west of Sri Lanka, in the Indian Ocean. T.J., his parents, and his two younger sisters Alexis and Grace were staying at the resort for the summer while Tom supervised the final details on the project. I usually tutored students at the library or in a classroom but I agreed to spend the summer with the Callahan’s because I had my own reasons for wanting to leave Chicago.

We were supposed to fly out as soon as the school year ended. T.J.’s mom Sharon Callahan called me and said that T.J. wanted to attend a party at a friend’s but it was planned for two days after we were to leave. “I really don’t want to delay our arrival,” she said. I’m supposed to meet the property manager and get the keys to the rental house. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to re-arrange this but I wanted to let you know we may have to push back our departure date. The party is important to T.J. and Tom and I are thankful he’s healthy enough to go.”

“I can fly down with T.J. if you want to go on ahead,” I said. “We’d only be a couple of days behind you.”

“It takes over twenty-four hours to get there. It’s not an easy trip,” she said.

“That’s okay,” I said. I was used to traveling and usually managed to get at least one new stamp in my passport every year. “T.J. and I will have a chance to get to know each other better.” T.J. didn’t attend the high school where I taught and I’d only met him once, when I’d interviewed with the Callahan’s.

“Are you sure this would be okay with you?”

“Really, I wouldn’t have offered if it wasn’t.”

“Well, I guess T.J. could stay with his friend Ben after we leave. He’s the one having the party. I’ll see if Ben’s mom can take him to the airport. I suppose you could meet him there.”

“Sure,” I said.

“Thank you Anna. I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

We flew out on June first. My sister Sarah drove me to the airport.

“I don’t know why you have to go so far away,” she said. “I think you need your family right now.”

“No, what I need is to get out of the city and be alone for a while. I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I know you don’t.”

Sarah pulled up to the curb when we reached the airport. She helped me take my suitcases out of the trunk. “Do you want me to park and go in with you?”

“No. I’ll be fine. You and David can bring the girls and meet me at the gate when I get back. Tell them Aunt Anna will have lots of souvenirs. Have them make a welcome home sign or something.”

“They’ll love that.”

“I know.”

“Call me when you get there.” Sarah gave me a big hug. I hugged her back and smiled.

“I will. Thanks for taking me to the airport.”

“You’re welcome.” I watched Sarah get into her car and drive away and then I grabbed my suitcases and walked into the airport.

T.J. and Ben were waiting for me at the gate. T.J.’s bald head made him look younger than fifteen. He wasn’t tall, maybe five feet six and I wondered if the cancer had affected his growth.

“Hi T.J.,” I said. It’s good to see you again. Are you ready to go?”

“Oh hey, sure”.

“You must be Ben,” I said to the boy sitting next to T.J. “I’m Anna Elliott.” I offered my hand and he shook it awkwardly.

“How was the party?” I asked

“Uh, it was okay,” he said.

I turned back to T.J. “I’m going to check on our flight. I’ll be right back.”

As I walked away Ben said, “Dude. Your babysitter is hot.”

“She’s my tutor, asshole.”

When I returned T.J. was sitting alone. “Did Ben leave?” I asked.

“Yeah. His mom got tired of circling the airport. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?”

“Yeah I did.”

Do you want to get something to eat?” I asked.

“I’m not hungry,” he said.

“Okay.”

When we boarded the plane, T.J. put his headphones on and ignored me. He always answered me when I asked him a question – he was too polite not to – but he didn’t open up to me and he wasn’t interested in having a conversation. I assumed that being able to go to the party hadn’t completely made up for the fact that he wasn’t happy about leaving his friends for the summer and it was understandable that I’d get caught in the crossfire. I didn’t take it personally.

We stayed on schedule until Frankfurt and then we were delayed for twelve hours while the airline attempted to untangle the mechanical problems and weather delays that rendered our original itinerary obsolete; T.J. slept on a row of hard plastic chairs while we waited to be re-routed. There were more delays in Sri Lanka – this time a shortage of flight crew – and by the time we arrived at Mal’e International Airport at nine thirty P.M., our final destination less than two hours away by air taxi, I had been awake for thirty-three hours and no longer knew what day it was. When I was told they had no reservation for us, I felt the tears build and blinked them back.

“But I have the confirmation number,” I said to the ticket agent as I slid the scrap of paper across the counter. “I updated our reservation before we left Sri Lanka. Two seats. T.J. Callahan and Anna Elliott. Please look again.” I tapped the counter for emphasis.

“The ticket agent checked the computer. “I am sorry; your names are not on the list. The air taxi is full. I have no more seats,” he said.

“What about the next flight. I was told there was another one. “

“There is no other flight tonight. “

“Is there a boat?” I asked. “A ferry?”

“No boats at night. Too dangerous with the reef. Planes only,” he said.

“What about the other charter carriers?” I asked.

“It’s Saturday night. Lots of pilots make plans for after they’ve landed at the resorts. They don’t fly back until the morning.” I saw him glance at my eyes. The tears I had been trying to hold back were close to running down my face. “I’ll send a message out and see what I can do,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said, wiping my eyes. “I really appreciate it. We’ll take anything.”

I was thirsty so I bought two large bottles of water. “Do you want one?” I asked T.J. “No thanks Anna.”

“Well put it in your backpack, you might want it later.” We sat down on a bench and I called Sharon Callahan and told her not to expect us until morning. “There’s a chance they’ll find us a flight but I don’t think we’ll get out tonight.”

“I am so sorry Anna,” Sharon said. I should have stayed behind with you and T.J. and let Tom fly ahead with the girls.”

“It’s okay Sharon, really. We’ll be there tomorrow for sure.”

I noticed the ticket agent waving at me. He was smiling. “Sharon, listen I think we might –,” and then my cell phone dropped the call.

The ticket agent told us a pilot had agreed to fly us to the resort. “It’s a small plane, not an air taxi, but it will get you there safely.”

“Thank you so much,” I told him. “We really appreciate it.” Shortly before we boarded the plane I tried to call T.J.’s parents again but I couldn’t get a signal and my cell phone roamed without connecting.

“T.J., can I borrow your phone?” I asked.

“Sorry Anna, it’s dead,” he said.

Great. We’re going to show up at two in the morning and wake everyone in the house. “That’s okay, it probably wouldn’t get a signal either. Are you ready?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, and grabbed his backpack. “Let’s go.”

T.J. and I walked onto the tarmac. The air was hot and humid and I was reminded of how close we were to the equator. I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans and I wished I’d changed into something cooler. My hair was making the back of my neck sweat.

The plane was a Piper Saratoga and the pilot was sitting in the cockpit when we walked through the door. He was older than I was, maybe forty-five, and he was drinking something out of a large plastic cup. He was wearing sunglasses, even though it was almost midnight. He did not greet us but he stared at me and though I couldn’t be sure – because of the sunglasses – I got the uncomfortable feeling his eyes had just lingered where they shouldn’t have. I was too tired to care. My eyes felt grainy and I rubbed them with my fists.

It was a small six seater and the cockpit was devoid of any barrier to separate the pilot from us. He turned on the engines and it was loud inside the cabin. When he turned his head to the side I saw his lips moving as he communicated with someone on the radio.

T.J. buckled himself into a seat and fell asleep immediately. I buckled in next to him and tried to hold my eyes open. I wanted to ask the pilot how long it would take us to reach the resort but I closed my eyes instead.

The music woke me up. It was so loud it drowned out the sound of the engines. I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and checked the time. 1:14. What the hell was going on? I looked over at T.J. but he was still asleep.

The pilot had turned around in his seat and was staring at me. I looked back at him. He smiled and motioned for me to come forward and when I reached the cockpit I smelled the rum. He was no longer wearing his sunglasses and his eyes were bloodshot and watery.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Nothin’ baby,” he said. “Just wanted to say hi.”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“We’re cruisin’ baby. Just takin’ the bird out for a moonlight flight. You want a drink?” he asked.

My heart beat faster as the adrenaline started flowing through my body. How long had he been drinking?

“Listen to me,” I said. “I need you to answer my question: Where are we?”

“Now don’t be like that baby,” he said as he pulled me onto his lap and put his arms around me. I saw you earlier, stuck at the airport with the kid. I interrupted my Saturday night to help you out. I did you a favor and now you can do me a favor. You know what kind of favor I mean baby?”

I wriggled my way out of his lap. He was so drunk he tried to pull me back down and almost fell out of his seat.

“Listen,” I said again. “I want you to call the airport on your radio. Tell them we are going to need some assistance when we land at the resort. Tell them you’re not feeling well and may not be able to land the plane safely. Get on the radio right now.”

“The radio is already on, can’t you hear the music? Maybe you want to do some slow dancing?” He grabbed my wrist to pull me closer and tried to kiss me.

I pushed him away. “I don’t want to dance. I want you to call the airport and give them our location and then tell them you’re not feeling well,” I said, this time a bit more urgently. Instead of doing what I asked, he reached out and grabbed me by my hair and tried to push my face into his lap.

“T.J.!” I screamed. I looked toward the back of the plane and saw that T.J. was still asleep. “T.J.!” I screamed again, louder, and this time, T.J. woke up. He looked half asleep and confused. The pilot was probably six inches taller and eighty pounds heavier than T.J but the two of us together could put up a decent fight.

“Why did you wake the kid?” the pilot yelled. “Why did you wake up the goddamn kid!”

“Look, I can call the airport myself,” I said as I reached for what I hoped was the radio.

He jerked it out of the dashboard in a rage. “What, you think I can’t fly this plane? You think I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ll put this plane down so soft you won’t feel the wheels touch baby.” He grabbed the bottle of rum from under his seat and tried to take a drink but it was empty.

“How far away is the resort?” Maybe if we flew for a while he could sober up enough to land the plane.

“I dunno. It’s down there somewhere,” he said and laughed. “I think we got enough fuel to find it.” He reached under the seat again and found a new bottle of rum. He cracked the seal and started to take a drink.

“Let me have some,” I said. “Hand me the bottle.” He smiled and looked me up and down slowly.

“Now you’re talkin’ baby.”

He handed me the rum. I pretended to take a drink and set the bottle down on the floor.

“Once you land the plane, and we’re safely on the ground, we can go get another drink.”

“The kid can’t come,” he slurred

“No, he won’t come. It will just be the two of us. How long until we reach the resort?”

He didn’t answer me and then he got a strange look on his face and projectile vomited all over the windshield, the instrument panel, and me. I recoiled and wiped my face with the sleeve of my shirt. I had never been more scared in my life.

I turned around and said to T.J., “Look for life jackets, seat cushions, anything that will float!” T.J.’s eyes were wide with fear but he started rifling through the overhead compartments and looking under the seats.

I turned back toward the pilot as an alarm bell went off in the cockpit. I watched his head fall forward and jerk back. “Wake up! I yelled.

“Anna, I found the life jackets,” T.J. said. He handed one to me, then put on his own.

“Good job T.J. Is there a raft?” I asked as I put my life jacket on.

“I don’t know. I’ll keep looking.”

I looked out the windshield to see how low we were but I couldn’t see anything because of the vomit. I looked out the side window but the sky beyond was as dark as the ocean below and I couldn’t tell where one stopped and the other began. I looked at the instrument panel and wiped it off with the hem of my t-shirt but I couldn’t tell why the alarm was going off. Were we running out of fuel? Flying too low?

“Don’t worry about the raft T.J. Get in your seat and buckle up!” I said. I shook the pilot by the shoulders. “Wake up!” If he could just talk me through it I could try and land the plane myself. Or ditch it in the ocean, an option that scared me more than trying to land. I was still pondering our choices, and wondering which one was more likely to kill us when I heard the engines sputter twice and go silent. We glided for a while and then the plane hit the water, skipping once like a rock across a pond. When the plane hit the water a second time the tip of one of the wings caught the surface and the plane cartwheeled out of control. I was ejected from the plane, through the shattered windshield, in a deafening explosion of glass and metal.

Seawater slammed down my throat and up my nose. I was disoriented and incapacitated by pain; it was only the buoyancy of my life jacket that lifted me toward the surface. When my head was finally above water I took huge, gasping breaths but couldn’t get my breathing regulated.

“T.J.! I screamed. “T.J.! Oh God, where was T.J.? I pictured him trapped in his seat, unable to get his seatbelt unbuckled. I felt the hysteria build.

The plane was in pieces around me and the water was filled with debris. I looked frantically for T.J., screaming his name over and over and just when the hysteria threatened to overtake me, he surfaced nearby, coughing and choking.

I swam toward him even though every movement caused severe pain. I tasted blood in my mouth and my head was throbbing so hard it felt like it might literally explode, as if there was pressure building inside that needed to be released. When I reached T.J., I grabbed his hand and tried to tell him how happy I was that he was alive. But my words wouldn’t come out right and my voice sounded garbled. Everything was hazy as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I was aware of T.J. looping his arm through the straps of my life jacket and yelling at me to wake up and then I remembered nothing at all until we washed up on the shore of the island.

transfer doc

  • April 5, 2010

The Island – 1st draft

The Island

I was thirty years old the day T.J. Callahan and I flew out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport en route to the resort his father was building in _______. T.J. and his best friend Ben were waiting for me at gate 12, sitting in a row of hard plastic chairs looking bored, the way most fourteen-year-olds look when they are not at the movies, or the mall, or the skateboard park. T.J. wasn’t wearing his baseball cap and I noticed his hair had started growing back.

I walked up to them, pulling my wheeled carry on bag behind me. ““Hi T.J.,” I said. “Are you ready to go?” He adjusted his ear buds and pretended not to hear me. “You must be Ben,” I said to the boy sitting next to T.J. “I’m Anna Elliott.“ I shook his hand. “How was the party?“ “Uh, it was okay,” he said. They both looked uncomfortable and neither one of them seemed interested in making conversation. T.J. won’t even look at me. It’s going to be a slow process, I remind myself. The anger he feels toward his parents, for making him leave Chicago for the summer, has to be directed at someone and I’m pretty sure that person will be me for a while

I’m going to check on our flight and buy a magazine. Do you want anything T.J.?” “No,” he said. “Would you mind keeping an eye on my bag while I’m gone? “ T.J. shrugged which I hope means he will at least keep someone from stealing it. “Okay, I’ll be right back.“ As I walked away, I heard Ben say, “Dude. Your babysitter is hot.”

“She’s my tutor, asshole.”

When I returned from the gift shop, T.J. was sitting alone. “Did Ben take off?” I asked. “Yeah. His mom got tired of circling the airport. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?” I ask.

“Not really,” T.J. said.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I know you were looking forward to it.”

He shrugs. “No biggie.”

Do you want to get something to eat?” I ask. “We have time before we have to board.”

“I’m not hungry. I just want to listen to my music.”

“Okay.”

I open my magazine and the first thing I see, after I thumb through several of the pages, is an article about how to make your boyfriend commit, as if it is really so easy that a magazine can tell you how it’s done. Married in three easy steps or something to that effect. It’s the same article; recycled monthly in any number of random magazines I can’t stop reading. Because dating John for eight years and still not being any closer to the alter despite my wholehearted desire to marry and start a family must mean that there is something definitely wrong with me and if I can apply this advice, really absorb it and correct my mistakes, I can convert my boyfriend into a fiancé. Although maybe having a magazine article try and help me is preferable to my friends and family and lately, total strangers, offering assistance when they find out that, at age thirty, I am still without a ring on my finger and a baby in my arms. I hate to admit to myself that things haven’t worked out quite the way I thought they would.

I am literally farther away from my personal goals than I ever have been, sitting in an airport, getting ready to embark on a _____ hour flight halfway across the world in order to spend the entire summer away from my home. “You don’t have to run away Anna,“ Sarah has said. (Sarah was talking to Anna while she packed for her trip). “I’m not running away,“ I say. “I’m getting out of town. There’s a big difference. And it’s easy for her to say, married with two adorable daughters. It’s like Sarah has been busy checking off the items on my personal to-do list one at a time: marriage, kids, career. IAt least I have a career I’m happy with. I teach eighth grade at a private school and when a fellow teacher of mine, happily married and newly pregnant, told me a family in a neighboring district was having a hard time finding a tutor for their son, I gave them a call.

Tom and Sharon Callahan are desperate by the time I arrive at their downtown Chicago apartment for the interview. “Thank you for coming,“ Mrs. Callahan says as she opens the door. “We’re so happy you might be able to help us,“ Mr. Callahan adds, “Everyone we’ve interviewed is interested in the position but not willing to be gone the whole summer.”

I learn that Mr. Callahan is an architect who has built a resort that is nearing completion. He wants his entire family, especially T.J. and his two younger sisters, to join him for the summer while he puts the finishing touches on the project.

“Tell me about T.J.,” I say. “Why does he need a tutor?“ Is he having trouble in a particular subject?”

Mrs. Callahan and Mr. Callahan trade glances. “T.J. is recovering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He’s missed so much school that he may not be able to advance to ninth grade with the rest of his class. He doesn’t want to be left behind but he’s not happy about having to make up the work over the summer. Or to have to leave Chicago. But we want him to be with us, for our family to be together. This has been a hard year for everyone but most of all for T.J.”

So if there is an upside to ending an eight year relationship that is going nowhere it’s this: I can fly off to an island resort if I feel like it. And I bear no ill will toward John either. He was only being honest.

4/5/10

  • April 5, 2010

The Island

I was thirty years old the day T.J. Callahan and I flew out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport en route to the resort his father was building in _______. T.J. and his best friend Ben were waiting for me at gate 12, sitting in a row of hard plastic chairs looking bored, the way most fourteen-year-olds look when they are not at the movies, or the mall, or the skateboard park. T.J. wasn’t wearing his baseball cap and I noticed his hair had started growing back.

I walked up to them, pulling my wheeled carry on bag behind me. ““Hi T.J.,” I said. “Are you ready to go?” He adjusted his ear buds and pretended not to hear me. “You must be Ben,” I said to the boy sitting next to T.J. “I’m Anna Elliott.“ I shook his hand. “How was the party?“ “Uh, it was okay,” he said. They both looked uncomfortable and neither one of them seemed interested in making conversation. T.J. won’t even look at me. It’s going to be a slow process, I remind myself. The anger he feels toward his parents, for making him leave Chicago for the summer, has to be directed at someone and I’m pretty sure that person will be me for a while. I’m going to check on our flight and buy a magazine. Do you want anything T.J.?” “No,” he said. “Would you mind keeping an eye on my bag while I’m gone? “ T.J. shrugged which I hope means he will at least keep someone from stealing it. “Okay, I’ll be right back.“ As I walked away, I heard Ben say, “Dude. Your babysitter is hot.”

“She’s my tutor, asshole.”

When I returned from the gift shop, T.J. was sitting alone. “Did Ben take off?” I asked. “Yeah. His mom got tired of circling the airport. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?” I ask.

“Not really,” T.J. said.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I know you were looking forward to it.”

He shrugs. “No biggie.”

Do you want to get something to eat?” I ask. “We have have time before we have to board.”

“I’m not hungry. I just want to listen to my music.”

“Okay.”

I open my magazine and the first thing I see, after I thumb through several of the pages, is an article about how to make your boyfriend commit, as if it is really so easy that a magazine can tell you how it’s done. Married in three easy steps or something to that effect. It’s the same article; recycled monthly in any number of random magazines I can’t stop reading. Because dating John for eight years and still not being any closer to the alter despite my wholehearted desire to marry and start a family must mean that there is

I was thirty years old the day T.J. Callahan and I flew out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport en route to the five star resort his father was building in _______. T.J. and his best friend Ben were waiting for me at gate 12, sitting in a row of hard plastic chairs looking bored, the way most fourteen-year-olds look when they are not at the movies, or the mall, or the skateboard park. T.J. wasn’t wearing his baseball cap and I wondered if it was because his hair had started to grow back. wearing a baseball cap though I noticed his hair was starting to grow back. , which threw me a little. Fortunately his mother had described him in detail. Though his bald head would have made it easier, I still figured out which passenger was him. even though his mother had asked him not to, knowing it would be harder for me to identify him in a crowd if he covered up his bald head. I don’t know if he wears the hat anyway because he is mad about having no hair, mad at his parents for making him leave Chicago for the summer, or mad at me even though I am the least responsible for any of it. Fortunately, his mother had described him in detail: pale, small for his age, carrying a blue backpack, ear buds a permanent fixture. Even with his bald head covered, I recognize him easily.

I walk up to him, pulling my wheeled carry on bag behind me. “T.J.? Hi. I’m Anna Elliott. I reach out and shake his hand. It’s nice to finally meet you. “Oh, hey,” T.J. says. “You too.” “And you must be Ben,” I say to the boy sitting next to T.J. “How was your party? “ “Uh, it was okay,” he says. They both look uncomfortable and neither one of them will look at me for very long. It’s going to be a slow process, I remind myself.

I‘ll be right back,” I say. I’m going to check on our flight and buy a magazine. Do you want anything T.J.?” “No, I’m good,” he says. As I walk away, I hear Ben say, “Dude, your babysitter is hot.”

“She’s my tutor, asshole.”

When I return from the gift shop, T.J. is sitting alone. “Did Ben take off?” I ask. “Yeah, his mom was waiting for him out front. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?” I ask.

“Not really,” T.J. said.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I know you were looking forward to it.”

He shrugs. “No biggie.”

Do you want to get something to eat?” I ask. “We have time before we have to board.”

“I’m not hungry. I just want to listen to my music.”

“Okay.”

I open my magazine and the first thing I see, after I thumb through several of the pages, is an article about how to make your boyfriend commit, as if it is really so easy that a magazine can tell you how it’s done. Married in three easy steps or something to that effect. It’s the same article; recycled monthly in any number of random magazines I can’t stop reading. Because dating John for eight years and still not being any closer to the alter despite my wholehearted desire to marry and start a family must mean that there is something definitely wrong with me and if I can apply this advice, really absorb it and correct my mistakes, I can convert my boyfriend into a fiancé. Although maybe having a magazine article try and help me is preferable to my friends and family and lately, total strangers, offering assistance when they find out that, at age thirty, I am still without a ring on my finger and a baby in my arms. I hate to admit to myself that things haven’t worked out quite the way I thought they would.

I am literally farther away from my personal goals than I ever have been, sitting in an airport, getting ready to embark on a _____ hour flight halfway across the world in order to spend the entire summer away from my home. “You don’t have to run away Anna,“ Sarah has said. (Sarah was talking to Anna while she packed for her trip). “I’m not running away,“ I say. “I’m getting out of town. There’s a big difference. And it’s easy for her to say, married with two adorable daughters. It’s like Sarah has been busy checking off the items on my personal to-do list one at a time: marriage, kids, career. IAt least I have a career I’m happy with. I teach eighth grade at a private school and when a fellow teacher of mine, happily married and newly pregnant, told me a family in a neighboring district was having a hard time finding a tutor for their son, I gave them a call.

Tom and Sharon Callahan are desperate by the time I arrive at their downtown Chicago apartment for the interview. “Thank you for coming,“ Mrs. Callahan says as she opens the door. “We’re so happy you might be able to help us,“ Mr. Callahan adds, “Everyone we’ve interviewed is interested in the position but not willing to be gone the whole summer.”

I learn that Mr. Callahan is an architect who has built a resort that is nearing completion. He wants his entire family, especially T.J. and his two younger sisters, to join him for the summer while he puts the finishing touches on the project.

“Tell me about T.J.,” I say. “Why does he need a tutor?“ Is he having trouble in a particular subject?”

Mrs. Callahan and Mr. Callahan trade glances. “T.J. is recovering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He’s missed so much school that he may not be able to advance to ninth grade with the rest of his class. He doesn’t want to be left behind but he’s not happy about having to make up the work over the summer. Or to have to leave Chicago. But we want him to be with us, for our family to be together. This has been a hard year for everyone but most of all for T.J.”

So if there is an upside to ending an eight year relationship that is going nowhere it’s this: I can fly off to an island resort if I feel like it. And I bear no ill will toward John either. He was only being honest.

The Island -1st draft

  • April 4, 2010

The Island

I am thirty years old when I met T.J. Callahan for the first time. He and his best friend Ben are waiting for me at gate 12, sitting in a row of hard plastic chairs looking bored, the way most fourteen-year-olds look when they are not at the movies, or the mall, or the skateboard park. T.J. is wearing a baseball cap, even though his mother had asked him not to, knowing it would be harder for me to identify him in a crowd if he covered up his bald head. I don’t know if he wears the hat anyway because he is mad about having no hair, mad at his parents for making him leave Chicago for the summer, or mad at me even though I had the least input in any of it. Fortunately, his mother had described him in detail: pale, small for his age, carrying a blue backpack, ear buds a permanent fixture. Even with his bald head covered, I recognize him easily.

I walk up to him, pulling my wheeled carry on bag behind me. “T.J.? Hi. I’m Anna Elliott. I reach out and shake his hand. It’s nice to finally meet you. “Oh, hey,” T.J. says. “You too.” “And you must be Ben,” I say to the boy sitting next to T.J. “How was your party? “ “Uh, it was okay,” he says. They both look uncomfortable and neither one of them will look at me for very long. It’s going to be a slow process, I remind myself.

I‘ll be right back,” I say. I’m going to check on our flight and buy a magazine. Do you want anything T.J.?” “No, I’m good,” he says. As I walk away, I hear Ben say, “Dude, your babysitter is smokin’ hot.”

“She’s my tutor, asshole.”

When I return from the gift shop, T.J. is sitting alone. “Did Ben take off?” I ask. “Yeah, his mom was waiting for him out front. He wouldn’t let her come in with us.”

“Did you have a good time at the party?” I ask.

“Not really,” T.J. said.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I know you were looking forward to it.”

He shrugs. “No biggie.”

Do you want to get something to eat?” I ask. “We have time before we have to board.”

“I’m not hungry. I just want to listen to my music.”

“Okay.”

I open my magazine and the first thing I see, after I thumb through several of the pages, is an article about how to make your boyfriend commit, as if it is really so easy that a magazine can tell you how it’s done. Married in three easy steps or something to that effect. It’s the same article; recycled monthly in any number of random magazines I can’t stop reading. Because dating John for eight years and still not being any closer to the alter despite my wholehearted desire to marry and start a family must mean that there is something definitely wrong with me and if I can apply this advice, really absorb it and correct my mistakes, I can convert my boyfriend into a fiancé. Although maybe having a magazine article try and help me is preferable to my friends and family and lately, total strangers, offering assistance when they find out that, at age thirty, I am still without a ring on my finger and a baby in my arms.

I think back to why I am sitting in an airport, getting ready to embark on a _____ hour flight halfway across the world in order to spend the entire summer away from my home. At least I have a career I’m happy with. I teach eighth grade at a private school and when a fellow teacher of mine, happily married and newly pregnant, told me a family in a neighboring district was having a hard time finding a tutor for their son, I gave them a call.

Tom and Sharon Callahan are desperate by the time I arrive at their downtown Chicago apartment for the interview. “Thank you for coming,“ Mrs. Callahan says as she opens the door. “We’re so happy you might be able to help us,“ Mr. Callahan adds, “Everyone we’ve interviewed is interested in the position but not willing to be gone the whole summer.”

I learn that Mr. Callahan is an architect who has built a resort that is nearing completion. He wants his entire family, especially T.J. and his two younger sisters, to join him for the summer while he puts the finishing touches on the project.

“Why don’t you tell me a little bit about T.J.,” I say. “Has he worked with a tutor before? Is he having trouble in a particular subject?”

Mrs. Callahan and Mr. Callahan trade glances. “T.J. is recovering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He’s missed so much school that he may not be able to advance to ninth grade with the rest of his class. He doesn’t want to be left behind but he’s not happy about having to make up the work over the summer. Or to have to leave Chicago. But we want him to be with us, for our family to be together. This has been a hard year for everyone but most of all for T.J.”

I tell myself that is there an upside to breaking up with your commitment shy boyfriends of eight years,

book notes

  • April 1, 2010

Step 1.

A fifteen-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and the thirty-year-old woman hired to tutor him are stranded on a deserted island for five years.

Step 2.

Fifteen-year-old T.J. Callahan has recently completed treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. T.J’s father is an architect whose firm is building a resort hotel in the Maldives. He wants his family to accompany him there for the summer while he completes the finishing details on the project. T.J. wants to remain in Chicago, recuperating and spending time with his friends. Because of his illness, he has missed enough school to jeopardize advancing to tenth grade with the rest of his class. Thirty-year-old Anna Elliott has been hired by T.J.’s parents to tutor him over the summer and help him catch up.

T.J. wants to stay behind for one week before flying to the Maldives. A classmate is having a party to celebrate the end of the school year and T.J. finally feels healthy enough to socialize. His parents agree to let T.J. go to the party and arrange for Anna and T.J. to fly to the Maldives together (don’t actually call it the maldives – pick one of the actual islands in the maldives and call it that).

Anna and T.J. run into delays while waiting to board their chartered sea plane at the Mal`e International Airport. After waiting, exhausted, for over eight hours, they are told another small, non-sea plane is available shortly after midnight as the airline has called in one of it‘s pilots. No one expects them until morning and Anna decides not to call T.J.‘s parents since it is so late (or, she can’t get cell service so she is not able to tell them that they are boarding a different flight). No one knows that T.J. and Anna have actually taken off from the airport.

Anna smells something strange when they first get on the plane but doesn’t identify it as rum until it is too late. The pilot is drunk and flies off course. Fuel is running low. Anna confronts the pilot and tries to make him understand the severity of the situation. She begs him to get on the radio but instead he vomits all over her, the radio, and the instrument panel. He tells her he will put them down on the runway gently and she screams that they are over the ocean. He finally has a moment of clarity just before they run out of fuel and ditch in the ocean (or he passes out and it‘s too late for Anna to get on the radio herself). Anna yells for T.J. to find life vests and a life raft. There is a life raft on board but they can’t find it once they crash. Anna is screaming for T.J. to buckle up but she doesn‘t make it back to her seat in time and is thrown from the plane in a shower of broken glass and twisted metal.

She is badly injured but is able to swim to the surface. She screams for T.J. amid the debris of the wreckage and at first she can’t find him, and thinks he has drowned, but then he yells for her. They grab seat cushions for flotation and get clear of the plane which is slowly sinking.

Anna is terrified of open water and also badly hurt. She has a severe concussion and the two things cause her to lose consciousness. She remembers almost nothing until they wash up on the shore of the island. They are badly sunburned (T.J.’s bald head is very red). There may or may not have been white tip reef sharks in the water with them.

Back at Male International Airport, Anna had bought T.J. a large bottle of water, some snacks, and a snowboarding magazine. T.J. did not want any of it at the time so he put everything in his backpack. He was able to grab the backpack out of the floating debris and has saved water from the bottle for Anna. He tells her that she puked a lot while they were in the water, and that he was afraid she was going to die. Both of Anna’s eyes are swollen shut and her face is a mess. T.J. tells her that he was barely able to keep her head above water.

They move to shade and realize they need to find more water, food, and shelter. They discover a crude shack and the skeleton of someone who died in it. The shelter contains a ukulele, a knife, a blanket, and some clothes.

They start a fire with the lighter T.J. has in his backpack. They want to light a fire to signal whoever might be looking for them. They try to find green leaves to make it smoky. It won’t work at first but they wait an hour for it to dry out more, and try it again. She asks him later why he had a lighter and he tells her that lots of his friends have them for cigarettes, fireworks, etc…”Sometimes Ben and I smoke.” “That‘s really stupid T.J. but your bad habit may have just saved our lives.“They don’t find fresh water but it’s the rainy season so they use whatever they can to collect it when it rains. They are convinced they will be rescued soon. They discuss where they think they are and that T.J.’s parents will be looking for them by now.

They start to explore the island because they need to find food. There are coconut trees but they can’t reach the coconuts. Anna is still very injured and they are both weak. They still have a little water and some slim jims. They spend their first night in the crude shelter after she and T.J. dispose of the skeleton. They start what will be a five year ordeal of making sure the fire does not go out. They also start collecting water because it’s the rainy season (they use the knife to cut down one of the plastic water bottles to collect rain in). They spend a horrible first night not being able to sleep and worrying that the fire will go out.

Anna is so convinced they will be rescued soon that she only wants to sit on the beach looking for boats or helicopters. They don’t have anything to eat other than coconuts (which they finally get out of the tree by having T.J. stand on Anna’s shoulders to knock them down. They find a sea turtle (they have to kill it by smashing it with a rock), cook it, and eat it. It is horrible and they only gag it down because they are starving. They want to fish but have nothing to use for hooks or line (when her suitcase washes up on shore they will use her earrings and threads from her scarf to catch fish with). Anna is also still dealing with her injuries. (This section of the book needs to reflect real hardship for Anna and T.J.).

Anna and T.J. are hungry, sweaty, dirty, tired, and discouraged when no rescue boat or helicopter arrives. They have been on the island three weeks and Anna is slipping into a deep depression. T.J. is doing better than she is. The most despairing time for Anna and T.J. is when T.J. voices out loud what Anna has been thinking: no one is looking for them because they don’t know where to look or they assume they are dead. Anna sinks even deeper into depression.

T;J. is walking along the water’s edge looking for driftwood when he spots Anna’s suitcase. He runs up the beach yelling for Anna and shows her the suitcase. They open it and go through the contents and they are both very happy. Anna gives T.J. one of her t-shirts. Anna and T.J. use the soap and shampoo and take a bath and wash their hair in the ocean. Anna uses her toothbrush and then offers it to T.J. He accepts it gratefully and from then on they always share everything, being careful to ration it. Anna finally smiles and T.J. smiles back at her and there is a glimmer of hope.

T.J. starts fishing using Anna’s earrings and threads from her scarf. T.J. catches his first fish and they cook it on a flat rock next to the fire. They start to get more and more organized and they also explore the ocean (make sure to describe it as being small with a bluff – also introduce the cave). Decide whether there are rats, spiders, or snakes. Keep making changes to how they collect water, coconuts, etc…making sure it’s more efficient as time goes by. See if there is anything else in Bones’ shelter they can use.

They see a ship one day but it’s far off and they don’t get to the fire in time to throw green leaves on it to make smoke. This sets Anna back a little in terms of despair and depression.

Have things get better soon and show how they begin to adapt. Anna will realize that she is not pulling her weight because she’s so upset about being stranded and that it’s not fair to T.J. Also have one of them try to figure out how long they’ve been there and make it more original than carving notches on a tree branch.

Eighteen months has gone by. T.J. is seventeen and I am thirty-two. They have an easy,

friendly relationship based on teamwork, mutual respect, and common ground. They share stories about their families (T.J. has two younger sisters – Anna has a sister who is married and has two kids – they both have parents who are still married to each other). They also play endless games of checkers on a board they have drawn in the sand. They swim together every day (Anna asks in the beginning if T.J. thinks there are any sharks in the inlet. He tells her about the many sharks he saw after they ditched in the ocean (“I don’t think they were the bad kind.”).

Anna is frustrated because her hair has gotten long (middle of her back) and it’s tangled.

She doesn’t have any scissors (we don’t have scissors but we have a god damn

ukulele!) T.J. is sitting in the sand strumming the ukulele “They should have a video game that lets you pretend you’re playing a real guitar……..)After they get done washing up in the ocean, T.J. offers to comb her hair and she accepts. While he is combing her hair she realizes how long it’s been since she’s felt a human touch. This is the first inkling the reader will have that there is something growing between them. They also describe each other since they haven’t looked in a mirror in almost two years. T.J. has grown and is much taller than Anna. His hair has grown in and it’s pretty long. He still has his braces on but he is tan and well muscled. He tells Anna she is pretty.

Anna has the dream about John. Afterward, they share their stories and T.J. tells Anna about Emma and his treatment and banking sperm and Emma dying. Anna deals with the realization that T.J. is not a virgin.

T.J. takes his braces off and becomes more self-assured. Anna realizes that T.J. has started flirting with her a little (shaking his wet hair on her bare skin, lifting her on his shoulders to reach coconuts. Boosting his hand under her butt to help her up the bluff.

Anna proposes that she tutor T.J. as much as she can (from memory – they have no books or materials). She convinces him by telling him that when they get off the island, he can take the GED and maybe not have to worry about making up all the school he’s missed. He agrees as long as she’ll teach him while he’s building their house as he doesn’t just want to sit idle and learn. She agrees and the end up working really well together on both the house and his studies.

T.J. catches her staring at him a few times. She starts to have an inner conflict about what is right and wrong in regard to her student.

Anna is swimming when T.J. comes running down from the bluff after seeing the shark fin (they go up to the bluff several times a day to scan the horizon for ships). Anna is traumatized. They watch the fin go back and forth in their inlet. Anna won’t go back in the water and one day T.J. watches her shave her legs by the shore.

Anna starts having nightmares and can’t sleep because she is so freaked out about the shark. She wakes up screaming one night and T.J. comforts her by spooning her back to sleep. After that night, he starts spooning her when he thinks she is asleep. One night, Anna gets up to check the fire and when she comes back, T.J. is lying on his back so she snuggles up next to him and lays her head on his chest. She thinks he’s asleep but once she gets settled, he pulls her closer.

T.J. vows to catch the shark. It takes him a while but he finally does. He has to whittle a spear and stab the shark while hanging out over the water on a rock formation. It’s a tiger shark and they stuff themselves on it. They both burp really loud and Anna laughs. Anna makes the comment about feeling her stomach, because it’s so full, and T.J. does, his hand lingering, which has a big effect on Anna. The first time they get back in the ocean to bathe, Anna is so scared she climbs up on T.J. because she thinks something has brushed up against her foot. He thinks it’s funny and she pretends to be mad. He has also developed a sore throat and is running a slight fever.

That night, T.J. does not spoon Anna because he has gotten sicker and he can’t sleep. He is sitting by the fire and when Anna notices he’s not asleep beside her, she goes to find him. They have aspirin (from Anna’s suitcase) so she gives him some and tries to get him to go back to sleep.

He is much worse the next day. His throat is sore and his glands are very swollen (we know from an earlier conversation that a fever and a lump on his neck were the early symptoms of his Hodgkin’s). T.J. gets sicker and sicker and Anna is beside herself with worry. She is afraid he will die and also afraid that she will be left alone. She goes up to the bluff and there is internal dialogue ( I’m going to try and hold on as long as I can. I don’t think the bluff is high enough to do what I need to do. He is the only thing that makes being on this island bearable. I don’t want to lose my best friend.

Anna has T.J.’s head in her lap. She is wiping his forehead with a wet rag and crying. After what seems like forever, his fever breaks and he wakes up. It is very emotional because she thought for sure he was going to die. This is a turning point for Anna because she realizes just how deep her feelings for T.J. have become. T.J. recovers slowly and Anna and T.J. grow closer.

Shortly after T.J.’s recovery, they notice the sky doing weird things and they figure out a hurricane is coming. They know they will have to take shelter in the cave (which Anna hates because of snakes (“you’re such a girl Anna). They will also lose their fire as they can’t make one in the cave because it’s too small. They take everything they own to the cave and prepare to ride out the storm.

T.J. and Anna are in the cave and T.J. is spooning her from behind. The storm is loud and neither of them can sleep. T.J. says, “I want you Anna.” She knows exactly what he means but she has a moral dilemma to ponder. “I can’t,” she says. “It will change everything.” “Yes you can Anna. You can do anything you want. We can do anything we want. She hesitates a little longer and then she turns toward T.J. (I turn around to face T.J., and together we cross the line between teacher and student and we cross it for hours as the hurricane winds howl.

Anna and T.J. wake up and, holding hands, go down from the bluff to see what is left of their home. If the lighter doesn’t work they will have to rub two sticks together but luckily, there is a small flame, enough to light their fire once more.

T.J. is 18 and I am 33.

T.J. and Anna settle in and continue having a sexual relationship. They get along well and joke about John’s un-willingness to commit (one time she says Irie and then describes for T.J. how she and John went to Jamaica (another birthday trip where he didn’t propose – they laugh about the fact that he gave her a gold tennis bracelet and not a diamond ring). T.J. and Anna get closer and closer and he tells her he loves her ( I love you Anna. And I mean it. I love you too T.J.) In time T.J. talks about how he wants a family someday and all he wants is to stay in one place and settle down and be happy. I wish we could start a family now Anna. I know you want a baby. She laughs it off saying “You left your sperm at home honey.”

Tsunami scene. Anna and T.J. are walking hand in hand along the shore when they notice the water has receded strangely. Neither of them knows what is going on but they decide to go up to the bluff to see if they can see farther. They barely make it to high ground before the tsunami wave engulfs the entire island. Anna and T.J. are separated but end up clinging to trees a short distance apart from each other. They are battered and waterlogged and tired and thirsty and Anna tells T.J. she can’t hold on much longer and wants to let go. He yells and screams and begs her to hang on as the water will recede again soon. She tells him she can’t hold on any longer, and that she loves him, and just as she is about to give up, they hear the sound of a helicopter and are rescued.

Anna and T.J. are brought aboard a coast guard ship. The people on board are stunned to discover who Anna and T.J. really are. They call their families for them and Anna talks to her sister and T.J. talks to his mom and dad. They are celebrating but they are so tired and worn out from the tsunami that they shower, eat, and go to sleep in the same bed.

They arrive on a plane at O’Hare to a crowd of reporters. Their families rush to them as they get off the plane. T.J. and his family are joyfully reunited but only Anna’s sister, brother in law, and nieces are there. Anna finds out that her parents passed away while she was on the island. Anna is devastated and when T.J. realizes what is wrong, he rushes to comfort her. He kisses her cheeks and smoothes back her hair and pulls her close while telling her it will be okay. He comforts her the way a spouse or a significant other would and when they finally pull away, everyone is staring at them.

T.J. has Anna write down her sister’s phone number so he can call her in a day or two, after they’ve had a chance to visit with their families. Anna feels lost immediately. She does love being with her sister and is grateful to be home. T.J. calls Anna to say good night and she is so happy. She gets his phone number and they make plans to get together in a few days.

Anna’s sister arranges for a hairdresser to come to her house to do Anna’s hair and give her a mani/pedi. Anna also goes to the doctor and dentist and receives a clean bill of health (except for slight malnutrition and being a bit underweight).T.J. calls to tell her that his cancer is still in remission.

T.J. goes to Anna’s apartment (which she owns free and clear – it has been paid for by Anna’s parent’s estate they always wanted to have something for her to come home to and wouldn‘t sell it). Really describe the two of them seeing each other for the first time off the island. Haircuts, makeup, Anna wearing a dress. T.J. brings her sweet tarts and roses. T.J. is full of plans for them but Anna is conflicted about their relationship off the island. She feels that she needs to let him go so that he can lead the life of a normal 19 year old but she can’t bring herself to say anything that night as she is so happy to see him. He spends the next two days and nights with her and they have a wonderful time.

After he leaves, Anna realizes she’s got to let him go. She wants him to go about his business without distraction. T.J.’s mother shows up at Anna’s door and confronts her about their relationship. Anna is totally honest but tells T.J.’s mom that it’s not her decision to make, it‘s T.J.’s “Be happy that I love him enough to let him go,” I tell her.

Anna breaks things off with T.J. and he is devastated. He will take her calls for a while but finally tells her she can’t have it both ways. Anna is very sad. She also gets a surprise visit from John who is still not married. She talks to her sister and tells her that she still loves T.J. She also goes to a shrink who tries to make her feel guilty for being with T.J. so she walks out. It is Anna’s sister that finally approaches T.J. to tell him what she thinks but T.J. will have to verbalize this to Anna via dialogue as everything is from Anna’s POV and we don’t know what’s going on with T.J.

T.J. shows up at Anna’s sister’s house and makes his speech about being with her. She accepts his proposal.

EPILOGUE

T.J. and Anna get married at the courthouse. They start a family right away using T.J.’s banked sperm. They have a daughter and name her Emma.

T.J.’s mom is at the house, holding Emma in her arms. Having a grandchild has softened her to the situation. Anna and T.J. get a big TV. T.J. and his friend Ben spend hours playing rock band. Anna is pregnant again.

T.J. is 22. I am 37.

Dear Gap

  • January 19, 2010

Your “tissue weight” material fools nobody (and makes me look like a prostitute since everyone can see my bra right through the fabric). If I wanted to wear a camisole under everything I buy from the Gap I’d just……

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