untitled
I was born where I live near, but not, in the ocean. I love the water and love being near it. When I was 11 I learned the technique in staying underwater “don’t worry” worrying, most of the time, is the base of your problems. Worrying is exactly how my mother died. I was in the water for 2 minutes and my mom got frantic and dived in to try and “save” me. She didn’t know I was on an outside island on the other side of the porter. When she couldn’t find me she worried, breathed in water, came on land and dry drowned. Too bad I didn’t know my “dear old dad”, and I don’t want to know him. I might as well not tell you his damned story because I hate him too much to. If he’s man enough to abandon us then he’s man enough to see he’s life crumble.
My mom choose my name and I don’t plan to get it changed, Okhotsk Andaman Reed. I wonder if she was thinking of the seas when she named me. My mom always told me to be as graceful as the Andaman Sea and as active as the Okhotsk. I still don’t know what that means but I ‘m sure it’s because I don’t how those seas look or feel. Maybe when I leave this I island I can visit them, if I leave this island. My mom told me no one else lives on this land but I can sense differently. It’s not fair that I couldn’t walk the rest of the archipelago with. Which brings me to another life lesson from mom. She would frequently tell me, when something didn’t go my way, “life isn’t fair so don’t try to make the world any better than what it is”. And she was definitely right.
Chapter 1
Fair Yet Bias
Today was supposed to be my mom’s birthday, January 14, but instead of a present for my mom, I got a gift from the military. They sent me a note from a plane stating that me and the other island inhabitants will have a chance to go to New York and stay in a hotel paid by the government.
The note said more but I couldn’t stop reading the first paragraph. The note said “other inhabitants” and it was dropped by a plane which means the plane must have surveyed the area which also means other people live here! I knew it! I wonder how people there 20? 50? 100? All I want is someone to talk to it gets to lonely here.
The very next I decided to walk around fully explore the island to see if I could find anyone. All of my attempts failed. I couldn’t spot a single human to save my life.”Don’t worry” I told myself. Then I thought of Mom “ration things out and be persistent.” So the next day I explored some more and the day after that and the day after that until I had another hint from Mom. “If a mental image doesn’t work then go physical.” The next few days I took a roll of Papyrus bark and drew the perimeter of the island taking 3 weeks doing so, and I learned to things from that. One, that there are no Islanders on the side of the islet and two, the island looks like an infinite sign.
I didn’t see anyone on the outside but my mom would perpetually say “Don’t judge a book by its cover. Read into it you might like the outcome” and with that being said I think she wants me to search inside. That alone took another wasted 6 weeks to do.
What I didn’t get is how does the military tell us to get ready to leave but not give us a date? It’s already been 10 weeks. How much time does it take to pick people (or a person) up that have nothing with them?
1 Month later a Heli finally came and landed somewhere on the north side of the island. I thought about looking for it but then I thought about what a city would be like. I hope my mom was exaggerating when she said the city was a place for pigs and slops, but, just in case, I’ll stay here and let them find me.
╪
It’s been 2 weeks since the Heli came and they still haven’t found me. I HAVE to go find out what happened! I’ve been looking for 2 days and I found a broken metal piece about 4 feet in length, a handle to something, and a green metal piece with the words on Head in red. I’ve seen Helies go to and fro and I’m sure these are pieces to the one that “landed”. I kept searching and I found the body of the heli that crashed and a few other bodies. I was scared out of mind but I kept my cool. But as scared as I was I saw one person was helping herself to a tuna. Finally my time to speak
“What you eating?” The girl screamed. I knew what she was eating but I had to talk and now I scared her. “Wait I didn’t-”
“Oh sorry I thought you a dead man.” The girl looked my age. “So who are you?” Shouldn’t I be asking that question?
“Okhotsk Andaman Reed. Who are you?” I guessed I sounded lost because she gave me a weird look.
“Jeneen Crawford and can I just call you Adam because that’s all I heard.”
“Sure. Jeneen’s not that bad a name.” Wow! I sound like a total dag.
“Thank you.”
“So, what happened? A bad crash? Did anyone else live? Did you come from New York?”
“Slow down. And the answers to all your questions are yes. The copter crashed and claimed 3 lives, 1 other person lived and this is the New York Parson Headwind. Now my turn where did you come from? Did you know we were out here? Did you know this was coming from New York? Are you able to survive alright here? Can you teach me and P.J. to live here? Do you know when the next copter is coming?” She was out of breath after those questions. So would I.
“Maybe you should slow down. The answers to all but the last one are yes. I came from the southern part of the island. I knew the Heli was here but I thought it landed, honest, or else I would have come earlier.”
“Well why didn’t you come earlier if you knew we were coming?”
“Well…Um…You see…”
“Stop hesitating and spit it out!” That tone changed from sweet and angelic to rude and pissed.
“Mom told me to wait and be patient or else I would have come earlier.”
“Well then, where is your mom?” I forgot about that question.
“Dead.” I said because I heard the sympathy in my voice. “She tried to save me, worried, then drowned.”
“Well how could she say something?” Her voice had no sight of sympathy at all.
“I don’t know I just heard her voice, okay!”
“Sorry but you don’t need to get snappy!”
“ Snappy? Snappy? I lost my mother at 11, I have no friends, and I have to survive alone. Now tell me why the hell do you think I’m so snappy?”
A ballad tone came from a papaya tree, “Can you keep it down, I’m sorta’ tryin’ to write a story here.”
“Sorry P.J. I’m just asking questions and this idiot is getting mad with me.”
“I’m not sure I asked what you were talking about. I was tryin’ to write a story so can y’all keep it down?”
“I already said sorry what else do you want?”
“To get off this island.” His voice was always calm, which sort of made me scared.
“Well excuse me but there is no way where leaving without another copter coming, so make yourself useful and be productive!”
“Okay, princess. What do you want me to do?”
“Go get some more bark!”
“Alright miss boss lady.” P.J. finally came down off the tree so I could see him better. He was my size, about 15, and looked almost like me. “What’s up.”
I looked around “Who, me?”
“Yeah you, who else? The name’s Potomac Jumuna Reed a.k.a. P.J.”
“Hmp. Weird name.”
“Yeah ‘cause you can talk, O-ho-sk.” I had that coming and I knew it.
“Ok, fine but it’s Ok-hot-sk.”
“Alrighty, Okhotsk, can you help me find some wood?”
“Sure.” Anything to get away from that she-devil.
╪
We went out after Jeneen gave us a lecture on what to do if something or anything happens. P.J. and I started down a trail when I thought of my mom and what she said about giving people too much knowledge, “Give a man too much knowledge and he knows your weakness, tell him nothing and he knows nothing.” So with that being said we talked mostly about P.J., and we have our similarities and differences from each other. His mom left him at the age of three, his dad is still alive, his mom named him by rivers instead of seas, we have the same last name, we’re the same age, and we look alike. P.J., after talking about him wanted to know about me.
“So, Okhotsk, what about you how old are you?”
“14 and born on the same day.”
“I know you’re lying,” P.J. sounded like I really was lying and I don’t blame him but I’m actually telling the truth, “‘cause I doubt you could live three years by yourself on this island.” His voice was still calm. How annoying!?!
“I’m not lying, honest!” My voice cracked.
“Really? How did you get the clothes?”
“My mom was a tailor. She taught me how to peel fiber from bark and weave them.” I felt a little violated when P.J. touched my wood made masterpiece.
“Well, you don’t lie do you?”
“My mom did say “Honesty is the best policy”.”
“Well, I got to get some wood—”
“Yeah, I heard.” I started to wonder. “Does Jeneen always boss you around like that?”
“Yeah, But she bosses EVERYBODY around. And I mean EVERYBODY.” He made this weird hand gesture while talking. “Hey! Where are we?” The tone in P.J.’s voice finally changed from a tone only he could pull off to an aware but scared tone. I didn’t know where we were either until I saw the old shack I marked on the map. I pulled it out and showed it to P.J. “Good but um… Which way to Jeneen?” That was a good question and I only had a rough idea on where she was.
“I have absolutely no idea and its getting dark.” It’s so weird how when you need to find something and sun drops on you.
“Isn’t it weird when ya’ need to find somethin’ and the sun just drops.” All I could do was give him a look and it got him because he shot that same dirty look I gave him. “Jeneen is probably gonna be pissed. I didn’t get the wood, I got lost in the tropical wilderness, and now I can’t see a damn thing. This bites.”
“Don’t worry at least we have shelter.” I hoped that the shack I saw was enough to be called shelter. “It’s just over there.” I pointed to it and he looked at me real funny. “Hey, at least it beats sitting under a bush.”
“Sure,” This kid is always looking at a downside so I knew what to expect, “what are we going to do about food?”
“Are you really asking that? It’s one night!”
“And? There are some people that get hungry real fast.”
“Adam? P.J.? Where are you two?”
“Its Jeneen!” P.J. sounded so surprised and happy, not that I wasn’t.
“P.J. is that you? Did you get the firewood? Where the heck are you? Is Adam with you?” There goes the questions again. “When were you planning on coming back? How far from camp are we? Can you see me? Are you two O.K.?”
P.J. decided to answer her, “Yeah we’re alright, I didn’t get any wood, though.”
“Hey P.J., is Adam with you or did he leave?”
“I’m right here!” I answered for P.J., “Now, what do you want?”
“No need to be rude! I was going to tell you to get back to camp, I have some bad news.”
P.J. wanted to know what the bad news was but he decided to wait until we all came back to camp. I didn’t want to know, I’m not the type of person that handles bad news well. So instead, asked a question, “So, do you know do you know which way camp is?” Of course I knew which way camp was, I was just testing Jeneen to see if women’s intuition is actually affective. Jeneen pointed the exact opposite way from camp, “I knew you didn’t know where we came from!”
“But, Okhotsk, you don’t know either.” P.J. couldn’t keep his mouth closed.
I was born where I live near, but not, in the ocean. I love the water and love being near it. When I was 11 I learned the technique in staying underwater “don’t worry” worrying, most of the time, is the base of your problems. Worrying is exactly how my mother died. I was in the water for 2 minutes and my mom got frantic and dived in to try and “save” me. She didn’t know I was on an outside island on the other side of the porter. When she couldn’t find me she worried, breathed in water, came on land and dry drowned. Too bad I didn’t know my “dear old dad”, and I don’t want to know him. I might as well not tell you his damned story because I hate him too much to. If he’s man enough to abandon us then he’s man enough to see he’s life crumble.
My mom choose my name and I don’t plan to get it changed, Okhotsk Andaman Reed. I wonder if she was thinking of the seas when she named me. My mom always told me to be as graceful as the Andaman Sea and as active as the Okhotsk. I still don’t know what that means but I ‘m sure it’s because I don’t how those seas look or feel. Maybe when I leave this I island I can visit them, if I leave this island. My mom told me no one else lives on this land but I can sense differently. It’s not fair that I couldn’t walk the rest of the archipelago with. Which brings me to another life lesson from mom. She would frequently tell me, when something didn’t go my way, “life isn’t fair so don’t try to make the world any better than what it is”. And she was definitely right.
Chapter 1
Fair Yet Bias
Today was supposed to be my mom’s birthday, January 14, but instead of a present for my mom, I got a gift from the military. They sent me a note from a plane stating that me and the other island inhabitants will have a chance to go to New York and stay in a hotel paid by the government.
The note said more but I couldn’t stop reading the first paragraph. The note said “other inhabitants” and it was dropped by a plane which means the plane must have surveyed the area which also means other people live here! I knew it! I wonder how people there 20? 50? 100? All I want is someone to talk to it gets to lonely here.
The very next I decided to walk around fully explore the island to see if I could find anyone. All of my attempts failed. I couldn’t spot a single human to save my life.”Don’t worry” I told myself. Then I thought of Mom “ration things out and be persistent.” So the next day I explored some more and the day after that and the day after that until I had another hint from Mom. “If a mental image doesn’t work then go physical.” The next few days I took a roll of Papyrus bark and drew the perimeter of the island taking 3 weeks doing so, and I learned to things from that. One, that there are no Islanders on the side of the islet and two, the island looks like an infinite sign.
I didn’t see anyone on the outside but my mom would perpetually say “Don’t judge a book by its cover. Read into it you might like the outcome” and with that being said I think she wants me to search inside. That alone took another wasted 6 weeks to do.
What I didn’t get is how does the military tell us to get ready to leave but not give us a date? It’s already been 10 weeks. How much time does it take to pick people (or a person) up that have nothing with them?
1 Month later a Heli finally came and landed somewhere on the north side of the island. I thought about looking for it but then I thought about what a city would be like. I hope my mom was exaggerating when she said the city was a place for pigs and slops, but, just in case, I’ll stay here and let them find me.
╪
It’s been 2 weeks since the Heli came and they still haven’t found me. I HAVE to go find out what happened! I’ve been looking for 2 days and I found a broken metal piece about 4 feet in length, a handle to something, and a green metal piece with the words on Head in red. I’ve seen Helies go to and fro and I’m sure these are pieces to the one that “landed”. I kept searching and I found the body of the heli that crashed and a few other bodies. I was scared out of mind but I kept my cool. But as scared as I was I saw one person was helping herself to a tuna. Finally my time to speak
“What you eating?” The girl screamed. I knew what she was eating but I had to talk and now I scared her. “Wait I didn’t-”
“Oh sorry I thought you a dead man.” The girl looked my age. “So who are you?” Shouldn’t I be asking that question?
“Okhotsk Andaman Reed. Who are you?” I guessed I sounded lost because she gave me a weird look.
“Jeneen Crawford and can I just call you Adam because that’s all I heard.”
“Sure. Jeneen’s not that bad a name.” Wow! I sound like a total dag.
“Thank you.”
“So, what happened? A bad crash? Did anyone else live? Did you come from New York?”
“Slow down. And the answers to all your questions are yes. The copter crashed and claimed 3 lives, 1 other person lived and this is the New York Parson Headwind. Now my turn where did you come from? Did you know we were out here? Did you know this was coming from New York? Are you able to survive alright here? Can you teach me and P.J. to live here? Do you know when the next copter is coming?” She was out of breath after those questions. So would I.
“Maybe you should slow down. The answers to all but the last one are yes. I came from the southern part of the island. I knew the Heli was here but I thought it landed, honest, or else I would have come earlier.”
“Well why didn’t you come earlier if you knew we were coming?”
“Well…Um…You see…”
“Stop hesitating and spit it out!” That tone changed from sweet and angelic to rude and pissed.
“Mom told me to wait and be patient or else I would have come earlier.”
“Well then, where is your mom?” I forgot about that question.
“Dead.” I said because I heard the sympathy in my voice. “She tried to save me, worried, then drowned.”
“Well how could she say something?” Her voice had no sight of sympathy at all.
“I don’t know I just heard her voice, okay!”
“Sorry but you don’t need to get snappy!”
“ Snappy? Snappy? I lost my mother at 11, I have no friends, and I have to survive alone. Now tell me why the hell do you think I’m so snappy?”
A ballad tone came from a papaya tree, “Can you keep it down, I’m sorta’ tryin’ to write a story here.”
“Sorry P.J. I’m just asking questions and this idiot is getting mad with me.”
“I’m not sure I asked what you were talking about. I was tryin’ to write a story so can y’all keep it down?”
“I already said sorry what else do you want?”
“To get off this island.” His voice was always calm, which sort of made me scared.
“Well excuse me but there is no way where leaving without another copter coming, so make yourself useful and be productive!”
“Okay, princess. What do you want me to do?”
“Go get some more bark!”
“Alright miss boss lady.” P.J. finally came down off the tree so I could see him better. He was my size, about 15, and looked almost like me. “What’s up.”
I looked around “Who, me?”
“Yeah you, who else? The name’s Potomac Jumuna Reed a.k.a. P.J.”
“Hmp. Weird name.”
“Yeah ‘cause you can talk, O-ho-sk.” I had that coming and I knew it.
“Ok, fine but it’s Ok-hot-sk.”
“Alrighty, Okhotsk, can you help me find some wood?”
“Sure.” Anything to get away from that she-devil.
╪
We went out after Jeneen gave us a lecture on what to do if something or anything happens. P.J. and I started down a trail when I thought of my mom and what she said about giving people too much knowledge, “Give a man too much knowledge and he knows your weakness, tell him nothing and he knows nothing.” So with that being said we talked mostly about P.J., and we have our similarities and differences from each other. His mom left him at the age of three, his dad is still alive, his mom named him by rivers instead of seas, we have the same last name, we’re the same age, and we look alike. P.J., after talking about him wanted to know about me.
“So, Okhotsk, what about you how old are you?”
“14 and born on the same day.”
“I know you’re lying,” P.J. sounded like I really was lying and I don’t blame him but I’m actually telling the truth, “‘cause I doubt you could live three years by yourself on this island.” His voice was still calm. How annoying!?!
“I’m not lying, honest!” My voice cracked.
“Really? How did you get the clothes?”
“My mom was a tailor. She taught me how to peel fiber from bark and weave them.” I felt a little violated when P.J. touched my wood made masterpiece.
“Well, you don’t lie do you?”
“My mom did say “Honesty is the best policy”.”
“Well, I got to get some wood—”
“Yeah, I heard.” I started to wonder. “Does Jeneen always boss you around like that?”
“Yeah, But she bosses EVERYBODY around. And I mean EVERYBODY.” He made this weird hand gesture while talking. “Hey! Where are we?” The tone in P.J.’s voice finally changed from a tone only he could pull off to an aware but scared tone. I didn’t know where we were either until I saw the old shack I marked on the map. I pulled it out and showed it to P.J. “Good but um… Which way to Jeneen?” That was a good question and I only had a rough idea on where she was.
“I have absolutely no idea and its getting dark.” It’s so weird how when you need to find something and sun drops on you.
“Isn’t it weird when ya’ need to find somethin’ and the sun just drops.” All I could do was give him a look and it got him because he shot that same dirty look I gave him. “Jeneen is probably gonna be pissed. I didn’t get the wood, I got lost in the tropical wilderness, and now I can’t see a damn thing. This bites.”
“Don’t worry at least we have shelter.” I hoped that the shack I saw was enough to be called shelter. “It’s just over there.” I pointed to it and he looked at me real funny. “Hey, at least it beats sitting under a bush.”
“Sure,” This kid is always looking at a downside so I knew what to expect, “what are we going to do about food?”
“Are you really asking that? It’s one night!”
“And? There are some people that get hungry real fast.”
“Adam? P.J.? Where are you two?”
“Its Jeneen!” P.J. sounded so surprised and happy, not that I wasn’t.
“P.J. is that you? Did you get the firewood? Where the heck are you? Is Adam with you?” There goes the questions again. “When were you planning on coming back? How far from camp are we? Can you see me? Are you two O.K.?”
P.J. decided to answer her, “Yeah we’re alright, I didn’t get any wood, though.”
“Hey P.J., is Adam with you or did he leave?”
“I’m right here!” I answered for P.J., “Now, what do you want?”
“No need to be rude! I was going to tell you to get back to camp, I have some bad news.”
P.J. wanted to know what the bad news was but he decided to wait until we all came back to camp. I didn’t want to know, I’m not the type of person that handles bad news well. So instead, asked a question, “So, do you know do you know which way camp is?” Of course I knew which way camp was, I was just testing Jeneen to see if women’s intuition is actually affective. Jeneen pointed the exact opposite way from camp, “I knew you didn’t know where we came from!”
“But, Okhotsk, you don’t know either.” P.J. couldn’t keep his mouth closed.
