Island Rush (6 page)

He frowned. “We will get out of here. It just might be awhile.”

“Can we last that long?”

He answered me sternly. “Of course, we can.”

He obviously didn’t want to face what happened yet.  He was right down to business, and it was not natural.  Where was the shock?  Where was the confusion and tears about this?  He avoided it, but to be fair, I couldn’t get past the point of shock either.

“Mr. Rush?” I sighed softly in defeat, staring at the clear water I was kneeling in. I needed more to block out the pressure as he soaked my back.

“Yeah?” he mumbled, focusing on my lower back.

“Are you scared?”

He paused in washing my cut out more with the water.  I waited for what seemed to be a little too long until he finally gave me an answer. “No. We’re going to be fine,” he spoke simply.  He sounded like the stone man I knew him to be.  His voice lightened, though.  “I actually predict we will be out of here in no time.  We’ll make an SOS sign in the sand.  They will be looking for us, and not to mention, we are probably in the flight path of other planes.”

It sounded like something I could trust, but his long pause didn’t convince me of anything.  It did push my hopes up to a better level I suppose.

“You sure you want to do that now? Make a sign in the sand?” I asked in a daze, gripping the fabric more to my chest.  “We are both hurt.”

“I’ll do it.  Don’t worry about it,” he said blankly, finishing up.  He whipped the damn fabric up to the dry sand as he stood.  “Just uh, relax for a minute.”

I was surprised by his idea and curious as to how he was going to make this work.  He sure showed determination, though.  I stood up slowly with a wince, watching him. 

Mr. Rush walked further out in the shallow water. It didn’t take long for him to find what he wanted in the water.  He started to carry back two big rocks at a time, each one taking the space of one of his arms. They were big enough to see from the sky, and that’s all I needed to know.

Watching him, and seeing his rough struggle with how hurt he was too, I knew I couldn’t just stand there.  I didn’t like being weak, and I should really toughen up. Plus, writing SOS with massive rocks across the length of the beach would be a hard, tiring, and long task by yourself.

Ignoring the pain that shot up my back, I continued covering my chest with the remnants of my shirt. Then I immediately dropped it, exposing myself in only a white bra. I guess it would help build up my courage.  The real reason though I did it was because we were going to be here for a while together.  We had to be comfortable around each other. I had no other clothes so I couldn’t walk around holding a ripped up shirt to me day and night.

I walked through the shore and towards where Mr. Rush was, his back to me as he continued looking for decent sized rocks. Being conscious of my body helped with forgetting my pain.  It also helped trying to appear as calm and determined as I could when he would see me. I felt my arms ache with the need to cover myself, but I didn’t.  My eyes searched him, his smooth and strong back making my cheeks heat.  Then, a moment later, I met his eyes when he turned towards where I slowly walked.

I took unexpected satisfaction that his eyes nearly popped out at me. He flushed and looked down instantly.  “What are you doing?”

“Helping you. I am not weak, and I should get used to this,” I said, not even wanting to think about the subject of our conversation.  I didn’t deserve to think about it.  This was pathetic compared to those whose last moments were spent crashing into the ocean. 

His eyes meet mine, and he said, “You are going to hurt yourself, lifting huge rocks and carrying them.”

“Are you saying I’m not capable?”

“No, that isn’t—”

“Good then,” I cut him off with a sigh.  I just didn’t want him doing all this work when he was hurt too.  And apparently distracted.  His eyes couldn’t help it as they looked down my body. “Staring again I see,” I smirked.

Those eyes of his snapped up.  He spoke in an annoyed voice. “It is not my fault you’re not wearing a shirt.”

Trying to decipher his words, I came to the conclusion it was a compliment.  “It is actually. You could have just lifted my shirt over my head to look at the cut. But no, you ripped it off. I didn’t think we were at that stage,” I joked.

He sighed. “Well, sorry that seeing you hurt and bleeding that badly made me a little panicked.” He shook his head and said, “Fine, you can help. I’m still on the first S.  If you are in a lot of pain, though, tell me.”

I nodded and looked up at the beach from where we stood in the water, seeing the S. It was huge and started at the top of the beach and looked like it would continue until it was close to the water.

Mr. Rush got back to work, finding one or two big rocks in the water at a time and filling his arms with its size. I don’t know how he did it or how I could.  I felt the pain just walking down the beach. This would be hell.  

I bent down to grab a big rock I saw and nearly fell. It hurt badly, but I sucked it up and lifted it. Mr. Rush was eyeing my progress and my face.   Probably to see whether I was showing pain or not.              

I have no clue how I managed to do it without collapsing, but I did.  I blocked all my pain out by the time we were done with the first giant S.

We continued for a while, and when we were on the last S, I stopped paying attention and set myself on autopilot as I started thinking.
This could actually be a good thing. I wasn’t home, wasn’t with my dad and working as his little slave. I didn’t need to worry about money or ever seeing him or my brother again. I could be free. But Mr. Rush actually had a life worth returning to, I’m sure.

I was distracted, not really seeing my work in front of me. That’s why my thoughts abruptly changed. I didn’t realize it until my hands came up with another rock from the water.  But it wasn’t a rock.  A rock typically doesn’t have 100 plus pounds attached to it.

In my hands… there was a head with wet blonde hair wrapped in my fingers.  It was attached to a body still under the water.  I felt ready to jump out of my skin.

I shrieked and jumped back, dropping the head and body back in the water as I backed away as fast as I could.  Physical pain didn’t exist, just mental and emotional.  I never took my eyes off the body floating there. I ended up falling on my ass in the water, propping myself up with my elbows in the sand. Half my body was under, but as long as my eyes were above, they were not leaving the dead body.

I couldn’t even attend to the water splashing behind me in fury. Mr. Rush came into my view in a flash, dropping in front of me in the water.  He forced his grip on me, taking me and making me turn around and away from it.

We sat in the water, him holding me to hide it from view.  All I could do was breathe hard. The memory flashed by in my head again of finding my mom dead.  This reminded me so well of that.

Mr. Rush seemed to notice my quick silence.  “Are you okay?”

I chuckled. “That is all you ever say to me.”

I knew me laughing at this moment was a red flag.  He rose with me, keeping my eyes and self ahead in the other direction.  He did so by holding my face in his hands.  He needed me to look at him while he was also keeping me from looking behind me at the body. “How is this funny to you?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said.  “It makes me not think if I brush it away.”

“What?  That…” He couldn’t finish as he stared at me, trailing off.  Finally, he whispered, “This happened before, didn’t it?  Or something like it?”

I looked down from his pretty, pained eyes and only nodded. He was good at figuring me out, but he didn’t push. Just stared at me and my face between his palms. He shook his head and looked down.  Then he let go, only to slowly make his way back to the body.

The guy was shaking as I walked with him. My mind was numbing at this point.  Seeing the body… it hurt, but I was in a state that couldn’t process that hurt.  I had no idea what kind of shape his mind was in right now.  He never had anything like this happen to him.  I could see it from the reaction he gave when we stopped over the body. 

“Who is it?” he asked in a light whisper.

“The flight attendant. She wasn’t strapped in,” I remembered.

Her face was down and even if it weren't, it still would have been hard to recognize her.  Her face, body, and everything… it was awful and distorted. Her skin was white as snow, and her clothes were torn.  Yet I recognized her somehow.  I hated myself for not even flinching as my gaze rested on the body.

Mr. Rush spoke in a voice, not of a perfect man.  More like one of a scared little boy. “We should move her. She at least deserves that, don’t you think?”

I nodded, and when Mr. Rush didn’t proceed in getting her back to shore, I gulped, averted my eyes, and walked to where her arms were floating. I grabbed them, dragging her body through the water towards the shore. He realized what I was doing and looked sick, but he wouldn’t let me do that by myself. 

He grabbed her ankles when we reached the shore.  My back protested violently, the salt water burning despite the fact that it helped. I ignored the pain until we laid her on the beach.

We stood and looked down at her. “I hate to just leave her here,” I said.

“I know. But we need to leave after we finish with the rocks.  Otherwise, we could end up like her.  We need to find fresh water and shelter.”

I nodded, knowing that was the truth. Before we could proceed on in what he suggested, something caught my eye.  Something peaked out from her uniform’s pocket. I knelt next to the body and reached over her, grabbing the paper from her pocket. It was a photo of a little boy. I flipped it over, and it said, ‘Tommy at 6 years.’ He wore a huge grin as he sat on what I assumed to be his father’s lap. The dad looked just as happy, his arms wrapped around his son.

It was enough to assume that this boy in the picture was her son. I felt a tear shed from my eye as I realized he would never see his mother again. Even though I saw my mother dead, I could at least visit her at the cemetery. This boy would have no answer as to what happened to his mom or her remains. And that would go for everyone else that died on that plane.  Their families would have no answers either if we are not found.

Mr. Rush noticed I was close to breaking.  I swallowed it back, but he still saw what this did to me. I tucked the picture back into her pocket and stood along with him.

I stared down at the poor woman.  “Let’s get back to work then we can go,” I said as I turned and walked swiftly back to the ocean where I continued to collect the big rocks and hauled them up the beach. Mr. Rush said nothing as he came back and helped me until the last S was finished. We stood back and looked at it. It would be our hope.

I reluctantly looked back at the body, though.
We weren’t leaving her like that
. I strode towards the trees and brush with purpose.  I made up my mind.  We weren’t done here on the beach yet.

“Janice?”

I stopped in front of some weird looking bushes that had huge leaves, leaves that were maybe three or four feet long.  Mr. Rush stopped beside me, and I explained, “I am not leaving her like that.”

“We have to. We need to find fresh water and shelter.”

“We owe it to that boy!”  That boy would go through hell.  If we ever made it out of this place, I would find him.  Find that boy and his father and assure them that she was safe now on this island. That we took care of her body.

He reluctantly nodded and knew what to do when he looked up at the huge leaves. He grabbed one of the leaves and peeled it back until it was no longer a part of the bush.

We ended up making a pile of leaves.  Along with that, I headed towards the tall grass where I pulled the long blades out and returned. We rolled each of the leaves up and used the thick, strong grass to tie it together (which shockingly did work). When half of the mat was done, he carried the rest down to the beach.

We set the body on the mat of bound leaves. Mr. Rush focused with all he had to not look at the body as we continued to work around it, binding more leaves to the ones she was lying on.  We kept adding to it, until it wrapped up and all around her.

Her entire body was wrapped in the blanket of leaves. She was no longer visible.  We ended up carefully picking her up and the foliage surrounding her, laying her under a palm tree where the wooded area started to crowd together.

I knelt next to the body that was bound in the center of the leaves. Mr. Rush stood behind me as I stared at the leaves. I sat there for a while until he said, “We need to get going.”

I nodded.  Then I leaned forward without even thinking and kissed her green coffin; I couldn’t seem to lift my head. I rested my face on the side of it.

I finally was able to move away and stand. Mr. Rush stared at me without an expression. Nothing.  I didn’t look back at the body as we made our way back up the beach.

“Wait,” he said from behind me.

I turned around and saw his eyes focused in the shallow water. I followed his gaze and sighted a bag. A suitcase. We headed for it, and Mr. Rush fished it out, setting it in the sand.

“No way,” I said as we knelt beside it in the sand.  “This is just luck,” I breathed.  I mean, what are the chances that a suitcase would just float up to shore?  Either way, it would be incredibly useful.