As I lay there on the sand, resting, I think that I must have actually slept. I don't really remember anything until I felt water on my feet. That shocked me! I was sick of water! At that moment, I didn't care if I never swam again, or even sat in a bathtub for that matter. I scrambled further up the sand and decided that I had probably better stand up and start walking around. I did, and also began to look at what was around me. Behind me was a gigantic rock in the water that came up to a point. My brain was working enough to tell me that the tide was coming in and that was why the rock seemed to be separate from the land I was on at the moment. But wait, if the tide was coming in, I needed to move...somewhere. Where? There was a lot of sandy beach around me, and then a little rise that seemed to run the length of the beach. That seemed like a safer bet at the moment, and easy enough for me to manage in my tired state, so I headed there.
There was a lot of grass along the base of the little hill, and there were trees on the hill itself. I remember thinking that shade would be nice, because it was really sunny, hot and really, really humid. Oh, great; now I remembered how thirsty I was. Man. Where was my mom when I really needed her?
Even though I really just wanted to sit and cry for a while, something in me said that I had to get busy. I knew that I needed to eat, I needed shelter, and boy! did I need water!
I shaded my eyes and looked toward the rest of the island that I was on. I tried to remember as much as I could from my Survival class at school about how landforms can mean different things...did a plateau mean that there could be a lake up there? Maybe a river or creek or something? I saw that the hill that I was standing on when close to the edge of the water, and hoped that maybe there would be a stream there, or something. I tried to listen for the sound of water, but with the ocean around me, that was kind of all I could hear anyway.
I didn't have far to walk before I could tell that there was some kind of fresh water close by. It might sound weird, but it was almost like I could smell it. I kept moving and there was a small stream, flowing downhill and into the ocean through a channel in the sand. I ran to it and just put my face into that beautiful, cold water. I remembered my mom not letting our dogs drink too much when they were really hot, something about them getting sick, so I made myself stop. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes I threw up. EW! But I rested there, under the shade of a little tree( almost a big bush, really), and then drank a little to see if it would stay down. It did.
While I was resting and waiting, I looked closely at the stream. There were rocks and grass, and visible through the really clear water were little fish! I heard a noise and saw a frog on the back, watching me through little black eyes. It made me feel less alone to see other living things.
After I felt better, I looked around more at where I was. I didn't know what time it was, but it seemed like it would be dark soon. That seemed scary to me, so I wanted to find a place to sleep where I would feel safe...well, safer, at any rate.
There really was a lot to be said for where I was, as far as staying in a good place. There was water, it was close enough to the beach so that I could hopefully be visible while waving at the rescue plane that was going to come for me. It was! I couldn't think that it wouldn't. It had to make sense. They'd miss me soon, if not already, and have to go back to where they had last seen me - right? Of course they would! They, at least, should have a better idea of where I was. All I knew was that I was on an island in the ocean, somewhere around Singapore.
Anyway, I also had the bushy trees to huddle under, and I thought that maybe some of the grasses might make a kind of mat to lie on top of. For the first time, I thought about my clothes. Luckily I hadn't just worn a bathing suit out snorkeling, but a had worn a wetsuit over my leggings, socks and shirt. Whew! I also had a small pack that I had strapped around me with little bits of stuff in it. That meant I had underwear also! I don't know why that made me feel better, but it sure did.
I walked just down the small hill to get some of the grass on the beach and found that it didn't pull out of the ground very easily. Hmmm. This could be a problem, I remember thinking. I just didn't know if there was anything that would help from my pack, but I saw some shells lying on the beach and then I had an idea! I wondered if I could hack at the grasses with the shells and cut them down, since pulling them out wasn't going to work. I gave it a try, and even though it was hard, and took a long time, it did work. I carried the arm full of grass back to my "spot" and spread it out on the ground. I rolled up my wetsuit for a pillow and figured that would be good enough. It'd only be for one night, anyway, I was sure of that.
I was awfully hungry, but after some more water and shifting around, it was getting dark. I was really more tired than anything else. Time enough to find food in the morning, I thought. The dark just seemed to close in on me then. It was full of strange noises and smells. I think that there were bugs crawling over me, but then I spotted some little geckos darting around on the branches over my head. I love geckos, and I knew that there were a lot of them in the Singapore area, so I wasn't scared of them. Besides, I figured, they would eat the bugs around me. At least it was warm out.
I wished that I was home, with my cozy bed and my teddy bear. The stars were awfully pretty; it was a really clear night. I cried a little more, and then I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
