Alone - Part 4

Good Morning Faithful Friday Fiction Fans,
The windows have been open every morning now for over a week! We have had to shut the house up later, but at least we get to open it for a while. There is rain the forecast for this weekend. We need it so badly! Everything is brown and dry. It looks like fall outside because so many trees have dropped their leaves.

Wow, this has been a busy week! It didn't start out busy last Friday, but picked up the pace later.
Let me see, on Friday morning Dad and I somehow managed to get an nonworking treadmill down our rather narrow stairs and out of the house. That was hard. It was so heavy and just barely fit. I was at the top trying to keep it from falling on Dad as we pushed, shoved and pulled it one hard step at a time. Mom was at the bottom and S was at the top each telling us to be careful. I would have been glad for a guy right then to help. :) My hands were shaking for quite a while afterwards.
I spend nearly all of Saturday morning working outside. It was quite pleasant and it wasn't until later in the morning that it grew rather warm.
We got to relax on Sunday.
Monday afternoon we had friends over for Library. I love sharing books with others. There are so many that are good but hard to find. Speaking of books, I just finished reading my 76th new book this year. I've reread several but don't count those. How many have you read? (And don't count the little kids books you read to siblings, friends or nieces or nephews.)
Tuesday afternoon another family from church came over. The two oldest girls, Su and LiddyBid, and I practiced our violin special for church while the moms talked about school. That evening Dad and I had two political meetings to attend. Thankfully they didn't last long. One was about 5 minutes. :)
Wednesday came and brought another political meeting in the evening that my brother and his wife had to attend. So we got Funny Boy and Doodle Bug. :) That was fun! We haven't had just the two little boys before.
Yesterday no one came over. There were no meetings. But I did get my proof copy of "Pirates of Rocky Crag Bay and Other Stories"!!! One of my best friends is going to read it and see if she finds any mistakes before I make it available for sale.

Update on my writing. I have been writing. Fri. about 700 words, Sat. about 800, Sun. - 800, Mon. - 900, Tues. - 200, Wed. - 600 and last night - 800. All on a longer short story for my next short story book. Sorry, it wasn't TCR or even Dr. Morgan. I was just in a mood and started writing and the words fairly flew! I have even been able to write some of it in the mornings! It is a lot longer than I first thought it would be because things I didn't know about kept popping up. Once I get to the end, I know I'll have to go back and add a few other things, change some things here and there and make sure it all sounds good since I'm writing so quickly right now. :)

I'm not sure if anyone still likes this story. Perhaps my readers are busy like me and don't have time to comment. Perhaps they are waiting until the end to find out what on earth is going on. If so, I hope to get many comments next week because that will be the last of the story about poor Tyrone and his banana guns. :)

Alone - Part 4

    I set my coconuts and shells on the ground and unbuttoned half my shirt. The bottom half I then brought up and buttoned to the top buttons. This left a pocket like place where I was able to carry my nuts with ease. An ingenious idea if I do say so myself.
    In this way I was able to climb the cliffs. The rocks were quite hot at the top for the sun had been shining full upon them and now, even though it was setting on the other side of the land, they hadn’t cooled off. I sat down and put my socks on, for my shoes were still not dry. They weren’t the kind of shoe that was made for walking in the water and didn’t dry easily.
    As I set off again, I wondered how far I had walked. Perhaps I should have walked the other way. But then again, maybe I was closer to civilization than I thought. Did those footprints back there mean civilization and comfort or did they mean danger and trouble? “The answer to that remains to be seen,” I told myself as I sat down to take off my socks once more, for I had reached the sand again.
    This sand was moist as though the waves had recently been lapping upon them. Since I had a longing to reach some sort of shelter before night set in, I set off at a faster pace than before, having removed my hat from my head being careful of the thorns. The sea to my right was darker and the breeze coming off of it was cooler.
    Catching my breath in sharply, I stopped short and stared. There were more footprints! These too were along the tree line and came down to disappear on the beach. Then I noticed what I hadn’t noticed before. That there were footprints leading to the trees coming from the middle of the beach. This was strange. No footprint could be made without a foot to make them. I knew that to be true, but could not account for the tracks starting and stopping so strangely.
    “Could they have backtracked so perfectly that no other marks are left?” Ty questioned in a whisper.
    “I don’t think so,” Rone whispered back.
    “Maybe we should go closer to the trees and see if there are signs of anyone entering them,” this was Ty’s suggestion and Rone agreed.
    Without thinking, I pulled a banana from my pocket holding it like a pistol and crept closer, eyes darting here and there, looking, searching, watching for any movement in the leafy foliage which might mean a person. There was nothing. I crept closer. Ah, there were some leaves cut from that tree!
    Wait a minute! I frowned and looked again. Yep, that was the same kind of tree I had taken the leaves for my hat from. I looked at the footprints and put my foot in one. It was a perfect match.
    “Oh brother!” I exclaimed aloud. “Here I am trying to sneak up on myself armed with a banana gun and a few coconuts to throw. Aren’t I brave?” I shoved the banana back into my pocket in disgust then I drew it out, opened it and began to eat. All this excitement of strange footprints had made me hungry.
    “It was the high tide, Rone,” Ty chuckled with his mouth full of banana.
    “I guess that means I’ve been around the entire place and it’s an island. Hey, those other footprints were probably mine from when I got these bananas! Aren’t I dumb.” That was not really a rhetorical question and Ty and Rone had the decency not to agree with me. I was rather glad no one else was around right then.
    Sitting down, I ate my remaining banana and being still hungry, opened one of my coconuts and feasted on the creamy milk and delicious white meat inside. Since I had been around the entire island, and it wasn’t very large, I tried to decide where I should sleep. I wasn’t sure just how high the highest tide would be and had no desire to awaken in water.
    Water. That set my thoughts in a new direction. I had not seen any stream coming out to meet the ocean. If there was no stream, didn’t that mean there was no spring of water, and if no spring, then there really was no water on the island. If there was no water, how was I to get a drink? The very idea made me suddenly quite thirsty.
    “Ty, what are we to drink?”
    “Coconut milk.”
    I guessed that would have to do. How long can a person live on coconuts and bananas anyway, with only coconut milk to drink? I figured I’d find, out so with great determination I turned my thoughts to the easier problem.
    Where would I sleep? Since I wasn’t sure about the high tides, I finally decide that the top of the cliffs would have to do for tonight.

    I made myself a little place to sleep by cutting down some softer branches. Of course it wasn’t like a real mattress, but it would do, as long as I didn’t walk in my sleep. The sun was rapidly sinking and I rolled down my pant legs and stretched out on my makeshift bed. The stars became very bright as the sky grew darker. If I only knew anything about the constellations I might have been able to get an idea of where I was, but alas, I didn’t, so I closed my eyes.

    When I next opened them the sun was beginning to rise. Never have I seen anything quite like that sunrise; at least I don’t think I have. I think I would have remembered it. But now that I’ve considered it again, perhaps I wouldn’t have, for I couldn’t even recall my own name.
    I sure was stiff, for my bed wasn’t the softest, though I was so tired that I hadn’t noticed it. I was also hungry.

What would you have done

if you had seen footprints that started and stopped

in the middle of an empty beach?