ahomeofgarnetandsun

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 15 (The End)

What happened after that? Well, the two lived in the cave for several years. They did learn how to make leather and store food and all that. There was plenty of trial and error. There were also two children, Daniel and Abigail.

One week the boys had gone down to fish. They set up camp on the shore and a station to dry the fish for storage. They had hauled a good amount of brush out of the way, and intended to use it for insulating the outhouse up at the top. It had been rather uncomfortable the prior winter.

Anyway, Daniel started yelling for apparently no reason. He had no fish on his line, and Carlos couldn’t see anything wrong with him. But he kept screaming, then started pointing and yelling about a monster.

“Good God, that’s a ship. That’s not a monster, that’s a ship!”

The brush was on the fire in ten seconds flat. Carlos fanned it, then ran down to the beach yelling and jumping.

On board, Rebeka turned to Luke and said, “Look, a fire.”

Luke was moderately more excited. “Matt! Matt, you have to turn the ship. There’s a fire.”

Matt rushed over to see that was going on. “Good golly, look at that.”

“I’ll look, you steer!”

Esther came on deck to see what all the fuss was about. “There’s a man, too! Do you think he’s trying to signal us?”

“Es, you are beautiful, but you are so blonde. Yes, yes he is. Beks, come help me get this thing in a bit.” They jumped off the railing to guide Matt in an close as they could get. Weighing anchor the four piled into the little boat and lowered themselves into the sea.

Four days later, with doubled passengers and all the provisions Carlos and Elsie had gathered, the crew set out once again for America.

“Where did you learn to sail?” Carlos asked Matt as he joined him at dinner one night. “From the dragons.”

Carlos then began to wonder if they were in the company of crazy people, but he had little choice. This was not the type of craft he was used to, and they knew what they were doing. But he kept his kids close.

And they did make it back to America. After a mess of legal stuff everyone got home and published books about their adventures. Later, after the kids were grown, the nation descended into anarchy and survivors fled to the hills and lakes and wherever they could. The Elsie realized that what God had said about using her to help others had more to do with the practical lives of many bewildered refugees and less about all the book signings and TV deals. Sometimes she wondered what happened to those four kids, but still thought they were probably crazy.

Until the day she died, Elsie wore a piece of her cave about her neck to remind her all the Holy Spirit had taught her that day on the island. She had truly begun the sanctification process that day. It didn’t make her life perfect. Indeed, she often wished she could just tell a quick lie and move on. But she had joy, and joy was just a portable version of the beauty that was her home of garnet and sun.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 14

God still appears in dreams. Did you know that? Elsie didn’t, but as she slept she wandered about the universe until she met Him. “What are you doing to us?” she asked. “Why  do we deserve this?”

God sighed, and smiled. “My child, it is not for you to know what my plan is. It is enough for you to know I have one. I will use what you are going through today to help many in the future. And I will give you a sign, that you may know I am the God of all Creation, the beginning and the end, the supplier of all that is good and the keeper of all mankind. You will have a home here. It will be a home of garnet and sun.”

Elsie woke befuddled, to say the least. There was barely enough light to see, but up she got and wandered about. She believed that she was to find that home immediately. She believed she had to go east. It made no sense. None of this made sense. But when all else fails, maybe faith is worth a go. She went east until she found a sliver removed from the side of the hill. It was full of roots and was damp. There were also three massive spiders and countless creepy-crawlies. Everything in her mind told her a big, fat NOPE. Her soul told her to keep going. “Why are you so loud today, soul? Why couldn’t you be louder before?”

But she remembered when her soul told her that Carlos had misunderstood the directions she had given when he was helping her tie a snare, but instead of listening and re-explaining she blamed the whole mistake on him and told him that if it weren’t for his clumsiness they would have had three rabbits by now and possibly even something larger and if he was hungry it was his fault… She regretted those words now.

And she remembered her soul giving her comfort when Carlos had been unconscious but she had pushed it away and tried to work on her own power over and over.

And when she knew, she knew it would be stupid to go out with her brother’s friend a week before the wedding. But she hadn’t gotten pregnant, so no harm done, right? She should probably tell Carlos…

And there was that time in high school she had flipped off her parents thinking it would make one of the seniors like her. Or when she tricked her youngest sister into doing her chores by promising a ride on a pony but it “ran away”. Or all the horrific stories she’d make up to scare her other brother when they were small but if he told their parents they would come true, so he better not say anything.

The she remembered the broken, fear-driven relationship with that brother that she had now not seen in years. She remembered making her sister cry and all the lies she continued to tell her until there was no more trust, and the years it had taken to build up any relationship there again. She remembered her grounding and social disappointment and stern talks and pain. She remembered, and she wept.

But now her soul, her conscience, the Holy Spirit, was prompting her to walk through this physical realm representing her very heart, she was sure. And she had to make a choice. On the other side was truth. Could she face it? She looked back at the sun just in time to see a bird perch on a towering dead tree, causing it to resemble a broken cross. Forgiveness. Forgiveness was what could keep her going. She faced her reality again, and began to fight through. “God, I am a liar. I have lied to so many. Please, forgive me, and help me ask forgiveness from them.” She pushed through the roots and spiders. One bit her arm, but she kept going. “I have cheated. I have dishonored.” More roots. A sudden drop. “I have accused and blamed and refused to take accountability for my actions.” The floor got wet and a bat flew up and something else crawled over her foot. She was scared and alone and miserable but hearing her voice condemning her for all her sins, and hearing them echo back as a confirmation that such things had happened, was torture. But the echoes died away. The walls turned. It was black as anything, and she went along slowly and carefully and willingly. She believed there would be light at the end.

After several minutes that felt like eons, Elsie saw light reflecting off the wall ahead. She hastened her steps. Reaching the lightened place, she saw a natural stairway leading up to a brighter spot. Letting her eyes adjust, she thanked God, truly thanked Him, for His provision and for the light and life and air and for what she knew would be a gift on the other side. She laughed at herself, thanking God for something she didn’t even have yet, but sometimes prayer precedes the miracle.

The stairs led her to an open cavern, with little indents and other passageways leading off. They looked like an awful lot of fun. But what truly drew her breath away was the sparkling ceiling. It looked like someone had taken red sequins and spread them out everywhere. She had come about to face the southeast and the sunlight was now pouring in.

Carlos appeared in the entrance. “There you are! I was so worried!” He had tears running down his ruddy face, and he ran to embrace her. “I love you so much. I never want to lose you.”

“That’s what God said,” she whispered. “Basically.”

Elsie May took a deep breath and looked about again. “We are going to be ok. Look at what God has given us.” She pointed to the gemstone deposits scattered about, reflecting the glory of the daylight. “It is a home of garnet and sun.”

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 13

Early in the morning, climbing with the sun, the couple made their way up into the interior of the island. By noon they had blazed through most of the forest and had entered a rockier region.

“Do we turn back or do we keep going?”

Elsie looked around. “Up ahead looks promising. If we can make it to the top we can at least see if we are on an island or a peninsula.” She peered into the trees behind her, wondering if there were any hungry beasts searching for human snacks, then up to the high hill (it really wasn’t as high as the mountains back in Colorado) and the answers it could hold. “Let’s keep going.”

“We won’t make it back tonight, then.” Carlos also desired to continue, but wanted to make sure the risks were understood. Elsie gestured forward, and on they went.

It was an island.

No attached land, only a few scattered tiny islands like the one they had first landed upon. This was the closest thing to a mainland in sight. Elsie almost cried. She had hoped so much that there would be a better answer. But the sun was going down and they needed to make a camp for the night.

Rolling a few boulders to make a shelter from the wind, they lay down together to sleep. “I know it’s almost impossible to see sometimes how anything can be a blessing,” Carlos’ voice hummed in her ear, “but God still has us in His hands.”

Elsie rolled away to better face her man. “I waited down there for months because I was scared of what I was going to find. I had to pretend I was in a story to cope. But there was still that tiny hope in all the fear that I had that we could get out of here alive. But no. We are going to die here. You hear me? We are going to die. Here. Just us. Nobody will ever know. We won’t have a family. We won’t have a house. We won’t have a car or a driveway or a neighbor or a cat or insurance or a mortgage or any of the other things that we’d hoped. Why not just end it now?” and she burst into tears.

“Whoa. Whoa, no, Elsie, hey, no, no, you’re going to be ok, Elsie, Elsie, come here…” He held his sobbing wife and asked for the wisdom to know what to say. He couldn’t think of anything brilliant, so he waited until she ran out of tears. He kissed her and rubbed her face with his hand until it was dry. “I can’t solve all your problems. But I will be here for you for however long we are here. We will be ok so long as God is what we are chasing.”

“That sounds stupid.”

“But that doesn’t make it untrue.”

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 12

They spent a few months there on the shore. Using their collective brainpower the couple managed to make some rudimentary tools, including stone-tipped spears and a fishing line. One blustery afternoon Carlos brought up the idea of moving camp.

“Why? We have a good thing going here,” Elsie protested. She had just finished successfully setting up a snare for the local small-and-furries and had a rabbit by the ears. “Do you think this is native or came on a prior ship crash or something like that?”

“Shipwreck, not ship crash. And because the mornings are getting cooler and the wind is changing direction and I think a storming season is coming. We need a better place to stay.”

“Maybe I want to be miserable.” Elsie turned her attention back to the rabbit.

Once dinner was roasting over the fire, she turned back to her husband. “Where would we go? How far are we going to have to move from here to continue to have enough resources? Are we to go further up? What about the killer mosquitoes?”

“Let’s explore tomorrow. Take the day to travel fast and light and cover as much ground as we can. We should get farther than last time because we are more used to things now.”

“Look at you, being smart again. Ok. Do you have an ideal target?”

“A cave would be nice, a relatively shallow one, because then we would have three sides covered already and it would be a place we could store supplies. Now that you can trap things that should speed up our progress a little.”

They continued to discuss plans and logistics and all that other nerdy stuff as they ate the delightfully non-vegetable-like rabbit. That night, as if to further convince them their plan was immediately necessary, a cool wind blew about and brought some rain along for company.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, part 11

The view from the little hut was pretty good. The sunsets were glorious. Watching them almost made Elsie think they were back home on the coast of Florida. But alas, they were lost at sea. She sighed.

So did Carlos. “Missing home?” she asked gently, rubbing his back.

“I want tacos.” He laughed. “So yeah, I guess.” He looked around. “This crazy is almost normal to me now, I think. Like, I can think. I mean, I can plan around what’s going on. I think we just finished our big project that is going to make the rest of the projects easier. Like the first shelter you build in Minecraft.”

“Ok. So what’s next? A crafting table? A stone pickaxe? Maybe gathering some cows?” Elsie didn’t know much else about the game, but teasing was relaxing. Besides, they had managed to catch a fish, and that was sortof a celebratory meal, so now they could keep celebrating by relaxing for the evening in the relative safety of the hut walls. “Pigs would be better. Bacon.”

“I don’t think you can actually eat bacon in Minecraft.”

“I don’t think there are actually pigs on this island.”

“Fair point.”

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A home of garnet and sun, part 10

Back on the shore Carlos suggested the two make camp there, more or less. Build a shelter and stock supplies and maybe make some weapons before venturing on. “We are here for the foreseeable future,” he argued, “and if we are found I intend to be found alive.”

Crafting a shelter was more complicated than it seemed to be in books. Gravity was so annoying. But, after several days, and many splinters, they had managed to erect a little way into the forest a ring of poles sunk into the earth with branches woven in as the basic shelter, and a woven panel of a roof on one side. They dug a pit and cleared a wide area to make a fire. It would be visible from sea, and to any aircraft that may happen by. On one side they stacked and covered a large amount of wood to be used only in the case of a possible rescue. The other side held wood used for cooking and whatnot. The main source of food was still roots and berries and fish at this point, but they had branched out and found several edible plants. There were even two whose leaves could also be consumed. “Isn’t it kinda weird,” Elsie asked one day, “that so many plants have edible roots and toxic leaves?” At least, that’s what she was trying to ask, but her tongue was swollen from trying one of the plants.

“I don’t know exactly what you just said, but maybe you should do what I do and rub the juice on your arm before you ingest it.”

“Pfft. Whatever.” But she did.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 9

The wolf howled. Carlos and Elsie were sitting straighter than ramrods in 0.2 seconds.

Practically jumping up the tree, shaking all the way, Elsie gasped for thought as she gasped for air. Finally her brain kicked back into gear and she stopped climbing. Carlos froze beneath her and hugged the trunk as if it was his mother come to get him after the first day of kindergarten. Elsie strained her eyes trying to see anything other than her husband’s tan face in the night, but it was too dark. There was no threat visible, nor audible, but that canine wail was anything but out of her system.

When his heart rate had returned to normal, Carlos reached up gently to take Elsie’s hand. They sat like that for a few minutes more, waiting for another sound. Still nothing. “Are you ok?” It was the only thing he could think to ask.

“I’m alive. I have you. That’s the best I’ve got at the moment. How about you?”

“Still breathing.” “Good work. Keep it up.” Elsie was trying to think of anything that could possibly grant safety. The wolf couldn’t climb the tree. That was all she could see. The darkness was her enemy, the wilderness her antagonist, the wolf her doom. “My head is too tired to think.”

Carlos climbed up to straddle the branch with her. He pulled her close to him, careful to not upset the balance. “I love you.”

“Thanks. I love you too.” “You don’t have to solve every problem.”

“But I want to.”

Carlos stroked her blonde hair, twisting it through his fingers and letting what little moonlight made it through the foliage cause it to gleam like the precious substance it was. “I love that you want to. I wish I could fix this for you. But I can’t. I can hold you here until morning, and we can go back to the shore together, but that is all I have to offer you at this time.”

“How are you so calm?” She turned her head slightly to kiss his fingers, then marvel at how at peace he seemed to be with this whole our-honeymoon-is-literally-a-shipwreck situation.

“Jesus.”

A snort escaped her freckled nose. “Jesus has nothing to do with this.”

“Jesus has everything to do with everything.”

Elsie, obviously, was struggling to believe that at this time.

“There is no way I would be this calm or whatever naturally. All I can remember is how messed up I was before Jesus and it felt like this, like I was stranded and alone and there were mysterious creatures everywhere that wanted to eat me but I couldn’t see them and I didn’t know why but I knew they were there, and - well, he got me through that.” “So?” Elsie waited. Naturally, she thought, he’s too smart to reply to instant sarcasm. “What bother telling me this?”

“Because talking will keep us awake and not falling out of the tree. Also, maybe you can have faith.”

For Carlos’ sake Elsie only laughed inside her head.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 8

They decided to follow the river up for one day and see if it showed them anything. This place was already much better than the last. The blackberry-like bushes were everywhere, and there were a few more plants they discovered as they walked. Eating and naming all the new plants was a pleasant way to distract from the uncertainty staring them in the face.

“Do you still have one of those redderroots?” Carlos asked his bride.

“I do, two more.” Elsie tossed them over the stream. She was walking in the water, watching for fish. Vegetables were great, but she wanted meat and fat and basically something other than vegetables and berries and flowers. “Have you seen any more of the tiny violets? Those were pretty good.”

“I did but I ate them.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry.”

“No biggie. Hey, look!” Elsie grabbed a long, straight stick from the bank. “Now we can have a weapon. This is the first decent size stick I’ve seen.”

“Probably because the trees are getting bigger.”

“Thank you, genius.”

Elsie got a berry to the head for that one. But she was also tossed Carlos’ now rusty knife and she worked to sharpen the stick as she walked. Not the smartest idea ever, but she did keep both eyes. Plus, having a seven-foot spear did make her feel much safer.

By the end of the day they had found nothing but a marshy area that seemed to be producing the stream. The bugs were extremely thick, so they walked back downstream a ways to get away from the masses. In order to sleep comfortably they had to cover themselves in mud, but even then the insects were persistent.

“I vote we go back. I prefer the wind and openness to these pests.”Carlos was swatting violently.

“Ok, but we should stay here for now. It’s too dark to see well enough.” Elsie set her back to a tree and held her spear as she drifted in and out of sleep.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 7

Elsie woke to the moon rising above the ocean. She rolled onto her back, sore all over from the swim. Carlos lay peacefully on the stone slab supporting them. Sitting up, Elsie stretched every muscle she could find, then walked a little ways up and down the shoreline looking for fresh water. There was none to be found, so she returned to her husband to wait out the night.

With the dawn came new energy and desperate thirst. Holding hands, the couple walked the edge of the island in search of a freshwater river. By noon they had found what they were searching for; a stream ran out of the forest and dropped a few feet to meet the salty waves. Clambering up the low cliff was easy enough, and the water tasted amazing. They sat in the shade of the trees and discussed the course before them.

“I think we have basically two options. We can follow this water into the woods, as there is enough here that a people may have planted a village near it, or we continue along the coast. Either way there is no guarantee of anything useful. But at least this place is much larger. There is a better chance of people and food and shelter and all that other good stuff.” Elsie trailed off as she started out over the open water. Miles and miles and miles.

“Is there anything here that will want to eat us?”

“I have no idea. Probably.”

“So how do we safely go into the woods?”

“I don’t know. Sharp sticks?” They laughed, but it was definitely one of those “it’s funny because it’s true” moments.

“Let’s look for more of those plants we found on the little island.” Cautious exploration yielded a few results, as well as some berries that seemed safe. Carlos volunteered to test them, which Elsie didn’t like, but knew he needed to lead in some capacity. This adventure was not how they were planning on starting their lives together, but they were married and regardless of circumstances that was going to have to begin to work itself out. Both had lived on their own, effectively, for a few years before meeting through Elsie’s work and falling in love. Learning to live together was going to be rough wherever they were. But did it have to be here, Elsie wondered. Nevertheless, she reminded herself of the C.H.A.I.R.S. acronym she had learned from a marriage book and let him taste the berries.

Turns out they were fine.

After a diner of fake turnips and imposter blackberries, they lay on the line between trees and open beach.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. What’s up?”

Elsie adjusted to face her husband. “We are stranded on an island in the middle of who knows where eating turnips and blackberries and you are the most beautiful man on earth and there is no one else I would rather be stuck with than you. I am sorry that this is how our marriage began but I am still glad we started it. I love you.”

“Ditto.” He kissed her. “Only,” he added, “you are not the most beautiful man on earth. You’re a woman. A beautiful woman. But a woman. Not a man.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Should I stop talking and kiss you instead?”

“Yes.”

So he did.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 6

Carlos’ help was invaluable. Even with Elsie hugging or kissing him every few minutes, he was able to make a bigger pot-looking thing and catch and skin fish and help gather the rest of the turnip-like vegetables. His brain was still trying to catch up with what had happened. But having busy work helped. Something to focus on in the immediate always helped the strain of thinking of things to come.

The couple ate as much as they could hold, then slept soundly through the night. Waking with the first light of the day they finished the food then crossed the island to make the swim. They brought nothing with them, as they would need all the energy they had to make it across. This did not comfort Elsie at all. All she had managed to accomplish the last few days, however laughable, was left like last week’s trash. But she did have Carlos.

He held her hand until the water was too deep to walk, then took the lead. The water was cold and threatening. It lay like a sleeping beast, waiting for the unaware prey to swim into gaping jaws. A stir here, a wave there, and nothing to see except what lay directly before them. Elsie looked down once but had the wisdom to not do so again. Whatever was down there looked way too much like a shark to be friendly.

A few times they stopped to rest. One would float on their back while the other held them in place and tread water to make sure there wasn’t too much drifting. It was exhausting. Plus, the sea water tasted terrible. Eventually they were close enough to see a prominent tree toward which they headed. Having a goal gave some morale, but there was nothing to do about the complete fatigue creeping over Elsie’s body. How Carlos was still going so strong was beyond her. She fought to keep up. Finally, gasping, they made it to the shallows. Walking was nearly impossible. The couple crawled as soon as they were able and collapsed on a beach of stone at the roots of that huge tree. They were alive.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 5

Elsie May woke cuddled close against Carlos’ chest. His heart pounded in her ear, and her feet were wet. It was raining again. She pulled away, desperate for a drink, but her hand was caught.

“Where are you going? You’ll get wet.”

Joy is the only word adequate.

After a solid minute of a crying snotty hug, Elsie reached out and grabbed the pot, now overflowing with water. She pulled Carlos to a sitting position to help him drink. “How are you not freaking out right now.”

“I am, I’m just too tired to show it.”

“Do you remember anything?”

“I remember the storm, then we stopped moving, then I was on this beach, and now I’m still on the beach, but under a weird roof. Is it still raining?”

“Dude, it has been almost two weeks.”

“Good lord.”

“Kinda. He gave us the rain. I wanted a boat, and He scared me for a bit, because He stopped everything and there was no food and there is still no food but at least you are here now.” Elsie buried her face in his shoulder and cried.

Carlos rubbed her head as he came to full knowledge of what was going on. As the rain slowed, he lifted his wife’s chin to kiss her. “Do you have a plan now? What have you been doing? Was I really sleeping all that time?”

“The closest thing to a plan I have is to eat a lot, whatever we can find, then swim to the big island behind us. That’s all I’ve got. But first, can I kiss you again?”

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, part 4

Loneliness. Despair. Hunger. Wretchedness. Powerlessness. Void.

There were no more pleasant dreams. There was no more comfort. The big island looked farther away in the light. The fish stopped getting stuck. It stopped raining. There had been nothing to drink for two days. Carlos was apparently healed but barely breathing. Elsie thought she had known hopelessness, but never had there been such utter emptiness in her soul. This was the end.

“I give up.”

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 3

The memory of that comforting arm stayed with her for a while. Certain there were no man-eating beasts, Elsie left Carlos in his shelter and explored deeper into the island. On her walk through a cloudburst to estimate the circumference of the island, she found that directly “behind” them was a much larger island. It appeared to be swimmable distance, since she could see it through the rain, but that would require a conscious husband. But it was so large and green, it could even be a peninsula of a larger land mass. How great would that be. Clinging to that tiny shred of hope, she finished her walk.

The tiny island was, she guessed, about two miles around, barely longer than it was wide, and overall quite flat. Almost like someone took a hole punch and punched out this snippet of an island. In a brief moment of panic she thought maybe the island was floating, that it did break off and was drifting away from that possible continent, and they would be lost forever, and… “Drink some water. You’ll feel better. It’s fine. It’s not floating away. You can do this.”

Elsie had also taught herself to fish with nothing. A lot of it was luck. There was a place around the east side that had a tricky bit of stone. Often fish would swim in, thinking it was safe, only to get lost and stuck in a shallow spot. That became as regular a stop as a grocery store. There were also some plants that, after testing, she decided to eat. Granted, her testing was basically if I lick it do I get sick and if not I’ll eat it, but it worked out. Plus she was able to make soup now. Hurrah.

Looking down at her husband, now sustained by broth, she laughed a little. It was sad, really, she told herself. I have an unconscious husband asleep in half a boat. I am eating fish and roots boiled in rainwater out of another piece of boat. We have enough resources here to last a week. It’s been a week. Our honeymoon was supposed to be two weeks, so it will probably be at least that week before anyone even begins to look for us. I have one week to live.

“You hear that, God? One week. You have one week to show up.” She paused. “I am not giving you the credit for this. You didn’t send anyone to help me. I made this shelter. I found the food. You gave me rain. Fine. Thank you for the rain. Is that what you want? A thank you for the rain? I guess that’s fair.” Elsie slumped down next to Carlos. “God is giving us water. I wanted to have a chance at living longer than a week. He gave us water. Is that enough for faith? Just water? It seems so silly but so obvious. I don’t like it. Why can’t He just give us a boat? Then he wouldn’t have to worry about making it rain. That seems easier for the all powerful creator. Just once and done and we carry on by ourselves.” She looked back up. “I appreciate the rain, but I really don’t like you right now. Ok? I want my husband. Give me my husband. I know you can do it. You know you can do it. He is in your hands now. I can’t do anything else. There. Surrender. I surrendered. You’re supposed to fix things now, right? Like they told me at youth group? I say that you are in control, and you get all happy or whatever and fix things so my life is decent again. You win, I win, we all win.”

Silence.

“Carlos, if you’re talking to God right now like that freaky movie about that one kid, you know, who was like dead but not, tell him to send you back. Please.”

No expression.

Only loneliness.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 2

Elsie woke up. Thankfully there were no animals on the island, at least no predators, so she didn’t feel too terrible for not keeping watch. But still, of all of the days that a sea creature would evolve legs and an appetite for blondes, this would be the day.

It was still dark. What had woken her? Did Carlos - but no, there he lay, expressionless. Elsie began to rage inside at the audacity of God not doing what she asked, but forced herself to act in faith and sleep again. She faded in and out of consciousness for the remaining dark hours.

As yet another noonday sun beat down on her, Elsie tried to force feed her husband. Choking hazard was the least of her concerns right now. Plus, it was the last of the few provisions from the boat, and she knew she would end up eating them if he didn’t. And he didn’t. The food was gone, the water was gone, and Carlos was all but gone.

She ended up crying for most of the afternoon. She knew there must be something she should be doing, but she couldn’t think of what. Would it matter if she knew? Her world was crushed. No, more than crushed. It was gone. She was lost, alone, scared, hungry, tired, dehydrated, and hopeless. As the dark once again took over, she curled up beside her beloved. Cradling his bruised head in her sunburned arms, she began singing an old hymn as a prayer. Come Thou Fount was her mother’s favorite and Elsie’s last try at religion. Cancer had claimed her mother. Now the island would claim her. “Your move, God. This is all I’ve got.”

Nothing.

“Alright, God. I’m serious. I don’t know what to do. You say you’ve brought me this far. Wow. Amazing. I’m not impressed. I am miserable.I know you have your ‘plan’ and I am sure it’s ‘great’ and now i just gotta ‘trust’ but that is really hard, ok? I have nothing right now. Do something or don’t but please decide now.”

Still nothing.

Tears she thought were gone reappeared and she cried until her head hurt and she fell asleep on her apparently lifeless man. In her sleep she felt an arm reach out and comfort her, but when she woke nothing had changed.

[ahomeofgarnetandsun]

A Home of Garnet and Sun, Part 1

Elsie May had been stranded for two days.

She and her husband, Carlos, had ventured out on their skiff and been caught in a wild storm that could only be explained as a miracle, although it felt far from that for her. After hours of being blown and tossed in all directions, the craft capsized on a reef a few hundred feet from where they sat now. Well, she sat.

The best part of the storm was that it had left pools of freshwater in the sunken areas about the small island. She had managed to gather bits and pieces of the boat that had washed ashore and, together with some natural resources, had fashioned a a shanty of sorts and started a fire to boil the water. The water in the pseudo-pot she had hammered from the siding of the boat had been boiling for several minutes, so she pulled out the stained shreds of her shirt she was trying to clean. After they had dried, she exchanged them for the strips currently wound around Carlos’ head. The cut had scabbed over, but still he wouldn’t wake up. Elsie had forced him to take water but knew she couldn’t keep going without him, and he wouldn’t last much longer without food.

She began to cry again, and lay herself across her love. Praying as loudly as she could, she hoped maybe God could hear her now. Maybe God would hear her on this tiny island. Maybe He could track her wails. Maybe He could save her. Heaven is better, she heard her mind say. “But I don’t want heaven! Not now! I want Carlos! I want my husband ! I want my life! I want to live! You gave me the desire to live! It must be for a reason! Not just to deny it!” The last scream sent her into a coughing fit. Once it passed she kept shouting at the unblinking sky the only words that came to her. “Please! God, please, God, please! Oh, God, please…”

What a honeymoon.