Embedded Files
Stranded
By Alexandra Miskovich
Dedicated to my dog,
because she's always been there for me.
Maple Leaf Writing Project
Brattleboro Vermont
Copyright 2013
CHAPTER ONE
Hi. My name is Amy. I’m a swimmer. It’s not just what I do, it’s who I am. Which is good, because at the moment, I am completely surrounded by frothy, crashing waves
and a wide expanse of sea. Alone. Alone - and stranded.
CHAPTER TWO
Wait. Let’s back up a bit. Last week, my parents decided that we should take a last-minute weekend vacation cruise in the Caribbean. BAD IDEA ALERT! BEEP! BEEP! Wasn’t there just a hurricane warning on the 10 o’clock news? And wasn’t it Mom who said we should stay inside the house? Sometimes it feels like I’m the adult around here.
Anyway, three days later, our entire family was on a huge yacht with guess how many other families? Zero. Zip. Nada. No one but me, my mom, my dad, my sister Amelia and my brother, Max, and some old dude steering and preparing meals. So. Much. Fun. I was just thinking about all of the ways that I could die of boredom here, when it turned ugly. Real ugly.
The sky had been rapidly growing grayish-yellow, though no one but me seemed to have noticed. Suddenly, the hurricane’s winds started to whip around the boat’s cabins and moan like ghosts, wailing to be let in. I grabbed on to my family and we ran to our cabin which (thankfully) was located on the first deck of the ship. Once everybody was inside, I went back out to find the captain, since again, I was the only one who sensed that something was amiss. He was holding onto the wheel for dear life. I was about to take him inside when a huge gust of wind blew me off the ship into the water. I bobbed for a moment, then sank. The last thing I remember is black.
CHAPTER THREE
I woke up on a smooth, gray island that I didn’t remember seeing before the storm.
Looking out towards the horizon I saw that the sky looked as calm as a tired kitten, like the storm had never even happened. Where was the boat? Well, I couldn’t lie there forever, could I? A faint, mechanical sounding rumble came from below me and the island started slowly to advance. This didn’t bother me until I remembered that islands DON’T MOVE!
The rock-colored “island” was moving towards another island, slightly wider and sandier and roughly as big as my backyard, with one mango tree and a few long, warped sticks. I had a problem. If I wasn’t on an island, where was I? On a rock? No, rocks don’t move either. I had gone through tons of ideas, each one crazier than the next, when it hit me. Maybe I was on an animal!
Out of this new development, another question arose - what kind of animal was I on? Again, ideas rushed through my head like a wildfire. All of the animals I thought of were either too big, too small, or non-existent. At first, I thought it might be a whale, but it didn’t really matter, as long as it didn’t eat me. Since the water was calm now, I easily slipped off and swam like a seal to the to the sandy island and sprawled out on the sand. It would probably have been relaxing if I weren’t a million miles from home with- what did I even have? Let’s see. Absolutely nothing.
A quick look around the island showed me that a huge mango tree had managed to survive the hurricane. What were the odds? Even though there was some food on the island, I started to feel beaten. But then I remembered that when I’d been having a bad day, my 5th grade teacher, my all-time favorite, would say to me, “Keep hoping. ‘It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.’’’(William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2) I would always roll my eyes and snicker, but now I see that she was right. It was my fault that I had gone out on the deck to get the captain. If I hadn’t gone to get him, I wouldn’t be here.
CHAPTER FOUR
I awoke to rain pouring down in sheets as thick as blankets, soaked to the bone. I made several cups out of the large leaves lying on the ground by curling them up. I collected the rainwater in my makeshift containers and stored them under a pile of other leaves. I sat back down, proud of myself for my fast thinking. Something long and skinny hit my head.
‘’OUCH!’’ I yelled, and looked around, searching for the source of the object. No such luck. A chattering sound came from above me, almost like a laugh. When I looked up, a monkey was sitting in the mango tree, laughing his head off. The monkey’s laughter reminded me of my mother at my 4th birthday party. I had taken my wrapping paper and thrown it over my head and I had danced around the yard like a lunatic. My mother had laughed so hard that my Aunt Lucille had to hold her up. Yes, my mother…wait … where was she? Where was my family? Had they drowned? Were they okay? Oh no- Max is really afraid of sharks! Where were they? WHERE WERE THEY? I’d been so preoccupied with getting to land that I hadn’t had time to think. Feeling guilty, I fell to the ground crying in bitter despair.
CHAPTER FIVE
Well, crying did help, because it gave me courage. The courage to stand up and try to fight to survive. I couldn’t just sit down and do nothing, after all. I kept thinking, ‘’ I can do this.’’ I’ve read stories like this. You probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but normally, no one does. I won’t try to explain. Walking towards the shade of the tree, I noticed something. I hadn’t gotten anywhere! I hadn’t moved a millimeter. As soon as this thought occurred, I felt the ground start to shake and convulse. An earthquake? A landslide? What? Suddenly, my question was answered. A giant hole opened in the earth, and the noise was so deafening, I thought my ears would implode! And then I was falling. Down… down…down…
CHAPTER SIX
THUD. “Ouch!” I hit the rocky ground so hard that people could probably hear it in New Zealand. I landed on my side and crumpled to the floor like a long-forgotten rag doll. Rocks surrounded me on all sides. A complete prison of rock. To ease my worry and pain, I tried to think of puns or jokes. My best was, “It’s sedimentary, my dear Watson.” As I lifted my head, I noticed a strange inscription on the jagged wall.
Although you’ve fallen down so far, and although you seemingly fear, you’re right that even the brave ones don’t dare to step near. For all of them know in their hearts and their minds, that a baffling secret doth lie here.
I’ve stated some clues of this quite bizarre news, which of course you must try to decipher, but before you begin, you must swear that, my friend, you will never tell…
My first word is the middle of a planet.
My second is a living thing, homogeneous to yourself.
My third word is a backwards retropsnart.
And my fourth is a thing that a latter-day human doth rely upon.
If you were to connect these words, I would become...
Whoa. “That wasn’t there before.” I said, to no one in particular. Still, I had to uncover the secret of this eerie cave. So I began.
Clue #1: The middle of a planet. The middle of a planet is... the core!
Core… no! What if that clue is talking about the words, not their meanings? So it would be A, instead of core! O.k. Let’s say it is A. Next:
Clue #2: A living thing, homogeneous to yourself. Homogeneous… homogeneous… Oh right! Homogeneous means alike. Homogeneous to myself… human!
So far, I have: A human. That doesn’t make any sense!
Clue #3: A backwards Repnosnart, “Hmm. That makes about as much sense as my brother. What’s a repnosnart anyways? I was pondering this when it hit me. This was a trick, too! Repnosnart wasn’t a word at all. So, it meant transporter, which is r-e-p-n-o-s-n-a-r-t backwards.
A. Human. Transporter. It still didn’t make sense.
Clue #4: A thing that a latter day human relies on. As soon as I started to think about this, a flurry of ideas rushed through my head, practically sending my brain into orbit! Food. No. Water. No. Air. No! No! No! No! None of my ideas fit, though. It was like trying to put together a one thousand-piece puzzle with only nine hundred ninety-nine pieces. Unfathomable. Then, I realized that the inscription didn’t say that we needed it, just that we rely on it. What do we rely on, but don’t need? Another list raced through my head, even faster than last time. All of my ideas were useless, until- “GOT IT!” It was machine! A thing we rely on -machines!
A. Human Transporter. Machine.
A human transporter machine!
And then, I realized that if it really was a transporter, then I could get home! A million questions swirled through my head. Could I really trust a machine that was in a cave on an island in the middle of the ocean? If I could trust it, where was it and how did it work? Who put it there?
CHAPTER SEVEN
I woke up in a cold, dark cave-like room, completely alone. For a moment, I had
no idea where I was, but then I remembered. My stomach growled like an angry bear that hadn’t eaten for a week. I hadn’t eaten for a week. Only gross rainwater for five days. The mangos had turned out to be way out of my reach, ever though I was five-foot nine. But I couldn’t feel sorry for myself forever. I had to find out all about this machine before I could trust it. Besides, what if it was just a trick, or a trap? Well, I knew what I had to do. The tricky part? Doing it. I had to:
# 1: Find the transporter machine
: # 2: Find out how it worked.
# 3: Go home! (Finally!)
Easier said than done. But there was no time to lose, so I began my search.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was dark in the cave, but after lots of climbing and chipping, rock upon rock, I opened a small hole in the stony cave, letting some light stream in. It took so much effort that I practically dropped to the ground below. The narrow shaft of light faced in a strange direction, towards a corner, where the faint light shone on a strange, shiny object stuck in the wall.
As I crept closer, the object grew larger and larger, stranger-looking and stranger-looking. Almost as if it were waiting for someone to discover it. I crept over to the thing, and as quietly as a mouse, I studied it carefully. It was about the size of a soccer ball, round, and with many buttons and knobs scattered all over its surface. It had to be the transporter! That was one down, three to go!
Next, I had to find out how the transporter worked.
I decided to try planned maniacal button pushing. You know, crazily pushing buttons in a coordinated sort of pattern until something works? So I started. I pushed a red button. A black one. Blue. Tan lever, green switch. On and on, until there was only one button left unpushed. Well, here goes nothing. Closer… closer… almost there…. That was my last chance, and if it didn’t work, all would be lost. Who knows what I’d do then? If it didn’t work, I might never see my family again-if they were still alive. This had to work. My life depended on it. I’ve got to do this! Five … four… three … two … one. “NOW!”, I yelled and slammed my hand down on the last button.
At first, nothing happened. But as I was slowly walking away, something amazing happened. A hologram appeared on the wall. It showed the face of a young girl, her juvenile face slightly distorted by the rocks on the far wall. Her face was deathly pale, and just by looking, I could tell that this girl wasn’t entirely human. More spiritual than real-world, if you know what I mean.
The spirit- girl projection spoke in a soft, singsong voice,
“Congratulations. You have found my transporter. All I can tell you is how it works, or I would reveal too much to a being that I don’t know. Tell me your name.
I was stunned, but I quickly replied, ”My name is Amy Spenceman. “
Hello, Amy. Now tell me your age.
“ Seventeen.”
“Next, tell me how you got here.”
“ I got knocked off my ship into the ocean.”
“Good. Now you must swear to never tell a soul.
“I swear.”
“Pinky swear?
“Uh… pinky swear.”
“Then let’s begin, shall we? First, pull the gray lever located directly in the center of the red button circle.” The strange girl paused for a moment, as if waiting for me to do something.
I rushed over to obey. The lever wasn’t hard to find, and it was even easier to pull. I looked back to the girl’s hologram for further instruction.
“Connect the golden wires in back to the transporter.” Again, the girl stopped expectantly. And again, I did as I was told. The wires were indeed golden, and they glowed brightly when I connected them.
I had to think quickly. If I went home, would anyone be there? Should I go to the boat instead? But what if it had sunk? At least my house was a place where I could call my parents.
It was settled. I was going home.
“Now, think about where you want to go. Hold on to the transporter and whisper your destination.” With that, the girl disappeared.
“So, Amy, tell us all what happened.” And I told all of it. Well, almost. I omitted the part about the spirit girl, since she’d made me “pinky swear.” After my “thrilling account” or according to my sister Amelia, my “tall tale”, they told their side of the adventure. It turns out that my family had been taken onto a lifeboat, which somehow got them back home. Even all of these years later, I still remember the first thing I said when I got back.
“It’s good to be home.”
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