The Island

Best Story in Feb, 2021 ;

The Island - By L. Q.

Five dollars, they had said. Only five, for this magnificent patch of land in the middle of the ocean. We climbed ashore and gazed at the pearly white sand and the glittering shells that were scattered along the coast. The palm trees swayed back and forth, following the wind’s will as their ripe coconuts swung through the air. Mya, the last to get off the boat, hurried forward in amazement. 

“Look over there!” she laughed, running towards some rocks. “It’s a cave!” Sure enough, in between 2 rocks stood a huge opening that led to a cave. Mya started lowering herself in, not minding the sharp rocks and edges.

“I wouldn’t do that!” Dad warned, unpacking his bag and setting up his tent. “There could be all sorts of dangers lurking inside. You don’t want to get hurt before we even start camping.”

“That’s right,” informed Mya’s older brother Jason who was setting down his many National Geographic books. “I once read a book about these scorpions that lived in giant water caves.” Mya then quickly retreated from the hole, shuddering at the thought of scorpions’ stingers. 

“You better all unpack before we go exploring,” decided Mom as she set down her pack. All of a sudden, when everyone was unpacking, a slight tremor shook the island. 

“What was that?” trembled Mya, backing away into her tent.

“What do you mean?” Dad replied, unconcerned. 

“You didn’t feel that?” asked Mya, a look of confusion plastered on her face.

“It was probably nothing,” grunted Mom, lifting up wood for the campfire.

Finally, when everyone was done setting up their tents, they hefted their packs full of water and food then set out into the small forest. They saw many lost things and pieces of garbage, all of which they stored in plastic bags to later throw out. 

Suddenly, Jason let out a cry, “Look! It’s a book! A National Geographic book!” He pointed at a small, rolled up yellow magazine that read ‘National Geographic - Natural Disasters’. “It’s the only book I don’t have!” yelled Jason with delight. He then scooped up the book, brushed off the leaves and the dirt, then hugged it to his chest. 

“All right, whatever, let’s go back to our campsite now,” yawned Mom. Before they could get back though, the island jerked and threw them to the ground.

“You must have felt that,” Mya shouted, her voice quivering. 

“It was probably just some loose rock that fell, nothing to worry about,” Dad said, rolling his eyes and stretching out his arms. “Let’s go back to the camp now.”

Back in the camp, everyone sets up and gets ready for bed. Mya crawled out to Jason’s tent. Jason, wide awake and reading his new National Geographic book about natural disasters, rolled his eyes after seeing her come in.

“What do you want?” asked Jason, his eyes focused on the pages. 

“You’re so mean,” pouted Mya, “I’m going back to my tent.”

In the morning, the sun shone in the sky. Jason had finally finished reading his natural disasters book, and talked about it non-stop. 

“Did you know that earthquakes happen very often in some places? I knew that. Did you know that there’s such thing as an underwater volcano?” Jason could talk for hours without stopping sometimes. 

“Let’s go explore that huge cave,” Mya suggested. Mom and Dad agreed to watch her, but Jason kept looking at his National Geographic novel. Half an hour later, when Mom and Dad were watching Mya explore the cave,  a bubbling sound started bubbling, almost as if something were about to explode. Jason listened to these sounds, pondering what they meant. The sudden rumbles, the crazy jerks in the ground, and now the bubbling . . . what did they mean? Finally , his eyes fell upon one of the pages in his National Geographic novel. An underwater volcano. Jason gasped, then ripped out the page and sprinted towards his parents as if his life depended on it.

“Mom, Dad!” he screamed, stumbling forward with his arms outstretched. Jason quickly explained about the underwater volcano, which seemed to be right under the island. His parents’ eyes widened with alarm. Mya crawled out of the cave, and everyone set out running away from the island. The volcano, about to explode, bubbled even louder. They didn’t make it far enough. The volcano exploded, and everyone sunk into the water, moments away from blacking out. The last thing Jason remembered was that his underwater volcano page was still clenched tightly in his hand, so he tucked it safely into his pocket. 

Beep. Beep. Jason lifted up his head slowly. He was in a hospital, with Mya, Mom, and Dad all laying beside him. A doctor stood in the corner, fiddling with some device. Jason passed out again.

When Jason woke up again, everyone else was already sitting up. He sat up, and looked at the doctor. The doctor explained everything. They had found them floating through the water, barely alive. They had been brought here after the explosion. Speaking of which, the doctor informed us that the person who had sold us the island had already confessed to knowing about the volcano and was now in jail.

“How long have we been here?” wondered Jason aloud. The doctor opened his mouth to reply, but what came out was his mother’s voice.

“Jason! Wake up!” Jason sat up groggily and realized that he was in his room. Rays of sunlight shone through the curtains. 

“What?” asked Jason, “Underwater . . geographic . . hospital.”

“Looks like you were having a dream, honey,” smiled his mom. “Get ready for school.” Jason sat up, but then he noticed that there was a lump inside his pocket. He took the lump out and realized it was a wet piece of paper. He unfolded it, and gasped. Although it was dirty and wet, and unreadable, the paper was unmistakably the National Geographic page; the page on natural disasters.