Crab Island

 

New York, the city that is reborn every minute. Sekhmet, the cruise ship, stands majestically in the pale moonlight. After convincing his sister, Rachel, to board and that he would join her after a quick phone call, Raphael waves her off. Pulling out his phone, he walks towards the pier when a woman emerged from the shadows with ferocious speed and kissed him with feverous passion. After a brief shock, Raphael returned it with the same haste.

 

Breaking for air, she spoke. "Raf, where the hell were you? I’ve been waiting for, like half an hour." "Sorry Mel, it’s hard to convince her. She still has some doubts, "he spoke, pulling her close once more. It doesn’t matter if she had doubts. You gave me a word. You will come with me in Mac’s boat.” With a mischievous smile, she continued, "We will have all kinds of fun." Hand in hand, they walked to a smaller luxury boat bobbing with the waves; Omina. They have been plotting this since Raf found out that he and his sister were going to Europe for the summer to their grandparents’ house.

 

Like all great plans, it didn’t take much time before it went sideways. Greeting them on the boat, along with their friend Mac, was Rachel. With a sly smile on her face. “You haven’t even checked for your ticket all day. You packed only a single bag. And the excited phone calls! Come on, you dweeb, it was obvious you were going to ditch me.” Saying this, Rachel gave him her trademark smirk of self-satisfaction. Raf has always hated her smile, and every time she smiled it was because she got one up on him. “You can have your lover-time with your girlfriend, but I’m also coming with you.” The determination in her voice was palpable; only an idiot would argue with her. Raf found that out the hard way a long time ago.

 

"Rachel, with the exams and things, I have barely seen him all month. This is our only chance to have some time alone." Unlike Raf, his girlfriend didn’t know how stubborn Rachel could be, she continued. "I know you just got chemo and stuff, and you are tired and grumpy, but please go back to your ship," she pleaded. "Sorry, Mellissa, I already sold my ticket. Like it or not, I’m coming with you.” Rachel had already put away her bags before they even got there. She knew very well that Mac was smitten by her, and she played him like a violin. With a half-honest apology, Mac took to the bridge. Leaving behind a dejected Raf and Mel to untie the ropes, They set sail pretty soon after Raf piled his bag on top of his other bags, which they smuggled in through the course of many days.

 

Seas and deserts have one thing in common; unpredictability. It didn’t take much time for the weather to change, and the sea became vengeful. Mac and Raf ran like mad dogs on the bridge, trying the radio and steering the boat. A bolt of lightning came down and left a moment of clarity and peace behind. Just enough time for them to realize that they are taking water. With half the boat submerged. The cries of the crew melded with all the other wrathful sounds of the sea. Rachel, Mac, and Raf held on for dear life on the tip of the sinking boat, with Mel nowhere to be seen in the pandemonium. Just before Raf lost all his hope, a hand broke through the water and Mel cried for help. The two boys swam for her. Leaving behind a petrified Rachel chasing after them with her eyes. The deep rumble of a primordial thunder stalked its way in the heavens and a shaft of light came down with all the fury of gods. The last thing Rachel saw was the bubble leaving her mouth and panicking its way to the surface.

 

Time moved through her consciousness leaving behind afterimages of the incoherent past. A little girl bandaging a small boy’s knee and kissing away the pain. A boy and a girl quarreling on the couch. Two teens fighting over a remote. Each picture too fast for her mind to grab hold on…Coughing and gasping, Rachel opened her eyes to see her brother panting for air near her on the escape boat. She rushed to hug him, making him spew seawater. Days passed. Food and water were now nonexistent, and bitterness between the siblings began putrefying the boat. "If you hadn’t come, this wouldn’t have happened," Raf’s voice was weak but full of fury, "You are a curse. You always hogged mom and dad when we were kids. You always want to be the center of everything. You made me feel like a ghost in my own home Then you went on and got cancer. Now, dad sold the summer home for your treatment. I’ve realized long ago that you are not a sickly child you are a sickness…" who ever said truth will set you free was a moron, Raf thought after he unleashed his mind. Rachel cried dry silent tears… so did Raf. The pungent smell of silence grew daily. Until one day, Rachel woke Raf with her bony fingers to point at a spit of land through the fog. They somehow managed to steer the boat to what could have been a hallucination.

 

 When the boat hit the sandy beach, the resistance of the solid land instilled new energy in them. Life itself ran through their veins. Raf jumped down and called out with all his might while Rachel tried to pull the life boat out to where the tide couldn’t reach. After many hours of feeble screaming, Raf lost all hope of seeing another human being, a voice called back through the fog. weak and barely audible, but familiar. Raf lit up with a smile and looked at his sister, Rachel’s eyes met his, but they were far too distant to be just seeing him, rather they were looking past him or looking into his past. Rachel’s lips mechanically moved "The doctors said, I may not have much time." A figure cut through the fog and enveloped Raf breaking his train of thought. He stood enchanted by the warmth of another body. "I thought I’d never see you again." Mel’s voice squealed as she led them to their campsite, explaining that she and Mac drifted for days in the ocean and ended up here where they had used up all their resources and had chopped up their driftwood to make a fire. She looked behind many times just to make sure they were not her imagination and each time a pearl of tear would take birth in her eyes.

 

After the pleasantries they sat around the fire in silence. "Why didn’t you say anything?" Raf couldn’t look at his sister. "If I did, you would have forgiven a dying woman for all the bullying and hurt she gave you, and you would have stopped fighting or arguing with me. You would have pitied me like everyone else. I want to win all the fights with you, but, I never want you to stop fighting with me. I remember reading you stories when you were little, I remember taking care of you when you fell sick, but my pains somehow made me forget how to love you, each time something went wrong in me I felt as if the part of me who loved you was dying bit by bit. I don’t know why, maybe making you feel pain was my way of connecting with you. I know with every fiber of my being that I was hurting you and I was wrong to do it but… “Rachel’s answer crackled with the fire for a long time. Then, with a labored breath she continued, "I thought I could mend us in three weeks on that cruise, to be your sister at least for a short time, to be there to give you advice on girls, to help you choose a shirt for your date, to curse your girlfriend till dawn with you, eating cheap ice cream when she finally dumps you." Rachel smiled, looking down. Something resembling longing has crossed her face for a moment. Mac broke the long silence that followed. "We found a freshwater spring some way from here, but it’s very slow to refill. Here, have a drink." They all took a cautious sip of water before passing it around.

 

 Days passed. Mac became sick after eating leaves off a shrub. The only living thing beside them was that shrub. He shivered in the fog as if his whole skeletal structure was trying to break free from its fleshy prison. They piled their coats for him during the daytime. At night, they huddled. Mac’s condition worsened in obvious fashion. The changing of things became apparent for all to see. Mel and Raf now barely talk. Mac confessed his love for Rachel multiple times, not remembering the last time he did it. She kissed him a few times, but she never loved him. 

It’s all an illness when you think about it. Love, hate, hunger, hope, life, the question is how sick you are of it. And if you aren’t infected with them. Then what are you infected with.

 

 Food was always on their minds. Hunger was their religion, and their epidemic. Ineffable hunger. After Mac’s breathing became shallower, Mel and Raf spend the day in animated discussions. While Rachel laid under the upturned boat, or whatever that was left of it. Shade in a place with no sun.it was either the black blind night or white bright fog. The next day, they ate meat. Seasoned by the brine of their eyes. Rachel cried herself to sleep that night, but with a full belly. Mel and Raf moaned and grunted all through the night, a bit away from Rachel.

 

Time didn’t matter till they ran out of things to eat. Raf’s scraggly beard has seemed to grow longer. Rachel lost her wig a long time ago. Mel sometimes washes herself in the ocean.

 

There was no fog to be seen, so it must be night. Mel ran her fingers through Raf's panting chest. "We ran out of food three days ago," she said, not expecting an answer. "Rachel never talks, she almost looks suicidal.” Her fingers traced the groove of his protruding ribs. “First cancer, now this. Poor girl, I'm sure she's in a lot of pain" Mel’s hand ran all over his chest while her words did the same in his brain. "Mel, we will be rescued soon. Let’s wait a few more days. We have survived longer without food before.” Raf’s voice was feeble and sluggish. Mel sat up suddenly with her legs against her naked chest, looking across the night. "You would have done it if she hadn’t said those things about being a good sister and all that. You hated her all your life. How many times have you complained about her to me, Mel she did this, she did that, Mel I wish she would just die, Mel I’m going to kill that bitch… All it takes is a sympathetic illness and a sob story with vague promises to change anyone…“ Mel stood up and walked. Her figure silhouetted in the barely visible moonlight. The small island was now an extension of their legs. Thus directions and distances didn’t matter "Mel, she is my sister." "I am your, everything else. Maybe soon the mother of your child," resolution like the silver moon shown in Raf’s eye gave Mel her answer, but the silent embryo of a question had already taken form in Raf, which he murdered and buried, just where it had formed.

 

Night stopped. Mel spends the morning with Rachel collecting water. Raf had already sharpened a bone. Even in weakness, he is the strongest among them. He didn’t bother sneaking or stalking. He walked right up to the women sitting in the sand. "Rachel, Mel might be pregnant, she needs to eat." Rachel didn’t seem fazed. She only looked at him blankly. Maybe this was her new way of being a big sister. Mel averted her eyes fearing a look from Rachel. But Raf wasn’t finished talking, "Mel, is it Mac’s child?" 

 

Raf got his answer... For a few hours, a streak of red could be seen floating near the shore of the island. From above, it looked like a giant tangled red ribbon.