Young Writers Society

The day it happened, I had woken up before the sun made had made its way into the sky. I couldn’t sleep anymore for a large volume of happiness was flowing through my veins. I wondered where this happiness could have been coming from, but couldn’t find an answer. I preferred leaving it as it was and not to worry myself with questions that would probably lead me back into sadness. I felt the energy bubble inside of me- it was almost overflowing, maybe half a drop more and I would have been running and jumping around the whole of Cartora!

When the sun was up, I heard Ed calling out my name, from where the hut was. I was sitting at my usual day-dreaming place: the edge of the beach, gazing with a smile at the merging colours of the horizon. The sun’s rays danced merrily on the water, the clinquant particles forming a path-like pattern. The path to the rest of the world. The beauty of it all made me smile. Then I felt the tear drops build up in my eyes and could not restrict them from falling. They were tears of happiness- happiness of which I did not know the source or reason, and not tears of sorrow, nor were they of fear or anger. Simply unexplainable happiness.

“Oh, there you are! I should’ve known you’d be here.” I had forgotten that he had been searching for me and I had drowned out his voice in the distance. I sniffed when coming back to my senses.
“Are you crying? Oh, Lou! Don-"Before he could say anything else, I shook my head vigorously to show him that it was actually a merry day; I wasn’t crying but rejoicing.
“Whatever for?” He asked, rolling up his worn out trousers and sitting down beside me.
“I have absolutely no idea. Back home… Well, back where we lived before, they used to say that it means a good thing is soon to happen. I hope it’s true!” I smiled through the drying tears and strands of hair stuck on my face.
“What could this ‘good’ thing be? To go back home…to where we lived before?”
For many weeks now we had tried to stop saying “back home” when referring to where our families lived and where we used to live. It was a way to feel less miserable about the subject, and instead, think of Cartora as our home.
“If it was, how would you feel? I mean I’d love to, but…”But what? I didn’t know how I would feel. Different thoughts raced in my head as I tried to imagine the moment had come yet I couldn’t quite picture it.
“Honestly, I’d be half overjoyed, half devastated. I long to see other people, but I am shared between that and wanting to stay here alone with you,”
“Me too.” That was all we said to each other for the following minutes. We sat there on the water’s edge, silence pressing down on the two of us. As I said those two last words, I felt something different from what I had been feeling all morning. This emotion was strong, and one that I was feeling for the first time as I gawked upon his magnificent crystal-blue eyes that stared back into my hazel brown ones. I could tell he wanted to smile, that what I had just said had truly touched him. It touched me too.
I tried looking away, but those eyes were deeply captivating. He was stronger than me and managed to pull his gaze away; it sent another strange feeling to gush through my…heart? No. Not only my heart, but my whole body could feel it. It was as if from head to toe, the moment he looked away, my body couldn’t take it to not see has ravishing face. What was going on? What was happening to me? I had never had the experience of such a thing, so it scared me to think of what it meant.

“What’s the matter?”The words had been stinging my tongue; the only thing to do was to let them out. He turned his face back towards me, and we were staring into each other’s eyes again. This time, the feeling almost burned my insides and I longed to say it. I knew what ‘it’ was, but before I could let these words out, just as I opened my mouth to let them escape joyfully into his ears, a soft and affectionate kiss landed on my lips. The kiss talked for itself. And though my eyes were closed, I could see him- my heart was seeing him and all the emotions he had for me too. His fingers set off on an adventure through my curly brown hair as we shared that long and tender kiss on the beach.



I would have loved to say that that was the special thing that happened on that day, but it wasn’t. Well it was, but it wasn’t all. This particular thing was more of an unexpected event. Almost too unexpected that it was unwanted.
We had returned to the hut in silence, both of us smiling ever so contentedly and holding hands. I felt so little beside him suddenly, and my cheeks felt extremely red. By the height of the sun, one could tell that it was only just past midday- with the rays it shone intensely. We heard odd noises coming from where we had left: the beach.
“What’s that?” I said, spinning my head around at the same time as he did.
“I don’t know, let me go and see.”
“I’m coming with y-“ I started staying, but he interrupted me abruptly, refusing that I followed him.
“No, don’t! You’re staying here. I’m going.”
“But what if-“ I began again, and he remained firm on his decision. I pulled his arm as he turned to go back to the shore, and kissed him delicately on the cheek.
I watched him walk off, not feeling at rest. What if something were to attack him? We had never heard such noises before with all the years we had spent on Cartora. It was our home and we had to protect and defend it, though we had nothing to defend ourselves with.
From where I stood, I saw Ed appearing and disappearing behind bushes and trees- walking off into the distance. There, I could see the up and down bobbing of…heads? Yes! I could spot heads coming up and down every once in a while. I had seen (from the place I stood), one brown head and a blond or two. I wasn’t too sure, so I decided to get closer before celebrating to have seen other signs of civilization on the island.
“I thought I told you to stay behind,” Edwin said without even looking at me. He had heard my footsteps coming towards him.
“You know how hard-headed I can be. You should have seen it coming, “I said in return. He knew it was true.
“…trees must go to have more space. Onwards we go for more exploring, fellows.” We heard a deep and manly voice coming towards us, into the forest. As they came closer, we could count them as maybe six or seven, but guessed some might have stayed behind on the beach.
“Let’s take the short way to the hut, they’ll find us there.” I whispered my plan to Ed who agreed doing so. He held my hand and I felt a pulsation buzz across my body. That and the adventure we were on made the adrenaline rise in me and I grinned excitedly.

We sat in the hut with the most common expressions on our faces and pretended to be carrying out our daily routines. As the men approached, I sent a quick look at Ed who was trying to light a fire. The men pushed through the leaves of trees and bushes and landed on a view of two human beings sitting on an isolated island. Alone and struggling to survive.
“Quite intriguing,” The man with the deep voice said. He had a large, hairy moustache, however no hair covered his head. He was quite round and stout, wearing a smart brown suit with brown leather shoes. “People!” He was surprised at our sight and believed we must have been natives when we understood his language very well and guessed by his accent that he was from almost the same area as we. “Hello,” He said, as if he was talking to a child, “What do we have here? A young lady and a man. All alone? What-whatever could they be doing here?” He seemed to be asking one of his men but they couldn’t possibly know what we were doing there.
“We were shipwrecked…more than four years ago now.” The sound of Ed’s voice made them all jump.
“Oh good God, you poor people! That’s terrible! Don’t you wish of going back home?” This time another man spoke. This one was tall and also a little round, but had hair on his head and wore a white shirt and black trousers with matching shoes.
“Of course we have. I mean we do! But we never managed because no ships ever come towards the island.” I snapped, not rudely but just enough to show that his question was a rather stupid one.
“Well, you seem to be coming from our country. So why not take your things and come along with us?”



I stood, for the very first time, on the beach with my back to the ocean and facing the island and its forest. I looked at it as if I was watching four years of my life being reenacted to me. I watched four years of having lived blissfully in peace, though having complained every single day that I wanted to return to my home with my family and friends. I had dreamt of such a thing to happen for so long, but when the moment arrived, I actually dreaded it. I hated myself for leaving behind the most memorable place of my life. The men were loading the ship and one cried out: “Time to go!”
The two round men and one of their workers came out of the forest after hours of discussion. They seemed to be merchants or some sort of business men, by the way they spoke and dressed.
“…splendid place… Wonderful! …Coming back…Three months…”The taller one said, but all I could hear were small fragments of their conversation, for I was too concentrated on my goodbye ceremony to the island.
“Luna, the moment has come.” Ed spoke into my left ear. He stood beside me and looked upon what I had been looking at for the past few minutes.
“Am I just being silly?”I knew he would have been puzzled, but I didn’t bother repeating it in a better way.
“No you’re not. I’ll miss it too.” I was surprised to hear that he had understood what I was thinking. Could it have been ‘the power of love’?

“Raise the anchor!” When that was said, I felt my heart become as heavy as the anchor being pulled. Tears filled my eyes and I had goose bumps building up over my skin. As I watched my island float farther away from me, I felt something go missing from me, nevertheless, I did not know what it was. Thank goodness Edwin was holding me, or else I would have fallen because of the missing weight. The extreme giddiness I had felt that morning had somehow managed to sink below with the rest of the fish. I remembered thinking that I would have been stranded, isolated from the rest of the world for the rest of my life.

“Farewell Cartora,”I whispered as the boat pulled away. I was not discontented to be going away, but tears rolled down and fell into the ocean, adding yet another particle to it as if it could make a difference, "farewell."