The Mystery of Flight 2222 Page 6

  “Not that you have anything on your mind. Don’t worry about it,” Frank responded.

  A calm finally came over the group with the discovery of the emergency items. All breathed a sigh of obvious relief. Each turned in a different direction as instructed by Irving and scanned the sea and sky. What Frank saw was not the serenity of a calm ocean such as one seen on television in the ads for tropical islands. What he saw was endless water and small waves seemingly multiplying one after the other as if an audience watching the raft. The horizon was flat, dead flat. The only comforting aspect of it was that the sun’s rays allowed them some warmth from the cold and damp condition they were in. There were no shadows on the water or in the sky to give them any hope of immediate rescue.

  Initially, they all appeared focused, intently watching in a continuous fashion. However, after an hour or so, the enthusiasm waned, and people nodded and stared emptily at the bottom of the raft. As the hours wore on, only a few lifted their heads to study the water. The sound of the water beating against the raft was only outweighed by the homing device.

  Beep…beep…beep…

  Chapter Nine

  The sun was setting, and a cool breeze had begun to blow. Frank awoke to see Yuto and Soo Mi staring at the sea, then splashing their faces with seawater. Helen’s head was lying in Frank’s lap, the back of her head blood-caked. He soaked a rag with water and attempted to moisten the blood to remove it. She tried to open her eyes, but the seawater mist had evaporated, and a salty crust covered her eyelids. Frank dabbed the rag on her eyes gently.

  “Thanks. Any signs of…?” Helen whispered.

  “No. They’ll be here soon.”

  “How do you know?” she asked.

  “Hey, this is the twenty-first century. Technology and all that stuff. They know we’re down. They will search for us,” Frank said authoritatively.

  “It’s been quite a while, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know, but only a day,” he said, panning the sky. Noticing more water at his feet than just a few minutes ago, he grabbed one of the plastic cups retrieved from the plane and bent over and bailed water out of his area of the raft and passing it on to Yuto, motioning that he do the same and pass it on. “This will be an ongoing thing unless we can stop it,” he said to Yuto.

  The others also seemed to understand.

  Feeling a bit refreshed, Frank stood carefully, inspecting the nooks and crannies of the raft hoping to find something new. The tip of a red strap peeked out under Otto. Kneeling down and crawling to him, Frank pointed down. Otto reacted and rolled to his left, and Frank pulled on the rubbery material attached to the strap. Whatever it was, it was huge and bright red.

  “That’s a cover for this raft. This will stop the water from soaking us, and if it rains, it sure will be a Godsend,” Kimberly said softly while replacing the rag on her bloody head.

  Frank wondered why she hadn’t offered this information before. He guessed she was injured more than she or he suspected. She, indeed, was acting unusual.

  That gash is pretty big. Did she suffer a concussion, too?

  The cover was spread out, the edges lying on each passenger’s lap. Each connection on the cover fit raised areas on the top of the sides of the raft, and the cover was soon being attached in an organized fashion. Once raised by two inflatable poles in the middle and to the sides, window flaps could be lowered to allow the breeze, if any, to ventilate the inside yet keep out the penetrating sun and exhausting heat. A silent celebration of sips from liter bottles of water followed.

  Flares, a beacon, water, food, a flashlight, and now a cover. Christ, this is incredible. Kate would be proud that we found them. Now, I have to be sure we don’t lose them. We really need food.

  “What about food?” Otto asked.

  A mind reader, now?

  “There’s a two-day supply of food rations in all rafts, uh, and, I think, saltwater desalting kits. I’m getting sort of goofy so let me think here. There is also a little, uh, fishing kit, I think. Yeah, there is. What else? Uh, a knife somewhere, and, geez, I can’t seem to remember everything.”

  “We have some unused platters from last night’s dinner, too—not many of them, mind you. Have to go slow with them just like the water,” Frank said, considering the request spooky, especially right after he’d thought of food.

  “I’m damn hungry. Break one of those suckers open now,” Otto said, raising his voice.

  Frank viewed the other’s affirmation of Otto’s request and opened two dinners. The food was devoured in no time. Frank reminded them not to drink too much water, but his pleas were being ignored, especially by Otto and Homer.

  Better get found soon. The water and food will be gone shortly if these fools don’t heed the warnings. Shit, the more that fat bastard drinks, the more the others will drink to keep up.

  “Listen up, folks. I’m not kidding. I know you all think we are going to get rescued soon, but what if we were way off course, and they’re searching elsewhere? We have to conserve food and water for the worst possible scenario.”

  No one seemed to hear his voice.

  Finally, Helen spoke up. “Listen to the man, you assholes. Stop drinking all the fucking water and eating the food. Before you know it, we’ll be destitute out here. Get real. We’re survivors of a shitty crash. How often does that happen? Now, we need to rely on each other and get out of this shithole in one piece. Do you jerks want to live or die of stupidity?”

  All eyes were upon Helen as she spoke about how cooperation must exist in this floating cosmos. Frank’s pleas had been rejected, but the faces of the others showed understanding, reasoning, and concern.

  Swearing at these idiots got their attention. I’ve told Kate this multiple times. She always scoffed at my justification for cussing. Wait until I tell her this one!

  Cussing at times was a serious contention between Kate and Frank. Frank had been brought up with a bunch of boys in the neighborhood, and cursing was the way they made themselves feel like adults and all grown up. The more you cursed, the more the others thought of you as ‘cool.’ However, Kate was not a fan of it. Her father did a lot of it, and it turned her off and embarrassed her for as long as she could remember. She loved her father, but his constant repetition of these words deflated his effect as a father figure in her eyes, and she didn’t want that to happen to their children so she always showed some obvious disappointment when he cursed, often saying, “You don’t want your little girl to grow up cussing, do you?”

  But it was so difficult to stop cold turkey. It was as if the cursing was automatic, ingrained, so to speak. The words just blurted out without him thinking, often before he even knew he’d said them. He thought Helen’s screaming and using the ‘F’ word proved his point. The people who weren’t listening were shocked into listening for sure. Wasn’t that a good thing?

  “What’s that in the water?” Irving said, pointing out of his portal in the cover.

  Everyone leaned toward him, and the raft shifted, throwing several of them into the middle, crushing some of the dinners. Some continued to try to view what Irving had seen while others salvaged the food.

  “Where?” Maxine asked.

  “There,” he said.

  “Shit. It’s a fin, a fucking shark’s fin. He’s going to attack. He’s a Great White. Jesus Christ, get us out of here,” shrieked Homer.

  “Shut up, Homer. Stop making noise. It will only make him more suspicious. Sharks don’t attack just to attack,” said Irving.

  “They do if they are hungry,” Homer blurted.

  “Contrary to your stupid beliefs, they don’t, especially rafts and boats,” Irving replied in a sarcastic tone.

  “Yeah, I saw Jaws,” Homer said with authority.

  “That was Hollywood, not real life. Calm down. Keep quiet. Just watch the thing for now,” Frank suggested.

  For the next few hours, they remained fixated on the shark. It flowed through the water effortlessly while the front end searched a
nd the back end guided the head to and fro. Its movements were repetitive and deliberate, and it certainly was not in a hurry and wasn’t acting agitated. At times, it seemed the shark actually was looking up at the passengers and then glancing down as it turned. The gray leathery covering of its body was quite mesmerizing, and the dorsal fin was the central point, allowing them to follow it wherever it went. Occasionally, the shark dipped below the water, and the fin of the tail replaced it, but shortly after that, the dorsal fin reappeared and moved slowly passed the raft. There were other sharks nearby, but this one was the closest and for the longest time.

  Then, it was gone. They were all gone. Rain in the form of a warm shower began. Frank and Yuto, with the help from Kimberly, fashioned the cover’s top into a funnel to direct the rainwater into some empty bottles. Others scooped up any extra rainwater they could and drank it. It was considered a blessing from above, for sure. Otto seemed to be a dying animal trying to suck up and swallow any water near him. He couldn’t use his right hand, but he licked his shirt and pulled it up to his lips with the left hand, all the while jerking his body around to lick the raft’s edge where the raindrops were so obvious as they hit. Kimberly used a gentler technique, cupping her hands and sipping from the heels of them as water fell onto her fingertips. Others just leaned back with open mouths, and others placed their hands in a circle around their mouths as funnels.

  ~~ ~~ ~~

  Maxine joyously kept licking her lips as the rain fell on her face and trickled down to her lips. She had her eyes closed, concentrating on something else rather than on the water getting to her mouth. In fact, she did not use her hands to direct the water at all. She was day dreaming back over her life, her childhood so poor but happy with six siblings—two brothers and four sisters—her love of music, and how exciting it was to be able to play the piano at their church, how the pastor had taken special steps to get her lessons for free, and the joy she got from teaching music and piano in her town’s school in England.

  She’d lost the love of her life relatively soon after being married and had never married again. The reality of life and how cruel it could be was exposed on that day. She was the matron of the small town. Everyone loved her, so she’d heard, and she gave back to the community much more than she ever received. This trip had been bought and paid for her to go to an international music conference in Argentina that she had been dreaming of for years. The town’s people had all donated to a fund, unbeknownst to her at the time, and had presented it to her on her eighty-fifth birthday this year. Nothing could have been more unexpected than this gift, and she was humbled by it. She had kept her cancer and the treatments a secret from the town’s people because she just knew how they would all react by showering her with food and other material things she didn’t need. She couldn’t let people sacrifice things for her for she felt she was on Earth to bring joy to others through her music.

  ~~ ~~ ~~

  None of these castaways knew what pure rain water tasted like until now. How often, other than when a kid, did any of them just lean back and relax and drink from the sky as the rain fell? This water was like a pure mountain stream. It even had a tingling softness to it that tap water could never match. There was no smell to it, but each of them agreed there was a sensitivity, incredibly sweet, and a divine savoriness so wonderful that the receptors in their mouths could not taste anything more heavenly.

  The rain didn’t last long, but it did give hope.

  Chapter Ten

  The nights passed by slowly. Everyone slept for short periods, often being awoken by larger waves tilting the raft up and letting it flop back down onto the sea. The seawater then splashed onto their faces, despite the red roof and the attempts of many to cover their heads. The ever-present wind bursts spun the raft like a carousel off center, and as a result, the retching of a few roused the others.

  The raft itself was yellow and square, approximately ten by twelve foot in size with sides that seemed to be a foot and a half to two feet high. There were two areas in the bottom for attaching the canopy with two pole-like structures so it stood up like a tent, and the sides of the canopy could be attached to hook-like devices on the raft’s outsides. There was enough room so people could lean against the side and stretch their legs without getting in the way of one another once they had figured how to position themselves. Yuto and Soo Mi were always clinging to each other, and Homer was always scrunched into an irregular ball with his thighs on his chest, resembling a fetal position. This gave plenty of room for the others to turn on their sides while they slept.

  This day, the sun appeared on the horizon as a bright yellow-orange ball, a welcome sight from the dreary unknown of the night. Their thirst was soon temporarily quenched with the rainwater. Food was at a minimum, and it was clear everyone now understood the enormity of their situation. There wasn’t going to be a quick recovery for them. They must have been so far off course that the rescue planes and ships were searching in the wrong areas, and as they drifted under the ocean’s domination, the realization of truly being ‘lost at sea’ settled in. No one wanted to discuss their plight, probably through fear of panicking the others. They all had seen movies documenting plane crashes and how the searching of grids had taken days for the rescues.

  The days wore on, leading to the uninvited nights. Each person, in their own way, counted the days but eventually realized that their computations were becoming more difficult as hours and nights passed without calculating them. Frank was the only one who knew. His watch was digital and set to display the date. Thirty-four days had gone by, but he thought it unwise to inform the others for fear of them becoming agitated and even more depressed.

  Each day began with a precise count of water and food, allowing the passengers what they could drink and eat that day. The desalinating kits were of no use now. Prayers were persistently heard, urging God to be merciful upon them, water being the most important element mentioned. After consuming their one tiny rationed meal for the day, each person turned toward his own lookout post just by rolling onto their stomachs and propping themselves up on the side of the raft where they had slept.

  Hours passed. Nothing was seen on the horizon nor in the sky. Conversations among the survivors was minimal. What was there to say?

  “Hey, how’s everyone doing?” Frank asked, breaking the prolonged silence. He had been thinking about what he was going to say because it just had to be said. He had heard that humans could go maybe three weeks without food.

  Various moans and ‘okays’ came in response. A few people just stared at him, either in disbelief at the question, or they just didn’t have the energy to answer.

  “I know none of us want to hear or talk about this, but there will be a time that there is no food left. Hopefully, there will be rain for water, but no food,” Frank stated as succinctly as possible.

  “So what are you trying to say?” Maxine asked.

  “Just that if we are going to survive, we need to have a plan,” Frank answered.

  “What do you suggest, man?” Homer asked, finally picking his head up from his knees.

  “I don’t know. I think we all need to think about it. That’s all,” Frank said.

  There were no responses forthcoming. Silence enveloped the survivors.

  Frank knew what plan was necessary. He didn’t think anyone else would think of it, but he wanted to start them contemplating the possibilities in their minds, and when it was obvious that they couldn’t develop one on their own, he would tell them his plan.

  ~~ ~~ ~~

  Frank sighed. The wind mustered itself as it usually did this time of day, and, once again, the raft spun, a tin top out of control, slinging bodies around the raft like rag dolls, each person trying to right themselves against the weight of others. This was one of the most frustrating events on the raft because it sapped the strength of everyone, especially Maxine and Otto. In the beginning, the others had helped them because of their age and infirmity, but now, everyone was looki
ng out for themselves. They were all suffering.

  The wind is our great tormentor! It’s blowing us southeast every day. I don’t see us being rescued soon.

  The gusts were increasing. The waves were higher, and the raft was being tossed more and more in every conceivable direction. They hung on in their own little nooks, grasping the rubber handles for dear life. Homer tried to steady Otto, but his size prohibited it. Otto’s weight was crushing Homer at times. He had set his feet against the massive man to prevent Otto’s uncontrollable rocking.

  Frank steadied Maxine as well as he could, often looking down and seeing her once bright blue eyes fading to gray, exhibiting despair and physical weakness. A feeble smile from her parched lips appeared every once in a while, as if she thanked him for his care. He understood and smiled back.

  Kate has blue eyes, the brightest blue I have ever seen. Are her eyes filled with tears now? I wonder how she’s taking all of this. Is her family with her? Is she in contact with the airlines? How stressed out is she? How’s the baby doing? Is it true stress may cause a miscarriage?

  Visions of his wife crying while holding her abdomen that carried their first child clouded his senses. Despair was creeping in on him as well. How he dearly loved her but was blessed that she was not here. At least she and their child would live. Kate was stronger than she pretended, and he knew she would care for and nurture their child and be the best mother ever. He thought about his passing in the middle of this vast ocean and if she eventually would find someone else to love. This was not what he wanted to think of, but the thought continued to come into his head more than he wanted. Despair and loss of hope often placed more stress on one’s mind than the physical loss of strength.

  To clear his head, he watched Yuto and Soo Mi cling to each other, often wiggling into different positions but never letting go, her head snuggled into his neck and his chin over her eyes. Tears of hopelessness could not be distinguished from the saltwater splashing on her face, but they were there, together.