Wednesday, March 19,
2025
Time: 6:09 AM
Song: Make This Go On Forever
Artist: Snow Patrol
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s while I worked out.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6bAbcPjGByVcH6seqnTLOz?si=eb385650e0db4f8e
Note: A bit of cheat. We had our Writing Workout session
last night at Write On. We each tried to take creative approaches to shipwreck
stories. So, I wanted to share that here. This song seemed like it would fit
when I was hearing it while doing some situps.
**
“Do you hear that?” Evan asked.
Lynn leaned over the rail, straining with her ears since the cloak of darkness made her eyes obsolete. It was so quiet that Lynn thought a pin drop could equal a thunderbolt.
“I don’t…”
“Shush?” Evan pushed her from the rail, stretching his body out into the darkness. Lynn wanted to grab his waist, act as anchor before he could plunge into the infinite black surrounding them. The flashlight in her hand cast an oval beam upward.
“There it is!” Evan whispered, the excitement straining his low volume.
“Evan, no!” Lynn cried, but before she could grab him, the boy leapt over the railing.
She fell back onto the mattress, tears stinging the corner of her eyes. Clicking off the flashlight, the darkness consumed her.
“Goodnight.” Evan called from across the room.
**
Dr. Rogers and Dr. Petty arrived promptly at 9 AM. Lynn and Evan had been fed. The standard fare of cold oatmeal, an orange, and a carton of white milk. Dessert was a battery of seventeen pills. Some pink. Some green. One fat and purple.
They wore hazmat suits. Dr. Rogers was big enough that Lynn bet Evan that they had to sew two of the suits together.
“If we could get our hands on it, and pry the bars from the windows, we could use it as a parachute to get out of here,” Evan had smiled back at her. Evan was missing both front teeth, but his smile was still cute, although Lynn would never admit that to him.
Dr. Petty was opposite, and Lynn worried that the man might collapse just trying to carry the extra weight of the suit.
“You children were out of your bed in the night, again,” Dr. Rogers scolded.
“Un unh.” Evan said.
Dr. Rogers eyes narrowed on Lynn’s, she could feel her cheeks redden.
“We can’t stay in the beds always,” Lynn said.
**
The linoleum was cold on Lynn’s feet as they tapped across the room to Evan’s bed. She kept the flashlight off, she didn’t really need it at this point. They had been trapped in this room at least a hundred days, she’d made this trek a thousand times in the dark.
When they had came here, there had been six beds.
Maria to her right. Haley to her left. The two beds next to Evan were filled by Max and Vince.
But they had got sick. One by one. A horrible business. Swelled throats. Red eyes. Sores that spewed forth green puss.
“Take them!” the rest of the children would beg. “Help them!”
The Doctors came each day in their protective suits. Ran their tests. Gave their pills. They didn’t take any of the children until they were dead.
Lynn crawled over the rail of Evan’s hospital bed.
“Are you asleep?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to play pirate ship?”
“OK.”
**
“If we crashed on a deserted island, the first thing I would do is climb a tree.” Evan said. They sat in the dark; the game of pirate ship already boring them.
“I’d make a castle in the sand.”
The room was dark. The Doctors wouldn’t turn any lights on until well after sunrise. Evan and Lynn liked to play in the dark because they thought it was harder for the cameras to see them. Lynn wished to be on a deserted island just to escape the constant watching, the endless waiting, the inevitable sickness.
“I’d be happy to be stuck on an island with you,” Evan said.
Lynn felt his cold hand slip
into hers, there was a rough spot on his palm, and she swallowed a cry. She
knew what the sores felt like.
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