A Man, a Girl, a Deserted Island - - A Crazy Epic Love Saga

Episode 32: I'm a child who fell on his head

My prayers have been answered. The clouds gather threateningly on the horizon. It will rain, and there will be water. Yes, plenty of water!

In the distance, lightning already scars the horizon. I feel the wind intensifying.

I open the other life jacket and try to improvise a kind of bucket out of it, but it doesn't really look like a bucket. Even so, I will collect every drop of rain and drink to my heart's content.

Come rain, come!

* * *

Water flows from all sides. The cauldron is almost full, my improvised bucket is full and hanging from a branch, my stomach is full, almost bursting from all the water I managed to drink.

This warm rain has been going on for two days and shows no sign of stopping. That's wonderful. Less wonderful is that the big waves are roaring furiously and have destroyed all our traps. Goodbye fish.

The wind is so fierce that it has overturned the shade and thrown it far into the waves.

I have nothing else to do. I sit quietly on the sand and let the water flow in torrents over my scalp, then down my back. I have nowhere to shelter from either the rain or the lightning.

I open one eye and amusedly see, somewhere to my left, an Eva frightened by the elements of nature. That tiny creature, lying on the sand, trembling like a leaf, is no longer Eva. With each thunderclap, her thin and fragile body jumps up like a ball. Maybe I would laugh if the spectacle didn't seem so pathetic.

Why is she so afraid? A lightning strike is much more merciful than a shark.

Her business. Let her be afraid, Tiberiu. The time has come for her to pay dearly for all the crap she's put you through in the last few days.

"Are you afraid of lightning, Eva?"

Useless. She can't hear me because of the wind.

I stand up and run along the beach, like a dog off its leash. The rain chases me from behind, and along with it, I compete with the waves and circle the island.

"Yee-haw! Woo-hoo-hoo! It's amazing! Thank you, Lord!"

I adore the rain and lightning, I've fallen in love with them. The warm drops of the monsoon wash both my body and soul, and after all that running around, I feel as clean and fresh as a newborn. I return to Eva and flop down on the wet sand.

I'm tired, but happy.

"Look around you too!" I shout drunkenly. "Look at all this beauty, Eva!"

Every lightning bolt illuminates everything around. The landscape seems suddenly immersed in a milky white glow.

I run away from Eva and plunge into the water. I splash around in the turbulent waves, then come out and roll around on the sandy beach until I'm dizzy and fall in a heap. 

I return to Eva and gasp:

"Do you know what I love most about this island? That you can't drown. You can go far from shore and still be only knee-deep in water. The depth of the water doesn't suddenly increase, doesn't scare you. For a stretch of about a hundred steps from the shore, you can't drown even if you want to."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself!" she yells with a frightened face. "Do you like this too?" she asks, pointing to the beach.

The waves have penetrated deeply onto the shore, bitten hard into the beach, and washed everything away. The landscape is completely transformed. I look at the beach, then at the girl, and can't believe how small she has suddenly become.