Twelve mile island, part 3

Save me lord


Save me, save me from the mighty flood...



I approached the island in small spells of trying strength. After a certain point, as close to the island as I was, I let myself loosen up, exhausting me both mentally and physically. "So close, yet so far away", "as it were". Like the promise of your favorite TV show after school, which couldn't end soon enough.

My orange had become mushy and soggy. This didn't phase me for by the time I had finally reached the island, my appetite had diminished. Somewhere in between the paddling and the paddling, I guess.

My hair was stringy and padded, my armpits were sweaty and stinky, and I felt bored, tired, and unaccomplished. I had made it!

In an attempt to make the best of my attempt, I thought I'd at least try and eat:
I peeled the orange's soft, wet skin back and bit into it. I expected the fruit to prevail in proving my appetite wrong and to contradict my previous stance in eating, forcing me to yield to the fruits delicious flavor and hidden agenda to be eaten until proven otherwise. And there, around 7:30am in the month of June, in the year 2003, on a warm summer day between Kentucky and Indiana in the middle of The Ohio river, an orange proved otherwise. A mix of unbrushed teeth, a hot and humid mouth, bad breath and it's own sour-sweet taste acted against the fruit. The fruit...



...was thrown overboard.

I had almost made the decision to salvage the Floridian favorite in case I had another spat with life and decided to kayak to Ohio while I was there, but in the 10 seconds I had to consider the idea the orange had already made it's way to downtown Louisville. A dry sigh escaped my wrenched body; it was time to move on.
As I stepped out of the kayak and into the "mud", a cloud crossed over the sun. The whole area became grey. Soon I started to think that nothing was gonna come of this. Sure, I tried, but now I have to kayak back home!
Still I moved, breaking through loose, dead branches and overgrown weeds, careful not to encounter a fire plant. Unsurprisingly, a few seconds later I did. "There's nothing special about this." I said aloud. "WHY are you there!!!" I scratched at my ankle and stomped on the fire plant. Trying to calm myself down, I took in a deep breath. But that hadn't worked either--I couldn't take in a deep breath, only shallow ones. My lack of control overwhelmed me, and in no time I was breaking my way back towards the kayak. good timing, too--it was floating away.
I paused. Looked at the darkened sky, the brown river water; the overgrown shrubs that had masked the islands' beauty, which drew me and Jesse in to camp there one summer; the kayak.

A sad kind of anger inundated my thoughts.
The river.
Still flooded after all this time. Ruining our summer.
I don't remember exactly what happened next, but I think I might've screamed.
I stepped into the water. I wasn't lucky in evading the branches stuck in the mud, of course.
I swam to the kayak, pulled myself in, and headed home.

Even with the current, it seemed to be taking me forever to passed by the houses near the island. The battle was won, but the war had just begun. And that's when I threw my oars into the bow of the boat, stretched out, and layed down. "Fuck that. I'm floatin' back."

I situated myself and started to float back and forth, back and forth. It was smooth sailing from here on out. I bent up for a second to see if there were any boats around, saw that there were none, fell back and closed my eyes. A few seconds into almost falling to sleep, though, I was interrupted. The sun's rays started poking out of the clouds. An instant after that, it was in full shine. The light beat orange against my eyelids. "Never any peace" I said. But soon it's warmth started to feel good. "I could do this for awhile."

"Hey!"

I jumped up. Opening my eyes, I barely saw a boat in the distance.

"Are you ok?"

My eyes slowly adjusted to see that it was two men on a speed boat.

"Oh, yeah! haha I was just...just, uh, floatin' along. tired of kayaking."

"Ah, ok! thought you were dead!"

"Oh, no, I'm fine. haha. Thanks, though."

"Yeah man. Just wanted to make sure."

"Thanks!"

His buddy said something else as they sped off, but I couldn't make out the words against the engine. "That was nice of them", I thought. Didn't have a clue how I could've missed where they were, but, that was nice.
I layed back down and rested my eyes again, taking in the sun's heat.
Suddenly, I felt better. Better than better; Exhilarated. I hadn't given it a second thought until then, but mabye I had won "the war." What I had, I took to that island, where it now rested amongst the flooded banks. Soon the water would subside and recede from the islands walls, and with it will go all the fear I had brought to it. I stretched out and pulled myself up to see how far I had floated. Looking to my left, I saw the end of the neighborhood. To my right, Indiana. Turning around, I saw Twelve mile island, now just a spot in the water.

Tupelo is gone.