Solo: Stuck at Sea

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The nightmares returned. Thea woke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily, her eyes wild. It took several minutes for her to calm herself and recollect her thoughts. It was just a nightmare, just a nightmare. There was no one kidnapping her, everything was fine. Well, not fine, seeing as Thea was still adrift at sea.

Tears threatened to make another come back as Thea reflected over her incompetence of the past few days. First she’d left her maps back at the island, which hadn’t been too bad, seeing as Matilda had left some maps on the boat itself. No, the real problems had started when she made the mistake of not tying the boat down better her first night of the island. That, and she’d left the paddle on the island where she’d anchored. Being forgetful really sucked at times like these.

Thea laid back down in the middle of the boat. Lying flat on her back, she stared at the sky, and stared, and stared, and stared. Eventually she mustered the resolve to sit up and take inventory of her food. She grabbed the chest containing those items. Thea pushed open the lid and began pulling things out.

Thea spent the next 20 minutes carefully rationing out the food. She had enough to last her about six to seven days, but no more. This was if she only ate one meal a day for the next few days. If she were going to go breakfast, lunch and dinner, Thea would only have two days’ worth of food. It was a hard decision to make, but Thea decided on one meal a day. After all, she had no idea how long she’d be drifting out here in the middle of the ocean.

Putting the food back, Thea figured she wait until later to eat this days rations. With that done, Thea dug out one of the books she brought. Then, thinking twice, Thea put the book back and got out her sewing kit and some of the new fabrics that had washed ashore. One of them was a really nice silky white material, it seemed to have been some woman’s ball gown. That meant nothing to Thea, this dress would be modified to fit Thea so she’d have one more option for clothing.

The dress ended up taking several hours to completely modify, but the end result was something Thea was very proud of. It was more of a sun dress, with blue colored accents. One of the other items she’d found on the beach the other day had been a dark blue skirt that had been cut into strips for the blue accent pieces. By accident, Thea had made the dress sleeveless originally so she used some of the blue strips of fabric to make straps for the dress. The best part of the new dress happened to be the frills. She’d made frills with the blue and extra white fabrics. Oh how Thea loved the frills.

”Oh it turned out so cute! I should try it on! But wait, no, I should save this dress for when I get off this boat. If I get off this boat. No! Stop! I can’t think like that! I will get off this boat, and when I do I will wear this dress.” Thea declared to no one in particular, not that she could even talk to anyone, there was no one besides herself on the boat.

Thea neatly folded the dress and stored it in the chest with her other clothes. Next she pulled out a cream dress. Thea changed from her current dress to the cream one before putting the clothing chest away.

The rest of the second day passed without incident, Thea spent most of it reading, taking short naps and writing in her journal. About mid-afternoon she ate that day’s rations before lying down and watching the sky above. Soon enough, day turned to night, and Thea pulled her blanket tightly around her to sleep. Unfortunately, her nightmares would return once more that night.

A much younger Thea was curled up in a bed much too large for the toddler. Teddy bears and other stuffed animals covered the bed in piles. Young Thea was sound asleep clinging to the largest of the stuffed animals. All was quiet.

Then the screaming started. Young Thea sat up and looked around, pulling the bear closer to her. ”Mama?” she called out in the dream. Instead of her mother, a vicious looking man with a gun burst into the room and grabbed the little girl. Young Thea was shoved into a bag, and the dream blacked out for a few moments.

When color returned, everything was vague to her eyes, like she were blindfolded, in a room with dim lighting. There was a sense of motion, like she were on a boat. The noise had died down once more, only for it to explode once more as there was a large crashing sound. More people began screaming and yelling as young Thea could feel water engulfing her.

Thea’s eyes flew open with and anguish flooded her gaze. The same nightmare, every single time. Forcing back a few tears, she sat up.

It was only about midnight, but Thea no longer felt like sleeping. Instead, she leaned lightly against the side of the boat, wrapped up in a blanket and watching the stars and the night sky as they slowly faded to be replaced by the morning sky.


The fourth day at sea had passed without a hitch. Nothing went wrong, but Thea never drifted ashore anywhere. Thea had been quick to fall into a similar pattern to the one she’d used back at the island. She’d wake up, read a book, start the days journal entry, sew a little, eat her daily ration and finally she spent the majority of the time scanning the horizon with the binoculars left by Matilda.

Most of the fifth day had also gone uneventfully just like the others, that was until noon rolled around. Thea had been scanning the horizon with her binoculars when a sight for sore eyes caught her attention. An island!

By the looks of things, she’d end up drifting ashore by the end of the night. Oh glorious day! Thea wouldn’t starve at sea after all! Excited now, Thea started scrambling around. First she changed into the dress she’d made a few days ago, wanting to look her best when she arrived. She also took a pearl necklace out and placed it around her neck.

To humor herself, Thea spun around in the dress once. It fit perfectly, just as expected. Now all that was left to do was wait anxiously. Oh, and brush her hair. Thea’s long hair was filled with snarls. It took a good forty-five minutes just to untangle and brush her hair, but the end product was very much worth it.

”Oh this is so great! I’ll actually see people! I haven’t seen another person since, well, Matilda left! I wonder what other people are like.” Thea hummed softly to herself as she went to record the new event in her journal entry for that day.

After a few minutes of writing, Thea’s stomach growled. ”Oh! I am so hungry, but I can also eat now! That’s good.” Thea said, placing a hand over her growling stomach. The rest of her food was brought out, and Thea had herself a miniature feast.

Her stomach filled, and the end to this ordeal in sight, Thea decided nothing could better complete her day than a nap. So the young woman laid back, using the blanket as a pillow and dozed off.

She was woken to rain drops hitting her face, and waves rocking the boat violently. A storm had blown in while she’d slept. Frantically, Thea moved to tie everything down as quickly as she could. Her blanket was ripped away by the storm, and a few other items were lost overboard during the rocking, but Thea managed to tie the rest down.
Thea clung to the bottom of the boat, hoping and praying that the storm would pass over soon. The boat couldn’t take much more of being tossed about. Thea, didn’t know if she could hang on long enough to not be bounced overboard.

The storm struck hard and it struck fast. The rain seceded soon after it had come, but the waves didn’t calm. They continued to toss the boat around, with Thea still in it, warm tears running down her face. This was absolutely terrifying and she was swearing to herself to never travel alone in a boat at sea ever again. Thea didn’t know if she could handle something like this ever again.

At some point the string of pearls necklace she’d been wearing had snapped, and the pearls were rolling all over the floor. ”No! Those were a gift from Matilda!” Thea wailed letting go to scramble around and gather as many as she could. Those frantic few moments ended when a rope snapped and one of the chests jerked around, hitting Thea in the head hard enough to knock the young woman unconscious. She fell limp to the floor as the waves slowly died down.

Unknown to Thea, the storm had brought her boat much closer to the island she’d noticed earlier. The island happened to be Karate Island, where adventure awaited her. The unconscious Thea was oblivious to this though, as her small boat washed up on a sandy beach of the island. For now, Thea’s seaward adventure was over with.

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