Solo: How Many Mistakes can a Young Woman Make?

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It was around noon when Thea had set off from the island, and after a few hours Thea discovered something very important to her sailing. Something so important, that she could probably end up dead thanks to this error. She had left any and all maps back on the island. This really put a damper on her ecstatic mood. Thea had finally gotten off the island only to find out she couldn’t do anything because she was stuck in a boat without any maps or any idea where she was. The discovery left Thea upset.

”Oh, why am I such a failure!” Thea wailed and she spent a good 10 minutes crying over her forgetfulness, angry with herself for leaving the maps behind. Now she’d be lost at sea and never set foot on land or publish a book or even have the adventures to write about in her book. Laying on the floor of the boat, Thea moped about for another several minutes before something caught her eyes. A piece of paper fluttering around, stuck to part of the boat.

Getting to her hands and knees, Thea crawled over, it was a map! And there was a letter attached to it. Strangely enough, there was a single word written on the letters envelop. The name was Thea. Was this letter addressed to her, or someone who happened to have the same name? Thea couldn’t tell, so she set it aside to read later.

Thea unfolded the map, she’d read about navigating, but hadn’t understood a thing. Good thing she’d brought a book on navigation. The map was of the South Blue. ”Oh, so I’ve been in the South Blue this whole time! I thought I was in the North Blue or the East Blue. Now which island was I on?” she muttered looking over the map closely. Thea was quick to notice that an Island on the map was circled in red paint with more red lines drawing out a path across the South Blue. A little note was scribbled on the side.

Thea, this is the island you were on and this is where you’ll start. ~ M

Thea blinked once, then twice, ”M?” she questioned, wondering for the first time since leaving if the boat being there hadn’t been such a coincidence after all. Her gaze drifted to the letter again. Cautiously, she opened it and began to read.

Dear Thea,

You are so very forgetful, I don’t know if you’ll actually remember me or not. If not, I hope those memories will come back. I have come to regret my actions that day. You were only six years old, too young to care for yourself, but I left anyways. This decision has haunted me for the past 15 years. In truth, I had thought you’d just died off and that if I returned, it’d be to find your bones in that library of yours.

That’s not the case though, recently, I’ve been hearing stories of a ghost living on that island. At first I was surprised, then happy. The child I had left behind was still alive and kicking. It was my captain’s idea to bring you this boat. He wanted me to come see you too, but after all this time. I don’t know if you’d want to see me. Instead, I will write you this letter and leave you this boat. I also left the map, knowing you Thea, you’ve probably forgotten to bring your own maps.

On the map, I circled the island, so you’ll know where you’ll start. I want you to follow the course I drew up, at the end is something I want you to find. I will tell you know more than this, it is up for you to find what I’ve left.

Also, underneath a loose blank of the boat, is a box. In this box is some Beli and a few other essentials like binoculars and a first aid kit. I highly doubt you have any Beli, and the only thing worth anything is probably my jewelry. I hope you brought it with you because I want you to have it all. A last gift from me to you. Oh, and there are a bunch of glasses in the box too, all of them have different prescriptions, so find a pair that fits your eyes the best, I remember your eyesight was a bit of a problem.

To wrap things up, there are two things I want to say. First of all, I’m sorry for leaving you behind to chase after my own needs, I was never a great mother for you. Secondly, maybe that’s a good thing. Because I’m not actually your real mother. You don’t seem to remember your real parents, but that’s alright. I’m sure those memories will come back eventually.

- Matilda


It took Thea a moment to realize that she was crying. The woman who had raised her on the island. The woman who had left her on that island, hadn’t forgotten about Thea after all. She had been so sure that Matilda had just forgotten about her, and when Thea was younger, she’d been angry about it. Now she didn’t know what to feel.

Matilda had given Thea a gift, the boat, which was Thea’s ticket to getting off the island, but she’d also lied. Matilda had led Thea to believe that Matilda was her mother. According to this letter, that was a lie. Thea knew she should be mad, furious even, but she wasn’t. Thea couldn’t bring herself to be mad. Matilda hadn’t come to see Thea, but she still came back. ”She remembered me!”

Thea spent a few more moments rereading the letter, before wiping away her tears. Thea had a path to follow. First she had to get her bearings. Thea regretted spending most of her afternoon on the boat moping about and not doing anything productive. It was in the past now though, she couldn’t change that. Now though, Thea could see the setting sun, which told her the direction she was going.

Maneuvering the boat took a few minutes, but Thea managed to set her course before sitting down with the map again. According to the map, she should be coming upon a smaller island where she could anchor off the coast for the night.

Thea crawled around looking for the loose plank mentioned in the letter. Upon finding it, Thea used her fingers to pry the wood up. Sure enough a little wooden box was nestled beneath the plank. Pulling it out, Thea winced and looked at her fingers. She had a splinter. Sighing, Thea pulled the splinter. Blood welled in the injury, but luckily the box also held a small first aid kit. She pulled out some bandages, and using some disinfectant washed out the small cut before bandaging it tightly. Next from the box came the glasses, which she kept trying on until she found the pair that fit her eyesight the best.

With her injury taken care of and new glasses picked out, Thea picked up the binoculars and went to the front of the boat. Turns out she didn’t need them at all. While she’d been searching for the binoculars, the island had gotten close enough to see without the aid.

Recalling things she’d read in books, Thea waited until she was close enough, before using the paddle to help get the boat close enough to shore to throw an anchor out onto the sand. By this time night had fallen, so Thea was working in the dark. She hopped out of the boat and into the shallows taking a rope with her. With a mighty struggle, Thea managed to pull the boat onto the sand a little before tying it to a tree that was conveniently nearby.

Once the boat was tied down, Thea boarded the boat and sought out her blanket. She found it among the things she’d brought and wrapped it around herself. Wow, it really was getting chilly. Pulling the blanket tighter around her, Thea knew she needed to get at least some sleep, so she closed her eyes, hoping the nightmares would leave her alone for her first night at sea.

Luckily, she got her wish. Unluckily, the lines she’d tied hadn’t been very strong, and when some waves picked up, the boat was dragged back out to sea, with the sleeping Thea in it.


Thea woke to the feeling of a wave rocking the boat and find a seagull staring her in the face. Screaming, Thea sat up bolt right, and looked around wildly, scaring the bird off in the process. What? Where? How? ”Oh no!” she moaned, it was only her second day off the island and already things were going wrong. First things first, she had to figure out where she was.

Finding the map safely tucked away amongst her things, she studied it, the used the binocular’s to look around for a land mark. Wait, that wasn’t going to help at all. Thea needed to find land, preferably somewhere where people lived and could point her in the right direction.

Thea looked around and found that the paddle she had used the night before was gone. ”Where did it go? Wait a minute! I didn’t, oh but I did!” Thea’s bottom lip quivered. She’d made another mistake, the paddle that was missing, she’d used to help pull the boat onto the sand the night before, and she had left it on that beach. Which meant, Thea didn’t have a paddle, and this definitely wasn’t a very good sailboat, there were no sails! there wasn’t even a place for sails! How had her mind skipped that detail the day before?

Thea really should have thought things through before leaving yesterday. Now she was at the mercy of the waves, with enough food to last her three days at most. What was she going to do? The majority of her second day at sea, was spent in a mopey fit, where she cried, moped around and cried some more. At some point, she worked up the motivation to update her journal with the events of the past two days. As night fell on her uneventful second day, Thea could only hope she’d drift ashore somewhere.

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