The Blue Lagoon…A different Interpretation
I do not nor have I ever owned the rights to "The Blue Lagoon."
This is a somewhat different "take" on The Blue Lagoon, "The Awakening" I believe it's a little more realistic and earthy interpretation of the story.
The story opens as Dean McMullen slowly regains consciousness after swimming from the sinking sea plane that was taking him as well as Mr. Christiansen, Emma Robinson and two other students to Trinidad to help build a school for children. On the way, a freak accident involving a large bird striking the windshield of the aircraft and killing the pilot caused the airplane to spin out of control, and crash into the ocean. As far as he knows, Dean is the only survivor.
I remember the sun beating down unmercifully upon my back, my mouth was full of sand, I was very weak from swimming, using all my strength to make it to shore. As I slowly made it to my hands and knees, spitting out sand from my mouth, I knew I had swallowed too much seawater.
Looking around, I saw that I was roughly one hundred feet from the jungle; on what island I had not the foggiest fucking clue. I then remembered the others, Mr. Christiansen, Alex, and Torrey, Emma. I remember us flying along staring out the windows at the blue Caribbean below us, when suddenly the windshield shattered and the pilot's head being practically coming off in front of us. After that it was a ride of sheer terror, no amusement park ride could ever hope to compete for the terror we all felt as the airplane spun out of control towards the sea. As I stood, I looked around for anybody else who might have survived, but saw nobody.
I tried to remember how I escaped from the sinking airplane, but my mind is still a blur, all I know is that I must have made it 'cause here I am. I started to stumble along the beach, as I walked, I realized I had no shoes on, my sandals must have come off as I was escaping from the aircraft. I began to call out for the others, but the only sound was the crashing surf on the beach. Suddenly up ahead of me I saw what looked like someone lying on the beach. I began to run, and almost fell, as my legs were still pretty weak from the swimming I had done.
As I came nearer, I saw that it was a girl, lying there, her body still half in the water, I rushed up to her hoping she was still alive, turning her over, I realized it was Emma Robinson. At first, I thought she was dead, she lay perfectly still her soaked cloths covered in sand, and her hair snarled and stringy. I kneeled down and carefully rolled her over, tilted her head back, and forced her mouth open checking for anything that might be blocking her breathing. Pinching her nostrils closed, I placed my mouth over hers and breathed into her mouth. Nothing happened, so I rolled her on her side, and slapped her hard between the shoulder blades. Rolling her back, I continued to blow into her mouth. Suddenly, she burst to life, coughing up seawater, and gasping, I assisted her on to her hands and knees where she promptly began to vomit up water, as she fought for breath. "Cough it up Emma," I said, open your lungs breathe in, that's it breathe in!"
Slowly, she began to recover, eventually sitting up on the beach, until I said, "C'mon, Emma. Let's move up under the trees over there get out of this sun, and off this beach. I tried to take her hand, but she pulled it away, "Don't touch me," she said, still trying to recover normal breathing. As we made our way up to the tree line, she began to look around.
"Unless they're further up the beach, I think we're the only survivors Emma, I said. She then gave me a disapproving look, "Don't touch me, just leave me alone, I'll find the others on my own." She then reached to her hip pocket for what was no doubt her "lifeline." "My phone is gone, did you taker it?" I glared at her, "Why the fuck would I take you're damn phone? The seawater ruined it, probably fell out when you were swimming to shore." My swearing at her must have taken her by surprise, because she suddenly backed down, and became submissive. "Look Emma," I quickly replied, "I'm sorry for swearing at you, but when I'm scared and nervous, I tend to do that. Sit down over here, we need to talk."
She sat down on a fallen palm; I stood and studied her for a moment. I had been noticing this chick for a little while now, unfortunately, she was part of that rarefied social class of stuck up high school girls, who always got their choice of guys. I was not part of that group, there was nothing wrong with my looks, I just came from a different social class, her parents as well as the parents of all her exclusive friends were of the "professional" class, the office managers, department heads, people who taught at the local community college.
My friends and I knew about these girls, we heard all the rumors and stories about the jocks, the parties, the "look the other way," attitude of their parents in regards to sex and alcohol. Emma and her friends through their parents money and education, had clear sailing on life's highway, when they got drunk or stopped for DUI's, they never spent a night in jail, some of them made no bones about the fact that they had sex in their parents beds when they were off somewhere else. I was reminded of that show "Pretty Little Liars" it was about these girls and their semi charmed lives.
In a million years, I never thought I'd get anywhere near a girl like Emma, or any of her kind for that matter, yet here she was sitting right in front of me coughing and trying to come to grips with the fact that her "lifeline" hence her whole world was gone. She looked at me with disdaining eyes, and that arrogant expression on her face, well that would soon change.
"Certainly we can't be the only ones left," she whimpered plaintively. "Why not," I replied, "We're just damn lucky none of us are hurt, Look Emma, I hate to break it to you, but we're on an island, as to whether there's anyone else here I can't say, but for now, we've got to stay hidden, if someone should come don't be running out to greet them, we'll watch, and see what they're up to." She looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out my ears, "What! You're crazy, of course I'll run out to them, you're welcome to stay here, but I've got things to do, my parents will be scared to death about me."
I shook my head, "Stop and think for a moment, girl, where are we?" She looked at me with a puzzled expression, "On an island in the Caribbean, why?" Sighing, I replied, "What two groups are found quite often in the Caribbean?" Still looking puzzled, she said, "Tourists?" Shaking my head, I realized I had my work cut out for me, "Sorry Em, but I was thinking more along the lines of modern day pirates, and drug runners. While you and the others were partying, I was talking to an old fisherman, about fishing, he also told me this whole area is filled with local pirate gangs who often times work with the drug dealers, when they're not out looting yachts sailing through the area. You run out to people you see on the beach or in the jungle, you just may run into some of those stalwart citizens. Do you know what they'd do to someone like you? I'll be blunt Emma, I don't want to have to listen to you scream your lungs out while they rape you to death or torture you. Then I'd be obligated to try and rescue you, and with no weapons, that would be a little hard, probably getting myself killed in the process. Is that what you want?" She looked at me, suddenly realizing the truth in what I had just said. "No," "I thought not, don't worry we'll get off this island, we're in the Caribbean after all, this isn't the sixteen hundreds when there weren't any other populated islands around, now let's try and figure out a plan of some sort."
Emma put her head down and began to cry, when all else fails, cry, yeah, that will solve everything, just great! I took a seat on the log next to her and said, "Have a good cry if you think it will help, but seriously, we need to talk Emma," She sobbed for a few more minutes, before looking at me with tear filled eyes, "We're going to die, aren't we?" My first instinct was to laugh, but I maintained a stoic appearance, "Nobody is going to be dying around here, at least while I have anything to say about it." I put my arm around her shoulder, and surprisingly she made no attempt to shake it off.
"Let's look at this thing objectively Emma, first of all, we need to find fresh water, then a source of food, but we've got to be extremely careful on that account, I know my berries and mushrooms back home, but not here in the tropics. I've got a couple ideas on getting fish, but as for hunting, all I can do is make a spear, or possibly a bow and arrows, depending on the kind of wood we find.
As far as any animals around here, I'm thinking rats…" "Yecch!" replied Emma, "None of that for me!" "Cold rice, and a little rat meat, that was Charlie's idea of R and R." Emma looked at me strangely, "What?" Shrugging, I replied, "Never mind me, I watch too many movies. Anyway, there could be wild pigs, goats, but I need a good way to kill them, then there's getting a fire started, and…Well you get the idea." "Do we have to do that, can't we just eat berries and plants?" "I'm sorry Emma, but there's a better chance of finding a source of meat on this island than much in the way of berries or edible plants, why, are you a vegetarian or something?"
She nodded, "Well you'd just better put that little "habit" on hiatus because we're going to be doing a lot of heavy labor, you're going to need protein, I'm sorry girl, but that's the way it has to be, the last I saw, there wasn't a friggin Whole Foods around here." Emma began to wail again, all I could do was look up at the sky, and say to myself, "Why me Lord. Look Emma, I've been hunting with my dad and Uncle, I know how to gut and clean fish as well as game, I know how to use guns and knives, camp craft, all that, unfortunately, I don't remember everything, and some of it requires more tools than I have. All I have on me right now is my Leatherman, and a pocket knife, they're better than nothing, I can fashion a spear, and probably a bow and arrows with them, but there's a lot I can't remember, but we're still ahead of the game with what I can remember, how about you, have any skills that might help us?"
This question silenced her sobbing for a moment, she stopped and looked up. "Were you ever in the girl scouts?" She shook her head, "I didn't think so," I replied, it's obvious you're straight, but I had to ask." A look of indignation appeared on her face, "What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped. "Ah, forget it, maybe I'll tell you some other time, but seriously do you have any skills that can help us, know any first aid, cooking? Anything at all?" "I learned how to weave baskets at a parks department class when I was little." "Do you still remember how to do it?" I asked. Thinking to herself, she replied, "I think, I'd have to practice first." "Great, that's a start anyway."