Chapter 2: A Day on the Island

I ran along the beach. Almost there…

"Aah!" I yelped as I was being toppled over. Tika had obviously caught up to me.

When I finally reached the finish line, I collapsed in the sand. Sagi, Azul and Tika lied down with me. The water from the ocean started to flow beneath me. It felt so good on a hot day like this.

I sighed. "10 years."

Sagi looked at me. "What?"

"10 years," I repeated. "I've been on this island for 10 years." I looked at them. They looked worried. "It's been the best 10 years of my life!" I exclaimed. They all looked relieved. I decided to ignore it. I did, however, notice that no one pointed out that it ways the only ten years of my life that I remembered. I wasn't going to mention it though.

Something caught my attention. It was just the regular island sounds, something you would hear everyday if you paid attention. Suddenly, inspired, I stood up.

"Where are you going, Ro?" Tika asked. She's been part of our group for a year now. She was the nicest animal you would ever meet, even if she was a lot bigger than the rest of us.

I grinned. "Don't you here it? It's the island making music for us!" I started running down the shore.

Here on my island,

The sea says hello.

Dolphins are waving,

Wherever I go.

There's a song in the breeze,

And a home in the trees.

Friends I can talk with,

Whenever I please

My friends started to get the grip of it. Azul started to sing.

Here on my island,

The playgrounds are great.

Then Sagi joined in.

Slide every slide.

And you don't have to wait.

Tika finished.

I started up again. And soon we were all singing together.

There so much to be seen,

From a new trampoline.

Finding adventures

Our daily routine.

Birds and bananas

And comfy cabanas

And shell covered vases to fill.

Coconut glasses

And mint with molasses

And pineapple patties to grill.

I smiled as I remembered the first meal I had here.

Here on my island,

There's nothing but fun.

Vines you can swing from,

A nap in the sun.

There are mudpies to make,

And branches to shake.

Treasures await

Any road that you take.

I started to climb up a hill.

I'll take the high path.

Sagi started to walk down.

And I'll take the low path.

We looked above at Azul in the sky.

And I'll take the path

Through the sky.

I reached a river.

I'll jump the river.

Sagi reached a mountain.

And I'll climb the mountain.

Tika stood still.

And I'll stay here,

Guarding the pie.

We all laughed. Leave it to Tika to think about food.

We all met back up and reached the waterfall. I remembered the first time I was here too. Wait, stop! Why was I thinking about the past. I was happy, remember. Yet I wondered again about the people who might be missing me. I tried to push the thought out of my mind. I dived perfectly into the water.

Here on our island,

Our days are a dream.

Hanging together,

We work as a team.

And the magic extends,

Through our family of friends.

Here on our island,

The fun never ends!

"Last one in is a rotten papaya!" Azul yelled.

We all ran into the water laughing. But I pondered our last lines. Our family of friends… What if I had an actually had a family somewhere…

I was jerked back to reality when Tika yelled, "You're the rotten papaya, Azul!" I smiled. He always was.

I think Sagi saw me wondering about my family, but he didn't question it because right then I asked, "So who's up for a game of target?"

Everyone looked excited to play, as always. Target was our favorite game to play on the island. You drew four targets on four different trees, and the first to bullseye all of them won.

We all wandered off to find our favorite throwing fruit. Mine, as always, was bananas, Azul grabbed kiwi, Sagi grabbed strawberries and Tika grabbed some coconuts.

"Ready?" I asked, after we had the targets up. Not waiting for an answer I yelled, "Go!"

Everyone scrambled to throw his or her first one. I aimed mine perfectly. Bullseye. But I saw that Tika had gotten one too. I scrambled to the next one, laughing. Oh how I loved to play this game. I threw my banana and saw it collide with a strawberry on the bullseye. Sagi had caught up. Running to the next one, I saw Azul coming up on us too. This was still anyone's game. Planning it perfectly I threw my banana, only to have it barely beaten to the bullseye by a kiwi.

I fell to the ground out of breath. "Okay, Okay," I said, giggling a little. "You win."

I looked out at the sky. It was getting dark. "Maybe we should have dinner," I suggested.

Everyone agreed.

Tika showed us where she found her fresh coconut for target. They were delicious.

Then we all went to our tree and closed our eyes.

I hoped for the lady to show herself...