Chapter 14
At sea
"LAURA! LAURA! Laura, where are you?" Luke yelled.
He looked frantically in the water on all sides of the raft. He caught sight of her blonde hair in the water.
"Laura, grab my hand!"
She didn't respond.
"Laura!"
He wasn't going to wait for her to come to him. He jumped into the water and struggled through the waves. He put his arms around her and pulled her back toward the raft. For once he was glad that her bag weighed so much, it had kept the raft from being washed too far away.
He lifted Laura and shoved her into the boat. They were very close to shore now. He grabbed the edge of the boat and pulled it onto shore.
Luke took a deep breath. They were safe. He went to help Laura out of the boat, her eyes were closed.
"Laura? Laura? Laura!"
He took her by the shoulders and shook her. He got no response. He pulled her out of the boat and laid her on the ground. She wasn't breathing!
"Oh no. NO!" he yelled. "Laura don't leave me!"
Tear formed in his eyes. He fought them back.
"Pull yourself together Spencer and think," he said to himself. "Lucky made me take that CPR class with him. I wish I had paid more attention. I hope I remember how to do this, I'm the only chance Laura has."
Luke bent over her and tried to perform CPR on her just like the instructor had showed them. He wished Lucky was there now. Lucky had passed the class, he hadn't.
While he continued the CPR, he thought to himself, "Please let her live. I can't go on without her."
Suddenly she coughed and a lot of water came out of her mouth. She opened her eyes and looked at Luke. She smiled weakly when she saw him.
"Luke," she whispered hoarsely.
"Don't try to talk Angel. Just rest."
Luke was not one for praying, but he knelt beside her and said a quiet prayer of thanks.
The storm was letting up now. He knew that he had to get her out of those wet clothes, before she caught cold. He went to the boat and pulled her bag out. She had packed everything else in that bag, she had to have spare clothes.
Luke unzipped the bag and took the remaining food and water off the top. He was amazed at what he saw underneath. There was a coil of rope, a pocket knife, some matches in a plastic bag, pictures of the kids, and two blankets. He removed these items. Next he pulled out a cast iron frying pan.
"No wonder that bag is so heavy," he said to himself.
Finally he found what he was looking for. He pulled out some dry clothes for her and saw that she had also packed some clothes for him. Under the clothing, he saw a flare gun. She was really amazing. She really was prepared for anything.
He took the clothes back to where she was lying and gently raised her up to change her into dry clothes. She smiled at him.
"Luke, I'm hungry," she whispered.
"Oh Angel, you don't know how glad I am to hear you say that. Actually I am glad to hear you say anything. I thought I had lost you."
He went back to the bag and pulled out the matches. He fished around in the bag and found a small hatchet.
"Laura I am going to go get us some firewood. Will you be all right alone for a few minutes?"
"Yes. Don't worry about me."
"Darling, I always worry about you," he said with a smile.
He went off into the jungle and came back a little while later with a small amount of firewood. It took a long time to start a fire since the wood was wet.
When he finally had a fire going, he carried Laura over and laid her near it and wrapped her in a blanket. She dozed off and slept restlessly. Satisfied that she was all right and warm enough, he wandered a short way down the beach. He found a tide pool. The storm had washed some fish into it.
Luke stood in the water and slowly bent over. He lowered his hands into the water and waited. As a large fish swam by, he quickly pulled his hands up out of the water. The fish went flying onto the beach.
He walked over and picked it up. He carried the fish back to the fire. He cleaned it with the knife and fried it. The smell woke Laura up.
"Something smells good. What is it?" she asked.
"We're having fish for dinner. How does that sound?"
"Great!"
He helped her sit up. At the edge of the water he saw some flat rocks. He rinsed them off to use as plates. They ate in silence.
When they were finished, they lay together under the blanket. Luke held Laura as she drifted off to sleep. Luke lay awake thinking how happy he was. He didn't know where they were or how they would get home, but they were safe for the first time in days. He smiled, pulled Laura closer to him and went to sleep.