June 10th, 2006

The sun was bright in the sky when my vision came too; my contacts still in my eyes didn't affect my vision at all. I was in the mood for meat so I took my spear and headed off towards the water. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Jason in the same spot as last night, looking at the water.

"Um Jason you may move now!"

He looked up at me, "What did you say something? I was just doing as you told me to."

I didn't bother anymore and stuck my head underneath the water hoping to find some bass or salmon when an alligator came along. I had seen him before but didn't think about what he was up to.

I arched my back ready to lunge onto him when he said. "You think you can take me? Bad mistake if I do say so myself!"

I was frozen in my position.

"Excuse me; please tell me you didn't just talk." The alligator looked at me with clever eyes, one a bit bigger then the other.

"Well did you think I was going to let you hop onto me like a horse? I know better than to let someone put a sharp object through me and put me on a stick like a shiscabob." Immediately I had lost my appetite feeling like I had missed on something since I was born.

The alligator examined me, "My you don't look as old as most others that have attempted to spear me, and in fact you look like my son's age."

Embarrassingly I looked at him and muttered, "I was to turn 21 in a few days, but apparently I don't know many others to share it with."

He seemed to look interested in what I had to say so I continued, "My name is Brian, and I'm from Michigan which is…" I stopped and looked around.

Both of us looked over at Jason "Don't worry about your mindless friend over there; it looks like the fish will get him before he gets them!"

I laughed softly realizing he wasn't going to hurt me. "So Brian, it seems as though you've introduced yourself, but I'm forgetting my manners. My name is Axel." I nodded my head.

"It's amazing how many people want us dead, what have we done to deserve it? We're only trying to survive like you people out there." He said.

I knew what he was talking about and it made me realize that he was right about how wrong our world is.

"I know that we have our differences, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends, right?" he said.

I stopped and thought about for a moment and replied, "I know what you mean and it does seem senseless for there to be violence, but what can we do about it?"

Axel waded back a ways, "The only thing you can do is go about your life, it's no use trying to stop it. It'll only end up making things worse! My grandfather once told me that seeing someone hit another person was just like me trying to crack my head open on a rock, no matter how many times you do it; it doesn't get you anywhere."

Realizing how much time had gone by since we started talking I interrupted, "I'm sorry axel but I must be getting something to eat right now."

His eyes widened, "Well hey don't mind if I join you do you?"

I looked over at Jason, "Eh sure, do you mind if I ask you to get the food?"

He shrugged, "Kid you haven't seen anything yet!"

I watched him go further into the water and he lay lifeless for a while then as a group of trout swam by quickly he darted off scooping up a mouth full of them. I was most impressed by this.

I started a fire as he crawled up beside me.

"You're alright kid you know that?" he told me with a mouthful of food. "I'm glad that we're friends regardless of what happens between us."

And just as he said that Jason spotted another alligator making it's way across the water. I tried to stop him but he had already lunged onto it.

"Jason no don't they're our friends! Axel you must stop him!"

He swam back into the water trying to get Jason off of his brother. Jason didn't stop trying to wrestle the creature and knock it out of its misery. Finally axel whistled underneath the water so loud Jason had to let go to cover his ears. As he stood up I ran over to him, "You idiot you almost got yourself killed! They don't want to harm us!" He gasped at me and looked over at Axel.

"The kid has a point" Axel said slowly.

Jason looked as if he was the dumbest person on the island, "Brian what the hell is you thinking! They don't want to be friends they're trying to trick you into trusting them!" Axel interrupted him, "If I may say something, I didn't mean for this to happen and I should've said something before it happened."

Jack didn't seem the least bit grateful of what axel had done and took off into the ocean.

"I'm sorry about him, Brian; he's had it rough since our father passed away fifty years ago." I nodded in agreement, "It was back in World War II, he was swimming along the barrier reef when out of nowhere a Japanese sub came alone without warning and blew up one of your American ships, and he never saw it coming until it was too late."

I saw a tear approach his eye and I sat down beside him.

"Things like that happen all the time, whether or not you want it to you have no choice." He muttered at his face was now streaming with tears.

He looked up at me like I had become somewhat closer to him, "Let's call it a day eh?" he asked slowly.

By now the sun was high and about. Bud was getting his mid morning tan out of the way. Continuing on the hut Jason and I got together more sticks and leaves so that we'd be ready when the rain came. Up to this point there was only one day of rain in which the tide came up a bit. Lately though we've had a drought and the sun was a killer at most.

"Hey Brian let's finish this hut before the rain comes!" Jason yelled out.

I sighed and went inside, "You know we won't have this finished for at least another week!"

"Damn it Jason you should be happy that you weren't eaten by that alligator! From now on you can do your own work on this and let me do mine!" I didn't get upset with him though I wished he would consider how I felt about being here with him as well.

As the sun set in I put up the last palm branch on top of the hut for the day. Axel came crawling up by the fire I had just started a while ago.

"How are you and Jason doing?"

Not really thinking about it I blurted out, "It's not fair, I've never had to spend some much time with someone within a period of time!"

Axel looked at me like I was overreacting and calmly replied, "I think you need to realize something. I've been around years ahead of you and I've seen all sorts of situations like this. Yours seems like something children would argue about and it's no big deal."

I tried listening but my head was telling me otherwise. "I appreciate your advice Ax, but I don't think I can take it anymore. I need to get off of this island!"

Axel agreed, "I know how you feel, and it'll be disappointing for me to see you going. Just know that I'm here for you."

I thanked him and continued sitting by the fire eating a fish that he had brought me when he arrived. As I ate it I started thinking of how fortunate I should be that I didn't die when I landed on the island. I looked at Axel and smiled a bit though he didn't see me do it. Soon we headed off to rest, him towards the water and I into the hut.

That night I had troubles getting to sleep, I knew it wasn't caffeine because I hadn't had a taste of pop in nearly three weeks. It seemed as though something was trying to communicate with me, the question though was what? As my eyes got heavier I slowly thought about what Axel said and went off into a deep slumber, only to be awakened with a bang.