The sun was creeping up over the horizon creating a pink sky lined with purple clouds. The waves lapped against the tiny dinghy which was no more than a stick on the large sea.
The girl inside began to wake; this was an unusual morning. She usually awoke to the sound of small birds outside her window. Not to mention the smell of the flowering vines on her balcony. The girl sat up in absolute fright.
"Where am I?!" she questioned.
She realized she was floating in a dinghy and was somewhere on the ocean. The girl screamed and cried with worry and terror. Tomorrow was to be her fourteenth birthday and she was going to die of starvation and thirst. Why had Calypso done this to her?
The girl closed her eyes trying to get a hold of herself. She laid down crying into a blanket. Then she noticed something.
A small box and letter was hidden under a board. She sat up and took the things in her arms. The box was wrapped as if it was a gift of some sort. She looked at it for a while there was a message on top that stated do not open.
"Strange" she thought
She looked at the letter. It was in Calypso's writing. She started to open it when she heard a rumble. It sounded like thunder, but there were no threatening clouds. The current picked up then she knew. A waterfall was dead ahead. The girl tried to push the boat back but it was no use. She screamed as her dinghy plummeted over the side and into the black bottom below.
The sun beat down relentlessly on the crashing waves and beach. Pieces of driftwood floated up onto the shore along with the box the girl had been sent with. Waves crashed upon the white salt sand.
The girl woke once again to a place unknown to her. She felt throbbing pain in her head that had a gash in it and her ankle was badly sprained. The girl was no longer a picture of an angel. Her nightgown was torn and brown with wet sand. She looked up into the sky, "Why me?" she barley whispered. Her dark brown eyes were on the verges of tears.
The distraught girl painfully sat up and looked out onto the sea. She had lived such a plush life before this. It was filled with beauty and happiness and love for the sea. Now , she hated the sea, she hated Calypso for abandoning her.
She looked up and down the beach, not a sign of life anywhere not even a plant. Her eyes caught hold of the package she had been abandoned with. She remembered the letter that had been sent with it. Before she went down the waterfall, the girl stuffed the letter in to her bodice. She took it out and read the front of it.
"My sweet" it read. The letter was not that wet and the print was legible. The girl opened it and began to read,
My dearest Natalie Elizabeth,
I know by the time you read this you will be in utter shock and despair. The reason I sent you was for you to live your own life. Until I killed your mother, you were in her care. Regretting my actions, I sent you out to sea to find your only relative, your father. Never come back to me again, I have sent you with all you need to live. Every day that I cared for you I remembered that no one should have the burden of giving up their life in order to save someone else. Remember what I have taught you and listen to your dreams and heart. Destiny is yours and your life is what you make of it.
Love,
Calypso
Natalie Elizabeth read the letter three more times before bursting out into tears. Calypso had lied to her. She told her that her mother died in a fire when she was only four. Greed is what had killed her mother. It was not fair that she was killed for someone's own happiness. Natalie promised to herself that she would never let anyone take advantage of her or her family again.
Minutes turned to hours as Natalie kept thinking and reading. She sat in the sand keeping her ankle propped up on the box. One thought possessed her mind more than anything. She had family, she had a father. He was out there under the same sky as she was. She would find him and when she did she would never wonder in loneliness again.