Charlie made a slash in his stick. Number fifteen. He had been out here for fifteen days. Two weeks.
Shortly after moving down the beach he had decided he couldn't stay there. He didn't know why but he couldn't. And so he simply kept going. Walking all day, only his thoughts to keep him company, and sleeping all night wherever he could. Sometimes he couldn't sleep so he walked at night too.
His hands were shaking constantly now. At first it was every once in a while for a few minutes, but now it never ended. The shaking. His headaches were much worse too. It sometimes felt like his head would split right in half, though he knew it wouldn't. These were simply the withdrawal symptoms he felt. Fifteen days, drug free.
Charlie opened his backpack and pulled out a half-empty box of Dharma crackers. The only food he had left. This was the only thing that was worrying him. After today, he would need to find his own food.
He figured the hunger and the constant walking and headaches were what was causing him to hallucinate. Only two days earlier he had seen a cow. A cow. For a minute he thought it might be real. Kate had told him that she had seen a horse. And what about the polar bears? If there were polar bears then there could be cows. That's when he realized that the cow had red eyes, and pointed teeth.
For God's sake! A cow! A bloody cow! I'm hallucinating and it can't even be something interesting, like, a dinosaur. No it has to be a cow. He had thought to himself.
Then yesterday he remembered something when a cat ran across his path.
Hmm…he thought I think I read somewhere that hallucinations are supposed to mean something. What could a cow mean? I'm a cow? No that's not it. I eat like a cow? No. Hey some chocolate milk sounds pretty good right now. But what about a cat?
Charlie was driving himself nuts with his own thoughts. He had finally decided he needed someone or something to talk to. That's where the stick came from.
Taking a page out of Mr. Eco's book, he had picked up a long, thick stick about four days before and now he made it a habit to sit on the beach before he went to bed every night and watch the sunset as he carved his thoughts into the stick. It was a perfect setting. Now all he needed was a hot girl to sit with him and it might have looked like the front of a postcard. That's what always brought his thoughts back to Claire.
I wonder what Claire is doing? He thought tonight She's probably putting Aaron to bed right now. And singing to him. She has such a nice voice. To bad the last thing I remember of it was her yelling at me. I wonder if she's thinking about me?
Charlie dropped his stick. His hands were shaking worse than ever. He stood up and walked over to the ocean, ripping a piece off the bottom of his shirt. He dipped the cloth in the cool water and put it over his face. His good friend heroin had gone and made him sick again.
"OW!" Charlie said out loud.
He turned around and picked up the rock that had hit him in the back of the head. He held it in his hand and examined its round edges. He looked up right as another rock came flying through the air and hit him in the forehead.
"What the-"
"Shhhhh!!" whispered a voice from within the trees. "Follow me!"