CAST AWAY: Part 1

Biting his bottom lip in hesitation, his stomach painfully grumbling from hunger, his mouth and throat dry and pasty from the lack of water - or anything to quench his thirst, Cutler Beckett has decided to find some sort of way to get food, and any drinkable liquid other than sea water.

He studied the ocean from where he stood, his new friend - the coconut, held against his side.

"I don't know if I could do this..." he admitted. "There's an entire ocean out there in front of me...and I can't seem to be able to survive all alone on this island." He sighed unhappily. "I suppose I should give it a try..." He set his coconut down in the sand beside him, twisting it so that it stood upright. "Wait here." he told it.

Then he faced the ocean once again. He slowly stepped towards the foaming waves until he felt dampness on his feet...then up to his ankles...then up to his knees...then his waist.

Cutler realized that this would be no use after wandering further and further away from his island, the water getting higher and higher, he finally turned around and began to wade back, when he walked right into a small patch of kelp, and the leaves began to wrap around his legs as he tried to move through it. Growling with frustration, he bent down into the water, and tried to pull the leaves away from his legs. They were a tangled mess, so Cutler had to bob up a few times for air before resuming his tiresome activity.

Finally, he waded up to the beach, with bits of kelp still afoul around his ankles, dragging them through the white sands behind him. He spotted the coconut waiting patiently for him a few feet away. Smiling to himself, he trudged up next to it, and sat down.

"It appears we're doomed," he finally sighed out. "I can't fish, I can hardly swim, and I'm always in a bloody mess!" He finished with a shout, tearing the kelp leaves from his ankles. They came off easily, and Cutler stopped to examine the last piece he pulled from his big toe. He smelled it. He took a small bite...then he took another after shrugging with approval. Then he popped the whole thing into his mouth and chewed away.

"I've forgotten seaweed was edible," he said to the coconut. "But it should be cooked. How do I go about making a fire?"

The coconut, obviously, didn't answer his question.

---

His hands stung from rolling the stick back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between his hands. One end of it was in the center of a small handful of dry grass a sticks, and the other end, Cutler was rolling it back and forth as fast as he could to make a fire for at least an hour. He let the stick drop as he hesitantly examined his palms. They were red and raw, of course.

Of course! My hands have never been in this state ever! Angrily, he picked up the stick, and kept trying, ignoring the pain altogether. The coconut sat by him, watching him work. Cutler scowled at it as he worked.

"What the bloody hell are you looking at?" he snarled. "If you had hands, I'd make you do this!"

Just then, a smoky film began to rise from the grass. Cutler gasped and stopped. The smoke began to grow, and a faint sign of a little orange flame began to appear.

"I did it!" he happily shrieked. "I did it! I did it! I've made a fire! We're not going to starve to death after all!" He scooped up his coconut, stood and danced about, singing; "I've made a fire! I've made a fire! Who made the fire? Cutler made the fire!"

Then he suddenly stopped dancing, and peered at his coconut's 'face'. "Are you female? If you were I'd happy...then again...it wouldn't be right to be romantically involved with a coconut in the first place. If you were an oyster, it wouldn't matter, though. You should be male. Yes, you should. But I must give you a proper name..." he trailed off in thought. "How about 'Eddie'? Do you like it?"

Just a stare from 'Eddie' was all he got.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Cutler grinned smugly. "Eddie."

Then he set Eddie down in his proper place where he was before. "Wait here Eddie. I must go fetch some seaweed to cook for us." He walked off, when he stopped at a second thought. "We? I meant 'me'. You can't eat at all, unfortunately." Then he continued off towards the sea, humming a happy tune to himself.

---

Two Hours Later...

Cutler sighed and leaned back against the palm tree, his stomach satisfactorily full from his seaweed meal.

"I am so terribly thirsty," he stated after a moment of resting. "I wish there was something other than seawater to drink..." he squinted up at the coconuts in the tree above him. "Coconut milk!" He sprang to his feet, and attempted to climb the tree. Instead, he fell down into the sand with a thump!

"Damn!" he muttered. Then he spotted his boots a few feet away, beneath another palm tree, next to his reconstructed wig. Cutler was on his feet once again, and walked over to his boots and picked them up. They felt heavyish, so he turned them upside down and out came at least a cupful of sand each.

"Odd," he sighed as he wriggled his feet inside them, before heading back to the palm tree. He slowly inched his way up the rough tree until he was no less then just out of arm's reach of the bear-sized coconuts. He swatted at them, barely brushing his fingers against their hairy shell.

"Drop you bloody, ugly brown lump of whatnot!" he growled. Then he planted his foot further up the tree, and pushed, causing the tree shake, and the whole bundle of coconuts went crashing down below him. Cutler sighed. "Well, at least you stayed out of the way, Eddie!" he called down. Then he muttered to himself. "Now how do I get down from here?"

It took about forty-five minutes for Cutler to get down from the palm tree, so that wasn't so bad. When he reached the ground, he picked up the largest coconut, and analyzed it. "Would you care if I ate one of your cousins, here?" he asked Eddie.

Just a blank 'stare' from Eddie as usual.

Cutler sighed and nodded. "I've never really cared for any of my cousins, either."