That’s when we heard it. We thought we just had headaches or were going crazy since we were so used to the chaotic busy bees and street horns of  New York City. We didn’t know where it was coming from, we couldn’t see anything. We could only hear it.

Hayden said he would go investigate but I wouldn’t let him. He was my younger brother and I was going to do anything and everything to protect him. I told him that we would wait until it was light enough to see, then we would go and search the beach for anything.

We didn’t find anything on the beach, the bright orange lifeboat hadn’t moved so we decided to look around in the  dreary jungle. I didn’t know until that day bugs the size of my hand existed, it was worse when they had wings.

We didn’t find anything there either, but then we heard it again. The pounding so loud, we ran back to the beach and into the ocean to drown out the sound. When we came back up it had stopped and we then retreated back to the shaded area. Since it was the morning, we ate some fruits Hayden had found. It looked like dragon fruit but it was pink and the inside looked like cookies and cream ice cream that was frostbit. It was bland, it tasted more of like a water down carbonated drink with a texture of mashed potatoes. I ate a little bit but then went and found some bananas and coconuts.

We went back into the dreadful jungle. We had to investigate more than we did last time. We were a lot more lucky this time around, we found what seemed to be an old radio station that had been abandoned years ago. The door was old and rusted, it screeched like tires as I opened it. As soon as my foot went in, the pounding started again but these were dragged out and long. There were only four of them but then we heard calls. We couldn’t tell if they were human or not but whoever was doing it was loud and proud about it. When it ended we ran back to the beach, not daring to look back.

Someone was out there and they knew that we had joined them.

We got back to the beach, huffing and puffing, my legs felt like jello. I slumped down against a palm tree to catch my breath and Hayden did the same. After a few moments we broke the silence,

“We need to find whoever is here, maybe they can help us,” Hayden said.

“Are you crazy? They sound like they are trying to kill us! We can’t just go looking around an island for people!” I yelled back. I was enraged, he was trying to put us both in danger.

“It’s the only way out! We have no other way! What are we supposed to do, wait for our cruise ship to come pick us back up like we were at a port? They are the only hope we have of getting off this horrible place.”

I could see the tears in his eyes, he was just as scared as I was, maybe even more. He wanted off this island and would do anything to get off.

“When. We need to gather supplies first we can’t just go unprepared. We will need food and weapons.”

It hurt to say the words. I didn’t want to put my baby brother in danger but I didn’t know any other way.

We would leave tomorrow at noon.

I decided it would be best if we brought food for the trip instead of foraging along the way. I made some sharp spear like things out of rocks to help. I made a dent in one after about half an hour. It took me a while but I got the hang of it. Hayden went and fished with the spear, as I collected bananas and other tropical fruits. I tied some Alocasia leaves together to make a basket to carry the fruit in, the muscles in my back tensed up so I had to put it down.

I decided to go see how Hayden was doing.  He had only caught one fish and we didn’t even know how we were going to eat it. We had no fire or wood or anything. We didn’t have blankets to wrap ourselves in to keep us warm. We didn’t have proper food or anything. The thought stayed in my mind forever. Hayden went to get a bundle of coconuts and any other fruit he could find. Hayden came back with an astonished look on his face and  his eyes wide.

“There is almost a full forest of fruits up the beach!” he exclaimed. “We should go sleep over there so we will have enough food.”

“How far away is it?” I asked. I was already so tired and it was getting dark.

“Just a little way down. I’ll take the bundles of fruits. Can you take the sleeping mats and the spear?” he questioned.

“Yeah, we need to talk about what we are going to do tomorrow. I was thinking that we keep all of our stuff by the fruit and search the jungle for a day or two but, always come back here at night.”

“Yeah, I think that would be a good idea,” he replied.

“Well, we better get moving so we can sleep good tonight.” We headed towards the fruit trees and were there quickly. We laid everything down and went to bed.

The next morning we left bright and early to head into the jungle. We brought fruit and our spear just in case. I could feel the little pinches on my legs and arms as the bugs bit me again and again, leaving little red angry mountains. Worst of all, it was humid. We were sweating and we were only walking. It was dark and gloomy and I just wanted to leave. We stopped and ate some bananas, then headed back on our journey.

We heard something behind a small fruit bush. We could see black moving back and forth, but we couldn’t make out what it was. We kept still in fear of bothering whatever it was. Then it jumped out from behind the bush and started chasing us. Hayden and I turned and started running. There were no big branches to grab onto and my throat started to burn.  Hayden grabbed onto a branch on the side of a tree and launched his feet into the air. After he was up I ran a little more and did the same.

A wild boar passed under our feet still running until it made a sharp turn into a bush and kept running. I could tell it scared Hayden a lot. When we got down he wouldn’t speak. I wish that if anything it was just me on this island.

We searched all day and didn’t find anything. I was feeling hopeless. My feet were blistered and raw. I had stepped on twigs and branches and my feet hurt. At least Hayden had shoes.

We walked back to our shaded area, ate more food, and drank some water from the coconuts. Hayden fell asleep, while I laid awake, crying and wishing we could get off this stupid place and I could go sleep in my own bed in our own home. I eventually fell asleep but the thought still lingered in my mind.

Today would be one of the happiest day on this island yet.
 

We decided today we would just walk along the beach, instead of the jungle so our bites could heal. We took all our coconuts since we would be in the sun all day. I decided to linger in the water since the sand was hot on my bare feet. I also wanted to avoid sunburn. We were talking about what we craved the most when we came across one of the most hopeful things on this entire island.

Footprints. I stood there shocked by what we had found. My jaw dropped as I felt a rush of excitement run through me. They looked like they had just been made. The footprints were relatively close together which meant they hadn’t run from possibly hearing us. I looked at Hayden who also had an excited expression.

All of this made us hungry. We found some sticks and decided to rub them together to see what we could get. Hayden went to get more fish while I rubbed the wood together for what seemed forever. Then, a tiny little spark popped up and I rubbed even harder and faster until a flame appeared. I shouted with excitement to Hayden. He ran back with two fish in his hands. One for each of us. We built a little fire stand so we could cook the fish. It was delicious, still pink in the middle just like steak. Neither of us had ever cooked fish before, but I thought we were pretty successful. My legs started to itch and I could see the bites had gotten a little swollen. We decided to sleep it off here instead of going back. Oh was I wrong about the fish.

I woke up with my stomach in knots and running into the edge of the jungle to puke. The fish must have been undercooked and now I had food poisoning. Even worse our fire was out. Hayden woke up and he was fine. He insisted that we follow the footprints. He had marked them with sticks and what direction they were going in. I tried to stand but my legs were too weak. I noticed that the bug bites had gotten even worse and were starting to blister.  I again tried to stand up and this time succeeded, but I got really dizzy and had to lean up against a tree that was nearby. My mom would have taken care of me, she would have let me sleep and gotten me food and plenty of water. That’s what I wished for another time where I could see my mom and dad. It hurt to just think about it. We had to go on. I had Hayden wrap my feet, legs and arms in Alocasia leaves to protect me from any more bug bites. He did the same to himself. I started to walk and it hurt less since the leaves helped cushion my feet. Hayden gathered supplies and we walked into the jungle once again.

We walked and lingered, we had to go slow and take many breaks since Ifelt horrible. I puked a lot along the way. We had seen little patches of dirt which meant that there  must have been something or someone here multiple times to make the patch. We found a bunch of these and they seemed to make a path that we followed. We stopped and rested for a while. I almost fell asleep but Hayden made sure we kept going. I ate a little bit but it hurt going down and just as much coming back up. We made our way down, still following the dirt patch path when we came across and the path was all dirt. We could see footprints in the dusty sand. We looked at each other and smiled. We followed it until we saw a bridge-like structure. We walked across admiring the tiny bridge. We followed down the path some more when we saw a tiny little shack. There was no lights but it gave us hope anyway.

We could see the sky just enough to tell that it was night time, and I wanted to go to bed anyway. We decided to sleep near the shack instead of walking back since it would have taken us all night. Hayden made us sleeping mats and he drifted to sleep. I laid awake watching the gleaming sky. The stars dazzled in the night. Even though I was feeling horrible I had left to climb a tree until I reached the top. It was the most beautiful sight I had seen on the entire “vacation”. I could see all the tops of the trees, and the moonlight was reflecting off the ocean. I didn’t want to leave but I knew I needed to since I needed to rest.

We woke up the next day feeling well rested. We ate the rest of the bananas and started to head for the tiny shack we had found. There were still no lights on. We decided to go and follow down more of the path. We crossed over another bridge that went over a small creek. It made the same sound as the creek that lead into our pond back at home. I kept moving before to many memories came back. We heard laughter. I was smiling ear to ear. We walked more and turned to see children playing and dancing. I saw an older woman and started to approach her, when she saw Hayden and I she took a step back but then smiled.

“Do you speak English?” I asked her.

“Yes. What is wrong?” She replied.

“We are stranded here. Our cruise ship was in a storm and we ended up here. Could you help us?” I couldn’t go into detail I knew it would bring back all the fear. She motioned her hand as for us to follow her. We did so. She lead us to a very nice shack and opened the door. The door revealed an older man maybe in his early 50’s sitting in a big comfy looking chair. I could tell he was American because he had on a San Francisco 49ers hat on. She let us in and left.

       “Hi, I’m Lu, this is my brother, Hayden. We were hoping you could help us.”

       “What can I help you with?” He asked

“Our cruise ship was in a wreck and we were hoping you could help us. We want to get back to the states and to our home.” I replied.

“Well you see I have an old plane that broke down a while back and I’ve been trying to get it up and running again but the old thing won’t start.” He looked like he had been here for a while.

“Sir, I’m not sure if I could be a big deal of help but in school I’m in an Aviation class and I could maybe take a look at it.” Hayden offered. We followed the guy out of the shack and down a pathway. There were children playing along the path way too. They all said “Hi Mr. Wilson!” and Mr. Wilson would always smile and wave back to the children. We had been walking for a good five minutes when we saw a plane. The plane wasn’t in the best shape, but it could have been worse. Mr. Wilson opened something underneath and Hayden and him started talking.

A older woman waved for me to follow her. I told Hayden and Mr. Wilson that I would be back soon. She lead me down to a little pond with crystal clear water. There were a few girls there swimming around in it. I noticed that all the girls hair was down and it seemed to be bothering them. I asked one of the woman if they had any stretchy material. The woman brought back a small basket of what seemed like cut up leaves. I tied one together and called a young girl over to me. I asked her to turn around and she did so. I french braided her hair and used the leaf to tie it at the end. The girl turned around in astonishment.  A older woman sat down next to me and another on the other side. I taught them how to do french braids, normal braids, pony tails and buns. The girls looked so happy to not have it all on their backs in this heat. The women started to braid each others hair. I felt so happy. I had just helped all of these people with such a little thing in America but here, it would help them so much.

I decided to swim and a few hours later I saw Hayden running towards the pond. He was smiling and sweating and I couldn’t wait to here what he had to say.

“The plane is working! Come quick! Hurry!” Hayden yelled in excitement.

I got up and followed him down the path. I could see some villagers going into Mr. Wilson’s shack and bringing things back out in baskets and heading back down the path. When we arrived Mr. Wilson was packing his things that had been brought to him so far. Me and Hayden didn’t have anything so we just helped him. Woman were bringing fruits. A lot of fruits. They had baskets and baskets of all fruit. They had some baskets of bread too. After a while everything was packed. Mr. Wilson checked all the gears and fuel. He set a route towards Miami.

That night I slept in a shack with a few younger girls. They called the shack “The Sleepover Shack.” We went to bed and I was sleeping next to the girl that I had first braided her hair. I couldn’t help but play with her new hairstyle. It was funny to me how something this simply, they had never even heard about. I drifted to sleep with a smile on my face I couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

   I woke up the next morning early and Hayden did the same. Some of the men were already awake and they fed us breakfast. Mr. Wilson was up early also. We all walked back to the plane together and what felt like all of the village was back there. Some of the woman and children that had talked to me were crying because they didn’t want me to leave. I didn’t want to leave either. This island had been the worst thing in my life, but when I found these people, it felt like home.

I started to cry. The young girls that I had done their hair gave me a hug before we boarded the small plane. Everything was packed and ready to go. I waved everyone goodbye when I sat down. Hayden closed the door behind me and Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson sat in the pilot seat with Hayden next to him. I sat by myself in the back row looking out the window as we left. I could see the village of people waving us off. I hadn’t known these people for long but they felt like family. We had been flying for about an hour and we had eaten lunch, I was thinking about our time on the island before we got to the village. Then I remembered. The drums. The pounding drums. Then I asked,

“Mr. Wilson, do you know about any loud drums on this island?”

“Well yes, I do.” He replied.

“What are they for then? When we first arrived here they would pound them.” I was starting to get curious if the village knew we were there.

“They pound the drums every year on the same night. They celebrate my arrival. The pounding represents how many years I had been on the island.” He answered.

“You’ve been on this island for four years?” I asked remembering how many beats there had been.

“That’s right.” He answered. Hayden was sitting in his chair being very quiet. Maybe he missed the island too. After a while of watching the gleaming waves of the ocean I started to get tired and decided to take a little nap.

I woke up a few hours later to Mr. Wilson saying, that there was just over an hour to go. I smiled and looked out the window, I could see small boats and some little islands that must have lingered off the Florida coast. We passed around some bananas and watched out the windows. When the hour was up Mr. Wilson was on his radio talking to someone who determined if we would land or not. When they said we could we cheered. I was happy to finally be close to home. We had a rough landing since Mr. Wilson was a little rusty on his pilot skills, but we were still okay.

We were greeted by a few coast guard at the airport. They were very kind but were urgent since they had to check the plane for anything harmful. They escorted us inside one of the buildings next to the tower. The air conditioning hit me like a brick wall. I hadn't felt something this cool since the cruise in our cabin room. It felt amazing. I could tell that Mr. Wilson and Hayden were enjoying it too because of the looks on their faces. We got to a desk and we had to tell the lady a bunch of information, it was a lot and took us quite a while. After Mr. Wilson was finally done a coast guard approached us,

“Apparently this island that you were on has never been found by us, or any other country. We have been given permission to take this island as U.S. territory. Life for the islanders will go on as normal and nothing will change for them. You three are the only people allowedoud there and of course the U.S. government. You have also been granted the special permission of naming the island. So, which one of you would like to name it?”

I could feel Mr. Wilson and Hayden’s eyes on me. I didn’t know what to do or say, so I did what most people would do if they were given this permission,

“Elaina,” I said. Hayden whipped his head back at me.

“But Lu, you hate your real name.”

I knew that was what he was going to say.

“When we were on that island, I learned to love what I had once hated. We both hated the island when we got thereir, but we both didn't want to leave.”

My eyes started to tear up so I looked away out the window next to me.

The coast guard said, “ I will inform the National Coast Guard.”

We all said thank you, we sat down at the receptionist's desk and arranged flights home. I saw a worried look on Mr. Wilson’s face. Then he finally asked,

“My wife.” He finally spoke and I could tell his heart hurt. His eyes started to water. I had never thought of Mr. Wilson having a wife. He had been gone for four years. The receptionist looked up from her computer,

“Mr. Wilson, your wife is alive and well. She is living in the upper peninsula of Michigan.” Mr. Wilson started to cry, he excused himself and went to the restroom.

“ This seems strange, someone has been paying your home bills.” She seemed puzzled. “ There are two names on the bills, Jason and Annebeth.” With that Hayden and I both started to cry, this meant that both of our parents were alive. We finished our flight arrangements and we were almost on our way home, we were happy that all three of us could be on the same plane since we all lived in Michigan. Even though we lived in Grand Haven. Mr. Wilson had a connecting flight in Muskegon to the U.P. The receptionists got a hold of our parents and they were picking us up at the airport. I was ecstatic that my parents were alive and we would get to see them. We boarded our plane for our four hour flight. We sat down at our seats and I had gotten the window seat. I was thinking of my parents and how they got home. I was wondering if things would change or not. I knew one thing was that I’m never ever going on a cruise again. But then I thought of the village people. I knew I would miss them a lot but then I remembered. We were given special permission to go to the island! I could visit them! A smile drew across my face as I looked at my brother. He was watching a TV show on the private screens every seat had in front of them. My head was too full to watch TV. I was thinking of Lacey, my best friend. I wanted to see her as soon as possible to. With everything running through my mind and watching out the window I quickly fell asleep but my thoughts were still awake.

I was so happy to be home. It had been about 6 months since we arrived back home. Hayden went back to school and I got accepted to UofM. I decided that for spring break every year I would go visit the island. The island people felt almost like family and I could never forget about them.
 

Four Years Later

Mark and I had flown down there along with my mother, father, brother, my best friend Lacey, and Mark’s best friend Eric. Eric would be Mark’s best man and some of his closer villager friends would be grooms men. The same would be for me except Lacey would be my Maid of Honor and my village friends would be my bridesmaids. Mark and I had travelled down to the village for spring break the last two years. Now we were getting married on the island. I had dreamt of this day since I was a little girl like all of us have. I would have the perfect day in the perfect place. I now used my real name Elaina. The island had taught me to love the things I had once hated, and now, I was doing exactly that.