The “I’m On A Deserted Island So I Think I’ll Keep A Journal” Journal

 

 

1)

Wow. This is so cool.  Apparently Chris won some contest over the internet and he gets to fly himself and twenty of his friends to a trip to a resort in Japan.  Of course, since English is his favorite class, he invited us all to go along with him.  Our English teacher, Ms Gokturk, couldn’t come because she had to teach classes, but she came to the airport to wish us all a good trip.  There was a special personal jet that was sent for us to go fly over on.  Half way though the flight; there was a large storm that set us off course.  The pilot lost control of the plan and we started to fall.  We landed in the ocean right next to an island.  Unfortunately the pilot was killed on impact but the rest of us were lucky enough to make it out alive.  As we floated in a raft on the ocean surface, we slowly approached the mass of land in the middle of nowhere.  As soon as we were all safe on land, some of the group started to become hysterical.  “We’re all going to die!” “Oh no!!” “It’s going to be like that horrible book we had to read in English where they all killed each other!!” “No one’s killing anyone,” I said. “It’s not going to be like that book because that was fiction and this is reality.  Plus, they were British.”

 

2)

The first task was to see if it really was an island.  Once everyone was calm, we split up into a couple different groups.  One to go see if it truly was an island, another to find food, and one more to search for fire wood.  I went with the people looking for food.  We found a couple mushrooms and some berries, but Chris said not to eat it if you don’t know what it is.  No one wants to be poisoned this far from civilization.  We ended up finding some clustered trees, with all different kinds of fruit.  We took as much as we could carry and began to head back to the meeting place, the place we said we would go back to after out various treks.  On the way back, Jackie stopped to tie her shoe.  Suddenly there was a loud rumble of something large rolling down the mountain.  A giant boulder rolled passed us about 30 feet back.  When we turned back around, Jackie was gone.  We didn’t see her for the rest of the day.

 

 

3)

The group who climbed up the mountain concluded that it was in fact an island that we were stranded on.  And since no one saw any sign of other humans on the island, we would have to do our best to survive on our own.  There are almost twenty of us.  How hard could it be? With that thought in mind, we divided the group once again to work on making a fire and another to begin to build the shelters.  I thought I could be more useful in building a shelter, so I went with that group.  The shelters were hard to make because everyone was tired, hungry, and some a little upset about our whole situation.  It took us a while but we finally found a nice, cool place on the beach where the mountain cast a shadow on to the sand.  It was hard work and all the people complained.  We all took a break around noon, thought no one knew the actual time.  I went to check on the people with the fire.  There was a large pile of wood collected, but the fire wasn’t going.  The others had been trying to use various pairs of peoples glasses as burning lenses, but with out any successes.  And it is a good thing that they didn’t light it yet.  As soon as I approached the pile of wood, I noticed that they had piled it right in the center of the forest.  Though it was easy to get wood, it would set the whole island aflame.  I advised the others that we should move the fire before we lit it.  Some were with me, but others were tired and didn’t have the energy to move the all that wood.  So the ones that had the energy moved while the others took a break.  Moving the wood took most of the day.  When we finished, we came back to see that no one had touched the shelters since I had been away.  Why didn’t they go back to work? Don’t they understand that we need the shelters to survive?

 

4)

Our biggest problem at this point is how to start the fire.  No one can figure it out.  We know the whole burning glass in the glasses, creating sparks with flint and stone, and even rubbing two sticks together (there is no possible way in history that this ever worked).  We all realize how important the fire.  The past few nights we have found out how deadly cold it gets here.  I’ve also started to notice how bossy Melanie is.  She acts like a dictator, always cutting other people off, with no respect for the others on the island.  And the others are getting really irritable.  When we landed here, I thought it was going to be great.  No homework.  No stress.  Just video games and monkey butlers.  But each day is a struggle to survive. 

 

5)

 

            While walking across the beach, Natalie ran in to a black bag that had drifted to shore.  Before opening it, she ran it to us to show what she had found.  Melanie, seized the bag hoping to find a lighter, grabbing it away from Natalie with a might force.  She ripped it open and to her surprise, there was a lighter ion there.  She through the bag down on a rock and we heard a crack sound, like something breaking.  Melanie ran to the fire, with complete disregard for Macarena, who was taking a nap on the other side of the sticks.  No faster that she struck the lighter than the fire erupted, engulfing Macarena in the flames.  She jumped out of the fire and rolled on the ground.  All of us were too frightened to move, watched in horror as she rolled on the ground.  When she was put out, some of the girls checked her out and saw that she had some serious burns.  At this point we are all scared, not just that we might not be found, but now we are worried about who might Melanie hurt next.

 

6)

After the whole incident with the fire we knew that letting it out was not an option.  So we all spent the next days, collecting wood for the fires, finishing the structures and then exploring the island.  The shelters were simple, just enough to keep out the wind.  After looking in the bag, we were able to find a knife which Melanie clamed as her own.  We all heard her stories about how she lived in Queens and carried a knife around with her until she came to Port Washington and decided we were all “pussies.”  She bragged about her “mad knife skills” and no one questioned her.  Well, we questioned it, just not in front of her.  There was also some blankets, a couple flashlights, some dehydrated food, a compass, a flare gun, a guide for survival in the wilderness, and a beacon device for locating survivors of downed planes.  Unfortunately, it was broken when Melanie smashed the bag down on the rock.  No one was going to con front her though.   Not while she held the knife.  And if I learned anything in English, it was knife plus Melanie equals bad.

 

 

7)

While walking around one day, Leigh came across a pond with fresh water.  All we had been drinking since we landed was the fruit liquid and dew on the leaves.  In addition, the dehydrated food tasted terrible with salt water.  As soon as she led us to it, everyone dove in.  It was so refreshing.  The cool water made us feel relaxed for the first time since we reached the island.  While we relaxed in the pond, Melanie was off on one of her hunting expeditions.  The other day she ran into a wild emu and ever since she has been determined to catch it.   She keeps talking about how the fruit isn’t a balanced diet.  How you need protein or you will get stupid.  She some reference to eating babies which I didn’t get.

 

 

8)

 

The next couple of days were normal; no one saw any sign of planes over head and everyone kept on doing their jobs.  Though the only thing we could do was collect fruit and firewood.  We kept the fire going all day and all night.  Everyone finally accepted the situation and was much calmer than they had been when they had first got to the island.  The work ethic definitely deceased since we got here, everyone doing less every day.  People disappearing at random parts of the night.  I woke up a couple times in the middle of the night the last couple nights to find a couple people missing from our shelter.  Though I thought it peculiar, I ignored it, thinking that they might just be out getting a midnight snack.  But then last night I heard as noise, like a drumming, I journeyed over to where the sound was coming from.  It led me to a second fire.  I watched from the fire as Melanie and others danced around a fire, with an unconscious Macarena bound by vines.  “You don’t want to help, do you!?” Melanie yelled at the body.  “I got burned, oh look at me.  I can’t move,” she mocked.  With that, they picked her up and threw her in the fire.  “Down with the useless!”  I woke up in a sweat.  I was early morning.  I look around and I didn’t see anyone missing.  I wandered to where I thought I saw the second fire.  There was nothing there except some burnt twigs and some ashes.

 

 

 

9)

It finally happened.  A plane flew overhead.  We all heard it and ran to the shore.  We yelled and screamed and waved our arms.  I ran for the flare gun but it wasn’t in the black bag.  We ran for our flashlights and blankets and waved them but it was no use.  They didn’t see us. Though I had tried to be rational this whole time, I finally blew it.  “Where did the flare gun go!!?” I screamed.  At that moment, Melanie came marching down the mountain with an emu arched over her back.  “What’s going on?” she said.  “A plane just flew over head, but I understand, hunting is just more important that getting rescued, isn’t it?” “There is nothing she could have done,” said Clare.  I huffed and walked off.  This was our big chance to be rescued.  For the rest of the day all I could think about is where the hell that flare gun went. 

 

 

10)

 

Everyone is really getting nervous.  They are starting to think that we will never be rescued.  Last night there was a big storm.  Both of our shelters fell down.  We’re going to have to rebuild them today.  I asked everyone to help.  We were able to finish the first one before everyone got tired and had to break for lunch.  When we went back to work, only five of us remained, the others had gone off to sleep, or swim.  Some even went off to hunt.  We have plenty of fruit! Food is not out major problem right now.  Right now, we need to rebuild out shelters.  If another storm comes like the one the other night, were going to be in big trouble.  If some one gets pneumonia out here, they could get extremely sick. 

 

 

11)

 

Melanie went into the woods on one of her hunting expeditions.  She brought along Chris and some others.  Why Chris went I couldn’t understand.  Let’s just say that it is very apparent that she has never really liked him.  They returned later. The only difference was that Chris was completely mauled up.  Melanie said that an emu did this to him.  The others just nodded their heads and agreed, not speaking a word.   We took of his shirt and laid him down in one of the shelters.  If you ask me, those cuts didn’t look like anything an animal could do.  “Almost like a knife,” I whispered to myself.  What was that?” asked Melanie.  I said nothing.  The rest of us spent the day gathering wood.  After the storm the other night, everything got all wet.  We needed to find some dry wood to light the fire.  It was hard work searching the wood with everything soaking wet.  Melanie started to complain that Chris wasn’t doing any work.  “He just got hurt really badly,” I said. “Don’t be ridiculous.” “Useless,” she said.  I couldn’t find Chris anywhere the next morning. 

 

 

12)

 

The tribe has been split up.  Melanie got into a big fight about the fire and hunting and all sorts of things and she just ran off. She said something about how our society was a microcosm of suburbia.  I didn’t get it.  I never understand what she is talking about.  What she says is always so long and drawn out and convoluted.  Whatever.  Some of the others went off with her.  Our group kept the fire going and did our best to keep with a normal daily ritual.  But people started to go missing.  Leigh went off to the pool and never came back.  And when Rachael went to see if anything was wrong, she didn’t comeback either.  People are missing left and right.  What if I’m the next one to disappear?

 

 

13)

 

            The next morning, Clare, Ari, and I were the only ones left.  We decided to confront the others.  No one knew where their new camp was.  Suddenly, I said follow me.  I walked to where I thought I saw the second fire the night Macarena went missing.  And as we approached the clearing in the woods, the other tribe surrounded us from all sides, some carrying spears, some smaller stakes, and Melanie, with the knife in one hand and a flare gun in the other.  “So that’s where the flare gun went!” I said.  “Do you realize that we would have been off this island a long time ago it we had that!!”  “You don’t get it do you,” she said. “This island is a dream.  No homework, so obligations, no suburbia!! I hate suburbia!! And best of all, I can kill every one of you and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”  She pointed that flare gun at my head and put her hand on the trigger.  Suddenly out of nowhere, an emu came out of the forest and bashed right into Melanie.  She rolled down the hill and into the hole we use as the bathroom.  “Hello, I see you were in a little bit of trouble there.” Said the emu.  “You can talk?” I asked. “Of course,” said the emu.  “This is The Isle of the Magic Emu.  We can all talk, and we all have magic powers.  I was curious why you were here, and I think I finally understand.  And I thought you were here for the secret of life and all the answers of the universe.  But you just got shipwrecked! Silly me!  So would you like a ride back to your homes?”  Without a second of thinking, the dumfounded others and I begged for his help.  The emu, who was actually named Dave, called to the other emu who seemed to come out of the trees.  “What do we do about the ones that died?” Clare asked.  Dave’s eyes glowed a brilliant shade of blue and suddenly, all the students that had died on the island phased through the ground and onto the surface.  Oddly enough, they knew everything that had happened on the island even after they died, like they became the island.  We all boarded the emu and took of as they floated into the air.  We all were dropped of at our houses by the kind emu who explained what had happened to our families.  Chris went off to write a book on his experiences on the island.  I then wrote a better book and sold much more copies.  Ari and Dave the emu ran away together, and we forgot Melanie in the toilet.  Everyone else lived a dumb, horrible life.  Fin.

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Philip 2003