This is where it all began—the magic, and the dream. On this remote island…
I learned to laugh, to live… and for the first time… to feel.
It all started with a photograph…
We were on a boat, on our way to Corregidor… when fate intervened.
She was leaning over the railings trying to reach for a photograph.
I tried to help but instead, startled her into falling overboard.
I cried for help but nobody was around and so I jumped in the water to save her.
It was a crazy thing to do… especially for someone like me who had never done a crazy thing in his life. But, in retrospect, she made me do a lot of crazy things. None of the passengers or crew realized what had happened to us. And so, we drifted, in the middle of the sea with no land nor rescue in sight. And to make matters worse… a storm blew in. It could possibly have been our end.
But I guess we were not meant to die in the middle of the sea…
but rather, spend a week… alone… on a deserted island.
You might think that being swept away on an island with a beautiful girl is sheer heaven. Well, it wasn’t… at least not at first. We were always at odds with each other. We did things differently, with neither one giving in to the other. It was a battle of wits, a battle of the sexes.
I have never met a woman more stubborn than she was. Stuck on an island
with no other person in sight and she still refused to give me her name.She was proud. She was complicated. She was… different.
Once, she caught a crab, but instead of eating it, she named it Sebastian and turned it into a pet. She would rather starve than eat that crab. She’d talk to it more than she’d talk to me. I couldn’t blame her, I guess, because whenever we did, sparks would fly. And to be honest, I did provoke her a lot… I enjoyed making her angry. Because even when she was mad she still looked beautiful.
Later on she was stung by a sea urchin. It’s funny, but I think that sea urchin brought us closer together. After all, how can you not be close to someone who has already peed on you?
Things changed after that. We began to talk to each other. I’ve been
educated by the best universities money has to offer. But on that island, she taught me all the things that the most brilliant professors could not teach. She taught me that life is more than just breathing and working and eking out a form of existence. She taught me to embrace life to its fullest… to appreciate the smallest things… to see the world not for its defects but for its possibilities. She taught me how to laugh. She taught me how to live.
I miss those moments, when we would just sit by the fire, listen to the
sea, and talk quietly. On that island, I was content. I was at peace.
I was… happy.
I wish we could have stayed on that island forever. But it was not to be. We were found and the dream was over.
I wish I could see her again. That woman who challenged me. That woman who cared for me so gently and patiently when I got hurt and cooked her pet crab so I’d have something to eat.
I wish I could be with her again, beside her… talking about everything
and nothing. Because in truth, though I’m back in my world…
I am more lost now, than when we were on that island.
The dream may be over but she will never be forgotten. And though
I don’t even know her name, she will always be here, in my heart.
I jumped in the water to save her… but instead, she was the one who saved me.
