Richard Norman woke up, eyes bloodshot from the night before with the stench of vomit covering him. The regrets of the night prior filled his head as he tried to figure out where he was. He got up and felt the breeze and smell of the city before stumbling back to his house. As he walked he pondered like he had so many times before, a million thoughts went through his head but the biggest was, “why am I not happy”. He had everything, he grew up in an extremely wealthy family in Great Britain and was given everything he could have ever wanted but yet he was still stuck in a state of mundane every second of everyday. He never felt like he belonged and hated the world for it. People looked at him with envious eyes because on the outside he had the perfect life, but in his mind it was a warzone. He had never made a grand accomplishment or did anything of substance and that's all he craved. He decided to go for a walk along the docks as he had every other day before for as long as he could remember.

The smell of the sea was his escape. He felt it reaching out and calling him but he was always afraid to go. He walked and walked and walked till he reached a boat named, “Lovely Lady” he sat on a crate and just started onward with amusement. There was nothing special about this boat, it was big but dirty and old. He felt like the boat was speaking to him and for no reason at all his heart told him he needed to get on that boat. He had no money, food, water, or spare clothes but he just knew he had to go. There was no way they would let a 19 year old boy on the boat so his only option was to sneak in. He started thinking of ways to get on without suspicion and decided the best way was to come back at night after the boat was loaded but before it left in the morning and sneak into a crate then. He went home heart racing, excited for his new adventure. 

He grabbed a canteen of water, a knife and a jacket and decided to take a nap to let the time pass.

When he awoke it was pitch black outside but he had no idea of the time and didn't care. He got up and left, as he shut the door to his house a sadness crept over him as he realized he never said bye to his Mom. The sadness quickly faded as he approached the docks, the closer he got the faster he went at one point almost in an all out sprint. He got on the ship and went to the very bottom deck and closed the hatch behind him. He saw dozens of crates and barrels, and started opening them, every crate was filled with mangos and every barrel had beer. He emptied one crate, it was about 5 ft by 5 ft and put the mangos into other crates that aren't full. He hopped in curled up and went to sleep.

He awoke to the noise of waves crashing against the boat and sailors yelling, he must have been asleep for hours. A thought crossed his mind, “where am I and where are we going?’ That thought quickly faded when he heard the hatch to the bottom deck open. He was terrified they would find him, he heard each footstep getting closer. Thud! The sound of a rolling barrel soon followed as a sigh of relief left Richard's lungs. The sailor carried the barrel up and slammed the hatch behind him. Hours passed as he sat in his crate in darkness thinking if this was the biggest mistake he ever made. The sound of the yelling crew soon faded as he assumed it was night, he left his crate to relieve himself and get a drink. He sat on his crate house eating a mango and drinking beer straight from the barrel. He followed this routine for what seemed like an eternity till one day he woke up to the thunderous claps of lightning and the waves pounding the boat so loud it sounded like a drum. He was scared more than he had ever been, hoping and praying it would all end soon. He heard thunder that sounded like it was a cannon right on top of him followed by screams. This continued for a while before he felt the sweltering heat, the boat was on fire. He heard a crash as the mast fell and a short while later the boat flipped, knocking him on his head. He looked up for a brief second before passing out.

When he awoke he no longer felt the waves or heard the yelling of soldiers but he saw a couple inches of water in his crate. When he popped out he saw himself all alone on a small island, no other evidence of the boat, just him and his crate. He felt the sunshine for the first time since leaving the docks in europe. He had no idea where he was, no idea what to do and had nothing but him, a short knife and his canteen full of beer. He was so thirsty he instantly gulped it down to provide some relief. 

He decided to take a look around the Island; he saw hundreds of palm trees and sandy beaches. It looked like paradise but to him it felt like hell. He climbed the first palm tree he saw with coconuts and grabbed several. When he got down he sliced the husk open and broke the hard part on a rock. He drank them all and ate the meat before he felt good. The coconuts were good but he needed meat. He held his knife and walked around the island where he saw signs of some deer and little mammals, none of which he could catch. He walked around the beach and couldn’t believe his eyes. A dolphin had been beached earlier that day and was lying dead on the shore. He knew he couldn’t eat it raw but he knew how to build a friction fire with sticks. He grabbed palm tree bark and a couple sticks from dead bushes on the island. It took him hours before he got his first ember but when he did he was able to start a small fire and cook the dolphin. He sat there eating it as the sun went down. He finished and hopped back in his crate to sleep.

The next day he knew he needed shelter. He made a spear out of one of the longer branches he found and walked around the island till he came across a grove of bushes. He grabbed all of the biggest branches, probably 25 or so and used them to and used the stems of palm tree leaves to tie them down on a fallen log and a couple close by palm trees. He built it on a spot of the Island where he could always watch the sunset. He broke a rock into sharp shards and used the largest to tie to a branch to build a crude ax. He was surviving off dolphin and coconuts but he knew the dolphin would spoil soon so he made dozens of snares from the fiber of the trees and set them all over the island. He moved his fire from the beach to his camp to save time and cooked the last piece of dolphin before it went bad. He laid on his bed of branches and went to sleep. 

When he awoke he checked his snares and he caught a couple of small rodent creatures he had never seen before, about the size of a jack rabbit from home. He cooked them and spent the whole day improving his makeshift house. 

He laid watching the sunset and he felt something he hadn’t in forever, happiness. In a place that was his hell, where he had nothing he found happiness. He hadn’t thought about home the whole time on the island and although it was soon the island felt like home. He had everything and was incomplete and now he has nothing but the void in his soul was filled and he found satisfaction in nothingness.