Maslauski,+Morgan

Why Me? Elizabeth Roberts, a smart 23-year-old sailor girl from California, as nice as can be and tough because she had 2 older brothers. Her life was peaceful and was back at her childhood house with her family for the summer. But a quiet night at home soon turned bad. Elizabeth loved being out on the ocean. She had sailed ever since she was 6 years old, and she would spend her whole life out on the water if she could. So on this hot summer night, she was in her room thinking to herself, “//I want to go on a big sailing trip all the way to Mexico! I would bring all the supplies I need and would have tons of fun. But I don’t think I ever would.”// So she lay down to go to sleep, but soon found herself at the pier where she kept her boat. She said to herself, ”How could I have gotten over here? Maybe l slept walk...” she thought. But Elizabeth was a go with the flow kind of girl, and she decided that she was going to go for a quick sail. But that sailing trip wouldn’t be so quick! When Elizabeth got on the boat, she untied it from the pier and set of the sea in the Pacific Ocean. She loved feeling the wind in her long blonde hair and the water crashing against the boat. She felt a sense of control when sailing because it was just her and she could go wherever she wanted to go. She sailed and sailed way out in the ocean, but then she saw something in the distance. Suddenly she heard a rumble and she saw a flash of lightening. Her great feeling suddenly changed to her being very worried because from the looks of it, this looked like the worst storm she would have ever sailed in. The wind started up and the storm was moving fast right towards her boat. She knew that she would have to try to get through this storm. As she sailed farther into the big looming dark cloud, she was terrified that something bad was going to happen. Soon enough, her fears became reality. Right in the middle of the storm a huge clap of thunder and lightening came from above her and her boat completely flipped over, throwing her into the water. Elizabeth didn’t have a lifejacket on or any source of flotation to keep her from drowning. The only thing she grabbed was a piece of wood that had broken off the side of the boat, for her to hold onto. The storm was still raging above her and she yelled for someone to save her even though she knew no one was there. “HELP! Someone save me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Is anyone there?!” She heard no reply, and decided to try to hold onto the plank of wood until the storm passed and she would try to look for an island to eat and try to find help. By the time the storm passed, Elizabeth was shivering from the freezing water and extremely tired. She looked around for an island that she could try to survive on, and with no luck she saw nothing. Her worst thoughts had come true, and she had to try to survive out in the ocean, all alone, with no food or water. It was getting dark, and Elizabeth was terrified that bad things were going to happen to her in the night when it was pitch black dark. She was the most terrified of sharks attacking her. Her friend Hayley had been attacked by a shark and had lost her leg right above her knee. And Elizabeth couldn’t even imagine the pain that would come with that. So she just tried to think good thoughts, but she couldn’t. She knew that this was going to be the longest night of her life. “I cant fall asleep, I cant fall asleep, I cant fall asleep…” is all that Elizabeth kept telling herself. She knew that if she fell asleep she could drown, or an animal could come and take her down without her even being aware. So she just kept splashing some water on her face if she got tired, and kept kicking very lightly to keep warm and to keep moving. At times she would hear little noises and would always turn to see what it was, but nothing was ever there. So she just thought it was the wind or a wave, or something like that. But at one point in the night she heard a huge splash, and thought,” //What could that be//?” She turned around and looked real hard, but saw nothing. She waited and looked, and turned in circles to see if it would splash somewhere else, but she didn’t see anything. Then it came right up next to her. It was a huge whale. It was about 10 feet away from her, and she could see its glossy skin glistening in moonlight. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. She had never seen a real life whale before and she was amazed with its grace, but she was also a little bit fearful. It was so big that she didn’t want to get hit by its gigantic tail. So she swam very quietly away from the great beast, and thankfully she didn’t get hit and was unharmed from the whale. Even though she had seen this beautiful, gentle beast, there were some other animals out there that aren’t so gentle. Elizabeth was almost in a trance, and she started to fall asleep but she quickly had to wake herself up because she still knew that falling asleep could mean dying. That rest of the night was full of boredom and fear for Elizabeth. She was almost at her breaking point when morning came around and she could finally see her surroundings. The first thing she did when she could see where she was, was look for an island or any kind of land. She saw nothing. Her hopes of even surviving had now diminished to where she didn’t even care anymore if she died or not. She wondered if anyone back at home knew she was missing. She thought they would know because she would never come downstairs in the morning for breakfast and she wouldn’t even be at home. But if they knew she was missing she thought that they would send out a search team or rescue party to go and look for her. They would only look in the ocean though of they knew her boat was gone. Elizabeth had no idea though what was happening at home, and she just tried to still have some hope that she would live and make it out of the ocean alive. That day, Elizabeth kept swimming and looking for an island or a boat, but she saw nothing. She thought it would be okay at that time to try to get a little bit of sleep, so she tried to get herself on top of the board she had and lye on it to make a nice little ‘bed’ for her to rest on. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of this later because she was warm in the sun and she didn’t have to swim, she could just lay there. She had slept for a few hours, when she awoke to the big blow of a horn. She immediately sat up and looked so carefully to see if she could see the boat it was coming from. Sure enough it was coming from a big gray boat in the distance. She thought this could be my chance! “HELP, HELP! PLEASE HELP ME! HEY! IM OVER HERE! HELP!!!” Elizabeth yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping they would be able to hear her. She yelled and yelled for as long as she could see the boat, waiting for it to turn and come to her rescue. She hoped and prayed, and hoped and prayed. But sadly, the boat never turned or even showed any sort of sign to say that they knew she was there, and they were coming to rescue her. They just kept on going. Elizabeth had never even imagined that this would happen to her. She wondered why. As she was sobbing she said,” Why did this have to happen to me?! What have I ever done to deserve this?!” Those were the questions that she wanted to know, but knew they would never be answered. Why? Why had this happened and why to her? Questions that no one knew and you could only guess. But in the end you would know that you would never know the answer to them. Now Elizabeth now had no hope at all. She had had one chance. A chance that would save her life but she blew it. She now was almost certain that she was going to die that night. And what happened then made her believe her thoughts even more. As Elizabeth was sitting on her board thinking and wondering and waiting, she thought she saw a familiar triangle come up out of the water. She thought she was just hallucinating, but she waited for it to come up again and sure enough, it did. She was scared out of her mind! And what she thought was just one shark turned out to b multiple sharks circling her and she was just waiting for one of them to just come and get her. She tried to stay completely still and she slowly pulled her legs up onto her board, and prayed that she would not have to experience the pain from these sharks that were going to attack her. All that she could do now is wait and wait for either them to leave her unharmed and swim away or for them to attack and kill her. Elizabeth was breathing very heavily and was shaking uncontrollably form her fear at that time. She was waiting and waiting to see what those sharks would do, and they were still just circling her. But at one point she thought she saw the fins getting farther away. And she had to check to make sure what she was seeing was real, because she really didn’t know at this point, and she was seeing the fins slowly moving away from her. Even though she was still terrified and didn’t get back in the water, she thought that this was a sign that she might survive this tragic time. She sat on her board all night and she tried to sleep but she couldn’t do it sitting up, so she lied down and fell right asleep and she didn’t care anymore what things could happen to her, she just wanted rest, and that is what she got. She had been out there for 3 days and she just wanted to be at home with her friends and family in the warmth and comfort of her bed, but she just couldn’t. Elizabeth woke up that quiet, warm morning to a sea of fog. It was the thickest fog she had ever been in or seen in her life, and she thought that this was a little bit strange. She felt of sense of calmness to her that she hadn’t felt before. She felt very relaxed, calm, and almost… happy. She reached out and ran her hand over the smooth, glistening, still water, and thought about how it was that she was still alive. “I should be dead right now. But I’m not and I will never take that for granted.” Elizabeth said with passion. As she was thinking about what a miracle it was that she was still alive, she could see something coming out of the fog. Through the fog was what she had needed all along. A beautiful, lush, colorful, and almost magical island appeared from the fog.