Stranded with Mom

Stranded With Mum

By Stephanie Gilbert

Copyright 2021 Stephanie Gilbert ©

I was waiting in the baggage line at the airport with the rest of the cattle taking a few steps at a time, inching our way up to the counter to check-in our bags and collect our boarding passes. I don't know how she did it, but Mum had made me agree to come with her when a friend of hers had pulled out just a few days before they were to depart.

"Come with me to the tropics, away from the cold weather of Hobart." The sad look on her face made me do it.

It was all excruciating, standing in line for half an hour, before getting through customs, then sitting in uncomfortable chairs for another hour waiting to board. Then the bing of the announcement that we were finally allowed to board. The seat on the plane was just as bad, with Mum and I packed against the window with a huge bastard sitting in the aisle seat, taking up half of mine.

I saw him coming and said a little prayer under my breath that he would pass me by until he looked up at the number above our heads. Fuck. As he put his bag in the overhead locker, I flipped the arm rest between our seats to establish a demarcation line for my area. It really didn't matter when he squeezed into the seat with his underarm fat impossible to avoid. The decision to come along was looking worse by the minute.

"If it weren't for the fact you were paying, I would jump out the window right now," I whispered in Mum's ear, and she frowned.

"I might join you, but the window doesn't open," she whispered back.

After the stewardess did her pre-flight safety demonstration, she handed the guy the demo seatbelt to use as an extension, and we were ready to push-back. And as the plane vibrated at the end of the runway, I was pushed into my seat, and we left the ground. We were served food, and the big guy couldn't even fold the tray table down and had to eat off his huge gut. I had to eat with one hand, because his underarm flaps trapped my other arm against my side.

I decided to lean against Mum and try to wish the trip away in my sleep. Sleep eluded me, and I kept looking at the video screen as we headed over the open sea. We were leaving the coast of Australia on our way to Hong Kong, with the beautiful tropical blue ocean under us. A few hours later I saw a stewardess go past us on the way to the front but paid little attention until I felt light in my seat. It was far too early to be descending with hours of flight time showing on the screen.

I heard a commotion at the front of the plane, but we could not see it from here. I looked at the big guy, and he looked down the aisle then back to me, shaking his head. The plane lurched, and we were all pulled up out of our seats, and that's when I heard some yelling from passengers nearby.

"Brace positions!" came over the speakers just before everything went dark.

Behind us someone was yelling, "Brace! Brace! Brace!" I looked over to my terrified Mum. "I love you," I said and took her hand.

"I love you too, baby." We heard the motors screaming outside our window.

I looked over to the big guy and offered my hand, and he accepted it, his face as stressed as mine probably looked. "Tony," he said, and I nodded, all forgiven.

"Abe," I said, as I was suddenly pushed back down in my seat like someone was trying to pull the plane's nose up.

Then there was a loud ear-splitting sound like metal grinding on metal, and we were thrown forward in our seats as the front of the plane impacted against something hard. Tony was catapulted forward, his hand pulling from my grasp in an instant as he sailed forward into the water.

Water, fuck! With all the commotion, water seeping into my shoes let me know the plane was filling up fast. I turned to look at Mum, and she was still tucked in the Brace position. I pushed her back in her seat and reached under it for the lifejacket. I threw it over her head, wrapped the string around her, and tied it in a simple knot. Then a second later, the water was up to our knees.

"Take a big breath," I said, as I opened her belt, then mine, and pushed away from the seat.

Behind us there was no plane, just a vast opening to the darkening sea. We were washed out the back, and our part of the plane with no front or back disappeared into the darkness below. I pushed for the surface, but it seemed so far away. Then I remembered my dive training from a few years ago and pulled the tab on Mum's life vest. It filled, and we began to rise towards the surface at an improved speed.

I looked at Mum, and I could see she was fading, and I pushed with my legs, trying to make the assent quicker, my lungs screaming at me by the time I saw the waves above us. Then just as my vision was going into a tunnel of black, we broke through into the air.

I gulped in the first breath, then looked at Mum, her face still in the water. I pushed her head back and sealed my mouth over hers. I blew three quick breaths into her lungs, and she coughed and sprayed me with saltwater and coughed again. She spluttered and coughed for a while as we looked around, waiting for others to surface.

No one ever came up, and we knew after five minutes that it was over, but we hoped against hope for another half an hour. Some flotsam did surface, cushions, and other stuff from inside the plane. I swam over to anything big enough to bear our weight and tried to strap it together.

"What now, Abe? Do we wait for a rescue?" Mum asked, as she scanned the endless water.

"I saw a flash of green out the window before we hit. It was towards the sun. I think we should head that way. They have just as much chance of spotting us from the air there as they do here," I said, lying my ass off; we had almost no chance of being seen in the vast ocean, especially without a big orange raft.

I pushed Mum's chest onto the cushions and told her to kick when she could. I swam behind because the cushions sank whenever I put my weight on them with her. We swam all day; I couldn't see the green I was hoping for, and it was getting closer to dark. As we were almost out of light, I saw some sand. A small spit of sand only a few yards wide and maybe thirty feet long, so I went for it.

"Are we going to make it?" Mum asked, as I fought the current.

"We have to, Mum. Kick if you can." She slipped off and swam with me, her life vest keeping her afloat.

We were almost past the sand when I felt the bump under my feet. The water was too dark to look down anyway, but luckily it was a sandy bottom. I was able to help walk up until Mum could stand, then we dragged the cushions onto the sandy spit.

"This will do us tonight, and we will head for the bigger island in the morning," I said, hoping it wasn't low tide.

"Will we stay dry?" Mum asked, her mind going the same place as mine.

"I hope so but keep the cushions under you just in case." I was pretty sure I was going to die of ulcers even if we lived through this.

I was woken by the water lapping at my feet. Our little spit was going under quickly. I tapped Mum's arm in the morning gloom, and she awoke with a start. "Oh, Christ, how long do we have? " she asked, as the water ate up the last of the sand.

"We will stay on here as long as we can. The more light, the better, I guess," I said, getting ready to push off and looking around to get my bearings.

We had plenty of light by the time the cushions took Mum's feet off the sand. I began heading in the direction I was sure I'd seen something the day before. I was already double-guessing myself as I was swimming across the current when it would have been easier to swim with it. But it was not worth worrying Mum about. She was putting her trust in me, and at least I had that.

We had been swimming half the day when Mum pointed at the horizon. "I saw trees on the top of that last wave! I swear I saw trees," she repeated excitedly, and I slapped her on the ass.

I got my second wind, or was it the tenth? I lost count, as I paddled harder for the next hour. I looked out as we were pushed up by a bigger swell, and I saw it too, the beautiful green trees. I was all smiles, and Mum was happily kicking her feet, as we paddled towards our salvation.

Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and I placed a hand on Mum's legs to stop her splashing. She looked at me as I looked out at the ocean, and the smile drained from her face. "Get on here," she urged, but I stopped her from moving.

"It's a tiger shark, Mum, and he will circle for hours trying to work out what we are," I said with as much confidence as I could muster.

"Trying to work out if we are edible," she retorted, and I cocked my head because she was pretty right.

I swam slowly, heading closer to the breakers that I could see, a few hundred meters away I estimated. I had an idea how this was going to play out, and I was going to try to save Mum and hope there was someone on the island to help her get home.

"OK, this guy is working on instinct, and he will not want us to get to the beach. When he makes a run at us, I will swim towards him as fast as I can."

"You're going to do what?" Mum yelled, looking at me in horror.

"I'm hoping it will confuse him, and I can follow you into the waves. But you can't look back! Catch the first wave and kick hard, for your life may depend on it," I said, looking at the big fin only meters away.

"What if-" Mum began to ask, but I cut her off.

"He is just a fish; he will not be expecting me to head for him." I hoped the videos I had watched on shark week were not just TV bullshit.

We got tantalizingly close to the breakers, and the shark became more agitated, darting closer until turning with a swish of the tail. Then I saw a change as I could hear the waves behind me and yelled at Mum to get ready. He moved away a few extra meters and turned, coming right at me fast this time.

"Go!" I yelled and swam straight at him; he broke off the attack, tail brushing past my legs. I swam back towards the beach as fast as I could, but I saw him coming up behind me before I could make it. I turned again and swam at him, again he turned at the last second, catching my shoulder with the edge of his mouth.

I turned and swam, catching up to Mum at the surf line as a wave formed behind us. "Swim hard, Mum. I can't do that again," I said, almost all my strength gone now. I was lucky the adrenaline coursing through me dulled the pain.

We were on the back of the swell, swimming as hard as we could, but as it began to crest, we seemed to fall off the back. I could feel the shark behind us. He was forcing a bow wave in front of him, like when he turned away from me the last time. I kicked with everything I had left, and the water fell from under us, as we fell over the top and into the white water. We were tumbled like clothes in a washing machine, and I crashed against the sandy bottom, then was picked up again, near the surface, before being dashed back to the sea floor.

I stopped, suddenly able to stand, but I had lost my grip on Mum. I looked for the shark and saw its shadow cruise through the back of the next wave, hoping to find us. Mum was on her bottom with just her head above the water, held up by the life vest. I tried to help her up as the wash from the next wave caught up and knocked us both over again.

"Is he gone?" Mum asked, as I dragged us both up to the wet sand and collapsed on my back, exhausted.

"He is just outside the breakers trying to find the lunch that got away. That noah will move on to something else soon enough," I said and tried to lift my head to look again.

"Abe, there is blood everywhere. Did he bite you?"

"He bumped into my shoulder, I think I hit a tooth or maybe an old hook in his mouth, but it stung." I lifted my arm to show her.

"It's deep. I hope someone is on this island. You need stitches."

Mum ripped off a piece of my sleeve and pressed it to the wound as I sat up and looked around for the first time. To my relief, there was not only sand but a small rocky hill with trees and grass. We had a chance to find food and maybe other humans.

"Fuck that looks good. If there is grass and trees, the place isn't tidal, and we are not going underwater on the next king tide," I said, as we got to our feet.

"It's not a very big island unless it stretches out behind the hill," Mum said, as she tied my shirt up to hold the pressure on the cut.

"Do you see the cushions?"

"Down there, but I don't think we should go in that deep," Mum said, but I didn't want them to get away and wash out to sea.

I stepped back in up to my waist, pretty sure Noah wouldn't come inside the breakers. I pulled the cushions up onto the sand, and Mum gasped when I turned them over to see tooth marks on the other side.

"Yep, he is a little cranky about missing out on dinner," I said, trying to crack a joke. Mum didn't say anything in return.

We dragged them up the beach to let them dry and went for a walk around our island. It was a short walk; it took us maybe twenty minutes to walk right back to the cushions. The good news was that my cut had stopped bleeding for the meantime. The bad news was we had to start looking for food and water, because there was no other life on the island.

"Why are you picking up all the trash as we walk around?" Mum asked. She pointed to the bits of stuff I'd found washed up on the beach.

"We will need it to make a fire and somewhere to sleep. You never know what will come in handy. Especially driftwood since we can't cut down the trees. They will give us water and food. We will only burn driftwood." Mum kept her head down, looking for stuff the rest of the way along the beach.

"Keep an eye out for plastic bottles and bags. The bigger, the better," I said, but I planned on opening up the life vest to use if I had to.

"Ah, to hold water," Mum said; she was getting my gist.

I pushed on the cushions, but they were still pretty damp though much lighter now as most of the water had drained out. I threw them up onto some rocks in the sun in the hope they would be dry enough to sleep on by dark. I checked the large ferns growing near the beach, took a few green stalks, and stripped them down into leafy threads. I had Mum hold three while I platted them roughly into one strand about as long as my arm. When I had done it three times, I then wove them together into one tough strand about half that length.

I bent a stick and tied a strand to each end to make a bow and then got a flat piece of driftwood with a knothole. I took a dry straight stick and twisted it into the thread, so it turned as I sawed the bow back and forth. Another piece of driftwood with a knot for the top, and I had made my matches.

"How do you know this stuff?" Mum asked, as she watched my actions.

"Jake showed me some stuff, and I watched the Aboriginal men do it. It's something that interested me, so I just watched a lot of it." I said, Jake was my best friend from home whose love of the outdoors surpassed even mine.

I set up some twigs and husk from an old coconut. I started sawing away on the small stick, spinning it one way when I went forward and the other when I drew back. I was panting after only a few minutes but pushed on. My arms were burning, and I was about to give up when I saw a wisp of smoke rise from the bottom of the stick. This spurred me on even faster until the smoke was plain to see.

I tipped the tiny ember into the husk and blew onto it between my fingers, seeing it glow and make even more smoke. I spun my arm around like a windmill causing the ember to glow more. Then I blew some more, and it burst into a small flame.

"Oh, Abe, you did it!" Mum exclaimed, hugging me.

It was getting dark, and I fed the new fire, not using too much wood, just enough to make us feel better about our situation. Thankfully, it was a nice night. I would start working on a shelter tomorrow and get food for our grumbling bellies.

"Where do you think we are?" Mum asked, as she snuggled into my side.

"Somewhere in the South China Sea. There are thousands of islands around here, and we are on one of the smallest," I said, looking up at the unfamiliar star patterns in the night sky.

I woke in the morning with a start, reliving the feeling of Noah about to take a bite from me. I looked over at Mum, and she was still asleep. The morning light was about to peek over the horizon, so I threw a few twigs on the fire and blew on it to get it smoking again.

"We need water," Mum said, as she sat upon the cushions trying to form some spit in her mouth.

"I will be able to use the bags we found yesterday to make a little each day. We can catch some next time it rains." I knew it often rained here in the tropics.

When I looked up, I looked between Mom's legs as her white panties stretched over her mound, her camel toe capturing my eyes. I turned my head away quickly before she noticed, but the image was already burnt into my mind's eye. I busied myself putting plastic bags over the branches of shrubs. The sun would make the leaves release moisture that would condensate and collect in the bottom of the bag.

"Let's see if we can find something to eat," I said, as I waved for Mum to follow me.

I walked out onto the exposed reef, as it was low tide, and looked into the rockpools to find some crabs. It only took us half an hour to collect a small bag full of crab, and we headed back to the fire. I put three each on some sticks and arranged them over the coals, and they soon turned red and began to smell delicious.

"Oh, that's better than sex," Mum said, as she sucked the meat from one claw, then the other.

"Your sex life mustn't be that good, Mum," I said, smiling with crab juice dribbling down my chin.

"It's alright." Mum turned her head away.

"Are you missing him?" I asked, inquiring about her boyfriend.

"Not really. That should be a bit of a worry, don't you think?" She looked back at me sadly.

"I don't really like him, but I'm not the one who has to live with him," I replied, not wanting to make her feel worse but not wanting to lie either.

"When can we expect a rescue, do you think?" she asked, changing the topic.

"The plane went black for a long time before we crashed. I don't know enough about the beacons and stuff to tell if they were still going when we hit. It will be a big search pattern, and it might take a few days or even weeks. We need to make a sign on the sand with some rocks; an SOS that can be seen from the air," I said, trying to think through the problems.

"Let's do that first then we will work on some shelter." Mum said, and I nodded, patting my full belly.

The morning was spent collecting dark volcanic rocks and laying them out on the bright white sand, spelling out SOS. Mum helped carry the big ones and then packed smaller ones around it to be easily seen from a long way away. We stood arm in arm looking at our handy work, both hoping it would attract the attention of a passing plane.

I took a rock that looked more glassy and bashed it against a boulder, trying to break it in half. It shattered, so I tried again with another one. I took a smooth round one and struck at the edges of the glassy one to shape it into a sharp edge. I felt the edge, and it would easily cut a fish or some fishing line I found.

"God, Abe, what would I have done without you?" Mum asked, hugging into my side.

"That's why you had me," I joked, as I began walking up a leaning coconut tree.

I cut down a coconut and let it drop to the sand. I banged it against an angled rock and broke away the hard outer shell, pulling the hard inner nut from its cover. I took my sharp glass rock and drilled into one of the eyes and then another and handed it to Mum to take a drink.