Crash! My vision goes dark. I wake up on a beach and look around. A clear night sky with the moon shining brightly. Palm trees are everywhere and behind it is a lushy forest. As far as the eye can see to the left and right is the beach.

I noticed a figure in the sand to my left and saw it was a girl. I rushed over to see if she was okay. She wasn’t breathing! I quickly started to do CPR. It seems like my lifeguard training came in handy.

Eventually her eyes open and she starts breathing again. “AAAGH! WHO ARE YOU! GET AWAY FROM ME!” She screams. I breathe a sigh of relief to see her alive and awake.

“Chill girl, I just saved your life and I get no thank you?” I say.

“Well, can you blame me? I wake up to see a random man pushing on my chest.” She replies.

“Fair enough,” I say.

“Where are we anyways?” She asks.

“I don’t know. The last thing I remember is being hit by a tidal wave.” I replied.

“Me too.” She says shivering.

“I’m Jack, what’s your name?” I asked.

“Claire.” She replies.

“Nice to meet you, Claire.”

“Y You t too. I’m c colddd.” Claire says.

I looked around for anything to make a fire as the cold was also getting to me. I spotted a bit of dry palm wood and a little bit of sticks and tinder. I start heading over there but I grab Claire’s hand to follow me.

“W where are w we going?” She questions.

“I going to start a fire,” I answer.

I sit her down and start gathering the tinder in one pile, sticks in another, and branches in another. Then I suddenly spot some rocks that I recognize can make some sparks. After grabbing the rocks I start striking the rocks to make sparks to light the tinder on fire. Over and over I try until a spark catches and it lights the tinder. I quickly place sticks over it and then blow the fire to give it more oxygen. Soon the spark becomes a smoldering fire I keep feeding it wood until it becomes as big as a bonfire.

While I was making a fire Claire decided to make herself useful and collected several coconuts. By the time she comes back, the fire is blazing. Claire quickly sits next to the fire and warms herself up.

I plop myself next to Claire and say “You cold now?”

“Thanks to you no,” she replies happily.

I grab a coconut and crack it open on a rock, I give half to her and half for me. The coconut was full of water. I gulped it down and then used my finger to scoop the fruit out.

“Mmm this is good, how’d you know that these coconuts are ripe?” I questioned.

“My mom taught me. When we were thirsty my mom would teach me how to pick the right one.” She answered.

“Was your family rich?” I asked

“Yeah very rich.” She says.

“Now what? What are we gonna do?” I say.

“Shelter.” She answers

I look around and take in our surroundings. A forest in front, beach, and ocean behind me. I see some large branches, slabs of rocks, moss, and tall trees. I spotted 2 trees very close to one another.

“Hey Claire could we make a fort over there? We could use the branches to make a roof and wall, use the moss to put over the roof, and use the stones as the floor?” I ask.

“Sure, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work,” Claire says.

We get working, I collect the branches while Claire collects the moss. After that, I make a fire pit while Claire gets rocks to put around the fire pit and inside the fort. She finished placing the rocks and I get working on a fort. She finishes it with moss on top and the fort is complete.

I put up my hand and gave Claire a high five.

“Good work Claire. Look at how this turned out.” I say with a sense of accomplishment.

“You too. I would have never thought to use the trees to make a fort.” She says.

“I’m tired what about you?” I ask.

“Me too.” She says.

I lie down on the cool rocks with Claire next to me. We used some of the moss to make 2 blankets and covered ourselves.

“Good night Claire,” I say

“Good night Jack.” She says back

I go to sleep wondering what adventures await us tomorrow.