Panic on the island

Write a story in which someone gets lost in the woods

Panic on the Island

“What’s that”? I asked my mummy, and I pointed

outwards, and across the bay,

“That’s a castle called ‘St Michaels Mount”, she said, and

we’ll be living nearer to it ‘one day’.

The castle was medieval, and it was in the sea,

and my imagination started to ‘run away with me’!

I thought of great battles, with men in armour, and men

with swords and shields,

who defended the villagers freedoms, along with their

land and their fields!

Then we moved into this little town, where the castle

was so big and clear,

and now we had more beach, more countryside, and

our primary school was now quite near.

Being closer to the castle meant, that we had a lovely

view,

and there were houses over there, with a surrounding

woodland too!

The houses were for the fishermen, that would fish the

bay each day,

they were also for those men with ferry boats, who had

an important ‘role to play’!

When the tide was out, there was a causeway to the

land,

and the lack of surrounding water, would mean that the

harbour was mostly sand!

When the tide was in, there was a ferry boat to take you

there and back,

and then your route up to the castle, was by following

the steep and winding track!

The era, that I was in, was the mid 1970’s, and I was a cub scout in a reasonably sized ‘pack’ of cubs with other enthusiastic kids, and our Cub Scout group was quite popular, and children from the nearby towns, and the other villages would also opt to travel for miles, and pay to join our little village ‘club of cubs’, and scouts.

Whilst I regularly attended the ‘cub scouts’, I learnt to tackle many domestic jobs, administering First Aid, cooking, sewing, putting up tents, making shelters out of ‘leaved’ branches(‘branches with leaves on them’!) and making fire- ‘camp fires’, but “Thank God we have matches easily available now”! Trying to get a spark from two stones was so frustrating, and it was a test of both your patience and ‘will power’- “Not to mention the strength in your arms”! I don’t think that I achieved it, and I think that our Cub Scout leader lit my fire for me-“with a match”!

Our presence, camping overnight, on St. Michaels Mount, was very rare, and it was very kindly granted by the ‘late’ Lord, who owned most of the land that he could see from his ‘Castle in the Sea’, and we lived in the town, that was like an umbilical cord to the Town of Marazion, in the ‘far South West of Cornwall.

The day was quite exciting, and I felt very lucky and important, because I was so high up, and I was looking outwards toward the land, from the very top turret of the castle, and I peered outward across the rippling salty water, and towards the area of land where our home was situated, and I could just about see our house, which looked so small and insignificant!

I really liked cub scouts, which offered excitement, friendship and it involved teamwork, with many other challenges that I never had, either at school or in my home, and on this particular occasion I felt so brave and important, because, with this very rare opportunity to camp on St. Michaels Mount, I felt that I was a friend of the Lord, even if it was only for one night, and I suppose that that made me feel important, and I was around grandeur, instead of our Council house location, where poverty was rife at the top end of the village, and poverty was popular within the group, BUT that’s what made us a close friendly group, with our scuffed shoes, our dirty faces, and our cheap haircuts!

I remained in my daydream, as I still looked outward, and down upon those small houses on the land, and I was thinking that the man in the Castle, probably owns the land that my house is built on? “Perhaps we should invite him to tea, especially if he likes cucumber sandwiches”, I thought.

I liked being away from my usual normality, and that normality could sometimes be okay, which was mostly when I was at primary school, and when we had ‘proper food’(“cooked and tasty food”!), carefree and imaginative playtimes, with my friends, but where I currently was, high above the town on this island, which was now surrounded by the water below, ‘somehow’, and for the first, and the only time in my life, I would feel important, and I would have a bond with this group of friends, with a misplaced feeling of grandeur, but these feelings were temporary- “very temporary”!

My evening meal, which I was responsible for, doesn’t sound too much of a challenge, but it was quite challenging for a seven year old, especially with few utensils, and a little camp fire to cook it on, and my meal (“that was restricted by my family’s very small budget”!), was baked beans on toast!

I would receive some help from our scout leader, especially with opening the tin of beans, and I was being very careful with the very sharp tin lid, that was very dangerous, and then I emptied them into a saucepan, which was an item that was not excluded from our- ‘attempted independent lifestyle’! The cooking/“well warming up the beans”, and then holding the bread over the fire to make toast, would be quite a satisfying, and it was a successful meal, and the effort would probably earn me another badge?

The evening was now closing in on us, and the end of the daylight would allow the cold wind to creep its way into the bay, and that would soon become an annoyance, and apart from it freezing my face, it was really affecting my bladder, and the very urgent ‘need to wee’ would not allow me(‘with regards to time’) to descend from the Castle grounds, and then to the toilets, that were seen earlier below, down by the harbour and near to the little houses.

The urgency, to urinate was almost beyond my control, and our Cub Scout leader said “Go into the woods quickly, and have your wee in there”, and I ran through the darkened woods, where the black tree trunks became fewer, and gradually started to reveal the clear view of the bay, with the shimmering waters drawing your eyes outwards, and to the horizon of the English Channel, and I knew that other lands could be seen in a ship from that position, and the immediate feeling from this sudden openness, that was away from the suffocating feeling that I had previously felt, would later be identified as suffering with a condition called claustrophobia!

I was claustrophobic, and ‘as well as’ being a high scoring word in Scrabble, this claustrophobia would explain my past behaviour, and my future brain activity, because the still blackness of the dark, would lead to morbid, concerning, frightening and disturbing thoughts! This view was calming and it was soon enhanced with a cool and revitalising fresh sea air, and the scenery deserved a longer viewing, and after I had relieved myself, I returned to the same area, and I sat down, and I was totally relaxed, and the warmth that I felt from the emerging sunshine, would soon reveal its full glory, over the precise underline of the horizon, which dissected the sky from the sea, and it was a lovely sight, and it would determine my mood at work, ‘for the day’!

The calmness within me, because of the safe and comforting feeling that I got from the appearance of the sun, would prompt me to lie back, onto the cushion of the ‘spongey grass’ on the steep embankment, and with this feeling of relaxation, I really felt relaxed and content with the sun’s appearance, and I was looking outwards from the back of this castle mound, and there was nothing in front of me, no land, no boats, no people, and I then started to daydream……. and daydream…….. and daydream, about what lands could be seen beyond the horizon?

When I woke up, probably around two hours later, there were two large container ships in the bay now, and the ships, that were close to the land, because they wanted to be in the shelter of the bay, which usually meant that a storm was coming in, and the shelter from this bay, would prevent storm damage to the ship, and now in a frantic panic I immediately stood up, but I wobbled slowly, before I regained my composure, and I rushed back towards where the other Cub Scouts should be, and I remembered going through the dark woods, which I had previously ascended, and I would now have to descend, and going back through the dark woodland on my own, was a very daunting, and disturbing prospect! I tried to remember my previous movements, but in reverse! I knew that I had to go through the woods, but I would definitely stay on the cobbled pathway, and the steep decline would encourage my quick and eager walking pace, and I would soon enter the cold, and dark woods again, which, in the fading light, seemed eerily strange, strange because the tall tree trunks were black now, and their leaves looked grey!

The other cub scouts could not be seen, and the previous, hot and dancing, camp fire was now a dampened patch of black ashes, and my panic increased because I was definitely on my own, and that realisation was felt in my rapidly beating chest, and a little tear ran slowly down my cold cheek, and I just wanted to be back in my home, and to be relaxing in front of the fire, with the extra warmth from the safety, love and comfort, that would be felt within this humble home, but I now faced the daunting prospect of entering those dark, and overpowering woods, that held a disturbing collection of distorted faces and spindly arms with long fingers, that could reach down and threaten all human existence!

This darkening glade would encourage my little mind to think of evil things, especially because the scary faces, in the trees, could be regularly seen, and I was sure that the faces that I could see, were possibly ‘look-outs’ for those previously hiding monsters to ‘freely’ reveal themselves, and they would be looking for something, ‘or someone’, to eat!

“How could the others forget about me………and they were nowhere to be seen now”! I frightfully thought about my terrifying situation, which only helped to increase my heart rate, and my panicked state, ‘to which I would then add pessimism by thinking “will I ever see my friends, and my family again”?

The woods were getting darker again now, because the declining sunlight was soon devoured by the roaming clouds, which were slowly accumulating, and the descending pathway was getting harder to see, and a clearing in the woods finally became visible, and I could see the sea, and the land again, and with the excitement and the prospect of freedom, I foolishly went forwards, and towards the light!

I looked down towards my feet, and I had wandered off the pathway, and my shoes were now surrounded by a dry, and thick grass, with the fragments of the pine cones also adorning this thick and green foliage; The trees were suffocating me again, but they started to become less, and again I could see the sea, but it wasn’t as friendly as it looked earlier, because the waves were now crashing against the rocks, which increased my panic, and my frightened and frustrated state!

I was lost, frightened and cold, and I was on a small island that had no food, no heat and nothing to drink, and I didn’t seem to be making any progress, and so I reversed, and I returned in the direction that I came, but now, as the darkness fell, the trees had ‘come alive’ with their distorted faces, their long and numerous spindly arms and hands, and these visions were now accompanied with wildlife, that obviously thought that it was safe to appear now, and strange little noises were made by rabbits, mice, lizards and the swooping birds above.

“Hooray”, I could finally, and with great relief, see the houses in the harbour below, but I could also see the causeway to the land being dampened by the incoming tide, and my panicked state would only increase, and my uncontrollable pace in my legs, which was not in sequence with my body, would mean that I would fall down on some occasions, but these occurrences were ‘simply’ ignored, because my thoughts were focused on getting back to the land!

Lights were now clearly visible from the little houses, that were on this private Island, and although this sight would have been relieving, it was now a worrying sight, because it was a reminder that time to get off this Island was deteriorating!

When I arrived in the harbour, nobody could be seen, but the lights, from the houses were now clearly visible, and the numerous dots of light could also be seen from houses on the mainland beyond, and the causeway was only half visible now- ‘should I stay over here tonight, or should I ‘risk it’? I knew that I would already be in trouble, firstly for scuffing my new sandals, for being wet and dirty, and for making them worry, and I would continue with my existent concerns, and focus on my urgent departure from this castle, but now with the extra fear of the forthcoming verbal tirade from my parents! I began my brave trek across the dimming causeway, and the incoming sea, that was encroaching on either side of me, and it was already tickling my feet with its cold salty water, that seeped through the tiny holes in my sandals, and my trek across the causeway was very, very frightening, because I could see that the seawater was beginning to devour the causeway ahead, and I was about halfway across the causeway now, and the sea, that was once clear, had no horizon now, which signalled that a storm would soon be approaching the land, and this sight, and of the sea starting to devour the causeway ahead of me, which was my way back to the land ahead, and with the causeway behind me, already being devoured by the angry sea, the frightening feeling that I had, would be the worst feeling of fear that I had ever known before, but it would soon be increased further, when I realised the fact, that I couldn’t swim!

I couldn’t run through the dull seawater as fast now, because the sea had, very inconveniently, increased its urgency in reaching the land, and a large piece of seaweed could now be seen creeping its way alongside, and the water had quietly risen very quickly to soak my shoes, and my socks, and in my eagerness to get onto dry land, I tried to run onto the beach, but my attempted run was unsuccessful, and the seaweed, that was once alongside, had now become entangled between my legs, and I, ‘unceremoniously’, stumbled and fell into the crashing waves, and then onto the fine sand, and the fall was a loud and sore one!…………

“What was that”? A loud, and booming voice was heard in the distance, ‘I had heard that St. Michaels Mount had a giant’, and had he now emerged to hunt, and in his desperation had he left the confines of the castle grounds, and he was following me across the water, and in the darkness his booming voice was repeated several times, and it was getting louder each time, and now it was so close to me that I could feel its warm breath on my face, and thankfully I had reached the dry sand, but in my panic I had fallen over, but my determination to get away would continue, but the sand seemed much drier now, and in the darkness a dim light could be seen, and I heard this voice again, and it was disturbingly close now, because its speech was above me, and it scooped me up with ease, and its warm breath was of a familiar odour, as this voice was heard again, “what was that, what happened”, and then there was instant light!

I was helpless now, and I was sat upon the sand, which had been instantly warmed by the sudden sunlight, and it was unusually very dry…….A familiar figure appeared in front of me, which was, eventually recognisable by the instant illumination, and for a few minutes my eyes would take a while to adjust, but before I could recognise the figure, I was picked up from the ground, and placed onto……… ‘a soft, comfortable and warm bed’, and the person who rescued me from the ground was my Dad, because it was not sand that I had been feeling, and instead it was carpet, dry carpet, and I had fallen out of bed!

I was told, with some annoyance, that I had been in bed for about two hours, and I “should be asleep”, but, I couldn’t forget the water, the fear, and I couldn’t sleep, because I was active all evening, with the constant need to ‘wee’!!!