KendallJaye Collard Week 165: The Last to Hope

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KendallJaye Collard’s Picture Choice: One

Title: The Last to Hope

“C’mon Jeep. I need your help, buddy. We ain’t gonna make it. I need your arms, Jeep. We gotta keep going.”

I’d already been giving him encouragement for hours.

The earthquake shook our island. It destroyed everyone’s homes. It had taken Jeep’s wife and son. It had taken my wife and two daughters. It stole entire families. It wiped out our way of life.

And now here we were, Jeep and I, trying to outrun the tsunami crash and the torrential rain that had followed. We’d been paddling for five hours. I knew if we could just get to the mainland we’d be ok.

We should have hit the mainland hours ago.

Night was about thirty minutes away.

I didn’t want to admit we were screwed.

“Jeep. Don’t you stop now. I can see the coastline.”

It was a total lie.

But I was afraid of dying.

“Jeep. Talk to me Jeep.”

Nothing.

I stopped paddling just long enough to turn. I could see Jeep slumped forward in the battered and waterlogged fishing boat.

Jeep was gone. Flown with his family to the After.

“Fuck, Jeep.”

I was alone.

I threw my paddle into the angry water.

I shimmied myself from the now worthless boat.

I began to swim.

And I prayed.

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KendallJaye Collard gets her kicks above the waistline, Sunshine. Wine drinker, Cancer Survivor, and protected by rocksalt. Spread the love with her at @KJCollard.

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