THE ISLAND 

By Tessa Harvey


    
    Thinking, well it can't hurt, Edward ran praying into the shallow water, staying in the sandy bits as much as possible, wary even now of the dangerously beautiful, harmful coral. "Don!" he called, almost weeping. "Don, hang on, I'm coming. Don, your wife is here. We have Dee. Dee is here!" 
    The last words seemed to touch the almost dying man. A glimpse of his battered face sent dread plunging into the captain's heart. Without words, he grabbed a handful of half a shirt stuck under the man's big round arms. They were scarred by sea, rock, coral and God knew what else, but the man was responding. He kept trying to say something, but his breathing was badly laboured.
    "Captain, you have to hear," so exhausted and weary himself, the fallen ship's officer leaned on a large rock just offshore. "I'll listen if you keep breathing, okay! Don't die. Don't! I lost Taffy. I can't lose anymore."
    Sobs engulfed the seaman. Finally, while holding Don up out of the little waves, Don gasped. "Save Dee, Ed. Our son was on the ship, hiding. He almost killed me. Where's Dee?"

TO BE CONTINUED

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