When morning light broke, Molly woke up. She was cold and her back was sore from sleeping in cramped quarters. She was also hungry, and decided that the first order of business for the morning would be to find some food.
She had been using the pile of driftwood and grass to build a small fire in the middle of the crevice where it caught the best breeze coming down the canyon. But now she needed to find some more material to feed it so it would continue burning throughout the day. She glanced around and noticed several dead branches sticking up through the ground just outside the entrance to the narrow crack in the cliff. These will do just fine!
She reached through the gap and pulled out two pieces of wood from one side and four from another. It wasn’t much but it should be enough to keep the fire going all day long.
Now that I’ve got my fire started, what am I going to eat?
She spotted a few birds flying overhead but they weren’t interested in any food she offered them—at least not yet. And she saw nothing else interesting crawling or running across the beach below. Maybe there are fish under those waves somewhere…
She searched for the deepest part of the riverbed close by before walking down into it and placing her hands in the cool water flowing beneath her feet as far as she could reach. Then she felt around with her fingers until she came across some slimy creatures clinging tightly to the rocks on either side of the stream, nibbling away at the plants growing along its banks. She took hold of a large stone and picked up some of these critters, hoping to catch some food that might help her survive here in the wild.
Once she found a good-sized specimen, Molly returned to the shoreline and used her sharp knife to cut off its head, which was full of small bones that looked like tiny teeth. This creature didn’t taste very good, but she knew she needed something to fill her empty stomach if she wanted to have the energy to hunt for more later. She placed the guts from the small fish in front of the fire to dry out. After adding some dried leaves and branches to the flames to burn for several hours, the contents of the animal’s belly began to sizzle and smoke. She turned away from the smell and tossed the carcass aside when the flesh finally cooked enough to be edible.
Molly sat back against the wall of rock, holding the piece of meat carefully between two sticks while it slowly roasted over the fire. The sun rose higher in the sky each hour that she spent resting there. By midday she had eaten all of the fish guts that were left over and was ready to move on again in search of new sources of food.
As soon as she stood up and moved around, she noticed her feet felt a lot better after soaking them in the cool water of the riverbed. Her sore back seemed to have eased up a little too, but she still felt exhausted. Perhaps I should go back to sleep for a bit…
Molly went back down to the riverbed where she fell asleep leaning against the smooth rocks on either side of the stream. She dreamed about the life she had once lived and her family and friends who were now probably worried sick that she wasn’t home anymore. She remembered the day they’d come into town to find her. She hadn’t seen them since then. She wished that things would just hurry up and get better instead of getting worse by the minute. It was only a matter of time before someone came looking for her. There was no way she could stay here for much longer without making any progress towards finding some food or something else useful in this god-forsaken place!
She was awoken sometime during the night by some movement nearby, but when she turned to look at it, whatever caused the noise quickly disappeared among the bushes.
What was that?
She thought maybe it was a big animal moving through the underbrush but when nothing happened, Molly decided not to bother chasing after it. She figured it must have been one of those large, yellow eyes that stared out at her from across the beach last night. She tried not to think of what she saw—and heard—after she fled from the spot. And she definitely didn’t want to remember how cold she had become while sleeping out in the open with no shelter whatsoever.
Molly woke up feeling warm.
Poetry of the Soul 