Mountaintop

By Mike P

This is a story that starts with a man drowning. Luckily he survives, but he still finds himself stranded on an island with palm trees to offer him coconuts for food and drink. It isn't long before the island starts sinking. Again he experiences a stroke of luck as a manta ray comes into save him. He rides the manta ray to a strange island with a village in a forest and a mountain. He establishes a happy life in that village, but always finds a part of himself wanting to climb the mountain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike P
• Release date: Aug 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370717620

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Mountaintop

Copyright 2017 Michael P

Published by Michael P at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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    The water was pulling me out. I swam towards shore. I saw the figures, the moving colorful blurs that must be people, moving away. I heard something. In hindsight, it must have been a whistle. The lifeguard was surely running out towards me after all. He was surely coming to save me. I wouldn’t drown here. I kept trying--desperately trying--to swim towards shore. It was futile. Every stroke I made pushed me further and further away. The lifeguard was floating on his little red device and yelling at me now. I squinted, trying to read his lips. Again, futile. It was all so blurry, so chaotic. I closed my eyes.

    I felt the water taking me, having its way with me. I had accepted that there was nothing I could do. I had fought. With all my heart and soul, I had fought to no avail. I had lost. After all my best efforts, in the end I had still been bested. I felt a wave lift me and throw me down. I felt the tide pulling me further out. I told my arms to swim. I told my legs to kick. They didn’t listen  to me anymore. The water was their master now.

    After a long period of being dominated, I felt my back brush against something rough and grainy. I felt the friction of that strange surface latch on to me, trapping me there. I felt the water pulling back out to sea, my body remaining on what I had by now assumed to be the shore. Why wouldn’t anybody help me? I had seen people on the beach, so why weren’t they here, breathing life back into me? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was still in the sea. Maybe I had just gone insane. I had to check. I had to open my eyes.

    I told my eyelids to move, as I had so many times in the past. They didn’t. I tried again, again and again. Nothing happened. It was useless. I no longer had control over my own body. I had already given that over to the sea. And the sea had rejected me. I was done for. It was all over. I would be lying here on this beach for eternity. All the tourists would skirt around my body, leaving me trapped for eternity. It was my own fault.

    I opened my eyes. I’m not sure how; I had already given up on trying. Still, my eyes were closed and then once again they were opened. I saw a seagull flying overhead across the grey-clouded sky. The seagull was beautiful, with its white and grey feathers and its long orange beak. The way it stuck out among the dim and weary clouds offered a peaceful release from the world around me. Eventually it flew outwards, past my field of view. I couldn’t let that happen.I had to keep watching the seagull.

    I stood up. I turned towards where the seagull had been flying. I’m not sure how I managed it, my body just seemed to be moving of its own accord. I didn’t think it was possible for me to move this much now. Still, I turned just in time to see the seagull glide gracefully into the grey mist that hovered over the sea. The grey mist was massive and intimidating to look upon. It seemed to stretch to the ends of the earth, and then out some ways more till the ends of the very