Better To Be Alone | Teen Ink

Better To Be Alone

January 6, 2019
By CJlawson SILVER, Sandy, Utah
CJlawson SILVER, Sandy, Utah
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

In the dark of night a ship slowly began to sink. As was natural protocol passengers were evacuated, but not everyone would make it off.

One man, Morgan, awoke to find his hand drenched in water. He jumped to his feet and without grabbing anything he rushed for the door. Knowing that there could be others Morgan hurried to the nearest door and threw it open to find a small man still asleep with a snore that could have woken up the entire ship. Morgan went over shaking him to wake up.

He explained the situation, then calmly directed the panicked man to the stairs. He continued to search the rooms but found no one. Finally he too went up the stairs to the deck. All the while the ship had been empty and even the deck was void of life.

All except for the smaller man from early at the rear of the ship. To Morgan’s shock he beheld numerous life boats sailing away.

Morgan and the other man, whose name was Emmett, soon spotted a small island in the distance. Morgan and Emmett then had an incredible adventure filled with action, romance, betrayal, and etc to get off the island that I can’t tell you about because we only have ten minutes. It ended with the two barely reaching the island and falling under a coconut tree.

The following morning Morgan awoke with the sun hitting his eyes. He was surprised that he could sleep at all when he heard Emmett’s snoring. Morgan stood up and tried to wake up Emmett. But he stayed asleep.

Morgan glanced up to see that Emmett had fallen asleep right under a coconut. Then a cynical idea popped into Morgan’s mind. With one strong kick he knocked the coconut down to hit Emmett on the head.

“Oh good, you’re awake” Morgan said avoiding responsibility for his actions.

“Yeah I guess so,” Emmett said still waking up.

Morgan took the coconut and smashed it on a nearby rock splitting it in half and giving Emmett one of the halves.

Morgan took his half and began to swig it down whilst he surved the island but then Emmett cried out to him.

“Hey Morgan! What’s in this coconut water?” Emmett asked in a panicked voice. Morgan was beginning to wonder if Emmett ever talked in a normal voice.

“It’s perfectly-” Morgan started, turning back towards Emmett but when he turned he saw something that didn’t belong.

“What even is that? How-” The words fell out of Morgan’s mouth. Off in the distance there was something unexpected, something that didn’t belong and didn't make any sense. Before them was an old pirate ship with a jolly roger flying high. The two stood dumbfounded, but there it was staring back at them.

As it approached the people on board seemed even more ludicrous than the ship. Some had peg legs, others had eye patches but the one who looked the most ridiculous was of course the captain, who had on a tattered red coat and both an eye patch and a peg leg, although his peg leg appeared fake. The ship stopped right by the island and the captain came to the side of the ship to look at the two.

“Ahoy!” He waved, with his of course, hook hand. Emmett was reluctant to wave but eventually did while Morgan still tried to take in the situation.  

“What are you?” Morgan asked finally able to speak.

“What do ye think we are?” He asked with chuckles from his crew.

Emmett glanced back and forth between the two waiting for someone to say something. The moment was well beyond awkward when Emmett answered. “Pirates?”

“There ye landlubbers got it,” The pirate said.

“Oh they say land lovers, I could never really tell what they were saying,” Emmett commented.

“No he said landlubber, it’s one word. It’s just his bad and obviously fake accent,” Morgan and Emmett decided to focus their attention on arguing if it was land lover or landlubber instead of focusing it on the very real and incredibly out of place pirates.

“Alrighty, already!” The captain finally stammered. “Pay no attention to what I say. Pay yer attention to what I mean,” The captain continued bringing the argument to a silent end. The captain stepped away from the side of the ship leaving the two dumbfounded, again.

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Emmett whispered to Morgan.

“Him being here or what he just said?” Morgan asked.

Before long the captain was on a small boat with four other pirates that soon landed on the island. The pirates one by one stepped out of the boat before following behind the captain who straddled forward with his hook hand raised in front of him.

The captain explained to them that there was a treasure buried somewhere on the island. How cliche.

Nonetheless the pirate captain was willing to help them off the island after he found the treasure. How predictable. Furthermore the pirate directed them to the far edge of the island where the pirate believed the treasure was buried. How convenient.

Morgan, Emmett and the pirates all began to dig. They dug and dug but only ever found more sand waiting for them. “Perhaps the curse is true,” The captain finally spoke up.

“A curse? Wouldn’t it have been better to mention it earlier?” Morgan inquired.

“I didn’t believe in it,” The pirate explained. Morgan rubbed his face in disappointment. He began to wonder if anyone around him was competent.

“All we need to do is sacrifice someone,”

“S-Sacrifice someone?” Emmett stummard a bit taken back.

The captain looked around at the crewmen and Morgan and Emmett, “1-2-3 NOT IT” The captain screamed quickly soon to be followed by his four crewmen and Morgan.

“Wait is this really the best idea?” Emmett started to ask as the pirates grabbed him.

“What exactly is this sacrifice for?” Morgan asked.

“Oh don’t worry he won’t really be sacrificed,” The captain said. “It’s more of a deposit that we can come back for later,” The captain further elaborated. Morgan and Emmett stared at him with a puzzled look.

“The curse goes that if we leave someone in a hole on the island that the treasure will appear on the opposite side of the island,” The two both looked at eachother doubtful of the story. “It’s true!” The captain tried to reassure them.

“Alright Emmett, in the hole you go,”

“What why me?” He asked panicked.

“Ye lost the not it” The captain explain. Emmett looked around for anyone to support him, but no one did. With a reluctant sigh Emmett was helped down into the hole.

The rest sped to the other side of the island and when they got there they frantically began to dig. Before long they could already see a wooden chest.

“Thar she is!” The captain exclaimed loudly as if the cue to dig even faster. Then one of the pirates grabbed a handle on the side of the chest. Everyone grabbed the pirate and together they pulled the chest out of the sand. With a wave of his hook the captain ordered the men to take the chest back to the ship.

“Are we good to get Emmett now?” Morgan asked.

“Oh yes, go and grab yer friend and we’ll take ye both back on the ship,” The captain said. Morgan nodded and went back to the opposite side of the island and grabbed Emmett however when they got to the beach however they were astonished to see the ship sailing off in the distance.

The captain stepped up on the back of ship and waved at them. “Sorry landlubbers!” He screamed making sure to pronounce it landlubber. “Or as ye lads would say-” He continued pausing for a moment to talk with a crewmen on board. “Ahpril Fuels!” He shouted.

“Did he just-”
“Yep, and in September no less,” Emmett tried to speak again but was too dumbstruck by the whole situation. The captain stepped back onto the ship with what Morgan imagined was a wide and toothless grin befitting of any pirate.

“What are ye doing!?” The captain shouted in the distance as the ship slowly began to sink. “Don’t throw out the gold, anything but the gold!” The pirates began shouting and screaming but the ship slowly dipped into the ocean. Once it was completely under Morgan looked to Emmett.

“Well,” Morgan started, “I’m willing to attribute this entire incident to the coconuts, how about you?”

“Yeah” Emmett said. And neither of them ever had coconuts again.


The author's comments:

This is a 10 minute comedic story.

I can often find myself wishing that I was alone. Not in life in its entirety but there are a lot of circumstances made more complicated by having other people around. George Washington even remarked saying, ‘it is better to be alone than to be in bad company’, whoever that comment was directed at, doesn’t really matter now, but the sentiment is very applicable today. Sometimes it’s easier alone.


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