********
Morning arrived. Sandrah and Bea stirred, having slept maybe an hour or two, hair still damp from the blowing rain and sea spray. When they opened their eyes there were two new sights, one of them great, the other not so much.
It was high tide and waves were crashing against their cavern entrance, making their way inside. The women came to quickly and grabbed their clothing, or what was left of it. Their bikinis, shoes, socks, and Bea’s shorts. Sandrah still had her arm tied. They darted out of their hiding spot, walking through now knee-deep water around them. They made their way to the beach, eyes to the sky enjoying a welcome sight – the sun.
“Let’s lay out and dry off a bit,” Bea suggested. Sandrah followed her to the beach area, both women looking on the wreckage of the helicopter. They found a nice, flat rock near the tree line and sat down – Sandrah comfortable being naked around Bea.
“So are you the free spirit character?” Sandrah asked, watching a nude Bea sit down on a large rock, warming herself, drying in the sun light.
“I guess you could say that.”
“So you aren’t portraying that character for the show?”
“Nah. Just being me. I love fun, outdoors, people,” Bea shot Sandrah a grin. “Sex.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Just noticed that about you. Thought maybe you were laying it on a little thick for the show.”
“Nope. This is the real me,” Bea closed her eyes, the morning sun drying her off. “This feels great. Hope my boobs get a bit of sun.”
Sandrah rolled her eyes, Bea had no tan lines.
“What about you? Are you really you or something else?” Bea chuckled.
“I thought about playing the part of the ultra-competitive woman. It’s not me though. I’m not being real on this reality show. What’s left of it, I suppose. I’ve never won anything, failed at marriage, blah blah blah. Just thought I could try this out and maybe win. Maybe something special would happen.”
“Sandrah,” Bea rose to her elbow. “It’s ok. And I’m sorry. Sorry I pushed you back in the lagoon like that yesterday. Maybe I’m more competitive than I thought. I regretted it as I was running through the jungle.”
“I’m sorry I tackled you too. I would never hit you. I guess I was frustrated that we got lost from the main path area, plus the storm.”
The two women shared a sweet smile, Bea patting Sandrah’s hand. “Let’s rest here a bit; hopefully the helicopters will be flying about soon.”
“Yeah,” Sandrah looked to the clear sky. “They’ll pick us up, and we can move on from this.”
An hour or so later, sore, tired, hungry, the women in somewhat dryer bikinis were hopping over rocks in an overflowing creek. The water level had risen from the storm. It was brown and filled with limbs that had washed away. The creek led into another waterfall.
“Haven’t we been here before?” Sandrah said over the sound of rushing water.
“I think so!”
“That beach looks familiar,” Sandrah said.
“Yes, but that’s a different sight,” Bea stopped, staring down to the beach from above. Something was indeed different about it. Someone was down there.
Sandrah’s mouth dropped, it was a male contestant. He was lying on the beach, covered up by his camouflage tarp, his feet and ankles exposed. Next to him was a tree limb sticking out of the sand with his t-shirt, with the show’s logo, on it swaying in the light breeze. His elbows were also exposed. They could tell his hands were behind his head. He appeared to be lying out, getting warm from the sun and tarp.
“What do we do?” Bea asked.
“I don’t know. This game is over. There’s no way they use footage with contestants missing. Plus that poor helicopter pilot,” Sandrah answered.
“Right. How about you go down to him. I’ll head the way we were going, the path should be up the hill,” Bea suggested.
“No, no, we both need to get out of here,” Sandrah turned to Bea.
“I’ll be fine. You get down there and say hello. Who knows he could be your soulmate, someone to marry, things like that happen.”
“Bea, you’re sweet, but – ”
“Go on, it’ll be fine.”
“Paper, rock, scissors? I want you to have a chance. Not that they’d count this as a win, but you never know,” Sandrah said.
“They might.”
Sandrah held out her fist, offering a fair chance for Bea to recover from this disaster too.
“Ugh, fine,” Bea said. “Count of three.”
“One, two, three,” Sandrah threw paper, Bea scissors.
“Best two-out-three?” Bea asked. They threw again. Sandrah was rock, Bea was scissors. On the final round Bea was paper, Sandrah was rock.
“Congrats,” Sandrah smiled weakly. “You won. I guess. Go to him. I’ll head up the hill and find a path.”
Bea nodded, watching Sandrah turn to leave. She thought fast, quickly reaching for Sandrah’s bikini bottoms, ripping them clean off.
“Go get him, huntress!” Bea shoved a nearly nude Sandrah off the waterfall, watching her splash below. She waved and blew Sandrah a kiss when she surfaced.
Sandrah shook her head, thankful there weren’t any rocks she could’ve landed on. She smiled back to Bea then watched her head into the jungle.
“Might as well,” Sandrah thought. She removed her bikini top, now only wearing her shoes and socks and bloody tank top tied to her arm.
“Maybe, just maybe, she’s right,” Sandrah swam toward the beach. “Maybe this guy could be the love of my life. Maybe my destiny. Maybe we’d fall in love from our ordeal out here, having found one another and survived it.”
Sandrah rose from the water, eyes on her prize, slowly walking toward him. “Maybe I will win something far better after all,” she thought, her shadow covering some of the man. He didn’t hear her foot falls in the sand over the sound of the water. Sandrah stood over him, slowly squatting her naked body on top him.
When she straddled him, he tensed up, frozen, but knowing someone found him. “Hi there. I found you,” Sandrah said.
She removed the tarp covering his face. Her heart stopped.
She saw a young man, olive-colored skin like her, dark hair and eyes like her, a bewildered and embarrassed look on his face. Sandrah jumped off him, covering her breasts with a forearm, her crotch with a hand. She couldn’t speak if she tried, she wanted to run away, but didn’t want him to see her naked anymore than he already did.
The younger guy rose to his elbows, mouth hanging open. He cleared his throat and spoke.
“Hey mom.”
-7-
Sandrah’s son, Luis, draped his tarp over his mother’s nude body. Sandrah sat on the beach, crying, unable to look at her son. Luis sat next to her, sympathetically patting her back, rubbing he shoulder.
“Your arm. You ok?” he asked.
Sandrah nodded “yes” through her tears.
“A helicopter should be here soon, I would think. They can spot us easily here,” Luis said.
Sandrah wiped her tears, anger and shame preventing her from speaking or looking at Luis.
“Mom, I’m – ”
She held out her hand to silence him. She wanted to hug him, slap him, talk to him, and scold him for going on this show. But at the same time she wanted to run away, hide, and forget this entire experience ever happened.
They sat in silence for half an hour before they heard a low rumble coming over the tree line. It got louder and louder – one of the remaining helicopters was arriving.