• Day one

A smile of sand and a mouthful of sky; that’s all this atoll is. No water to drink, sparse vegetation, and me, hobbled fool that I am. My worldly possessions are with the fallen dead and all I have is this journal and a broken pencil. No wreckage from the Milani has floated ashore. It seems no one else managed to put on a survival harness. I stand alone.

• Day two

I thirst more than ever. The heat is a thief in broad daylight, stealing moisture from the air as surely as it does from me. I limped the length of the atoll today. It is three hundred and twenty nine paces from end to end bearing nothing of consequence, save for my footprints in the bone white sand. I wait now. I wait for a passing ship. I wait for rain. I wait for death. I sit on this beach watching the clouds below, and wait for life or death to catch up with me.

• Day three

Last night I dreamed I was swimming in the Cardes river again, like when I was a girl. The water was clear enough to see the colorful river stones underneath and clean enough to drink. It was a superb dream that ended with me waking to a dusty cracked-eggshell for a mouth. My body is wholly aching and my sight dims. I feel weak from hunger and dehydration, but still I have hope.

Post script. I found bones farther along the beach from my position; they are human bones! Enough for at least one person. They sit mostly buried in the humble dunes, but enough was exposed for me spot them, so I dug away at them and was only able to uncover about half of them including a skull. I grew too weak to continue. I thought maybe they had been buried with something useful that could be found on their person, but this was no grave. It was simply where someone had chosen to lay down and die. By the looks of it, maybe three years ago, maybe longer. Tonight when it is cooler, I will try to dig out the rest. I pray fortune hasn’t completely turned on me.

• Day Four