Faith

"Sweetheart, what are you thinking about?," Joy asks me after few lingering minutes of silence.

His left hand is continuously drawing meaningless yet soothing patterns on my back, while his right hand keeps playing with my fingers, caressing them up and down rhythmically or intertwining them absentmindedly, only to repeat the pattern. It is such a simple gesture, yet it makes my heart swell with a tsunami of emotions.

"I am thinking about making a short trip to the forest," I tell Joy, "our fruits are almost finished and we need more firewood."

That isn't complete truth though, but he doesn't have to know. He needs to rest, not worry about things I can handle.

"I don't want to let you go alone baby, I wish I could come too," he says after sighing heavily, "but I know you're brave, you will manage without me just fine."

I offer him a sweet smile as I try to assure him, "Yes I will Joy, and I won't go too deep into the woods."

He pulls me closer to his chest with his left hand, and places a soft peck on my forehead.

"Take care and come soon," he says and removes his arm from my back.

I kiss his cheek and get up from the floor of the cave as I say, "You try to sleep again okay, I'll wake you up when I am back."

He nods and smiles at me, then closes his eyes. I turn around and walk out of the cave, to be welcomed by the sun that rose just a few minutes ago. The wind is still cool and the sky is clear, so atleast the weather is in my favour today.

I hope everything else turns out in my favour too.

I reach the beach side, and continue walking towards the forest. My foot hurts less than yesterday, probably thanks to the medicine I applied earlier.

As I continue walking towards the forest, my mind begins to think of possible options for attracting attention of an airplane from the ground. I don't have my bag anymore, so there is nothing I can use from that. I can only use the natural things around me, that I'll get in this forest. I need to see my options, so I can build an idea around them.

After walking through the outer part of the forest and collecting enough fruits and firewood for a day, I begin my journey back to the cave.

Till now, the only raw materials I noticed are wood, leaves, fruits, rocks and sand. These are the only natural things around me.

So now I have to build a plan using these.

Starting with the basics, how can I get a person to notice me normally? By appealing to either their audio or visual senses, right?

But an airplane has it's own sounds and it's at quite some height, so audio is totally ruled out. So, I have to appeal to their visual senses. I have to think of something that they can see from this distance and that attracts their attention immediately. Like light.

I could use a batman style flashlight or something, but this isn't night and I have no flashlight. Bad idea, but atleast, I had one to begin with.

Hell, I don't even have a mirror, I could have done something with sunlight reflection if I had one. Not sure if I could have pointed it to the pilot's eyes from so far below though, but it would have been worth a try. I don't think I have my compact in my handbag either, it has a mirror, but I hadn't brought my make up to the party, so it's no use. Anyway, the bag is somewhere out there on the hill, and so is my cellphone inside it. The cellphone's  mirror finish rear could have been useful maybe. Argh... It's a lost cause, I need to think something else.

Some other source of light? Fire! Some large smoke and bright light of fire will definitely attract attention. Yes, finally one good idea!

But fire... could mean anything, right? How will they get the message that we need help?

Yep, that's how.

Finally my lightbulb brain glows up with the answer that the question hid in itself.

Message. Help.

This is the best shot I possibly have. Probably the only shot. But, I am willing to take this leap of faith.

I finally have a plan, now I should better start the execution. But first, I should go check on Joy once and have some fruits with him. I am going to need a lot of energy to do this.

________

"Hey Joy, I am back," I try to say with a cheerful tone as I enter the cave.

Joy is lying on his back, his eyes are shut and his breathing is heavy and shallow.

I put down the wood and fruits near the entry and reach towards Joy. I touch his cheek gently as I try to wake him up. His fever hasn't subsided still, so I decide to go wet the scarf first.

I come back with the wet scarf and put it on his forehead gently.

"Joy baby, wake up and eat something," I say as I try to shake his shoulder lightly, but he doesn't respond.

"Joy... get up my silly sleepy head ghostie to be," I joke as I try to shake him harder this time, but he doesn't even budge a little.

"Joy, if this is some silly prank or practical joke, please stop it now. You won okay, now get up you're scaring me," I pat his cheek lightly, then with force, but to no avail.

I run out to the ocean quickly and hold some water in the palms of my joined hands. I return inside hurriedly and sprinkle the water on his face. He finally moves a little.

"Joy... ohh thank God, you woke up. You scared me baby," I say gently caressing his cheek.

"Faith...," he says and offers me a forced close lipped smile.

"Here, eat it," I say and offer him some berries. He eats a few but doesn't say anything.

"Wait... I'll get some more," I tell him and walk towards the cave entry to grab more from the heap I put them in earlier.

When I turn around and return to Joy, his eyes are shut again. I shake him, call out to him, but he doesn't wake up. I decide to sprinkle more water on his face, but this time it doesn't work either.

Is he slipping into unconsciousness?

Shit! His condition is continuously worsening. What should I even do now?!

"Joy baby... please wake up for me," I try to talk to him again, but he doesn't respond.

"Please Joy, you can't do this to me. You said you will heal soon, right? Why aren't you healing then?" I sob as tears begin trickling down my eyes.

"Please baby, you're my fighter right! You can't give up. Just hang in there okay?" I don't know if I am consoling him or myself at this point, but watching my bundle of Joy in so much pain and worsening health is killing me slowly.

I am going to do something about this situation, I don't know if I will succeed or not, but I'd be damned if I don't try!

"Just stay here for me okay, I'll be back soon," I kiss his forehead and get out of the cave, leaving behind an unconscious Joy.

___

A couple of trips to the forest, a couple of trips to the cave for wetting Joy's scarf again and applying more medicinal paste on his wounds, and a couple of trips to the foothill from the beach, that's what it takes for my ankle to swell and start hurting again. All in the last 3-4 hours.

I feel sweaty, flushed, exhausted, hungry but mostly pained because Joy is still unconscious and sun will be overhead in less than an hour. Both my raw materials that I will use for my plan are ready, and are placed in the mid of the beach. Now, I just have to start arranging them , so that I can finish before the plane arrives.

If it arrives, that is.

But, like I said earlier, this is a leap of faith I am willing to take.

______

With each log of firewood arranged now as a pyre, I keep on piling my hopes for a bright and happy life with Joy.

There are a total of three pyres now, each at least ten feet away from the other, arranged as a triangle. Something I remember reading about as signal fire, but I can't really recall completely. I will have to light up all three of these as soon as I spot the plane, the smoke should be sufficient to invite their attention.

And once their attention is towards this triangle, they should also be able to spot what is next to it.

A giant three letter word, created using large rocks brought here from the foothill one by one, and arranged with special care that their dark colour doesn't get camouflaged with the color of the sand. I hope this will be legible from the height above,I have tried to use atleast 25-30 huge rocks for each alphabet of the word.

It's a message for help. SOS.

Everything is ready finally, all that I need now is my miracle.