Free a movie...and a Book by Daniel Wagner Page B

him look. She was still warming her feet.

47.
    “We’re late. It’s already nine,” said Jim with concern.
    They were coming out of the shrubby landscape, a small, sandy beach in front of them. There were two boats lying stranded in the sand. They walked toward them.
    “All right,” said Andy, squatting down to the sand.
    He drew a circle in the sand. “This is the island we’re on.” Now he drew a long line. “This here is the mainland.” He made two other small circles. “These are the other islands.” He looked at the sketched-out map for a moment. “I guess we’ll find them somewhere in between.” He made a cross on one of the smaller islands. “Here is where they started, so we’ll start there too. You go west, I go east. We scan the whole area. If we can’t find them here we go farther out to the ocean.” He drew an arrow in the sand between the mainland and the islands. “If they tried to come to the mainland, the current probably drifted them west. Without a motor, you can’t make it. So in the worst case we look for them in this area.” He drew another circle. “Let’s say we start now and meet at noon. If we find them, great; if not, we’ll make further plans. Any questions?”
    Jim was eyeing the drawings for a moment longer. “What do we tell them if we find them?”
    “Hmm? That’s a good question.”
    “I guess we can’t tell them the truth?”
    “No, hell, no, not the truth. In a way, no one knows what really happened. So why not just tell them that they were missed, so we started looking for them?”
    “But they may wonder why we’re searching on our own without help. I mean, it sounds kind of careless not to inform the authorities,” said Jim.
    “That’s another point to consider,” mused Andy. “Why not tell them that we found them by accident?”
    “You mean, as if we were just speeding over the ocean for our own amusement, and then by chance we found them
?
” said Jim, looking at Andy.
    “All right, that’s out of the question. Look, we can solve that problem when the time comes. Right now we shouldn’t waste precious time. We should try to focus on finding them. Let’s say the one who finds them improvises something. I guess we have time to think about that before we spot them.”
    They started to pull the boats into the water. Andy started the engine and sped off first.

48.
    We are back with Liz and Lou. We see them both on their raft. Lou is lying on his back, and Liz is sitting
against the pole, looking toward him.
    “And the crazy thing is, we didn’t even realize it,” said Lou. “But what happened to that guy in the book I told you about happens to everyone one way or another.” He looked at the sky for a moment. “Whatever problems you had as a kid you naturally try to fight. You may think that it’s all a mess once in a while, but step by step you will find a way out, and you learn and grow a lot.” He shook his head slightly. “That’s the beauty of life.” A look of awe crossed his face. “Heck, life always finds a way. You can’t imprison life.”
    “Yes, you can,” said Liz, observing Lou’s reaction.
    He didn’t move; he just kept looking up at the sky.
    “I was once on vacation somewhere, and at the hotel they had this aquarium in the lobby. One day I noticed a little fish in the tank looking at the glass. There were many different fish in the tank, but only one like him. So I got pretty close in front of him and looked back in, to try to get his attention. But he didn’t move. He just looked at the glass. A day later I passed the tank again, and this fish was still in the same spot, looking at the glass. The other fish, which weren’t unique, chased each other all over the place. But he only looked at the glass.” Liz reflected for a moment. “Isn’t that sad?”
    “That was just because he was in captivity. In nature he would never have given up looking for someone of his kind. Even if he never managed to find one,”