Alec’s head whipped back to the manila envelope, and he had it open two seconds later. What the hell, what the hell, what the hell? he repeatedly asked himself recognizing his grandfather’s writing at the top of envelope’s contents.

His hands shook slightly as he began to read.

Dearest Alec,

At the moment I am sure you are quite troubled by your present circumstances and I don’t blame you for being so. I only ask you to please read this carefully and with an open mind.

Alec paused as he realized that the sand was now searing his feet and quickly retreated to the shade of the palm tree. He eased back into the tree and then slowly slid down until his wet swim trunks bounced on the sand.

As you know I served in the Navy during the War and my first assignment was on a PT boat in the South Pacific. We were on a reconnaissance mission searching for Japanese Destroyers in the Spice Islands, when we came under attack by two Japanese Zeros.

We quickly returned fire and managed to down one of them, but the others continued to give us heavy damage. Four of the crew were killed above deck, another seven below, and then the boat began to take on water.

Minutes later, there was an explosion and I was thrown clear from the boat but knocked unconscious when I hit the water. Unfortunately, I was the only one who survived the blast.

The Zeros pulled away after our boat sank leaving me for the sharks, which luckily didn’t come. I awoke almost an hour later, my life vest holding me afloat; amazingly, I had drifted towards an island.

I made it to shore completely exhausted over five hours later, crawled across the beach, concealed myself in some brush and passed out. When I awoke, and analyzed my situation, it looked pretty grim. All my crewmates were dead, and I was alone on the island with no way to contact anyone.

If I tried to make a signal fire, the Japanese would probably have seen it first. All I could do is wait and make the best of it.

Later that day keeping away from the beach, I walked around the entire island finding no signs of any previous inhabitants. The island did have a lot of different vegetation, so food wasn’t a problem. There were several freshwater pools near the center of the island, and to my relief the water seemed okay to drink. I returned to the beach at dusk and discovered that some wreckage from the PT boat had also made it to shore. I pulled it off the beach to prevent its detection by any enemy aircraft, but realized there was nothing of much use. I slept in the brush again that night, still wary of the unknown, and praying that help would come.

The next morning, after eating a breakfast of breadfruit, I walked along the shore looking for any more debris. And about an hour later I spotted one of the our life rafts caught up on the rocks at the end of the beach.

You can’t imagine my excitement when I spotted the survival kit still attached firmly under the stern seat. The box contained a knife, machete, basic first aid kit and most importantly four flares and some fishing line. Things were looking up. I decided that my present location was probably the best place to set up a shelter, the trees were less dense and I would be able to spot any airplanes or boats without them spotting me first.

Using the hatchet and some makeshift tools I made a large lean-to. I collected freshwater in the barrels found on shore, became somewhat adept at catching fish without a pole and led an incredibly simple life. My fear of the Japanese finding me disappeared as my sightings of Zeros lessened.

It was then that something strange happened, I realized that I was happy, not crazy happy, just content. I woke up at sunrise each morning and spent my days working on projects to keep my mind occupied Like building a bigger hut or working on a pipe system to bring in the freshwater from the center of the island. I was enlightened, I thought about everything, and especially about my future. When I joined the Navy I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do with my life. Or what I was capable of doing. On the island I knew.

One day I walked to the highest point on the island, I was probably 500 feet high, there was a small clearing and I sat down and stared at the horizon…. for hours.

I don’t remember thinking about anything at all, except thinking that I could do anything, feeling that nothing was beyond my grasp. I spent the night in that spot, then awoke to the most magnificent sunrise any human being had ever seen.

I walked back down to my hut, assembled food, water and other provisions. Then I just hopped into the life raft and headed out to sea. Completely fearless.

Three days later I spotted a ship, shot up a flare, and in a half hour I was aboard the USS Lexington. Which to my surprise the Navy reassigned me to after three weeks of medical observation. I had been on the island for eight months.

Alec, your 24 years old, and can’t even begin to grasp your potential. You’re an incredibly bright young man and you’ll make a fine businessman.

Grayson Technologies and my fortune are yours when I’m gone and I have complete faith in your ability to handle both. But only if that’s what you want.

Which brings me to the reason you’re on this island, which is to decide if that’s what you really want to do with your life.

Here’s the bottom line.

You will spend exactly one year on this Island, any less and the terms of your trust are broken, meaning that on your twenty-fifth birthday you’ll get a cake and maybe a nice tie, instead of the 150 million dollars presently in your trust.

Please do not worry, you have been well provided for here, I’ll take care of your personal affairs and notify your close friends of your unique situation.

By the way this isn’t exactly a vacation. There are more details in the following pages.

But suffice to say your official title for Grayson Technologies is now President of R & D, Alec Isle, the Caribbean.

By the way, In case you’re worried about any visitors, there’s a rumor around these parts that Alec Isle was once a Leper Colony. And if you’re wondering where the name came from, it’s fairly simple. You own every inch of this island

Before you read on, please take some time to think about this experience. I wouldn’t do this to you if I didn’t think you would benefit significantly from it.

You’re very young, when you’re my age this year will seem like a week’s vacation.

Best of luck.

Love, Grandpa

~~~
Alec stared blankly at the bottom of the letter entranced in thought.

“How could he do this to me,” he said softly toward the paper.

He then placed the letter and envelope gently on the sand and stood up gazing at beach ahead, a thousand thoughts running through his head.

“A year, a whole goddamn year, in the middle of nowhere. Great, just friggin great.” Alec walked back and forth along the water for a little over five minutes, kicking a large quantity of the sandy water every third or fourth stride. Finally he stopped and stared back out to the vast sea, his options thoroughly played out in his head. After ten deep steps in the scorching hot sand the envelope was back in his hands.

Page 2

(coming soon)

Posted by on Thursday, March 9th, 2006 at 3:16 pm.