The Encounter

Seth Samuels was a member of ‘Explorer’, an adventure club in his school. They usually took trips to islands and trekked on mountains which were very steep and challenging to climb.

One day, his adventure teacher, Melvin Gibbs, told them that they would be going to Helmuth Island, an island very close to the coast of Florida. When Seth’s parents approved of his going to Helmuth Island, he was filled with joy and happiness. He was looking forward to go on adventurous trips and find out new things about the island. The first thing he did was to pack a bag with a few t-shirts and trousers, a camera, his compass, a book, in case he got bored, a bear spray, to frighten away any bears which he had got in a little stall near the amusement park, a pair of socks and a pair of sunglasses. He also filled a bottle with water and threw it in the bag with the other things.

On the day of the journey, he woke up early as the tour was supposed to begin at six-thirty sharp and quickly took all of his things, kissed his mother and father goodbye and got on the bus, which would take them to the harbour, where they would board a ship and be off to Helmuth Island. Their adventure teacher, Melvin, told them some ground rules, like no running off by themselves, don’t get lost and stick together. These were three different versions of sentences which practically meant the same thing. As the bus started, Seth got a seat near the window. Since his hobby was photography, he took out his mini-camera and took many pictures like a photo of two dogs fighting with each other on the pavement, a picture of the blue sky with very white clouds floating about, a picture of a tree with a squirrel, a bird and a chipmunk and a picture of a sign that said: “This sign has sharp edges”. Seth actually laughed at that one. When they reached the harbour, all of them descended the bus, Seth and Camille, his classmate, being the last ones out.

There, they boarded the ship named “Brine Bliss”.  Seth chuckled after reading the sign. All eleven, including Melvin, got on the ship. They were ready to go. Melvin, feeling the need to add, said, ‘Let her rip!’

During this small period of time, Seth took a picture of two dolphins and the name of the ship. After about thirty minutes, they reached Helmuth Island. Seth got down and surveyed the beautiful atoll. As it was dawn, the sky was a lustrous and phenomenal tint of scarlet with small beams of red and yellow when the sun rose like a helium balloon. He knew that all of the sunflowers of the world were opening like a newborn baby’s eyes. The sun was like an enormous, round, blazing ball of light as it floated through windows, waking up reluctant kids.

‘Hey, listen up!’ Melvin yelled to get everyone’s attention. ‘There are eleven of us, and so I’ll be splitting all of you into five groups of two and I’ll go with one group. Okay? So, Moose and Roderick, you are one team. Fiona and Fred, Gina and Nina, Seth and Ken, Seth and Camille, you are the groups. Now, I’ll be going with Fiona and Fred, okay? Now, all of you take different routes. I’ve made this a little interesting. I am going to give each of the groups a list of ten things which you will have to find or take a photograph of. You have to put the specimen in the bucket I give you. Does every one of you have cameras? Good. Also, I’ll give you a high-power whistle saw that you can call us when you get in trouble. The time is two hours. We’ll meet back on this same spot after the given time.  Come here. Take one bucket. Ready, steady, go!’

All of the children raced at high speed in different directions, Melvin trying to keep up with Fiona and Fred. After they got in the thickness of the trees, Camille and Seth started looking for a twig with a small branch on it. As they moved from place to place, they had got most of the things on the list. They just needed a picture of a cuckoo and a butterfly and they were good to go. As they were exploring the inner areas of the island, they saw a small cave tucked in a corner, among the trees and bushes.

‘Hey, look! A cave. Want to go in and investigate?’ Camille said, walking ahead of Seth.

‘Careful, Camille! Who knows what’s in there?’

‘Scared of a little adventure?’

‘Fine. I’ll accompany you. Come on, let’s go.’

Both of them entered the dark, eerie grotto very slowly. They proceeded in and in until they had almost reached the end. As they were about to turn around and go back, they felt something breathing very heavily. They turned back to the cave wall and, to their shock, they saw a huge black bear was standing there, eyeing them with his wide, beady eyes. Camille was about to scream but Seth nudged her so that she would shut herself up. He knew this because he had read a book on bears and how to get away if you ever met with one. The first thing was to never look at face-to-face. The second thing was to speak in a pleasant, soothing monotone to the bear. The third thing was to stand very still, to not make any sudden movements. Seth carefully put his bag down, opened the zip, which caused the bear to grunt but did not do anything and fished around for his bear spray. He got hold of it and rapidly sprayed it at the bear’s eyes. In the short period of time when the bear got blinded, Seth took Camille’s hand and fled out of the cave. They did not stop running until they had reached the spot where they started from. It was nearly the end of two hours and many of the groups came back. As soon as the teacher arrived, Seth and Camille went and told him everything.

‘Oh, my gosh! Are you both alright? Why did you not whistle? Are you bleeding? Do you need any band-aids?’ Melvin was very concerned and worried.

‘We’re fine! But it was so cool! This was an exploration we’ll never forget!’ Seth winked at Camille and grinned. Both of them laughed heartily.