Re: Vignette 22 by Dia Felix

Dad regained consciousness just in time to pull back on the clutch and lift the plane back up toward the sky. We had been heading right for the rocks. It would have been the end of us. I was the only one awake, until the sudden uphill re-roused mom and three of my siblings. (The youngest, the only boy, stayed asleep, his gameboy limp in his hands). Dad landed the plane softly and smoothly on a white beach, the iconic sort of island landscape you might expect to see in an advertisement for a Mexican beer. Mom was patting Dad on the back as he vomited, overcome with emotional distress. Sarah, Sri Racha, and Wilemus, my three sisters, were standing, drawing things in the sand with a stick. Rudy, the youngest, the boy, was still buckled into the plane, asleep. I walked around to different trees, slicing things open with my little knife. Seeds in thick black syrup, orange pulpy guts, rubbery bark, sour smells, sweet rich smells, I probed and discovered, starting an invisible taxonomy in my mind--things that wanted to be eaten, things that might hold drinkable water. I was ready to survive this. Although I had been equally ready to die. I had seen us heading for the rocks and had not protested.

Often I had wondered if I was some kind of guru figure, maybe this was supportive evidence.

Mom was comforting Dad. I heard her use the way of speaking that she often used with us when we needed her, when we were acting like babies. I had never heard her use it with Dad, or maybe any other adult. Something like, "You did the best you could, Ted," and "We're gonna be alright now," and "It's not your fault, it was that mechanic" and "let's let the spirit guide us through."

At night it was totally silent. I never slept, which is probably since I am some kind of guru figure like I said before. We were in the plane, asleep in our seats under thin blankets. In the middle-seed of the night, I heard small high chirps coming out of the water. I slowly got out of the plane, not wanting to rouse anyone. I walked into the ocean like a slow self-guided baptism. I was magnetized to something wordless, I felt in the hands of god. I went in deeper and deeper, until the water was over my head. I felt little teeny dolphins swimming around my ankles, playing with me.

Based on Vignette 22