"Yes. Elizabeth said they tied you to a board and sent you out to sea."
Keturah nodded and said, "I floated for a long time and then there was a storm. A terrible storm!"
I could well imagine the kind of storm she was talking about as I'd lived through one.
"When I woke up the board was gone and I was laying on the beach of an island even smaller than this one."
She paused for a moment and then with her voice raw she said, "I was marooned on that island for two years. I was six years old! I didn't know how to do anything like build a raft or successfully fish. The island had one fruit tree on it and that was how I survived along with whatever I was lucky enough to catch in the water. I couldn't take it! I went crazy or at least I lived in fear of going crazy. Finally one day I decided to end it, because I couldn't take living on that miserable little island even one more day! I swam out of the lagoon and into the sea. I swam till I exhausted myself too much to be able to return to shore."
She stopped talking and gently I interjected, "That's when Dimbo found you isn't it?"
She nodded, "I thought he was trying to eat me instead of save me. I don't know why it mattered as I was trying to kill myself anyway."
She looked up at me miserably, "Do you think I'm crazy?"
"No honey I don't think you're crazy."
She looked back down as she said, "So now you know why I can't come ashore with you. Every time I've tried to go ashore it overwhelms me and all I can see is the island I was so miserable on as a child. I'll stay on this raft while you build the boat." She finished in a small voice.
I wasn't letting her get off that easy. "Do you know how my wife and two girls died Keturah?"
She glanced up looking surprised that I would bring that up at a time like this.
"Matt said they died in a bad accident and that there wasn't anything you could do."
"That's a very mild way of putting it Keturah. We were at Matt's house for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday up on the surface. When the day was over we left in our car to go home. A car is like a box on wheels that goes very fast. Its how a lot of people get around on the surface. We were driving along and another car came along and hit us. Its driver was drunk. My car flipped over a bank and tumbled down a ravine and landed on its side. The engine came back into the car and had my legs pinned against the seat. My back was thrown out as well and I couldn't move my arms. I was helpless. My wife's head had been hit in the crash and she was unconscious. She was hung up above me by her seatbelt. For hours I felt her blood drip down onto me, but there was nothing I could do. She regained consciousness briefly and we talked for a little while before she died. My oldest girl's neck was snapped at the moment of impact, but my youngest girl was alive and crying. I listened to her cry all night long as I told her everything was going to be all right. It was very cold that night and she died of shock and exposure an hour before the rescue crew got there. I went crazy Keturah. I was in a psych ward for six months under constant surveillance to keep me from taking my own life. For the next seven years up until recently I've been in a prison in my mind every bit as bad as the two years you spent alone on your island Keturah. I know what it's like and I don't want you to stay there any longer! For years I've fought to keep the memories of my family both good and bad fresh in my mind because I thought that if I lost the connection that I'd lose everything and really go crazy. I lost my faith the night of the accident and it's taken me over seven years to get it back. Seven years of my life that I've wasted and can't get back. It wasn't until I came to this inner world that things began to change and I actually started to notice that I was breathing. You have been a large part of that change in me Keturah. More so than you know. You have helped me so much and I am so grateful to you! I want to help you Keturah. I want to help you like you've helped me. I want you to be free to experience life like I am right now. Keturah, honey, get off the boat and come to me."