Islands

The little island travelled along, rolling up and down with the motion of the waves across the vast blue waters of the ocean; the cloudless sky hanging high above with the sun shining down upon the white sands of the island's beach edging.

In the midst of the copse of palm trees that took up the grassy center of the island, Ramon sat leaning against the trunk of one of the thick palms, his straw hat pulled down to hide his eyes as he casually strummed on the little ukulele he had fashioned out of bamboo and coconut husks.

Not everyday was so relaxed and carefree as he travelled the open waters on his tropical island, but when the opportunity to take a break came along, Ramon would take full advantage and just plunk out cherry tune in between long naps in the shade.

He had been adrift on his mysterious little travelling island for so long he often thought of himself as the only person in the world; it was only ever him, his little island, and the never ending ocean stretching out into the infinite.

So it was a shock when he was jolted out of his dozing by the impact of the island bumping into something.

Pushing back the wide brim of his hat, Ramon looked up to see that his little piece of land had hit into another island heading the opposite way.

Leaning his uke against the tree he got up and cautiously moved to the side of the island that was not abutting the other. Trying to peer through the trees to see if there any inhabitants.

In a dry, cracked voice he called hello to whoever was over on the other island, but received no reply. So, moving through the trees, he made his way to the narrow strip of sand that was the bench and stood in his cut-off cargo shorts and tattered white polo, staring apprehensively.

He called out again and was about to step over onto the new island when he heard a woman say hello back as she came through the thicket of leafy bushes and out onto the sand.

They stood in silent shock for a few moments until Roman found his voice again and introduced himself. The curly-haired brunette woman stammered her reply and introduced herself as Brooke.

After a few moments of awkwardness, the two travellers started to tell each other their stories of how they came to be on their islands and the many adventures they had had, laughing at the similar things that had happened to each other.

Each gave the other a tour of one another's island, proudly showing off this or that feature they had come up with to make it their own special place. And as the days went by, they grew quite fond of each other and soon the seeds of romance began to blossom.

Then it was just the two of them in the world, their islands moving along in unison across the waters, until one day, as they were napping in their custom built coconut husk hammock for two, there came the bump of another island colliding with theirs.

They hurried down to the beaches to meet another young couple, their conjoined islands now amalgamating with Roman and Brooke's. All four of the little islands moved in unison until again, they bumped into another a few days later, then another, and another a few days after that.

Every new island bringing with it new people to meet; sometimes couples, sometimes only a single traveller, and sometimes even whole families, but always everyone was welcome and happy to join up with the now expanding continent in the middle of the ocean.

And no matter however many new people came along, everyone got along harmoniously; for at night, everyone would simply go back to their own private little island they called home.