'Monday Lunch' by Ray Cates

It was a fairly empty island that his boat limped to.  As far as he could calculate without charts he was 400 miles from any island.

Jack had planned to sail the Pacific in a 24 foot sailboat.  He was going to be  exploiting his writing skills, and his degree in Explorative Literature when he got back to his beach house at Clearwater Florida.  He had plans for his writing years ahead.

He was far from the sea lanes, but was always ready with a reflective mirror if an airplane was above him during a sunny day.  Jack found plenty to eat in the sea around his flat, half square mile island. He knew it would go under in any good storm.

At night, and a few times in daylight,  he saw a few airplanes, and some large ships passing near the horizon.  If they saw his mirror they didn’t respond.

Gradually he talked to himself and recorded events like when he saw a drifting island of mostly toilet paper from maybe a cruise ship that arrived at his little island 2 years after he arrived.

On the outside of his boat he carved a record of his island adventures during the first two years.

Then the inside of his lean-to/boat shelter he carved as he discovered religion.  That was five years in his inner search for God.  Hs problem was the abundance of food and that he was so healthy.  As he finished his last testament of and on the inner boat of his soul, he prayed for a perfect storm.  He had 3 very promising storms but none that had swept him away.  He was very strong and would avoid being pulled under with everything human that he had.  He was two parts –wanting to die, and striving to live.

Where everything was abundant — plenty of food, not cold, but it was so dull, like the knife that he had used on the boat.

Jack’s boat was found 20 years after he disappeared.  It washed up on an Australian beach.  His carving ended up in a museum, the narrative carved there was a best selling book.