Early the next morning I was on the verge of waking. My mind wandered somewhere between dreamland and reality, slowly dancing towards the latter. I was rudely jolted awake by another ‘Sploosh!’
Blinking in the unexpected early morning sunlight I scrambled to my feet. Apparently Katy had done the same for we collided some four feet above the ground and fell back. Our second attempt at rising came much easier and we were both able to succeed in the task and turn to face the river, wide eyed once again.
What we saw definitely surprised us however not in the same way we had been surprised last night. We stared dumbly on, it was most unnatural to be sure. I rubbed my eyes, thinking I must being seeing things, but my vision remained unaltered.
"Katy?" I asked, "Do you see what I see?"
Katy mutely nodded, momentarily adding words since our eyes were fixed ahead and even in her drowsy state of mind she knew I could not see her. "Yes. Most unnatural, isn’t it?" She asked.
I too nodded before adding words, "Think we should go check it out?" I asked.
"Why not?" Katy said, agreeing.
Neither of us moved.
"Why don’t you go?" I asked.
"How about you?" Katy suggested.
"I… Can’t swim." I fibbed.
"You can’t lie either." Katy noted.
"Alright, we’ll both go." I said, however neither of us made any action to fulfill my prediction as we were both mesmerized by the amazing sight.
"A floating rock." I muttered, "Who would’ve thunk."
"It’s floating away." Katy muttered. And it was. The rock was drawn into a fast current near the middle of the river and was quickly being swept away.
"NO!" We both cried at once as we realized it was leaving.
We dashed into the water simultaneously and began swimming like crazy towards the mysterious floating rock.
"Wait!.. Come back.. Freak.. Of.. Nature!.." I called between gasps of air.
We somehow managed to get all the way out to the rock and back to the campsite through a lot of struggling. The current pulling the rock away was a lot stronger than either of us had predicted but 15 minutes later we were all back on the beach, Katy and I panting for breath, our soaked hair and clothes clinging to us.
"Let’s not.. Do that.. Again." Katy suggested when she had recovered enough air to breathe.
I nodded in agreement still trying to catch my breath. "So what was it?" I asked Katy four minutes later.
"I don’t know…" Katy sat up to look at what we had managed to rescue from the river.
We both leaned in closer to get a better look. "Why it’s a coconut rock." I said in awe.
"I didn’t know coconut rocks float." Katy said in equal awe.
I nodded, "Neither did I." Reaching out I turned the rock and gasped, "Katy, look!" I breathed.
"Why, it’s a Bethany Coconut Rock!" Katy exclaimed, an ecstatic smile spreading across her face. Her smile was replaced by momentary confusion, "But how did she… Um, it… Or… Whatever… Get all the way out here?" She asked.
"Well… Bethany Coconut Rock, or ‘RoB’ for short," I began.
"RoB?" Katy asked.
"Yeah, the R from Rock, the O from Coconut and the B from Bethany." I explained.
"Rachel," Katy began.
"What?" I asked a look of total ignorance upon my face.
"Never mind." Katy said shaking her head.
"Well anyway. As I was saying RoB fell down a chasm in the mountains." I exclaimed, "Obviously, at the bottom of that chasm there must have been a small underground river. Miraculously RoB must have landed in said underground river and been swept away by the current since RoB floats as we both learned today. Now seeing as how underwater rivers can go wherever they want because they’re underwater it is safe to assume that it went east. Towards this river." I continued, oblivious to the look of blank confusion Katy was giving me, "Since RoB arrived with a ‘Sploosh’ I think it is safe to assume that somewhere along the river RoB was swept off and into a geyser. Said geyser must have exploded sometime this morning, being neither old nor faithful. It is than logical to assume that the geyser had force enough to propel RoB all the way to this river."
Katy blinked, "How do you know all this?" She asked.
I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder indicating to the woods behind us, "Found a geyser back there when I was collecting wood last night." I told her.
"Ooh." Katy said, "You cheated then."
"It wasn’t cheating!" I exclaimed, "It was using all available knowledge!"
Katy looked at me skeptically. "I want my Playstation 2." I said abrupbtly.
"What brought that on?" Katy asked.
"Well you said ‘cheated’ and that made me think of Final Fantasy and that made me miss my Playstation 2." I said.
"Right. And why would you think Final Fantasy when I said cheated?" She asked.
"I don’t know cheat codes for it." I explained.
Katy rolled her eyes, "Whatever. We should probably start off again." She commented, skillfully changing the subject.
"We really should." I agreed. With that we quickly grabbed our bags, threw them into the middle of the boat, nestled RoB safely in the luggage and tied it all on. Pushed the boat the four yards back to shore, put out the imagined fire, and shoved off. Me sitting in back, Katy in front.
It wasn’t until we tried to turn back into the current that we remembered the events of the previous day, rowed back to shore, switched places and started off again.
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