One day there was a man who worked at a publishing company. He couldn’t think of a story to write so he sat at his desk all day procrastinating. After a few weeks, his boss told him to take a break and see the world so that he could come up with a story. Throughout his break, he sat at home thinking of something to write about but he couldn’t come up with anything. Once he got back, his boss asked him if he had come up with anything. When he said no, his boss became very mad and fired him on the spot.
After much thought, he decided that with the money he had left, he was going to see the world. Since the car he’d had was a company car, when he was fired, it was taken away, therefore he had to walk home. On his way home, he passed by a movie theatre. The movie that they were showing was about the Galapagos Islands, so that’s where he decided to go first. He could only afford to go on vacation for two months. So he was going to start his trip as soon as possible.
On his way to the islands, his plane malfunctioned and when he awoke, he was on a deserted island with nothing to be seen but ocean for miles and miles.
After yelling for a few hours with no one response, he decided that he would have to find a place to sleep. It was a long night, thinking about his life in New York, just wishing that he could be back home with his job. Finally, he got to sleep.
When he woke up the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky so he decided to go explore the island. It didn’t take him very long to get back to where he’d started. The island was only about a quarter mile long.While he was gone, some small animals had found his campsite and were sniffing it out. When he came back, they scattered into the bushes. He was very hungry, so he set off looking for them to eat. He saw some, but they were too fast to catch. He was hungry so he decided to see if he could find something else to eat. He found nothing.
By the time he got back to camp, it was getting dark and he still had nothing to eat. He thought about his parents and how his dad had taught him to make a trap. That night, he slept well knowing that tomorrow he would set up a trap and have some of those small animals.
He woke up at sunrise and set to work. He was still extremely hungry and hadn’t had anything to eat in about thirty hours. He found some sticks and made a noose with a bendy stick. He put it together and the trap was set. When the animal walked through the noose, a stick would sling it up and it would hang by it’s leg. He decided that while he was waiting, he would search for some fruit that he could gather.
After giving up about all hope on finding something to eat, he saw a coconut tree. He climbed the tree and pulled the coconuts off. One was smashed and he saw a little animal eating some of the meat.
When he got back, nothing had gone into his trap. He realized that it was not likely that any animal would because he didn’t have any food for it. He decided to put some coconut meat in the trap. Within minutes, a little animal scurried across and was caught in the trap. That night he had a feast on his meat and coconuts. He built a fire and was warm and comfortable all night.
In the middle of the night he was awoken by the horn of a huge boat. It startled him at first, but then he realized that it was his only chance of getting off the island. He made his fire huge and started screaming. The boat didn’t notice and was out of sight in minutes. He didn’t realize how big he had made the fire and it started spreading all throughout the island. He was hit in the head with a tree branch and knocked unconscious. When he awoke, he was being put into a helicopter to carry him home. When he looked back, all he saw were the charred remains of what was once a lush forest.
Apparently he was the only survivor of the plane crash and was lucky to survive that fire. When he got home, he went to his former boss and begged for his job back. After hesitation, his boss said yes. His first story after being back is considered by some to be the best story ever.