A Hermit Created (Gordon)

Write about your experience of life as a hermit.

Overwhelming fear grabbed my stomach until it turned inside out. The waves lashed against the side of my small boat and the engine was helpless against the Herculean waves whipped up by the wind and tide in the late afternoon. In seconds I was smashed against the rocks and the boat was sinking. My whole lonely life appeared to pass before my mind—was this the end? I grabbed the life buoy and dived overboard and swam with a slow and measured pace. Somehow the force of the tide carried me away from the jagged rocks and I was able to struggle toward a small sandy patch of beach where the waves dumped me ashore floating on the crest of a big breaker.

Helpless, I sat on the beach that was whipped by swirling, stinging winds, miles from any source of help or rescue with only my wet clothes. I thanked my lucky stars that somehow I lived. The immense fear I felt turned to elation and amazement at the force of nature.

Working my way up the beach I began to reflect on the argument I had had with my father and how I had gone over it a thousand times. “He did not understand”. I repeated it over and over. I was madly in love with her but she was from Africa. He had contacted her father and it killed the relationship. My heart was broken as she said it would not work.

The beach was desolate but as I walked back to the tree line for shelter I noticed hidden amongst the bush was what looked like sheets of rusty coloured galvanised iron. As I moved closer I could see a small hut hidden behind the sand dunes and protected from the ocean’s wind and waves. “Damn my father, I am out of it.” “The rest of the world can go hang.” It was a moment of fundamental and life-transforming decision. I yelled into the wind “I am alone forever, forever, forever!” I wanted no one to ever interfere in my life again.

The hut was rustic with number eight galvanised wire holding the wobbly wooden beams together and the sheets of iron were tied on with looped wire. There was the occasional piece of driftwood in the frame and a hardened red ironstone floor. There was not a nail to be found. In the corner was a wooden frame that had held boards for a bed. These were scattered on the floor. A chimney of types was constructed out of the galvanised sheets wrapped vertically and tied into the roof. There was a rolled fishing line stuck between one of the boards and a corrugation. A small knife was part covered with dirt and on the floor and a three-legged stool lay tipped over in one corner. There was a scattering of rubbish and other small items just outside the doorway left as though they were no longer wanted.

Fatigue suddenly overcame me. I collected together some small leaves and branches and assembled a rough bed. I lay down and slept. It was a deep sleep of someone profoundly satisfied with a life shaping decision.

As the sun rose over the ocean and popped over the sand dune to gleam through the cracks and rusty holes in the galvanised iron I was awakened by a myriad of birds calling to each other. I quickly walked the short distance to the beach. Bits of my boat and the large sealed cooler I had in the cabin had floated to the sand and were being washed back and forth in the rolling waves. I quickly rescued the cooler and thus had at least a few days worth of food.

I looked out to the horizon—there was nothing but water. No boats, no clouds. Nothing. It was at this point that I knew I was alone and I could feel the deep pleasure of knowing I could create a new world of one on a hermit’s island.

Gordon MacAulay
27 September 2009