Lone Wolf Of Her Own Making

It's been two weeks now. Fourteen days. No word, no signs of other life. She's rationed whatever supplies she could scrounge but is worried about water more than anything; the iodine tablets are disappearing and her biggest fear is dissentry, some sort of water borne illness that ravages her system, explosively and painfully. The art of being alone has somehow transformed into an extreme sport with life and death consequences. Time is paramount. Never has Teresa felt so ephemeral as a human being. Helpless. Stranded on this island of her own volition, lost somewhere between her original coordinates and god knows where. If she's being honest with herself, this is a choice. She didn't have to set out alone. The thrill and damn it all to hell of independence quickly tires when the day to day realities of complete autonomy weigh heavily on her entire being. What to eat, how to dress, what direction to move forward in; at what cost to not only herself but those interdependent, either directly or by chance encounter, as she journeys round the sun. Three hundred and sixty five days almost to the hour and she's forsaken in a way she hadn't thought to prepare for. She never anticipated this eventuality. Surely help will arrive, she thinks; no, she instinctively knows that this time it's all her. No one is coming; no one even knows she's gone. They don't sense her lack of presence. Teresa decided, unconsciously perhaps but again, most likely with some foresight, that this journey would be all her own. Only when everything is lost does she begin to understand in her marrow, her viscera, how organically interdependent she is, we all are. The necessity of communion, sharing the load, acquiescing and compromising, the push/pull, lead and follow sharing nature of relationship. With anyone. No woman is an island. She is bereft of another soul to share this revelation with. Suddenly Teresa is the tree falling in the forest, screaming at the top of her lungs, limbs flailing, roots upended, leaving no reverberation. Echoless in her own wilderness.

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