Absent

The ship sailed off; Lost was now alone on the island.  The pirates had left with the treasure and the rum, which was entirely uncivilized of them.  As she sat with legs outstretched in the sand, contemplating her newfound solitude, the water lapped at her ankles and sogged up her skirt.  The sun was warm, but it was not yet to the days when its flames would drive her to shaded solitude.  The sound of the ocean drowned out everything but the drifting, shifting, meandering thoughts inside her mind.  Perhaps life will improve without the pirates' tendencies towards troublemaking; perhaps not...  No one can see the future clearly until it is the present, and then it blurs again just as quickly into the past.  Absent now are the lovers, rivals, tricksters, captains, minions, victims, relations, and strangers.  Alone on the island, with sand and waves for companions, perhaps some new clarity could be obtained.

Idle time sitting in the ebb and flow of the tides does little to ease an empty belly, though, so Lost eventually rose and began preparing for some of the possibilities that strayed through her thoughts.