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I lied down on the day bed. Face to the sky, looking at the bits of clouds in between the spaces of the coconut leaves. It was like looking at pieces of the sky cut by sword into thin slices.

I covered my legs with red batik sarong and my arms with blue sarong. The colors doesn’t match but both serve their purpose: protect me from mosquito bites.

I slept lightly. Half awake most of the time. I could hear the waves. It kept coming and going, producing the same sound over and over again, like that favorite song that you put on repeat.

The tide was extra high that day and the waves kept coming closer to me, inch by inch, almost reaching the day bed. Afraid that they might take the only pair of slippers I have, I stood up to move it somewhere a bit further.

My phone kept vibrating. Messages kept coming.

Where are you?

Are you sleeping?

??????

I cannot find you!

?????

I checked the messages but didn’t reply to any of it. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to have a time when I don’t need to laugh at jokes and I don’t have to force myself to answer questions. When I don’t have to respond. When I don’t have yo do anything but lie down and look at the sky. When I just wanted to have a short break from the noisy world. Think about anything I want or just nothing at all.

I kept the phone inside my beach bag and tried to sleep again.

Lightly. Aware of the sound around me. The waves. The coconut falling from the tree. The leaves swaying. Footsteps from few meters away. Boat engine. And then that static sound.

That sound when the radio station signs off or when the late night TV show  is over.

It’s that sound that looks like a long line, that gets thicker and thicker as it gets louder and louder. I felt that my ears were about to bleed as the static sound filled in my world.

I uttered some words to break the noise in my head.

You want silence right? This is what you get.

The sound of the waves came back, the swaying of the leaves and then follow a whistle of another human being and a soft laughter from another.

They found me again.