The Smoke Signal

A ship got wrecked. The lone survivor managed to stay afloat on a wooden plank. He clung on to his haversack wherein he had been able to stuff in a couple of his personal belongings. On the second day he floated onto a tiny island. It seemed to be totally uninhabited. The man wandered about on the island looking for signs of human life. But there were none. Finally he broke off some branches from the trees and using the rope from his haversack, he made a small shelter for him to sleep. He had only a change of clothes, some chocolates and some medicines etc. He picked wild fruits and berries to eat. He found some sugarcane growing. He peeled some with his teeth and kept aside some to be used as a stick to protect himself from wild animals. Days passed.

One day, he put his shoes and clothes into his ‘hut’ and went into the sea to bathe. He enjoyed the swim and lay basking in the sun for a while. He wondered if he would be rescued, or would he live here for ever. He said a silent prayer, “Oh God! Please help me!” Strangely, all these days it had not occurred to him that he should pray!

When he went back to his hut he was shocked to see that it had caught fire. The hut and his clothes, food, shoes; all his worldly belongings had gone up in smoke! In the burning debris he spotted his magnifying glass and realized that the burning heat of the sun on the magnifying glass had probably triggered off the fire. The man wept. He said, “Oh God! I prayed to you for help. How could you do this to me?” A short while later he spotted a small ship. Two sailors in a small rubber dinghy were rowing vigorously towards the island. The man was stunned! The sailors stepped on to the island and came towards him, smiling. “We have been looking for survivors from the ship wreck, for so many days. At last we have found you.” “How did you find me?” the man asked haltingly.

They said, “We saw the smoke from your fire!”