Love on Fridays!

Ever thought of an adventure?

Getting lost in the world — all directions, none but you — surviving on coconuts and fish, stranded in the jungle!

Five college friends. Two completely different love stories. And what happened at the end?

Love on Fridays.

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Ms. Coconut

A small black scorpion crawls across the hot sand of a lonely jungle beach, searching for food. Its sharp claws move slowly, carefully.

It reaches something — the thing has pores in it and short hairs coming out of the pores, with a few tiny water droplets here and there. The scorpion starts climbing it, soon settling for a nice spot to bite.

“HAAA!”

A young man in his early 20s wakes up, shouting out loud, feeling a strange sensation on his right hand. He keeps shaking his hand violently.

Luckily, the scorpion gets thrown away to a distance.

He stands up and tries to open his eyes, but the bright white light from the sun doesn’t allow him to fully open them. He quickly covers his eyes with his left hand.

He can still feel a weird sensation of something crawling on his right hand, and he’s feeling the warmth of the hot red sun all over his body — irritating and hot!

He starts walking into the jungle for some shade. There are giant Oak trees, Palm trees, Mangroves…

The forest is getting denser and darker as he goes.

Tired, he finds a flat rock, places it near the trunk of a big tree, taking the support of the trunk. He slowly tries to sit on the rock, then leans back onto the trunk to support his spine.

“It is more like a chair now.” — He says to himself.

Within a few minutes he becomes fully conscious, out of sleep.

So many thoughts struck his head:

“Boat—Ship!”

“Alone—People—Friends—Family—Dad—Mom—My Love!”

“Survival—Food—Water—Death!”

“Snakes—Venom—Wild Animals”

Fear creeps in thinking about all these things at once. His heart starts pounding with anxiety and hopelessness.

He recalls his father, takes a deep breath to empty his mind.

He picks up a stick with his right hand, clears a small area in front of him with his foot.

“Let me note down a few things!”

“What is the most important thing that I need now?”

Water. — He writes it down with the stick.

“What else do I need to survive in this wild?”

Food. Shelter.

“How can I make it out alive from this place?”

A boat that could sail for one hundred miles!

While writing this, the stick breaks and he starts to think back—

“Not possible, for real…” — with grief deep inside.

He stands up—

“I am never gonna make it out of here!”

“Always give it another try, son!” — “A man never quits!”

Lines his father used to tell strike his head whenever he thought of quitting something, whether it be football or school.

“Ooof…”

He lets out a long sigh, thinking of the idea that he may have a chance — maybe one in a million — to make it out alive.

As time passes, the hot weather drains all the water in his body.

“I AM THIRSTY!”

“If I continue sitting idle like this, I will probably die of DEHYDRATION!”

“NO—No—no”

“That is the worst way to die…”

“But, how do I get water, in this forest?” — “Let me think…”

“Science 101 – We can drink water after boiling it”

“Right!” — “But I don’t have an induction stove here!”

“right…” — his inner voice continuing in a lower tone.

Okay, what else? How else can I get water?

“Drink the sea water?” — “I will die even faster from dehydration.”

He keeps thinking for some time and something strikes his head.

“Transpiration!” — “Yes! Transpiration it is!”

“If I could find the right plants with big leaves that let out water vapor, I would be good.”

Mack starts searching for some plants and trees — the ones with big leaves so that he gets more water.

“Yeah! There you go buddy!”

He finds a tree with branches low enough; he quickly takes a plastic bag from his pocket.

“I need to tie this thing tight!” — “Oh, there you are”

He finds a vine plant.

“Wait! Let me check something.”

He stomps hard on the ground, sending a warning tremor to drive away snakes and other creatures.

“Now we’re good”

He then takes a sharp stone and cuts some vine.

“This is some perfect rope to tie!”

He covers a big bunch of leaves inside the plastic cover and ties it backwards to the same branch with the vine and seals it completely.

“I feel like I am killing someone with a plastic cover on the head.” — “Movies, huh?” — he says to himself.

“Okay! My water would be ready in the next three hours…maybe…”

Mack keeps checking it every five minutes—

“Come’ on… It has been an hour, and I barely see any water in this!”

He heads back to the beach to collect anything useful. He walks for a long distance to reach near some rocks where there could be something stuck — something useful that came by the waves of the sea.

He finds two thin plastic water bottles—

“Oh, thank God!”

He washes them both in the sea water and takes them back with him.

While returning, he finds a big broken tent—

“So, they left this behind, great…”

His mind starts to recall his past.

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✨ ✨ ✨

Glimpses of the Past

The ship rose out of the sea like something unreal — all white steel and glass, glowing against the falling sun.

Mack stepped onto the deck with steady calm, though inside him something surged. Eight months ago, he had been an intern working late nights; now he stood aboard a private corporate vessel as the youngest Associate Director in the company.

The air smelled of salt and polished wood. Soft jazz floated through the evening. A steward handed him champagne before he could fully absorb where he was.

“Congratulations, sir,” the man said.

And Mack almost laughed at the word. Sir.

As the sky turned molten gold, Chairman Mr. James McConnel called for attention. Conversations quieted instantly. James spoke without theatrics, but with weight. He spoke about discipline under pressure, clarity in chaos, execution without excuses.

Then he turned slightly and gestured toward Mack.

“Some people grow into leadership over decades,” he said. “Some arrive ready. When he works, he goes into what I call beast mode.”

The applause that followed was strong and sincere. James lifted his glass toward him.

“To the future.”

Mack managed a composed thank you, though his pulse beat hard in his ears. It wasn’t ego he felt — it was validation. Earned. Solid. Real.

Later, when the celebration softened into music and movement, Mack stepped aside to the railing. The ocean stretched endlessly into darkness, the ship slicing through it with quiet power.

He pulled out his phone out of habit. No signal.

He stared at the blank screen for a moment and murmured softly:

“How are you, Jenny? It’s been long since we talked.”

He imagined telling her everything — the speech, the applause, the ridiculous luxury of it all. He slipped the phone back into his pocket and returned to the lights and laughter behind him.

The night felt victorious. The future felt open.

And as the ship moved steadily toward the island somewhere ahead, Mack stood in the glow of success, unaware that this was the last evening the world would feel this certain.

✨ ✨ ✨

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“Not a good time to recall” — he says to himself and shrugs it off.

He folds the tent into a small bundle and takes it back into the jungle.

It is already evening; the sun is about to set soon. He hasn’t made any fire yet.

He opens the plastic cover tied to the tree.

“WHAT! It is just droplets!”

The boy gets angry and frustrated; he still carefully gets all the water into one of the plastic bottles and drinks it—

“…not even a full sip.”

Soon it gets dark.

“Forest sucks when it is dark!”

“I AM STILL THIRSTY! AND HUNGRY!”

He clears a small area inside the jungle and wraps the tent around himself to cover all his body to keep him safe from any nocturnal beings.

“Good night, Mr. Jungle! See you tomorrow!”

He slowly closes his eyes and tries to sleep.

After some time, his stomach starts making sounds.

“I am hungry…” — In a low sleepy but awake voice.

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☀️ ☀️ ☀️

Mack is walking in the beach area anxiously, holding his stick from the day before.

“This is not at all working! I wouldn’t last more than a week or two like this, maybe a month by God’s grace”

“I DO NOT WANT TO DIE LIKE THIS!”

Then he starts thinking—

“What to do? What to do?”

He then looks up.

“YES! Coconuts!”

“But I don’t know how to climb – Maybe I can give it a try – Do I have an option?”

He walks near a straight, tall, big coconut palm tree. He looks at the top—

“That is some fresh coconut breakfast for today”

He puts the stick he is holding to a side.

“Easy, easy, Mack! You can do this!”

He wraps both hands around the rough trunk of the tree and tries to hold it tight—

“Ouch! It’s so sharp.”

“Keep going!”

He then jumps and wraps his legs around the trunk, trying to hold onto the tree.

“Now this is a perfect HUG! I Love you Ms. Coconut”

Jenny comes to his mind—

“Okay, let me rephrase it, I love you as a friend Ms. Coconut”

He is stuck like that for a few seconds.

“Now what?”

“Okay, okay, I need to move up, let’s try this.” — “Left hand up a step, right hand up a step, tighten the grip with both hands, left leg up, right leg up, hug tight again”

“Yes! It is working”

"Left hand, right hand, tighten, Left leg, right leg"
"Left hand, right hand, Left leg, right leg"
"Great!"
"Left hand, right hand… Left leg, right leg"

He looks down for a moment, scared—

“Mack, don’t look, don’t look”

"Left, right, Left, right"
"Left, right, Left, right"

“Oof! I am tired” — breathing, He looks up — “Holy shit! It has been an hour, and I am not even halfway there”

“Too slow Mack! Faster, faster!”

“Believe in yourself!”

“Believe in yourself!”

“Believe… Aah!” — breathing heavily — “Okay, almost there”

“For my mom” — “For my dad” — “For Jenny!”

He finally reaches the coconuts, but the issue is there are only three coconuts that he can get from this angle, otherwise he should climb back again from the other side and one of them looks old and brownish.

“Three should be fine”

He embraces himself and tries to make his grip tighter and opens up his right hand for a coconut.

“Haaahn!”

He finally holds a coconut in his hand. He starts grabbing it to a side so that it cuts off, but nothing useful.

“I would have brought that sharp stone of mine from yesterday”

“Okay, let’s try again – Full force”

He pulls it to his side way too hard.

“Woah!”

He starts to lose his grip, but the coconut doesn’t come off.

“Let me roll it” — “Yes, that should work!” — “Revolve like the earth”

He keeps rotating the coconut around itself.

“Yes, that is it!” — “Let’s try another one”

He plucks all the three coconuts and throws them down, one after another.

“MISSION COCONUT SUCCESS” — “Well done, Mack!” — he praises himself.

After a few seconds—

“Now what?” — “Get down, maybe”

He looks down—

“Oh! No-no-no!” — “I am scared now!” — “I am tired as well…”

“Should I just jump?”

He looks back down again—

“That is like two and a half floors high, good enough to break my bones.”

He slowly grabs his strength and tries to climb down as he climbed up.

“Easy, easy, Mack” — “Left leg down, right leg down, hold tight with legs, left hand down, right hand down”

“Yes, that’s it”

"Left, right, Left, right"
"Left, right, Left, right"
"Left, right… Left, right"

“Aah!” — gasps for air — “Let me see where I am”

He looks down and sees that he is just two feet away from the ground.

“Great! The trip back was easy somehow!”

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🥥 🥥 🥥

Mack collects the three coconuts and takes them back to his tent area. He has already sealed the leaves again with the plastic cover — every drop counts!

He tries to find his sharp stone.

“Mr. sharp, where are you?”

He uses the stone to open the coconut by piercing it.

“Not even a scratch” — “Full power!”

He tries again to pierce it.

“Haahn!” — “This isn’t working” — breathing heavily.

He then gets a rock, almost round and soft to hold.

“Mr. Rock, meet Mr. sharp stone” — “He needs your help to break open the coconut.”

Mack places the coconut in between his legs, points the sharp stone at a focus point, holding it with his hand, then he hits the sharp stone with the rock with another hand.

“Hit, Hit, Hit!” — “Tuck!” — sound from the coconut, the sharp stone reached the shell of the coconut.

“Yeah, that is the shell” — “Hit!”

A few drops of coconut water spill out! Mack takes the stone out.

“Not even a drop of you goes waste!”

He carefully drinks all the coconut water, but in a hurry of course—

“OH! THAT IS SO TASTY!”

He then uses the stone again to cut open the shell for the soft white flesh of the coconut. As the coconut is still green and not ripen yet, there is not much coconut meat inside, but for Mack it is a treasury.

Mack breaks open another coconut, a ripen one this time, it has more coconut flesh and less tasty water.

“This is some really good food!” — “Thank you, God, for creating coconuts, they’re just awesome!” — still chewing it — “Umm” — eating sound.

He is satisfied with the food—

“I can live, I can live here for a hundred years!” — “With Ms. Coconut, Mr. Sharp stone and Mr. Rock!”

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🌙 🌙 🌙

Mack still needs to figure out a few more things, because just drinking coconut water doesn’t really help. He will need some better food resources and a few other essentials, like fire, a proper shelter to protect him from wild animals during the night.

After having a good meal after starving for so long, he finally gets some quality sleep in the afternoon.

He wakes back up at around Six-O-Clock in the evening; it is already dark. He wants to have the remaining coconut, but nothing is visible anymore.

He still manages to find the Coconut, the sharp stone and the rock, but when he places the sharp stone on the coconut, he couldn’t really see the stone.

“If I miss, I am doomed, I will hit myself. Not worth the risk.” — “Let me move this task to tomorrow’s standup!”

He then cleans the area for sleep. The dry leaves and a few other creatures keep covering it all the time. He brushes off his tent. He also gets some sticks and places them beneath the tent for some extra support during sleep.

Thirty minutes pass.

Mack starts to hear some weird sounds.

“Psssss!” — “Tuck! Trck” — “Krk!” — “Krk!”

“They are definitely snakes and some other wild animals, maybe a bear?” — “Oooh! God save me for this night; I will somehow make fire tomorrow.”

He is still laying down with the tent wrapped around him. He starts thumping the ground with his right hand, so that the snakes and other creatures won’t come close to him. After another half hour, his right hand started to hurt. He switches to his left hand. Fear keeps him going for almost two hours. Soon, both hands begin to ache. The pain doesn’t let him sleep. He keeps moving around with pain. After one more hour, the drowsiness starts to outweigh his pain, and soon he drifts off into sleep.

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Home Sweet Home

“Fire! Fire! FIRE!”

Mack is again walking on the beach anxiously, holding his stick in the hand.

“But how?” — “Think Mack! Think!”

His stomach starts to growl—

“I think Mr. Belly needs something really urgent” — “I will get back to you in some time, Mr. Fire”

He walks back to the tent area, breaks open the remaining coconut, drinks all the water, then cuts it into two and eats the coconut flesh.

“That was amazing!” — “Gotcha!” — “I recall something from our school wildlife camp!” — “They taught us how to make fire with some wooden sticks”

Then with pride he says to himself—

“Once I get the idea, it is a piece of cake for me.”

He breaks down a big branch of a palm tree, cuts out two or three thin sticks and he also gets a very thick wooden piece from another tree. He also collects a few palm leaves and coconut palm husk fibers (coir).

“Fire Drill 101” — He starts speaking as if he is shooting a video for his social media page, showing all the material.

“First, we need the fireboard”

He took a thick wooden piece, but it is not flat, so he starts rubbing it on a big rough rock surface to make it flat.

“The fire board is ready!”

He then picks up two-three sticks, sharpens them, also flattens their surface so that the tiny thorns on the surface won’t hurt his palm while holding them.

“Now we are ready for the drill!” — He then senses — “Something is wrong!” — “Our equipment is all wet because of the humid climate” — “Okay then, let’s dry them up!”

Mack picks up the board, the sticks, the coconut coir and the palm leaves to the beach side where there is sunlight. He again thinks—

“But what if the sea waves reach till here and make them more wet.”

He rolls down a small boulder from a distance and places all the stuff on it. The boulder is placed as such the sea waves won’t reach, even if they reach, they’re all at a height that the waves can’t reach and the sun rays directly fall on the items.

“Well done, Mack!” — Mack thanks himself. “Sometimes I feel like I am a born genius!” — He laughs thinking this.

While the fire drill stuff is getting ready, he gets his Transpiration machine ready. He basically again seals a few leaves of a tree with a plastic bag for water.

“Now! Let’s get some coconuts!”

He goes for a different tree this time. The job is done in almost two hours; he gets the coconuts back to his tent area.

He completes his meal and returns to the beach to check on the fire drill stuff.

“Oh! This is still a bit wet.”

He turns all the items onto the other side.

“Completely forgotten it! The tent!” — “I planned to finish setting up the tent by tonight.”

He plans for a cuboid-like tent, in which he can fit completely, such that it’s sealed from outside during night.

He starts gathering a few poles of wood that would act like four pillars on four corners and some other wooden sticks, poles etc., to support the tent overall.

He puts all the material to the side, then cleans the area with his hands. He then draws a big rectangle box on the ground using a stick — The foundation marking.

Now he starts digging holes on the line. He digs with a sharp pole stick of wood and then takes out the loosened soil with his hands and digs again. He digs for almost two feet in depth and two or three inches wide. He then places a pole at a corner, hits it inside using the rock, presses down, then throws in some pebbles and stones for strong support, presses them down with his foot to make it stronger and tighter, then he covers the remaining pit with soil and again stomps it hard enough so that the pole is strong and steady.

He does this for all other poles. After a lot of effort, the skeleton of the camp is ready. He tries to put the tent over the structure. He places it so that the top is covered properly but he observes that the tent is not covering up on the sides, and something can still come inside from the walls.

“I need to plan for something!” — “Hmmm….”

“Oh! The fire board!”

He quickly runs back to the beach and checks on the fire board material.

“Thank God!” — “You’re all still alive.”

It is almost evening. Before it gets dark, he wants to complete the fire.

Mack places the wooden plate between his legs, holding it tight, then starts to rotate the spindle stick with both hands as fast as he can.

He does this for an hour. His hands start to sweat, and the muscles start to hurt.

“Ush! This isn’t my piece of cake!” — he sighs catching his breath.

“Quick plan!” — “I just need to properly cover the walls of my new home sweet home, and I should be good for tonight”

He carries few logs of dead trees, few branches and poles he breaks them with his legs. He also gets two or three boulders, bunch of rocks, few stones etc.

He also cuts over and gets lots of big palm leaves. They look like banana leaves, not exactly, but they provide good cover.

He then first covers the whole hut with the palm leaves first, then he fixes the poles horizontally across the walls, ties them up with the vine, like the bricks in a wall. At the bottom on each side of the wall, he places boulders and logs for strong support, to not allow any creatures on the ground to enter inside.

“Home Sweet Home!” — he writes down on the right side of the hut.

“Mack & family live here!”

It is already night.

“Aaaah…” — he starts yawning — “Time for bed.”

He has also covered the inside of the tent with dry palm leaves and some wooden logs for warmth and softness.

He lies down inside, places his hands on his chest, slowly closes his eyes and starts thinking—

“How are you mom and dad?” — “I will come back soon…”

“I am waiting to see you, Jenny!”

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The Family

Mack starts recollecting some moments from his life…

👨‍👩‍👦

Mack has just returned from school, and an argument is happening in the hall.

Clara: “You’re having Summative Assessment exams next week!” — “How could you possibly?!”

Mack: “Mom…. Please….”

Clara: “NOPE!”

Just then a man steps into the house.

Nathan: “Good evening family! How is everything going?” — in a cheering and full voice.

Clara: “I don’t think your son will pass this year”

Nathan: “What?”

Clara: “YES! He will probably stay in the same class!”

Nathan: “But?”

Mack: “Let me explain dad.”

Clara: “No more explanations!”

Nathan: “Wait honey, let me first understand, what is all the argument about”

Clara pauses for a second.

Mack: “Okay! Simple, next week I am having term-end exams, and I am having football finals the very same week.”

Nathan: “That is quite a big issue. How can you skip one year for football?”

Mack: “No…no…dad” — “Every day I have my exam in the morning slot, and I have my match in the afternoon slot, no issue at all!”

Nathan: “Ooh! But -”

Clara interrupts him—

Clara: “You won’t be able to focus, when will you have time to study?”

Nathan: “Yeah that is a point. You’ll probably get tired after the match and when will you study?”

Mack walks to his father. He starts looking at him with eyes full of hope and cuteness.

Nathan: “Okay, okay, son, you can play.”

Mack: “YESS! THANKS DAD!”

Clara: “What!”

Nathan: “Honey, I will wake him up every day at five o’clock in the morning.” — Nathan winks at Mack saying this — catching the signal Mack quickly responds.

Mack: “Yes Maa! I promise I will wake up early every day and study”

Clara: “But…” — in a confused and low tone.

Nathan: “He will be okay honey, don’t worry, I promise!”

Clara calms down—

Clara: “Whatever…”

Mack: “Yoo…Ho… Thanks Maa!” — seeing her son jump in happiness Clara too feels happy and starts smiling.

Nathan: “Aaaah! I see it Mrs. Clara” — Clara smiles and turns away.

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💭 What’s Coming Next…

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