Unfortunately, he is allergic to them.
Sated for the moment, he allowed himself to do nothing for a spell. He regarded the oncoming waves with some disdain, having not yet forgiven them for taking his plane and nearly his life. He directed his gaze upward, searched idly for any contrails in the sky, and, finding none, wondered if he should try to set up a signal of some kind. It occurred to him that his situation was a dire one, and he should have been busy feeling bad about it rather than wasting time staring into space.
He scratched his head, freeing globs of sand from his scalp and hair. He wondered if the plane’s ELT could still function when submerged and, if so, for how long. He wasn’t sure if radio signals could get through all that water, anyhow. His hand scratched lower on his face.
Hey, his face itched. A lot, actually. And had his lips always been this big? They felt kind of engorged.
Oh, no.
He lept to his feet, frantic. He looked around for a mirror, remembered that he was on a desert island, then put his hands to his face. His lips and mouth were hot and sensitive, and now that he held them in front of him, he could see that his hands had sprouted bright red bumps. His throat and stomach began to burn.
He ran back into the waves and vomited. A slurry of berry juices mixed with this morning’s coffee dyed the water a swirl of red, brown, and green. He knelt down and held his stomach as his body pumped it clean. His mouth and throat stung with stomach acid as the last of the offending substances left him. The waves accepted his donation as they receded, then tossed it back to him as they returned. When he was sure he had finished, he waded away from the mess and wrung his shirt out in cleaner water.
When he returned to his spot on the beach, he lay back and breathed deep. His inflamed palate made this difficult at first, but, as he willed himself to calm down, he realized how lucky he was to be breathing at all. He wondered if there was an EpiPen somewhere in the plane’s wreckage, but decided he’d rather lie here than gather the energy to fetch it. He closed his eyes and waited for his day to improve.
