Jonathon felt the warm, salty breeze of the ocean as the wind and the deafening sounds of the motorboat drowned out the nearby seagulls’ screeches. The question of “why does Shawn need me? He’s a zoologist and I’m a professor of archeology?” had echoed throughout the long journey from the small college in Missouri to the isolated island in the Caribbean. As Jonathon looked up at the approaching island he reflected on the dreams that he once had of being a hotshot man, who would be successful right out of college but instead, he chose to keep delaying his plans and stood idle as he watched his friends and colleagues become successful over twenty years. 

His reflection was cut short when the captain of the motorboat screamed “we’re here!” Jonathon looked around and saw the island which was another one hundred meters away.

“Don’t we have a couple of hundred meters?” Jonathon replied 

“No, we cannot take the boat any further than this without harming the delicate nature of this island,” said the captain “I can guide you through the water but do not step on certain areas, we cannot afford to harm Dr. Craig’s research.” 

Doctor Craig? Had Shawn become that successful in three years to go from a measly student to Dr. Craig, a man who has been taking surveys of a unique island in the Caribbean? Jonathon continued to ponder about the situation that he had found himself in and while he at his feet as to not disrupt “Dr. Craig’s work”. 

As Jonathon planted his feet on the dry island ground he saw a tall figure approach him. “Jonathon!” Shawn yelled out as he accelerated from a walk to a jog over to the confused professor. 

“Shawn!” Jonathon replied, “I wasn’t expecting you to call me a week ago.” 

“Yeah sorry for the short notice, but you’re the only person who I thought could help my team out,” Shawn said, “you see we were surveying this island that has an extraordinary amount of biodiversity for such a distance from the mainland and we came across some ruins that only you could read.” 

“Really?” Jonathon yelped in excitement, “when can I see them? Where are they? How large is this island?” 

“Slow down Jonathon, nightfall is coming and I don’t want to go into the small jungle because we don’t know the predators that might be lurking around there, we will have to wait till morning.” Jonathon cringed he hated when people denied him and made him feel inferior to their high stature. “I want to show you, my team,” Shawn interrupted Jonathon’s train of thought, “follow me”. Jonathon trailed Shawn to a group of four other people who were starting to put up tents and making a campfire for the night. 

“Guys this is my friend Jonathon, he was my history teacher when I went to school,” Shawn continued “Jonathon this is Marry who is the lead marine biologist, this is Fred the plant specialist, Alec our geologist, and Toni who has helped organize this expedition as well as a specialist in insects.” Everyone greeted each other and exchanged hellos and nice to meet yous as well as stated how excited they were that they may have found groundbreaking historical ruins. 

As the fire and the conversation started to die down and Marry, Toni, Alec, and Fred all went to bed, Shawn approached Jonathon. 

“How’re you feeling?” Shawn asked 

“I’ve seen better days” Jonathon emptily responded 

“Really? You might be the key to a groundbreaking discovery on this island. A whole culture could be revealed and you’ve seen better days?” Shawn asked in disbelief “sometimes I’m confused about your character Jonathon, some days you seem that you’ve had this burning passion inside that you want to make an impact but other days you seem to just give up on yourself.” Jonathon had no idea how to respond to the sudden confrontation and kept looking at the fire. “I mean when I took your class I was told that you were a bright mind, a man who would go to his ends to make his big discovery, and yet it seemed that you always passed on what could have been the next big thing because it isn’t good enough for you.” 

“I always thought that I’d be a valuable resource to Northern Missouri but it always seems like that I wanted to live up to that expectation, I want to be the professor that packs a class and makes everyone want to be there and have the title of doctor or head of field research. Instead, I’m stuck in a hopeful loop where I think that there will be something even bigger for me to discover.” Jonathon continued his somber stare at the waning fire as silence overcast them only to be interrupted by an occasional bird chirp. 

Shawn finally interpreted the silence and said “It’s getting late, we have a big hike to get to the ruins, and you’re going to need all of your energy for it.” Jonathon watched as Shawn put out the fire and darkness overcame the small basecamp.

The bright glare of the sun creeping through Jonathon’s tent net woke him up the next morning, as he slowly changed his clothes and opened the tent flap and saw the others cooking up meals from their limited supply of food. Jonathon with sloth ate the eggs and coffee as he observed more of the island and scanned the nearby jungle for any hint of where the ruins would be. 

“If you’re looking for the ruins there on the other side of that rocky hill,” Toni informed the baffled Jonathon “I know it’ll be a grueling hike but if Alec over there can get through it you certainly can,” she said with a beaming grin 

“Hey I may have been a little more out of shape than my prime days of college but I think I could hold my own to any of you,” Alec said trying to defend himself

“You think that you could hold your own to Shawn the track star of division three sports?” Marry said mocking Alec

“I guess not,” Alec said defeated.

Jonathon couldn’t help but crack a smile, this is what he wanted, the team that was warm and welcoming but were still brilliant in their field, the hope of a breakthrough and having their whole lives ahead of them.

“Ok everybody let’s get moving we need to give Jonathon plenty of time to analyze the ruins,” Shawn said trying to pack up the essentials for the trek ahead of them. 

As they entered the small jungle the team slowly started to flow into a small line of Shawn, Marry, and Toni leading, with Fred and Jonathon in the middle while Alec was left to trudge behind them. Fred pointed out the many different oddities that they noticed to Jonathon, 

“We don’t know why but this island has an extreme amount of diversity and an advanced ecosystem for its distance from the mainland, we came across this one waterfall that had what it seemed to have so many plants nearby I couldn’t contain myself.” 

“I think he might want to know more about the ruins that we found Fred, not the plants that you love to observe.” Alec teased him behind the plants

“Ah yes the ruins we found, I think that it’ll surprise you for the amount of text and symbols that are written out on the walls of almost an old temple that seems to have towered over many stories but since then has crumbled.” As Fred was informing Jonathon of the discoveries he couldn’t help but think that of all people a random group of biologists would stumble upon these ruins before him. Jonathon almost felt as if he had little value because he seemed to be the only one who wasn’t talking or the only one who lacked the wonder of this impossible island. 

As they approached near the lost temple and town square Jonathon noticed something that the others seemed to blow-by 

“Wait be extremely careful” Jonathon cried out to the rest of the pack 

“What’s wrong?” Marry yelled back

“We’re very close to some unstable ground, look at the walls that are sinking in” 

“Jonathon, do you want to lead the way?” Shawn asked quickly heading back to the center of the group. Jonathon had no time to reply as the ground around Shawn started to sift around and collapse under his footsteps. 

“Shawn you need to stay still I think that you’re going to fall through if you keep mov-” Toni’s words were cut off as Shawn fell through the rich earth into a small cavern. Shawn’s yelp echoed throughout the new cave that the sinkhole had revealed.

“Shawn!” the group yelled out after him

“I’m ok I think, I think that my left arm took most of the fall and there is an underground river here.” Shawn’s voice echoed from the dark cavern. 

“I think I know why these people evacuated this island,” Jonathon said as he looked upon the landscape upon the elevated ground. As the others turned as well they realized the mini caverns that had terrorized the small village into leaving. “I think that this was a rich civilization that was able to trade for different animals and keep them away in their capital on a far island. When the sinkholes had started to appear they decided that it wasn’t worth the wealth, plants, or animals that they had traded for to stay in such a hazard of a village.” The others looked at Jonathon in awe as he cracked the code that they had been trying to search for since they discovered this island. 

“I think the first thing we should do is help get out Shawn from the caverns and then reevaluate our situation around us,” Jonathon informed the others of his plan to help break Shawn out of the cave. In a rally with Jonathon, they put together cloth from different clothes that they had in backpacks and made Jonathon descend the shallow depths of the cave. 

When Jonathon landed into the cave, he found Shawn who was at the banks of the underground river that had braced his fifteen-foot drop into darkness. He helped Shawn to escape the cave by almost carrying him on the way back up to the surface of the island where the group was there to hug their leader.

On the way back to base camp, Jonathon had a newfound pride that he had never felt before, he led the group around different possible sinkholes to the blessed camp that they had all been hoping for. 

They all helped Jonathon pack some of his things so that he could be more prepared to analyze the ruins when he returned to the island. He waved goodbye to his new friends as he started his wet walk back to the boat feeling the warm salty breeze of the ocean eager to return back to the island.