Short accounts
Personal statements concerning attachment, separation and continuing effects.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS REGISTER / 001–003
ACCOUNT 001 · ROSE · LOSS AT SEA
The crossing was not the difficult part
I boarded with a fiancé, several trunks and a future already arranged. Then I met a young man whose ticket had come from a card game. Within days, my planned life seemed less secure than a stranger holding my hand at the bow.
The ship struck an iceberg. He helped me onto a floating piece of wood and stayed in the water. By the time help arrived, there was only one of us left to answer.
I gave his surname when they asked for mine. I went on to have a life much longer than the time we had together. This seems relevant: the incident lasted a few days; the consequences have occupied decades.
I still had a blue diamond from the journey. I eventually returned it to the ocean. I understand this may complicate the inventory.
Effects observed: persistent attachment; survival; an unusually long retention period.
ACCOUNT 002 · CHUCK · PROLONGED ISOLATION
One person and one volleyball missing
My job depended on delivering things on time. After a plane crash, I spent four years on an island where there was nobody to receive anything.
I began talking to a volleyball. I gave him a face and called him Wilson. This was not in the company training, but neither was removing a tooth without a dentist. He became the person I told things to.
When I finally left on a raft, he drifted away. I could not reach him. I would like the record to show that losing a sporting item can, under certain conditions, constitute bereavement.
Back home, the woman I had imagined returning to had married someone else. She had believed I was dead. I was alive, but the life I had been trying to return to was no longer available.
Effects observed: loneliness; attachment to equipment; return without restoration.
ACCOUNT 003 · FORREST · REPEATED DEPARTURES
I kept a place for her
Jenny let me sit beside her on the school bus. I did not know at the time how long I would keep making room for her.
I went to war, played table tennis and worked on a shrimp boat. She came into my life and left it again. I could understand a road: if you kept going, you got somewhere. I never understood where to stand so that somebody would stay.
After one departure, I ran across the country. Then I ran back. People joined me and expected an explanation. I did not have one suitable for a group.
Later, Jenny introduced me to our son. We married, and for a little while there was a home with all of us in it. After she died, I took our boy to the school bus. There was still somebody who needed a place kept for him.
Effects observed: recurring separation; grief; care continuing after loss.
Fictional adaptations inspired by Titanic, Cast Away and Forrest Gump. Written for this register; not quotations or real submissions.