To Whom It May Concern Message From Long Island

Written By: Crystal  Vagnier

 

We are sending this message out to you from the end ofLong Island. We hope to send off one a day because we think it is important to connect with people from around the world. Who knows? Maybe one day we will meet one another in a far-away land. Life is funny like that. We do hope you will write to us. Please let us know where you have retrieved our message! Perhaps fromGreenland?Morocco?Rhode Island?

 

Sincerely (and with all of the love in the world),

Crystal and Danny

 

We dated our message, added our contact information, and drew awful depictions of what we looked like. With a piece of string we rolled the note and placed it into the wine bottle. We sealed our letter-carrying vessel with a cork and red duct tape.

 

We ran out into the rain and headed for the shoreline.

 

“Do you think we’ll be able to throw it out far enough?”

“We’re going to try.”

 

On the first attempt the wind was too powerful and knocked the bottle back to shore.

 

“Again!” I screamed against the howling wind.

 

Danny threw the bottle out to sea. A wave caught it and we watched as it swept out to the beyond.

“Where do you think it will go?” I asked.

“Hopefully somewhere far away.”

“What if it lands in a place where they can’t read English?”

“Hmm, I didn’t think of that. We’ll just have to hope for the best.”

 

The rain began falling down quickly. We were drenched in minutes due from the mighty wind. We ran back to the parking lot and found dry refuge in my car.

 

Again, we drove past the sleepy towns and frozen vineyards. We waved to the stoic swordsmen protecting the home of Mr. Basso and admired the celestial atmosphere of the vast open sky.

 

“One down,” said Danny.”

“Only 364 left to go,” I smiled at him.

 

****

We managed to only send off four messages from different departure points located from all overLong Island. The spring semester of college began and with that came the routine of part-time jobs and homework assignments. Our mission was put on hiatus.

 

Months had passed by from our first voyage out to Montauk. The concept of a message in a bottle sent off to sea for every day of the year already began to appear fanciful. It was just another one of our crazy ideas to offset boredom.

 

And then I received an email.

 

The subject: Message in a Bottle.

 

Hello Crystal and Danny,

 

I am writing to inform you that I have received your message in a bottle! What a pleasant surprise it was for me to find it.

 

First let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a professor of Marine Biology atStonyBrookUniversity.

 

I happened to be walking around the beach with my dog when I came across your bottle. I could not believe there was an actual letter inside. It gave me great joy to open it and read your delightful message.

 

Unfortunately I have to say it did not travel far. Due to the heavy storms we have been having lately I believe your bottle was only able to travel a couple of feet from where you initially sent it off from. Despite all of this your message was received! I may not be fromGreenland, but I hope Stony Brook works just as well. I, too, enjoy connecting with people from around the world. Now I can say I have communicated via a message in a bottle!

 

Thank you for making my day a little bit more interesting.

 

Sincerely,

John

 

Immediately I contacted Danny.

 

“WE DID IT!” I screamed into the phone.

“Did what?” asked Danny.

“We received a message! We’ve made contact with someone from our message in a bottle!”

“We did?! Oh my gosh, I forgot all about that. From where?”

“He’s a professor at Stony Brook.”

“Oh! Fancy! You know what this means now, right?”

“What?”

“We need to continue. We need to see how far we can take our messages.”