Survival manual (ii)

For those who haven´t read Life of Pi, it is the story of a boy, Pi, who spent 7 months on a lifeboat, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, together with Richard Parker, a tiger. As you can imagine, the survival manual did not, could not, cover every aspect of what lay ahead of them. And it didn´t prepare them (or us) for this:

'"I love you!" The words burst out pure and unfettered, infinite. The feeling flooded my chest. "Truly I do. I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn´t have you now, I don´t know what I would do. I don´t think I would make it. No, I wouldn´t. I would die of hopelessness. Don´t give up, Richard Parker, don´t give up. I´ll get you to land, I promise, I promise!"'

And with this outburst he took my breath away.

The huge tanker had just passed next to them, without seeing them.