Snorkeling

by Nick Niels Sanders

  “I am very happy.”

  “I know. And a very good swimmer too.”

  “Thanks.”

  Mid-Day

  James arrived at the Kitchen Tent to find a buzz about stringing necklaces from the flowers – right off they had started calling them by the Hawaiian name of “lei.” Mark was happily the center of this conversation, the outcome of which was dependent on his ability and willingness to whittle palm fronds. If he could whittle the spine of the leaf of the palm thin enough, it would work as the string to hold the flowers together, and a sharpened end would do for a needle. In the midst of Jeanne, Julia and Maria, Mark was already working on the project while the three women compared the different flower varieties, discussing the aesthetic merits of each.

  Mark quickly began production of the threads called for. After producing some number of them as rapidly as he could, he looked up to find that there were five women avidly working on making flower leis, and the supply of prepared threads had been taken up almost as quickly as he had produced them. He set to work to make more, his hands, now accustomed to this new task, moving more quickly and more efficiently. He was fascinated to be hearing the distant fluty tones of Jim’s recorder, played in his lean-to, providing intermittent background music for his work. As he observed, the women were working at quite different speeds and in different styles, though none of them was making a lei of all one type and color of flower. Maria liked the smaller white, yellow and pink flowers, while Julia favored the larger red and yellow ones. Jeanne was mixing all the types together. Val was working with the small blue ones as a large proportion of the flowers she incorporated into her lei. Shelly seemed to be taking whatever flower came to hand and putting it on the lei whichever way around it presented itself to her. The contrasts were very interesting.

  Everyone worked silently for some time, apparently happily. Mark noticed with some anguish that Julia was having trouble meeting her own expectations for excellence – he had thought a lot of that had resolved after she and Dr. James had talked about her discomfort on the island with the disorder. But, Mark guessed, here was an activity in which Julia was imposing order on something, and she wanted desperately for it to be just right, though much of the problem was not Julia’s skill, it was the flowers. Mark wanted to tell her, but knew that doing so would not help and would be more likely to cause a row than anything else. So, there was this one cloud on his day as the time passed otherwise pleasantly and without event.

  By lunch time, Mark was far ahead of the women in his production of threads.

  Marcella had been as impressed as the others with the flowers, but her attention was more immediately drawn to the greens. She tasted the leaves and decided that they could be used in salad and were hearty enough to withstand cooking. For lunch, it would be tossed green salad – she still had some carrots and onion to mix in, and with some thyme and vinaigrette, it would be very nice. For supper, she would cook some of it with some of her smoked meat, like spinach. More of a puzzle was what to do with the fish. She decided to bake the tuna, in the style of baked salmon, with one of her precious lemons sliced into it, wrapped in aluminum foil and set into the coals. The flounder would have to be pan fried, but it would be quite delicate – if she fried it bone in, everyone would have to deal with the bones but if she filleted it, then it would fall apart on the way from pan to plate. She filleted it anyway and prepared a hot frying pan in which to cook it.

  Lunch was a masterpiece as far as the eating crew was concerned. The salad was a hit – green leaves with a hint of orange from the carrots and just a bit of tang from the finely chopped onion. The flounder was tender and flaky. The tuna, juicy throughout, seared on the outside and almost raw in the middle – a cooking style for tuna Marcella had clearly learned on the Fiji Queen, but which stood her in good stead when rapid preparation was essential – was quickly declared the delicacy of the year. Maria received congratulations all round for her hunting, the four leaf-gatherers for their effort in bringing in lunch and flowers.

  The mood was ecstatic, almost manic. What the Fiji Queen had not provided, nature would provide for them. Ron pointed out that this was the day on which they were expected to return to Lautoka; rescue crews would, presumably, soon begin looking for them. And they were making flower leis! Life was good. Even Mark was smiling.

  As lunch was cleared away, Jeanne insisted that everyone gather into a circle to talk about the sand castle building contest. This they did, with Roger hovering obediently just outside of the Kitchen Tent eave, but included in the circle nonetheless.

  “Last night I suggested a sand castle building contest and we agreed to talk about it some more. I still think we should do it. So let’s talk.”

  Paul: “I think you said there would be some judges. If we all participate in building sand castles, who would be the judges?”

  Mark: “I can’t play on my knees for long enough to build a sand castle. I’ll be a judge.”

  Roger: “And I’m too old for sand castle building. I’ll be another judge.”

  Jeanne: “Well, that takes care of the judge issue. When shall we do it?”

  James: “Not during ‘out of the sun’ time, certainly. Maybe we could start at 3:00 and end in time for tai chi.”

  Jeanne: “That sounds good to me. We’ll need rules and time limits and so forth. Maybe tomorrow?”

  Maria: “Isn’t that up to the judges?”

  Mark: “Roger and I will consult and let you all know when, where and by what rules.”

  Jeanne: “Oh. That sounds good. I can’t wait.”

  Roger: “Thanks all for helping us to decide. I think you can go back to what you were doing now. Mark, will you join me in my lean-to for a conference?”

  “Sure.”

  The group broke up into its several smaller groups, Marcella, Julia and Maria returning to clean up the kitchen, Jeanne and Ralph going back to work on Ralph’s tree climbing equipment, Jim and Ron going off to their lean-to, Roger, soon followed by Mark, going to Roger’s lean-to, Val and Shelly sitting quietly, sorting through the flowers, Paul, noticing that Mark had left behind a pile of threads for leis, went after Marcella, Julia and Maria and offered to clean up so they could make flower leis. They accepted his offer. James went to his lean-to for a nap.

  Roger and Mark discussed possible rules for the sand castle contest. Mark was all for a very closely defined set of rules; Roger wanted as few rules as they could get by with. They compromised by having more rules than Roger wanted, but not nearly so many as Mark was proposing. They agreed that the contestants could choose their own teams, but would have to announce them in advance. Roger pointed out something that Mark had totally overlooked: “We are going to have to figure out a category of prize to award to each of the castle building teams, you know.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. But of course you are right.”

  “And we will have to decide on some appropriate form of recognition.”

  “Hm. That could be difficult. We are notably short of resources.”

  “But we have a couple of resources that others may not have thought of. We have flowers and you make strings to string them on.”

  “But everyone is making their own flower leis.”

  “Yes, but we could make flower crowns, with each crown being of a single color of flower. If we can find as many flower colors as there are teams, then we have a color for each prize. Worn on top of the head, not around the neck.”

  “Yes. What a wonderful idea! The women are all making leis with different colors of flowers, so all one color will also be unique.”

  “If we can get people to declare teams now, or as soon as possible, then we will be able to search for flowers and make crowns knowing exactly how many of each kind and how many kinds we need.”

  “I’ll make whatever we need to string them with.”

  “And I can work on stringing them in my lean-to without anyone knowing.”

 
“I can help with that too. We can say we are conferring about the rules.”

  “I think that will work. Good idea.”

  “Thanks for a great idea. I like this better than ever now.”

  Mark left, happier than he had been in a couple days, and, Roger observed, not limping even a tiny bit.

  Afternoon

  Having finished his short nap, returning to the Kitchen Tent, James was truly gratified by the amount of energy going into the creation of flower leis. Marcella and Maria each had three leis around her neck, Val had two, Jeanne, who had left Ralph to work on design issues by himself, was nearing completion of her second, Julia was working on her second, it having taken her longer to be truly pleased with her first; Shelly had started late and hesitantly but was catching up. The world was rapidly becoming a more colorful place.

  Ron was sitting off to one side, making drawings in the sand as Jim watched, bemused by his friend’s seeming inability to stop drawing – things seemed to flow into Ron through his eyes and back out again through his hands onto canvas or paper. Jim was fascinated by the process, but not entirely puzzled by it; after a bit his recorder appeared and he began to play what at first seemed like random notes, but coalesced into a tune about making and wearing flower leis. Like Ron’s sand drawings, the music was transient, disappearing into the ethers almost as soon as it was created, but just as Ron would be able to recreate the same drawing again months later, on paper, Jim would be able to play this air again, without missing a single note, later. Somehow, the relationship that each had to his medium was wired into how he thought and reacted, into his memory and into everything he did – it was, in fact, this parallelism of dedication that had been much of the initial attraction they had felt for one another.

  Mark continued to enjoy being the center of attention, creating the needle-and-thread combinations being used for creating the leis. Ralph, temporarily abandoned by Jeanne in her eagerness to do flower leis, was still working on his tree-climbing equipment. Paul had volunteered to clean up after lunch in order that Marcella and Julia could work on leis – it was taking him a lot longer than it ever took them.

  James sat next to Maria and asked the question that was foremost in his mind: “Do you think it would be possible to weave palm fronds into a net that could effectively catch those tuna? One was really not enough for thirteen of us for lunch, and it may be hard for us to spear two or three of them. But with a net….”

  “Oh, I see what you mean. Well, let’s raise the question.”

  “OK. Julia? You got a good look at the tuna school this morning. Do you think it would be possible to weave from palm fronds a net capable of catching two or three of them at a time?”

  Julia looked to Jeanne for help and support: “I don’t know, Jeanne, what d'you think?”

  “I think we could. It would have to be porous enough to move easily through the water and tightly woven enough to catch the fish – that means that it’d have to be basically like strings. But we are making leis out of strings, so I can’t see why it wouldn’t be possible.”

  Julia paused and thought for a moment. “Yes. Yes, I see what you mean. Mark, could we make these strings any longer?”

  “Perhaps. But if we want longer strings without needles, we might do better to use the stem of the frond, the part we have been whittling away. Maybe if we focused on splitting it into individual fibers, or bundles of two or three fibers, it would be the size you want for the mesh of the net, pliable enough to tie and strong enough to hold a fish. When Paul gets done with the kitchen duties, I will ask him to help me with it.”

  “Thanks my dear.”

  “Thank you, Mark. I can taste more fish already.”

  “So can I, Doc. Great idea.”

  Mark turned back to his whittling, humming to himself snatches of Jim’s melody. James reflected that Mark seemed happier at this moment than he had ever known him to be. Maria looked at her husband and smiled a secret, loving smile – in his special way, he was still offering ideas around for things to do that would help everyone stay sane, occupied, and fed.

  Roger reappeared at about this time, assessing the progress of the lei creativity while standing just outside of the threshold of the Kitchen Tent. He thought the leis beautiful, and made encouraging comments to Shelly and Julia, who were both having some difficulty – Shelly because she was not particularly dexterous, Julia because nothing was quite good enough to meet her standards of perfection.

  Marcella rose and moved back to the kitchen proper, exchanging places with Paul, who had just finished cleaning up. She took one of the flower leis from her neck and offered it to him; he bent over to accept it being placed over his head. He walked into the midst of the whittling and lei creating activity to be hailed by Mark, who consulted him about the fishing net idea. Mark completed the needle-and-thread he had been making and added it to the small pile before him, then the two turned to making fiber for the fishing net.

  Seeing Paul wearing a flower lei was just the stimulus needed. In a matter of a few moments Maria had shared a lei each with James and Roger; Jeanne shared one each with Ralph and Jim; Julia gave one to Mark and one to Ron. Val, who had just completed her second, put it over Shelly’s head and suddenly, each of them was wearing a flower lei.

  Jeanne went to join Ralph in his work on tree-climbing equipment. Ralph was quite excited about some changes he had made that he thought would make all the difference in the effectiveness of the ankle and wrist gauntlets. He was eager to build in the changes and try them out.

  Marcella fussed in the kitchen, then reappeared to string flowers. The other women continued making flower leis. There were plenty of flowers still left, and they intended to continue until all the flowers had been used up. Shelly continued to be the slowest, but with practice, her accuracy in threading the needle through the flowers was increasing; Julia continued to look for perfection in her flowers and in how they were strung, but her tolerance for lack of perfection was gradually increasing as the time wore on. Val and Maria were having a fine time stringing flowers and chatting, and were making good progress.

  James turned his attention to what Paul and Mark were doing with fish net creation. Roger wandered away again. Jim continued to provide background music as Ron scribbled in the sand, then wiped out his sketch, then started again.

  As 2:00 passed, Roger and Mark announced the first requirement for the sand castle contest – people would have to form teams and announce them ahead of time. They anticipated that the contest would happen the following day in the afternoon and they would expect teams to be announced no later than the start of story-telling this evening. This raised a certain amount of hubbub in the group. With two of the thirteen being judges, the eleven remaining would not divide evenly into any number of teams. They could have four teams, but one would have only two members. They could have three teams, but two would have four members and one only three.

  After a lively discussion lasting for over five minutes, it seemed to everyone that the best plan was to have two teams of women and two teams of men – each women’s team would have three members and the men’s teams would be one of two members and one of three. This idea was not precisely to the liking of everyone – Jeanne and Ralph wanted to be on the same team, for instance – but it was generally accepted, and the discussion turned to who should be on what teams.

  Ron and Jim volunteered to be the two person men’s team. The other men’s team would then be James, Paul and Ralph. Among the women, it was less clear, though Marcella and Maria had an affinity and Val and Shelly wanted to be on the same team – so the issue really amounted to Julia and Jeanne choosing which of them would be working with Marcella and Maria and which with Val and Shelly. The two of them discussed this at some length and finally agreed to draw straws. Jeanne was to be on the team with Marcella and Maria; Julia would join Val and Shelly.

  So the judges had their answer hours before their deadline. Roger and Mark were, of
course, pleased because now they knew how many varieties of victory crowns were required – four colors, three of each of three colors and two of the fourth color. Roger would scout out the flower situation during the afternoon and Mark would create eleven short threads for stringing the crowns.

  Maria, Val and Shelly settled back into making flower leis. They figured there were enough flowers to keep them going all afternoon. They had had their big snorkeling expedition in the morning; they could take a swim later if they were hot and needed a break. For now, making beautiful flower leis was the most wonderful thing they could imagine doing.

  The three were making leis of rather different styles – Maria was using exclusively the smaller seven-petal flowers that were either cream or cream and yellow or cream and pink in color and had a beautiful odor. She wondered what they were and how they came to be on this island – but neither of these wonderments could detract from the sheer joy of stringing them along the thin ribbons of palm leaf that Mark was providing. It was not long before she had done another two. At this point, she assessed the effect of multiple flower leis worn by the same woman, and realized that she wanted longer strings. She put in her request to Mark, who was working on strings for a fishing net.