Melanie and Lex stripped naked to bathe and Dayah did the same although she was only washing the clothes she had found in the hut. Melanie was shapely and attractive but Dayah’s graceful form took Gray’s breath away. He averted his eyes to keep from torturing himself and stripped down himself and waded in. The water was nearly mineral free so a tiny amount of shampoo lathered up into fluffy billows. He washed his entire body, rinsed the salt from his clothes, ducked under the water to rinse himself and then wrung out his clothing and climbed out of the pool. Lex and Melanie had washed and then swam across the pool and were horsing around under the small waterfall. Gray and Dayah left them at their play and carried their clothes and shoes up to the hut where they hung the clothes over a bamboo railing. Dayah went inside but Gray sat on the edge of the porch to let the sun dry his underclothes and skin. Anna came out and sat beside him without speaking.
After a few minutes Gray said, “This would be an incredible place under different circumstances.”
Anna nodded, smiling and squinting from the sun. “One circumstance I would choose to keep the same.”
Guessing what that circumstance would be, Gray turned to face her. “I think we both would like that same circumstance.”
“You think?”
Gray only nodded.
“Alyson and I talked about you. And about your relationship.”
“Yeah?”
“Your head would swell if I told you the many good things she said about you.”
“She has made me feel pretty good about myself. I could say an awful lot of good things about her.”
“You sounded too good to be true until I met you,” Anna said.
“Now you are giving me a big head.”
“She is so much in love with you, yet...”
When Anna did not go on, Gray said, “You can finish the yet. I think I know what it is.”
“I thought you might. I think I understand.”
Gray took her hand into his. “I am glad you do.”
“Take me for a walk,” Anna said, sliding off the porch.
“Alright, let’s see if we can find the crab traps they set out.”
They walked hand in hand down to the dock. It was narrow and swayed as they walked out single file toward the end. Lightweight nylon ropes stretched out into the clear, rippling water to where the traps were laid. It looked like a crab had found it’s way into the first of the traps. The angle of the sun and the ripples made it too difficult to be sure about the other three. A steady, strong breeze blew into their faces from the east. At the end of the dock Gray scanned the horizon. Anna put her arms around him from behind and rested her cheek against his bare shoulder.
“You’re making me crazy, Anna.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
“But we need to eat and get back across the island,” she said.
“We need to make sure we have shelter tonight, especially for Lleyton and Malik. They may already be in shock. If it rains it could kill them.”
The dock swayed and Gray glanced back to see Lex and Melanie coming toward them.
Lex said, “Thought we would check the traps. Whether they have crab in them or not, Melanie thinks we should eat and get back.”
“We were thinking the same,” Anna said. “It’s only fair to Shinobu and Keegan… and Paolo too I guess. We’ll take back something for them to eat.”
“Yeah, what is it with that guy?” Lex said. “He makes me feel like I’m something distasteful he got on his shoe.”
Gray laughed. “Paolo? I don’t know. Don’t take it personally, Lex. He seems to rub everyone the wrong way.”
When they had pulled in and emptied the four traps they had a total of six crabs with bodies the size of a man’s hand and three eight inch fish. They cleaned the fish on the counter at the foot of the dock. There was even a bucket there for drawing water to flush the counter clean when they were finished. The fish guts and heads went into the traps and Lex threw them out again. Five of the crabs they threw into a pot of boiling water in the hut. While the water came back to a boil, Grey went up the slope to a stand of bamboo he had spotted and cut down two, two inch diameter stalks. He cut them off at ten feet and left them by the trail to take back.
Lex was sitting by the hut hacking away at a coconut with the machete. The effort had him sweating. When he had cleaned the majority of the fiber from the big brown seed he took a small bladed knife and tried to bore a hole in one end to get the water out.
Anna called them to lunch about the time Lex succeeded in getting a hole in the shell. He carried the coconut in and drained it into a cup. There was only about a third cup of milky fluid in the shell and when he sipped it he made a face. “This is not what I pay three bucks a can for.” He offered the cup to the others but no one wanted any.
Dayah asked, “You get coconut off ground?”
Lex shrugged and made a long, “Yeah?” like a question.
“Meat okay if… soon fall. Coconut water you need coconut in tree. Easy make hole then too.”
“Ahhhh, thank you, Dayah,” Lex said.
When they had eaten their lunch of fruit, fish, crab and rice, they packed up a pan of rice and some cooked crab. They brought along a live crab in case Shinobu liked his raw.
Gray had found a full size shovel and a small collapsible one so along with the bags of tools, coconuts, Claymore mines, food, water, pans, and poles, everyone had their arms full. At the saddle a strong breeze was blowing against their backs. When they turned to look back, dark and menacing storm clouds stretched across the eastern horizon. They hurried on.
By Gray’s phone clock it took 28 minutes from the time they left the clearing to the time they reached the hut. Shinobu was asleep when they arrived as was Lleyton, and Keegan was asleep leaning against a tree trunk. Gray woke the old man and motioned him and Paolo to move away with them so their talking did not disturb the resting young men.
“Did I hear shots?” the old man asked when they had sat under another tree.
“You did. You must have pretty good ears to hear that from a mile away,” Gray said.
The old man smiled. “The wind carried it,” he said.
Gray updated Shinobu and Paolo on what they had found on the other side of the island as the two ate with relish the food they brought. When Gray said he believed the hut was used by pirates, Melanie let out a long suffering moan. Paolo mumbled something in German that sounded like dummes Schlampe, which Gray thought meant something like dumb trollop. Melanie may not have understood the exact meaning but she caught how it was said and scowled at Paolo.
Knowing he understood German, Anna gave Gray a glance that asked what do we do about this guy. Gray could only sigh, not having a suitable answer.
Shinobu made a great show of thanking them for bringing him the live crab. When Paolo continued devouring the food, the old man put a hand over the pan and said, “Please, leave some for Lleyton and Keegan.”
Paolo bristled but dropped his fork into the rice and pushed the pan away.
Shinobu said Lleyton had come awake only twice while they were gone. He had asked for water and something to eat. Shinobu said he fed him an orange, cheese and crackers.
When Gray and Melanie checked on Malik, he was still breathing shallowly and still unconscious. Keegan was reluctant to eat although he did try the rice but again vomited.
Melanie pulled Gray aside and said, “I think Keegan’s brain is swollen from the blow he took. The ibuprofen might reduce that swelling but it also might loosen a blood clot and kill him.”
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. He’s in terrible pain and he can’t hold down food so I would advise him to take a big dose. I’m thinking his chances are worse if he doesn’t take it. Tell him your feelings about it and let him decide. He seems lucid enough.”
“Thanks, Gray. Which sack had the bottle?”
While Melanie was ministering to the young Irishman, Gray walked down to the shore. Almost all
of the floating debris that had been in close was gone. A long trail of it stretched far out to the northwest. Gray looked back east at the jungle and weighed whether he had the energy to tackle exploring for a cave. He was sure they were going to need shelter.
He walked back to the group. “Guys, you saw the storm heading this way. I don’t know how long it will take to get here but we probably only have three hours of daylight left so whatever we do has to be done in that time frame. We can either haul the injured over to the hut or we build shelter.” He paused for comment. All he got were some agreeing nods from Shinobu and the women and a groan from Lex.
“You are right to groan, Lex. Lleyton probably weighs one eighty or better and Malik has to be about two hundred which means we’ll be carrying about one hundred pounds each up to the saddle and down. We have plenty of blankets to make two stretchers and I saw some more bamboo on the way down. We can either make one long trip with two stretchers or two trips relieving each other along the way. Either way our hands will be cramped and our knees jelly before we reach the saddle. I guarantee it will be brutal. And I don’t think we should count on there being a cave for shelter but I can run up there and look if you want.”
Melanie said, “Eventually we should move over there but I don’t necessarily want to sleep in that hut without cleaning it out. Those cots are full of bed bugs and lice.”
Anna and Lex both nodded to that. “Can’t we build shelter?” Lex asked.
“We are short of time to build a good one but maybe we could build one that will suffice,” Gray said. “We have a machete, saw, twine, rope and wire.”
Shinobu stood. “I have had experience building shelters with the materials available here. If I may instruct we will complete an adequate one. I cannot do it by myself.”
A number of positive noises came from the group. Gray said he was willing and the others said they were also willing. Even Paolo who had seemed aloof from the discussion stood and asked Shinobu what he could do. The old man said he could go with Gray to find the bamboo grove and cut two twenty five foot lengths of the two inch diameter variety, fifteen twenty five foot lengths of one inch or less diameter and a dozen fifteen foot lengths also in the lesser diameter. Gray was relieved the old man had not requested more than two of the two inch in diameter because they were a chore to cut down with the machete. The saw might work better.
Shinobu led the women to a specific type of palm tree with low lying, fan like fronds and instructed them to pull down at least a hundred of them if they could find that many. When Gray and Paolo left for the bamboo, Shinobu was leading Lex up the slope with the long shovel in hand.
Paolo was strong and did his share of the arduous task of chopping the bamboo. When he and Gray returned with blistered hands and the bamboo, the women were hauling a final load of palm fronds up the slope to a cleared area with heavy brush on the uphill side. Between two saplings that were a little over twenty feet apart, Shinobu had instructed Lex to level the deep accumulation of decomposed plant material that made up the forest floor and then dig a trench like an open box shape about twenty feet wide at the back with the side trenches sloping down toward the front.
Shinobu asked Lex and Paolo to wire a twenty five foot pole about six feet off the ground between the trunks of the two saplings. Parallel to the front pole they wired another pole to three foot high forks that had been pounded into the earth within the back boundary of the trench. They then began wiring or tying with cord, the fifteen foot long cross pieces between the front and rear poles. Everybody pitched in with the wiring or knotting as there were a lot of twists and knots to make. When that was done, the smaller diameter twenty five foot poles were attached about one foot apart at right angles to the cross pieces.
While the sturdy grid of bamboo was being completed, Shinobu explained how to notch the stalk of each palm frond with one of the heavy knives, then slide the knife out toward the end of the stalk to produce a two foot long tie for fastening the frond to the cross pieces. They started the first layer across the bottom then came up one foot or about two thirds the width of the fronds and tied in another layer. Keegan had been able to keep a dose of ibuprofen down and was asking to help.
The sun was not far above the horizon when a rumbling came from the east and the wind picked up. It became a scramble to haul the blankets and other items they wanted to keep dry to the shelter. While the others were finishing the roof, Gray put together a stretcher using two of the blankets and the two ten foot poles. He and Melanie eased Lleyton onto the stretcher and carried him up to the shelter where they eased him onto a blanket and covered him since it was getting cooler. They did the same with Malik.
Grey and Anna with help from Keegan gathered driftwood for a fire and set up a frame of forked sticks to suspend a pot for boiling tea water. Shinobu directed Lex and Melanie to build a wall with some remaining material on the south side of the shelter as it seemed the wind was going to be coming from east by south east.
The wind dropped to a cool breeze and the first drops of rain began spattering the roof of the shelter as a crimson sun touched the horizon. Anna and Paolo grabbed the firewood they were going to use to make tea and hauled it into the shelter.
Shinobu’s knowledge had paid off in more ways than just completing a shelter in time. He had known to build it big enough to provide ample room for the ten people and everything they wanted to keep dry. He said if they had the time they would ordinarily have built a floor and four walls. He received much thanks and he beamed and laughed with joy despite his recent tragedy.
The rain came in torrents that rushed off the roof and into the trench and then around the outside of the shelter and down the slope. Shinobu had Lex adjust the trenches, saying they would have normally dug them after the roof was constructed. For the most part they stayed very dry except for the occasional gust of wind from a westerly direction that lifted some of the palm fronds and a quick spray of rain found its way into the shelter. They pulled blankets around themselves and munched on crackers, nuts and cheese and were thinking they would have a completely cold supper when the rain stopped about an hour after it had begun. Desiring to track as little dirt as possible into their dry shelter, a volunteer was asked to start the fire and tend the pot. Shinobu said he would volunteer because he wanted to go down to the water and clean the crab before it went bad. He took off his shoes and stepped out. Gray handed him firewood and kindling. When the old man had a fire going good, Gray handed him the pot of water. He also offered Shinobu the LED flashlight he had found at the hut but the old man said he did not need it for cleaning but might for removing the meat.
When the water was on to boil, the old man headed down the slope with his crab, an aluminum plate and a hand size rock he had selected. Gray wondered how he could see. The moon, though about three quarters full, was far down on the eastern horizon.
The air temperature rose to a comfortable level after the rain passed. Gray and Anna moved to the edge of the dry floor and watched the stars come out. She could not remember when she had been out at night away from light pollution. The great mass of stars making up the Milky Way took her breath. It seemed like only ten or so minutes passed before the old man appeared out of the dark, also commenting on the splendor of the Milky Way.
The water was hot and they threw in a blend of tea bags they thought would go well together. After a few minutes they handed out their cups and he filled them. When his chores were done, he sat down on the dry floor, meticulously wiped his feet on a wet towel and crawled to the back of the shelter where it was more difficult for the others to sit up. He set out an empty pot in front of him to hold pieces of shell.
“This is far more than I can eat so if you wish to eat raw crab, please help or this will go to waste. Gray, I will need the light now, please.”
Gray believed Shinobu was just being polite and could easily eat the whole crab. However if he told the old man to eat all he wanted and the others could eat the remainder, the old man would ea
t very little in order to leave some for everyone. Gray turned to Lex and Melanie in the dark and asked, “You guys want to try it?”
They both answered in the negative. Keegan declined also, saying he was happy to have kept down some of the cold rice. Paolo made a face and a motion with his hand like he was waving it away. Dayah said she preferred hers cooked. Anna wanted to try just a bite.
Gray said, “I would like to try a bite too, Shinobu. Sorry, but you will have to eat the rest or it will go to waste.”
Shinobu bobbed his head. “If you wish I will remove the meat from the shell. It is more difficult than removing the meat from a boiled crab.”
Gray handed him a plate and said, “Thank you. Please remove the meat if you will.” He turned on the flashlight and asked him where he wanted the beam.
“It is very bright, shine it straight up and we will see if that is adequate.”
It was adequate and the old man worked his fingers through the already cracked shell and produced a few bits of translucent, whitish meat which he dropped on the plate.
Gray and Anna tried bites. The flavor was good but it was chewier than cooked crab and the texture slimy and much moister. When Shinobu had finished the crab he made an appreciative, “Mmmmm,” that was much like a growl.
Melanie asked for light from Gray and she gently re-bandaged Lleyton with the rags she had laundered at the pool. When finished with Lleyton she carefully repositioned Malik in an effort to relieve pressure from lying in the same position for so long.
“I’ve been noticing that you are an accomplished care giver, Melanie,” Gray said.
“Thank you. After a TV series I was in folded I went to nursing school. Actually I started the school before it ended. I saw the writing on the wall.”
PULAU MATI Page 7
