Me and Them

by S G Read

  We hauled the larger bamboo down and burnt it through as we had done before, then carried it back to camp where we would burn it to the lengths I wanted, when I worked out how long I wanted them. Once more the rocks came in useful for me to design my platform on. It started life as a pair of fixed steps able to be walked up from either side but then I added a platform at the top to take two people. The exact number needed to put the bamboo in place! With it designed, we started burning the wood to length but the sky grew dark over head and rain started to fall.

  At first, the girls stayed out in the rain as it was refreshing but in the end it was too heavy and we huddled in the dry spots of the tepee but they kept shrinking. It rained for an hour, then stopped as though someone had turned off a tap. Five minutes later it was as hot as it had been but the fire was out!

  We searched for dry tinder in the jungle to relight the fire, in holes in trees or under big leaves. Soon it was alight again and we were working, not on the building but on the platform. We cut the wood to length and had it already to go but had nothing to put it together with. We could have used some of our rope but I was against that, as we might need it later.

  In the end, we scoured the jungle trying everything we found to tie the wood together, in the end we found a thin wiry root, which did the job admirably but the only way to get it was to dig it out and cut it with the knife. Part way through we had to search for a stone to sharpen the knife blade with. It took a while to find one but after that, we sharpened it at regular intervals.

  By the time the hunting party came back, their new name, we had the platform built and were making the first wall higher. This time they had fruit and eggs. Not big eggs but eggs all the same. As usual they had not thought how to cook them but I knew a way, I had seen it on a cookery programme in the wilds. The cook cut a length of bamboo, making sure it was cut just below a join, then cut it again just below the next join so that the top was open. He filled it with water and boiled the eggs in it.

  I found a piece of bamboo burnt below a join and used the knife to saw through the bamboo below the next join while the girls stood watching. Then I filled the section with water to see if it leaked. When the water stayed there I suspended it over the heat as the cook had done. The girls watched awestruck, even more so when the water started to steam. I put in as many eggs as I could and watched the water start to boil. When I had cooked one lot I tipped them out and started again until they were all cooked. The girls broke off the shells and sat looking at the pile of cooked eggs.

  'Are they alright to eat?' Natasha asked.

  'There is only one way to find out!' I answered and ate one.

  I did not choke or gasp, it tasted like an egg!

  'They seem alright to me!' I exclaimed.

  They were satisfied and the eggs were soon gone. Afterwards we ate fruit, cooked or as it came. It was still light but we did no more work, some sunbathed others chose to wash in the stream until it grew dark. With one and a half sides on the new building, no one wanted to sleep in it, so we all squeezed into the tepee to sleep once more.

  -Still- I thought -it was better than the dinghy.-

  That thought reminded me of the dinghy, the need to get help and there were fish in the sea we could eat.

  Day 5 on the island.

  I was up at dawn, to make sure I could have a wash in peace. Then I sat considering our situation, something I had not done since we moved camp sites. It was obvious that the beacon was useless so we needed to let people know where we were some other way. We also needed the new sleeping quarters very badly. In the one we were building we could have enough room for proper beds, possibly off the ground now that we had a way of tying the bamboo together. I wondered about the hinges for the door, which would be another test for the wiry little root.

  Natasha pushed the tepee door open and carefully stepped out.

  'Didn’t you sleep?' She asked.

  'A little but I will try to finish this today if I can.' I replied.

  'It is a bit grim in there.' She agreed. 'What shall we get today?'

  'Fish would be a change, but I haven’t had time to make a rod or hook yet.'

  'Charley will try anything. I’ll tell her about it but it might end up as fruit.' Natasha replied.

  'You do keep a look out for boats when you are out?' I asked.

  'That’s George’s job, she’s not much good for anything else!' Natasha replied. 'She hasn’t seen anything yet. Do you think they are looking for us?'

  'They are definitely looking for us!' I assured her. 'But where they are looking I do not know. We were blown a long way away from where the plane went down. As soon as we have somewhere sensible to sleep we will see about putting out some sort of signal.'

  Charley appeared from the tepee followed by George. They both walked off toward the stream and Natasha followed.

  I went into the tepee and shook the rest awake five minutes later but it was still an hour before we started work.

  We finished the first wall and the rear wall, with three girls building the walls and two more helping me get more thin bamboo. With the two walls done we started on the second side wall and when the girls in the hunting party arrived, soaking wet but with only fruit we rested.

  As they did not have fish with them I guessed what had happened and pictured them floundering in the water trying to catch the fish but I said nothing. They ate with us then went off to find more food.

  We finished the third wall to make a large enclosure and I started thinking about the roof. Even the thickest bamboo was not man enough to go across the two walls and hold a roof up. I was learning as I went. I should have made the building thinner and longer so that the span was less. Now we needed decent timber to go across the walls. Would the walls take the weight? To make the easiest roof it had to be a sloping roof not pitched. The only way to do it was to make one side wall higher to get the slope.

  'What do we do now?' Andrea asked.

  'Now we make the last wall with a door in it. We will help, then when there is enough bamboo to finish it, three of us will go out and look for roof timbers.' I made it sound quick but we had only time to get the large bamboo back to camp before I called a halt to work for the day.

  As I rested all sorts of ideas came to me about the roof but they all seemed silly. The best of the lot was finding pieces of wood with "Y" shapes on one end, turning the "Y" up to take the roof timbers weight but where would I find enough "Y" pieces?

  While my helpers were resting I went for a walk, looking for suitable trees as I walked. There were fallen trees the right thickness but nothing like the "Y" pieces I wanted. I sat on the grass thinking. Grass! What about a sod house, they had wooden roofs! It was an idea but how could we lift turfs with enough soil on them to make a thick enough wall? I walked back and smelled fish cooking.

  'Caught something then?' I asked as I walked up the slope to the camp site.

  'George caught them.' Charley said proudly, 'she has more patience than me.'

  'And me.' Natasha added from where she was laying, her clothes were hanging near the fire to dry.

  I saw a scattering of leaves and there was mud in on of the suitcase. 'Wrapped in leaves, covered in mud and baked in the embers?' I asked.

  'Yes, George saw it on television.' Charley replied.

  I nodded and sat down.

  'Is that what they call tickling fish?' I asked looking straight at George.

  'Yes, I saw that on television as well.' George answered.

  'Maybe you should teach Natasha and Charley how to do it?' I asked.

  George shook her head tiredly.

  'No. I did try but they are useless at it.'

  I smiled. For once George was good at something.

  'In that case, when we have fish again, you will go with two others and see if they are any good at it. That way we will have our fish catchers and our fruit and egg gatherers. Once we have somewhere proper to sleep we will see about a rescue beacon and some sort of signal
.'

  That statement made them all happy, they all wanted to get off the island! If it was an island, we still did not know for sure. That night we ate fish, making sure that we did not swallow the bones; the last thing I wanted was someone with a bone stuck in their throat!

  We watched the sun go in and one by one, we walked carefully into the tepee to sleep. Some thought about sleeping in the new enclosure but without a roof they thought better of it. That night the rain poured down. Whoever was sleeping where it leaked through got wet as they had no where to go but it was only a short shower.

  Day 6 on the island.

  I stepped out of the tepee and saw the girls all sitting there.

  'Morning girls.'

  'What do we do today?' Tammy asked.

  'Well by my reckoning today is our sixth day on the island. The sixth day of the week is Saturday so today is Saturday. Today we do no work, only explore and find food!'

  The girls cheered, even George.

  When everyone was ready, we started walking. We walked down to the beach where the stream flowed into the sea. There we turned left and crossed the water, then walked along the beach looking for fruit trees or miracles. We found neither one. What we found after an hour were rocks, huge, intimidating rocks. From there we turned inland and started to climb. At first it was a gradual slope, then it grew steeper and the trees thinned out a little. When we reached rock there were few trees and few shrubs and we stood at the base of a taller slope; not a mountain but quite a high plateau.

  We looked up but no one wanted to go up there, it was hot and we were hungry. We walked on, crossing the rocks and starting down the other side where there were more trees and shrubs. Here we found fruit. More bananas, more oranges, coconuts and one I did not recognise.

  'They are guavas.' Charley said just before she bit into one.

  We ate what we wanted, then walked as far as the beach on that side of whatever we were on, be it a peninsula or island, to relax, the second new beach we had been on today. After relaxing or swimming to cool off we started along the beach to our right just to see what was along there but we came to more intimidating rocks.

  We turned back, collected fruit on the way and walked home. It took longer to get back to the campsite than I thought and it was almost dark by the time we arrived. I stirred the fire into life and put on more wood to give us light to eat by, with it being our Sunday tomorrow no one was in a hurry to go to bed. Some even chose to sleep in the new shelter, even though it had no door and no roof. With fewer bodies in the tepee, I chose to sleep in there in case it rained.

  Girls collected their belongings from the tepee and snuggled down in a corner of the new shelter, some stood bamboo fronds or anything else that was to hand up against the wall in case it rained. Others merely made sure they had a cudgel close by, or in Charley’s case the penknife.

  I crawled into my makeshift bed and fell asleep only to wake to terrible shrieking and girls squealing in terror. I stumbled outside and found the fire, more by luck than judgement. I shook it into life and threw on wood. As I did so it went quiet, too quiet. The flames licked up the partly burnt wood and cast light on the situation.

  'What was that?' Andrea said, standing in the open with a cudgel in her hands but with nothing to hit.

  'It was horrible!' Tammy cried. 'It licked my face!'

  I stood there listening.

  Charley walked out of the tent. 'I have never been so frightened in all my life.' She admitted.

  'You had the knife.' Tammy pointed out.

  'So I did, I didn’t even give it a thought.' Charley admitted. 'I’ll get it now.'

  By now the light from the fire was lighting up the new shelter. Charley stepped inside and said.

  'I don’t believe it!'

  We all looked where she was looking. George sat there with a small pig on her lap, the knife sticking out of it.

  George smiled.

  'So! I like pork.' She acknowledged.

  We all laughed but after the laughter, there was a mass migration back into the tepee. We suspended the pig with another piece of wiry root for our attention in the morning. My last thought was -ah a Sunday roast-

  Day 7 on the island.

  With morning came the preparations for a big roast dinner. Some of the girls kept going in and looking at the dead pig hanging there. I had the presence of mind to take it out of camp first thing and paunch it, something I suppose I should have done last night.

  We debated how to cook it and we ended up with a makeshift spit over the fire, to roast it on. We lit two fires, one underneath the spit and one nearby. That way we could control the flames a little by partly burning wood on the other fire and adding it to the one under the spit when we needed more heat without the flames. The girls took turns rotating the spit, to cook the pig evenly.

  They collected the dripping fat in coconut shells where they could do it to use later. No one ate breakfast; in fact, I don't think anyone washed that morning. The cooking seemed to take for ever, until we all agreed it was ready. I held the penknife over the flames to kill any germs on it then held it out to George.

  'You killed it so you eat first.' I offered and stood back to let her get to the cooked carcass.

  George smiled and took the knife.

  'That sounds really silly. I know I killed it but it did jump in my lap after Tammy had whacked it one. Line up and I’ll serve you all. You all looked out for me when I was being utterly useless.'

  She cut meat and handed it out to us all, before she cut some for herself. She left the knife sticking in the carcass.

  'Anyone who wants seconds can come and help themselves. And don’t be shy; we will probably have to throw the rest away tomorrow!' She said as she walked away.

  Slowly the pig disappeared, even the bones until there was not enough to worry about. Girls lay about moaning about their stomachs, others just slept in the sunshine. I thought about my shelter and the answer came to me, middle supports. A line of posts to take the weight in the middle, they could be lowered into the ground just like the others and the roof timbers tied to them. That meant I could use bamboo! I was learning! As it was Sunday on our island I did nothing all day but lay and watch the girls, we were getting better. When I felt able to move I swam in the sea where the stream joined it, one by one the girls joined me and either swam or sunbathed.

  I did wonder what their parents were thinking now and the beacon came to mind but not for long, as there was nothing I could do about it. Before dark I returned to the shelter and rigged up a barricade type wall with the suitcases to try to keep out unwanted intruders in hopes that the girls would sleep out there again but it was not to be. Instead I slept out there on my own and I slept well!

  Day 8 on the island.

  I woke with the sun and was first to wash up, then I roused the girls for work. Things would be easier when the shelter was finished.

  I showed them what I wanted and marked where the holes should be before I took two girls and started getting more of the bigger bamboo. We took the glasses to light the fire with, as well as the penknife. We pulled over five more large bamboo poles and started them burning through, then cut smaller poles to make the roof with. When each big pole was ready we stacked it ready to carry back, I did not want to leave the fires burning without someone watching over them.

  Eventually, we finished burning four big poles and eight smaller poles to carry back to the campsite. I sent Andrea back to get help to carry them up to the camp. I let the girls carry them back and while the fifth pole burnt through I cut long small ones to interweave in the roof; ideas were coming thick and fast now. Four poles would hold up the roof with the fifth across them to spread the weight. We shaped the top of the uprights to take the other one laid across it, then tied it in place while they were all still laying down. With it all ready and the holes dug we carefully carried it in and lowered the four poles into the holes. We added soil to level the poles so that they were all at the same height.
<
br />   'Now we take them back out.' I declared.

  'Why?' Tammy asked. 'It looks alright!'

  That thought was echoed by the others, who were helping.

  'The poles are hollow and will sink into the ground unless we put a flat stone underneath them to stop them doing it.' I explained.

  Whether or not they believed me I do not know but they all went off in search of flat stones the size of the holes.

  'In threes,' I yelled after them as five girls walked away and two of the girls came back. 'If they are looking there we will go and look on the beach by the bamboo!'

  We walked down to the beach, found what we wanted, after a while and walked back carrying them. I counted the stones; there were twenty in all to do four posts. We lifted out the roof support, selected the best fit for each hole, put them in the hole and replaced the roof support.

  'Now we can fill the holes in!' I declared and watched as two girls held the support upright while the others filled in the holes and stamped the soil down with their little bare feet. I used a stone to ram the soil in on one and they did the same with the others.

  'Now what?' Tammy asked.

  'Now we lay out the roof, weave it and tie it in place.' I explained. 'The hard part will be getting it over the middle roof support.'

  The weaving proved to be difficult. Every time we moved it, it all fell apart. In the end, we treated it like a wall by standing in on its side with a length of bamboo tied to the top and bottom to keep the uprights in the right place. We found that the two lengths of bamboo on each half of the roof made it easier to tie them together so they stayed. The girls cheered when we tied the top two pieces in place. By now the hunters were back and helping us. We lay the new roof down, ready to be fitted.

  'How do we get it up there?' Charley asked.

  'Very carefully.' I replied with a smile. I stood back and weighed it up. I could see the roof would see saw over the roof support and we would have to tie both ends down. For that we needed bigger bamboo tied along the top of the walls.