by S G Read
'Now we need to make a side for the shower. I was thinking of the same stuff you made those mats out of Tammy. One to reach from the ceiling to the base of the tray with something heavy to hold it in place.' I said and thought of something else. 'If you made several, we could have one from the roof here, here and then turn the corner and have two more across here to make it a separate room. With long mats as the walls you can shower in privacy.
'Why?' Andrea asked. 'We don’t mind.'
I was lost for words, how could I answer that? I could not say I minded, at one time or other we had all seen each other naked. Those that used to react no longer did. I thought the easiest way was to tell the truth, no one likes being watched when they are sitting on the throne!
'I mind.' Charley declared, coming to my aid. 'If my father finds out he’s seen my body, all of it, he will want his eyes put out!'
George nodded knowingly.
'Wow!' Andrea exclaimed. 'I didn’t think of that!'
'Does that mean us as well?' Tammy asked.
'Not if you are royalty.' Charley answered. 'Walter I want to go to the boat, will you walk with me in case my leg hurts.'
'Yes.'
'Shall I come?' George asked.
Charley nodded. We walked away leaving the girls to wait and use the shower even though it had no wall on one side and they could be seen when using it.
'What was all that rubbish about?' George asked when we were out of earshot.
'You’ll find out.' Charley answered.
We walked to the boat and I removed the toilet, the cistern and all the connections. I carried the pan, George carried the cistern as it was plastic and Charley carried the rest. We hid them just inside the gate ready to fit it after the rest were upstairs.
'Did you find what you were after?' Andrea asked when she saw us. She was clean and she had washed her hair.
'Not really.' Charley answered. 'I wanted to show Walter that I could walk that far but my leg gave out, I’ll sleep downstairs again tonight.'
'The shower works.' Andrea declared.
'So I see.' I answered.
'Very hot though.' She warned. 'Tammy was nearly scalded.'
We stepped into the house to find the shower and place where the toilet was going to be had a wall right round it. I looked through the corner and saw that the shower had its own wall where none had been. Tabby was in there singing away to herself.
'Still hot is it.' I asked.
'Yes it is beautiful.' She called back.
'I’m next unless anyone minds!' George declared.
'Go for it but don’t let me see you, I don’t want my eyes put out and fed to the crows.' Andrea replied.
We all showered. It was still hot when I finally managed to get into it and it was the best shower ever.
Later that evening I spent the time to remove Charley's stitches and washed the wound slowly to give the others time to get upstairs. When they were all up there I walked down to where we had hidden the booty from the boat and carried the pan back, George carried the cistern and I went back for the rest.
The pan was easy to fit, I made a mound of clay and splodged it onto it at the same time with the pan connector on the pan I pushed that into the clay pipe. We had a toilet. I took two long nails, two metal washers and two rubber washers and nailed into the floor to make sure there was no movement. I tied the bamboo cradle together and sat the cistern onto it with the down pipe pushed into the back of the pan. Two more nails into the mud between rocks made it secure. I attached a plastic pipe from the stop cock to the stub sticking out of the cistern and turned it on. The toilet filled noisily.
'What’s that noise?' Natasha called down. 'It sounds like a toi-'
I flushed the toilet. Soon, very soon we had all eight girls downstairs marvelling over the toilet.
'We will need a sign to hang outside when you are on the loo!' I announced. 'We will use the best idea.'
Charley walked past me and pushed me out of the little room. 'Time I had my shower. Then I might just sit on the loo, I have had my fill of squatting in the bushes!'
There was a lot of agreement from the rest.
‘The clay has to dry before you can use it.’ I warned and went to bed.
Day 60 on the island.
The girls spent the first hour in the morning searching round for something acceptable to use when they went to toilet. Something that would not stay in there forever but when they came back I had to ban the use of the toilet while I cleaned up my clay elbow and fitted it. I gave the next piece of bamboo a final clean, the girls had worked on it on and off when they had nothing else to do, and I slid it into place. We still needed another bamboo to reach the sea and the girls were insistent on connecting it next so that they could use the toilet again. I let them flush the toilet and waited for the water to appear out of the end of the pipe. It did after a long time but it kept running until all the water had gone and I was pleased. Now we could fill in the trench so we did just that. We left the pipe from the corner to the rocks uncovered except for the last bit, which would have rocks piled on it to make sure it did not move if a wave hit it.
We had a shower, a toilet, a house to live in and a safe place to be. Charley knew now just how dangerous the boar could be! Now we needed to research ways of letting someone know we were here. We had only seen one boat since we arrived and that was the one on the rocks with a dead man on board. I called a meeting.
'Now that Charley is up and around we will be going up as high as we can tomorrow to see what we can see and to look into making some kind of signal but without alerting any pirates that we are here. Not easy! So we start making preparations for it today. We need food to take with us and we need some back here for when we get back. We need the roll up beds and blankets; we don’t know how high we will get and how cold it will be if we are still up there at night.' I announced. 'I’ll leave you to sort out who does what except for Charley, she will come with me while I fish and we will collect fruit on the way back.'
Three went out to hunt. I took my rod and walked off to fish with Charley, George followed us to make the third. I caught some nice fish and hung them on a pole but George surprised both of us by catching the biggest fish with her hands. We collected fruit on the way back and cleaned everything then stored it in the cave. The hunters came back and their kills were treated the same. The three in the camp cooked more than we needed and we were going to take cold meat and fruit with us as sustenance.
Apart from that it was a quiet day on the island. I took the time to sniff the bottles of wine which were brewing nicely, or so it seemed. I was no expert but it smelled great!
We ate well and went to bed earlier than usual, we had a big day tomorrow!
Day 61 on the island.
Charley woke me, she was itching to go. We loaded up after washing and queuing for the toilet.
We passed the cave and climbed to the next level. I knew the left track went nowhere so we walked round to where our cold water feed came from, stepped over the pipe and walked round. It could have been another dead end and that would mean climbing but we were lucky and found a track. That track turned and took us up to a ledge. We stopped there and looked out to sea but we could see nothing but sea.
We could see another bit of the island, part that we had not explored yet, to reach we needed to walk through the flat area with the fallen trees where we could see another rocky outcrop. We moved on, this time straight up as there was a slope, from there we followed another animal track to the right. The more we climbed the higher we went and the hotter we were. Another ledge let us rest and look at the view. We could see no ships or no other land.
'It’s a good job we landed here and didn’t keep drifting, who knows where we would have ended up!' Natasha said as she chewed a piece of grass.
'We might have found a country.' Alex answered.
'We might have been rescued.' Sarah added.
'We might have run in to the pirates who shot that man.' Geor
ge replied. 'I for one don’t want to meet them. I’ve wet my shorts once on this island and I don’t want to do it again!'
'Mr. Pig would have probably made me wet my shorts if that nice tree hadn’t been there!' Charley said with a laugh.
'And me!' Natasha admitted.
The sun shone down on us and it grew hotter.
'Come on there might be some shade further on.' I said and we climbed on this time straight up.
Some paths were steep but we kept going, even if it was a waste of time, we were going to reach the top! Without warning, I clambered over a ledge and looked down at water.
'I think I know where our water comes from!' I said as I made my way down to the edge.
It looked clear and blue. Charley stuck her toes in and withdrew it immediately.
'Now that’s what I call cold!' She cried. 'Is it safe?'
'For what?' I asked.
'This.' she replied and jumped in. She screamed loudly with the cold, and then swam back.
'Just remember not to do anything nasty in the water as this is probably what we drink and wash in.' I yelled as everyone dived in.
I swam once to cool off, then walked to the far edge of the lake rim. On the other side I found a large plateau with trees growing on it, further on another peak rose out of the ground. It was low enough to take things up to the top and light a fire if we wanted to and it set me thinking. A bright fire at night would be seen for miles and they might just think it was a volcano erupting. It would keep most away but it would certainly bring scientists near the island and a lift home. Satellites go over and photograph as they go, to see flames at night might do the trick!
'Why don’t we cut the trees down and make a sign' George said from right next to me, making me jump. She was dripping wet.
'What like a big "help"?' Natasha asked as she walked over in the same state.
'Yes something like that?' George answered.
'What about it Walter?' Natasha asked.
'In the right place it might work.' I answered. 'Call the rest.'
We walked onto the plateau and headed for the trees. We found a clear area and if we chose trees carefully we could extend it and make the signal that much bigger! We sat and ate before we started work. After that we cut a tree down, trimmed it to make it just the trunk and dragged the leftovers over to the bottom of the next peak. I had plans for that if this idea did not work! We cut the branches into levers to pry the tree to where we wanted it. It was hard work and by the time the sun started to fall we had a large H and the long part of the E.
'Do we light a fire?' Alex asked.
'No. Not down here.' I answered. 'When we light our signal fire, if we need to, it will be up there to make people think the volcano’s erupted again.'
'But that will keep everyone away!' Tammy cried.
'Not the geeks,' Natasha replied, 'and we can well handle a bunch of geeks.'
'Of course! The scientists will flock here!' Charley cried.
'I hope so,' I agreed, 'when they see it on the satellite pictures.'
The sun went behind the monolith and the temperature dropped. Now we were cold. Everyone wrapped their blankets round them but it was still cold and in the end we huddled together for warmth.
I longed for a drink of my wine!
Day 62 on the island.
We were up with the sun and started work. No one wanted to spend another night up on the plateau. We finished the E and started on the L before we stopped to eat. The pile of wood for our signal fire grew but we still had to get it up onto the higher plateau! We finished the L and started on the P. The clear area was big enough now and we had to roll the logs a long way to get them where we wanted them. We made the round bit of the P using three smaller logs and the girls carried them, two speed things along. When we finished the word HELP we had a swim before starting back down.
By then the sun was on the other side of the monolith but it was still shining when we walked past our water supply. We collected meat from the cave, we wanted a hot meal before we went to sleep in out own beds!
After I had eaten I toyed with the idea of washing it down with a drop of wine but let it stay there a little longer to let it ferment some more. We shut the door and pulled the ladder up before we climbed into our beds. I expected a lot of snoring before I went to sleep but I went out, like the light I turned off.
Day 63 on the island.
We had a signal on the plateau now so we kept watch all round for boats or planes. They all knew what to do if they saw a boat or plane. Six of us went up to the first flat area, three of them going up on to the ledge round the back to look that way, the other three to watch the other way. Three girls stayed down to hunt when we needed to, then they had to cook the food.
We saw no sign of anyone but we were not surprised, it was early days yet.
We walked back before the sun went down and ate. The water in the shower was still hot enough to have a shower and we had a rota as to who went first each night. That way when it went cold it was not the same people who lost out!
Day 64 on the island.
Today was a carbon copy of the day before. Someone else showered first and the girls in the camp forgot to charge the battery so we ended up in the dark but we managed.
Day 65 on the island.
Today started a carbon copy of the day before. I was on camp duty and made sure the battery was charged for tonight’s rituals. I was stoking the fire when Natasha came tearing down from the monolith. I sensed there was news and went to meet her but I did not know what life changing news it was going to be. She did not slow down at all and ran into me to get there as quick as possible.
'It’s George-' she spluttered. 'She has a pain- all curled up- can’t move her.' Each break was to pull air into her lungs.
I left her there still trying to get her breath back and ran. Not the news I expected or wanted. I stopped at the slope.
'Where is she?' I yelled.
'The back.' She yelled back and waved a hand to show where George was, then started to follow me.
I ran and ran. It sounded bad. I scrambled up each track or slope sometimes on all fours.
I reached the ledge and saw her curled up and screaming in agony. It was bad. I did no more than scoop her up and, despite her screams of ‘put me down, it hurts’ and many more like it. I ran with her. Risking life and limb I ran down each slope with her in my arms. I did not go past the food cave but slid down on my behind as soon as I saw the house. By now I wanted to stop but gritted my teeth and kept going. Through my gritted teeth, I barked orders.
'Carry the platform into the house. Make it comfortable. Turn the lights on. Get some clean rags. Put some water into the spare bucket.'
The spare bucket was made of metal and had sand in it when we found it. We saved the sand, just in case but tipped it out of the bucket so that we could use it.
By the time I carried her into the house I had been overtaken by two girls, Natasha and Charley. They ran up the ladder and brought down their bedding and put it onto the platform. I laid George down and tried to talk to her.
'I need to know where it hurts!' I said in a tone I hoped would get results.
'Everywhere!' She gasped.
'Where did it start?'
She pointed to the left side of her abdomen. 'Then it went here.' She pointed to the right side. 'Now it seems to be all over!'
I could feel the tears behind my eyes and fought to stop them falling.
'It’s your appendix.' I heard my self saying. 'Have you been sick yet?'
'No, it seems to be easing.' She answered, then she doubled up again.
'Look after her!' I said and ran up the hill. I knew I had to operate or she would die. I also knew the operation under such circumstances and with someone who had not done anything like it, before he had stitched up Charley’s wound would probably kill her anyway. It was a no win situation with only one course of action. I had to operate and hope and pray she survived!
I reached the cave and snatched up a bottle of my wine, I had no anaesthetic. I took the other one for good luck and hurried back.
She was in the same curled up position with Natasha and Charley comforting her, the rest of the girls were there to help if they could.
I poured some wine into a cup and held it to her lips.
'Drink this,' I ordered, 'and don’t spit it out again!'
She drank, her eyes opened wide as she swallowed but she kept it down. I poured more and she drank, I saw her relax slightly. If I could get her well drunk I had a chance.
'I will need both first aid kits, the four strongest girls and you Charley.' I said as I plied George with my wine.
Slowly she relaxed and we were able to straighten her out. I pulled up her tee-shirt to look at her abdomen. I pulled her shorts down a bit and pushed gently where the appendix should be. She screamed and curled up again. The diagnosis was correct, one way or other she was probably going to die! I could not stop the tears now but I had to do something.
'Where are those magazines we found?' I called, to anyone who would answer.
'I have them upstairs.' Tammy answered. 'I read them before I go to sleep, it works like a charm, they’re so boring!'
'Is there anything in them about the appendix?' I asked hopefully.
'I don’t know I never get that far, I haven’t read the first one yet!' She answered. 'I’ll get them.'
She scrambled up the ladder and hurried back down with an armful of magazines. I straightened George out again and kept plying her with her my wine. She was smiling now, a silly smile but I needed her unconscious for what I had to do and most likely she would never wake again. They searched through the magazines skip reading but came up blank.
'Nothing about the appendix.' Tammy reported. 'Close though, what’s an appendectomy is that near it?'
I took the magazine and read the story; it gave a blow by blow description of an appendectomy. I read it, and then read it again like an actor learning his lines. George said something to Charley but she could not understand what she was saying.
