Me and Them

by S G Read

  'What after that?'

  'As you are next to the fire you could cook the food!'

  'Okay but you have to eat it.' She called and walked in the direction of the fire place.

  The pipe George made looked good enough so I started on the next one up, not to fit inside but the same size, I was going to join it with a clay mix. I made two more and lit a fire near them to pull the embers over them. With that done I walked over to where George was cooking.

  ‘How is the wound?’

  She lifted her clean tee shirt and showed me. The bandage was a thing of the past now and it looked fine.

  'Good. Now a few tummy exercises might help.' I said as she pulled her tee shirt down again.

  'Like what?'

  'Tummy curls?'

  'How do I do them?'

  'Lay down?'

  'Where? Here?'

  'Anywhere!'

  She lay on her back and I held her feet down.

  'Now lift your body up bending in the middle. If it hurts where I operated stop immediately.'

  She tried it and it hurt.

  'We’ll try again tomorrow, late in the day to give it more time to heal.' I said carefully. 'Tomorrow I will fit your flue pipe in so we will drag it out tonight before it gets too dark.'

  She stood up holding her stomach.

  'Still hurting?'

  'A bit.' She answered but carried on with what she was doing.

  'Let me know if it is still hurting later!' I insisted.

  'Okay.' She answered.

  When she looked up I was still there looking at her.

  'I will tell you! I promise.' She insisted.

  I nodded and walked away.

  She watched as the three girls went out hunting but said and did nothing other than cook food. I waved to them and to the three girls going to collect fruit. They were all armed now and the spears were a thing of the past. They were only used for spear fishing when the girls did it.

  I put more wood on the fire where my pipes were baking before I looked at the parts of the shelter the girls were making for the alternator. The idea was good and it might end up waterproof but we had to make sure when they finished it. For now there was little I could do but wait for the pipe to bake. When I walked up to look at the alternator it seemed fine and the paddle was still holding out so I walked back and picked up a magazine to read. It was another of the medical magazines but had nothing in it about operations on appendices. I read about gout instead, what causes it and how, hopefully, to get rid of it. I read that and kept reading. The girls returned with the fruit and took it up to the cave, the hunters returned empty handed. It was not until Charley brought me my food that I stopped reading, it had been interesting. I ate the food without thought, it was a little overcooked but it still tasted fine. When my plate was empty I looked for George to thank her but could not find her. I went inside to find her lying on her back on the floor.

  'Is it your stomach?' I asked, kneeling beside her.

  She nodded. 'But I did ten of those things!'

  'Ten! I only wanted you to do one!'

  'You didn’t say that! Charley said she usually does twenty at a time!'

  'Well Charley hasn’t just had her appendix taken out by a rank amateur!'

  'It wasn’t her fault, I wanted to do them. I’ll do more tomorrow!'

  'It can’t hurt that much then.'

  'Oh that, it hurts a bit when I do it but I can do it alright.'

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  'Just stick to ten tomorrow, but you can do them in the morning and at night if you like!'

  'Oh ok.'

  'Do you want a hand up?'

  'No I’m fine. I’ll get up in a minute; I must be a right wimp!'

  'I think you are a very brave girl. Soon you will be able to do as many of them as you want but you have to start slow. I couldn’t do twenty right now I would have to work up to it.'

  'Show me!'

  I looked to see where she was hooking her feet.

  'Shove over then.'

  'I think you will have to push me.' She answered.

  I slid her over laid on my back and did five perfect tummy curls but flopped back on the sixth.

  'Five is all you could do,' She cried in amazement, 'but you swam for ages in the boiling sea to save all of us!'

  'Swimming isn’t tummy roll ups but tummy roll ups help swimming as well as a lot of other things you do.'

  I turned over onto my face and climbed to my feet, she watched then copied me.

  'I wondered how I was going to get up.' She said with a smile and walked out.

  I rested for a few seconds then did the same. I headed for the fire and dragged out her clay pipe. It looked fine. I left it to cool and dragged mine out. I still had to get the sand out of mine which took some time, then I left all three of them to cool.

  Now was the time to look at the wall behind my new fire place, I needed to go through it somewhere for the chimney before I reached the ceiling above. I stood there looking at the wall and Tammy walked in.

  'Is it falling down?' She asked.

  'No, I need to make a hole in it.'

  'A little hole?' She asked.

  'No, big enough to take those clay pipes.'

  'Won’t that make it fall down?'

  'No, we made it better than that.' I assured her. 'We laid the stones side by side and then across ways to make it stronger, I’ll take out those two which go across and see if my pipe will go through there.'

  'Why round?' She asked. 'The hole will be square or squarish, why not make that pipe to fit?'

  From the mouths of babes.

  'You’re right! I could make something to fit and sit it through the hole, then put rocks back in to fill the rest of the hole!'

  'Glad to be of help.' She said and walked out.

  When the pipes were cool enough I fitted the first one, the one made be George but the next one sat awkwardly on top of it. I had to make double collars to make them fit each other. I did just that and left them baking overnight

  Day 80 on the island.

  I was up first to check on my collars. I cleaned the sand out of them and tried the first one on top of the one already sticking up. It fitted loosely but it would be good enough, when I packed it with clay. I stuck the second pipe on top and then the second collar, the third pipe and third collar followed. By now girls were walking into the shower room, trying the shower, screaming as it was still cold and hurrying out after using the toilet. I tried not to listen. I drew the elbow I needed to make in the sand outside; it had a round bottom, turned the corner and became flat, travelled far enough to go through the wall and ended in a short round pipe sticking upwards. The outside pipe was going to sit outside the pipe sticking up. Good in theory but I had to make it. Girls milled about doing their thing. The hunting party went out, just for something to do, the fruit gatherers did the same but they were looking for different fruit this time for a change.

  It took me all day to make my pipe and I built a fire where it was to bake it as it was fragile. Charley and Natasha erected the shelter over the alternator and tied it in place with our favourite root. It looked good from where I was but the first rain would let us know the truth. I raked the embers over the pipe and left it to bake.

  With darkness approaching, we sat round the main fire and talked about our life before we ended up on the island. Tales of what had happened to us early and I had a lot more tales to tell as I was a lot older. I talked about my childhood and into my teens before we decided to go inside. With everyone in bed and the lights turned on I continued until everyone else was asleep, then I turned the light off and went to sleep as well.

  Day 81 on the island.

  It was already hot when we woke in the morning. Everyone had a shower in hot water before they all went off to do whatever their particular job was. I raked out my square pipe and checked it over. Like George's first effort, this one needed another layer of clay. I took out all the sand and added c
lay all over it before I set it to bake again. The two girls in the camp were practicing their crossbow shooting although George did not need any practice. I joined in, I definitely needed some practice. My first shot missed the target and we spent the next hour finding the bolt. My second shot hit the outer and I was pleased to see it hit the target. When it was not our turn to shoot, we did whatever we had to, then hurried back for our shot. Eventually I hit the target regularly, which is all I wanted. To hit what I aimed at was good enough for me! The fruit collectors were a long time coming back and instead of walking up to the cave they came over to where we were.

  'Is this what I think it is?' Sarah asked.

  I looked in the basket.

  'If you think it is a potato, then yes,' I answered, 'did you find a lot of them?'

  'Yes, they were near Mr. Pig’s lair I think but he wasn’t at home,' She replied, 'and these were growing near the bamboo.' She pointed into the other basket.

  'It’s a sunflower.' I said and an idea started to grind into motion in my head. 'Were there a lot of them as well?'

  'A few. We only brought this one to see if it was worth getting some more!'

  'Yes it is. I have plans for both of them but leave the rest of the potatoes in the ground until we are ready for them!'

  'What plans?' She asked.

  'Secret plans,' I answered, 'but one you will enjoy, I hope!'

  'When do we learn about these secret plans?' George asked.

  'Long after you want to know.' I answered.

  This was one thing I thought that they would not cotton on to!

  'Tomorrow we go up and change our signal. When that is done and I have the fire inside all working, then and only then will I think about my surprise.'

  Long after I had told them that I heard them discussing what the surprise might be but no one had the answer this time. There were some good ideas though. One was to plant some of the potatoes close by where we could stop the boar and his family from digging them up. That way we would have a supply of potatoes. I included that idea in my master plan.

  The hunters returned, they had roamed far and wide and brought back a large bird.

  'I hope that isn’t a dodo.' I declared.

  'No, it’s some type of turkey I think.' Charley answered. 'If it had kept quiet we wouldn’t have known it was there but it kept going gobble gobble gobble, so I shot it!'

  'It was more a squawk than a gobble!' Andrea argued.

  'No it was more a cluck cluck than a gobble or a squawk!' Natasha argued.

  'Bring the next one back alive and we’ll listen to it.' George exclaimed.

  'And how do we get it to come back with us?' Charley asked.

  'Talk to it nicely.' Tammy replied and ran.

  I settled down to pluck the bird; there was no point in worrying what it was now, now it was just dinner! The girls gave up chasing Tammy, when she ran no one caught her. When it was plucked, I walked up to the cave with Charley and George, the latter just wanting the exercise, and put the oven ready bird inside for when we wanted it. Our food was already cooking! We walked down with more meat to put in to cook overnight so that we could take it with us. We ate and went to bed early; we all knew there was a long day ahead. I laid out what I wanted to take with us the next day before I went inside.

  Day 82 on the island.

  We started up the hill early. George was pleased to be coming, she thought she would be left at home or something but I would rather have her with me. We took ropes and the block and tackle as well as a lot of other tools, I had plans. We made it up to the top where our message was still laying. We cut more trees and added to it. By the time we finished it read -are you blind- that was in smaller letters followed by the original -HELP.

  Darkness came before I wanted to go back down and this time we made a shelter out of the wood and branches we cut off the trees, including the first trees. We did not light a fire but we were snug in our blankets in the shelter that night.

  Day 83 on the island.

  Morning came and we started work straight away. We carried the block and tackle up to the highest spot on the second plateau and tied it to a rock, then with ropes we proceeded to pull the dead branches up the top. Smaller stuff was bundled up in a blanket and hauled up. Slowly we pulled it all up and turned the driest wood and leaves into a big fire, ready for lighting. The fresh wood and leaves were close handy and they would probably be ready to put on to the fire when I was ready to light it. When it was as good as I could get it we started back down. As our shelter was now a fire no one wanted to be up there for another night under the conditions we suffered the last time! We made it to the camp in time to relight the fire before the sun fell out of sight. We roasted big bird over it and all waited drooling at the prospect of eating it.

  Soon it was all over. Big bird was only bones and some of them had been gnawed. We ate fruit for afters before we crawled into bed to sleep soundly.

  Day 84 on the island.

  Today it was competition day shooting with bow and arrows only. It was going to be a laugh. Instead of George judging we all took part and we all judged. Most actually hit the target at some point but Andrea was always going to win. The time we spent looking for lost arrows meant it took a lot longer than the last contest but we cooked the food as the contest went on. That way, when it was finally over and Andrea was the winner, we could eat. Andrea was given the gold award, a rock we found up on the top of the plateau which looked like gold. I was sure it was iron pyrites but it looked like a trophy. She walked about with it over her head, in front of her and under her arm, even while she was eating!

  Tomorrow we had the main competition with George as the judge and I was taking part in it. I had to admit I was looking forward to it! I resumed work on the last crossbow and before dark I finally finished it. Now we had six crossbows and one bow and arrows, which meant two people, had to use spears but there was no more wire to make the crossbows with, it had to be good enough. I dragged my square pipe out of the ashes; it looked just how I wanted it to look. I turned on the lights and started to scrape out the dried mud from between the rocks I wanted to remove. By the time I gave up I had one rock loose but it would not slide out. I went to bed; it would wait until after the competition tomorrow!

  Day 85 on the island.

  We woke with great expectations but the clouds sweeping in from the wrong direction meant trouble. I roused the girls who were not already up and we set about getting things ready for another big blow! I worked on the second rock, I hoped that with it out I could slide the first one out. The girls brought meat and fruit down and carried wood inside to burn, if I managed to get the fire working. The first rock slid out as the first deluge hit. I carried on working; the girls had brought the oil lamp to make sure we had a light if the generator failed and the battery went flat. I pulled the second rock out and peered through the hole. The rain was driving from the other side and none was falling near the hole. I tried to slide the square pipe through but it was too big. I worked on and took out the next rock. The pipe slid in half way. I took it out and worked on, I was getting there! I pushed the second rock outwards and it fell away, out of sight. I slid the pipe in and pulled the end nearest me down into the collar. It fitted but as soon as I let go the weight of the pipe pulled in back up, I had to go round the back with the ladder and wedge the pipe up with clay. I put clay in to seal the join, pulled it back down and tied it in place. Now it was ready and I opened the door, the rain poured in. I walked outside with the ladder and Natasha, she had drawn the short straw. One of the girls closed the door behind us. I walked round the back as fast as I could carrying the ladder. Natasha had run on ahead and was already waiting for me on the leeward side of the house. There it was dry and wind free. I put the ladder up the wall, climbed up three rungs and Natasha passed me the bucket with the clay in it. I filled up the gap under the pipe and filled round the sides to make sure no rain came in using rocks where I could, then we hurried back inside. I had to c
arry the ladder back as we needed it to get up onto the next floor. We were both soaked to the skin. While she went in to warm up in the shower I filled round the pipe on the inside. I left the root, which held in together in place and climbed down.

  'You can light it now but if it smokes us out because there is no pipe outside on the outlet we will have to put it out!' I warned.

  Sarah lit the fire and we watched the smoke curl up and out into the room, more smoke rose and more came into the room. The girls looked disappointed.

  'Wait until it heats up, if it is no better we will have to put it out!' I warned.

  We watched, most of us coughing because of the smoke. As the flames grew the smoke lessened and our hopes rose. We added more wood and created more smoke but not as much came into the room. The hotter it grew the less the smoke came into the room until there was virtually none coming into the room. A loud cheer rang through the room and the day changed from disappointing to a new adventure. We cooked our own meat, however we wanted to cook it and whenever we were hungry. The doorway with the door firmly closed became the stage and we played charades. If the rain managed to get in onto the alternator we would know it when the battery went flat.

  Outside the storm blew but now we did not care. With no idea what time of the day it was and I must admit I had no inclination to look at my watch; we played charades, then other games until we were fed up and started cooking again. After we had eaten the cycle started again and the storm still raged outside. When some girls started to fall asleep where they were I shook them awake and they went up to bed. The hardier ones played on but we finally went to bed. I turned the lights of except for the two downstairs in case someone needed the toilet in the night, then I went to bed. Outside the storm still raged. I made a mental note, the signal fire, when we chose to light it, had to be lit after a dry spell.

  Day 86 on the island.

  I awoke to a dry and bright day. The fire inside was out but it did not matter, I had a tepid shower and was glad to find it still working. Outside I walked round looking for damage but there was very little. The alternator housing was still there, it had passed the first test. I walked over and looked inside. The important bits were still dry and that was the main thing. I left it running and walked back to find the girls stirring.