“What would you like to have sir?” she asked.
“Umm first off, coffee.” He said without looking up. “Black with two spoons of sugar.” At this point he raised his head and looked pointedly at her. “Nothing more or less. I’d like one or two scones with that.”
“Anything else, sir?” She said, straining the ‘sir’ on purpose.
“Nothing for now. Although I would be needing a proper meal sometime soon. While we’re at it…” he paused as though he was thinking it through. “Never mind. I’ll let you know when I need anything else.” Richard replied and turned back to his work.
Abby turned on her heels and went to make his coffee. She would remain calm irrespective of however he treated her. She had gone through worse with some clients on the commercial airline she used to work with. Maybe he isn’t so bad and I just interpret all his actions because of the things I have heard about him. Maybe Malcolm is right.
In no time, she was done making his coffee to his specification and she placed the cup in a tray with some scones. Her eyes swept over the busy form as she took his coffee to him. Despite his bad attitude, he was a little bit of a looker. A silly thought crossed her mind as she watched him; did he ever smile and how would he look when he did? This thirty-five year old would pass for a fifty- year old the way he took everything so seriously but that didn’t take away the fact that he was cute to an extent. She set the cup and saucer on the folding tray some distance from his laptop.
“Here you go, sir.”
“Right. That would be all for now.”
Having satisfied the client, Abby went back to the kitchen for Malcolm’s coffee. Malcolm on the contrary always had his coffee white and with as much sugar as possible. She set the coffee cup on another tray with a small canister of sugar and took it to him in the cockpit.
“You really should cut back on your sugar intake, honey. You take way too much.” she said and set the tray down beside him.
“Thank you for caring, love. But I love my coffee the way I love it.”
“You’ll get fat and stuff.” She joked.
“You’ll love me all the same. That’s what love does. It endures.”
“Don’t count on it, love. I’ll be out before you say anything more.”
“How’s our client doing?”
“Busy and still annoying. I am overlooking his flaws the way I overlook yours, though. He has been staring at that laptop since take-off.”
“Well that isn’t odd. He is a businessman and besides, he’s going to Australia to close a deal. I heard he is quite the thorough type. I would be disappointed if he was not at least pretending to be busy.”
In that moment, they felt the plane jostle and Malcolm’s coffee cup shifted slightly in his tray. They both gave each other a knowing look. Just as Abby was about to speak, the jostle returned, this time, a lot more severe that it threw Abby completely off balance and the coffee cup to the floor.
“Get back to the cabin and get settled in. Tell Mr. Myers to fasten up to be on the safer side. I doubt that the turbulence would persist though.” Malcolm said.
“You sure?” she said, looking at the cup.
“Just get settled in. I’ll make the announcement.”
Abby hurried on towards the cabin. As she made her way through, she could hear Malcolm’s voice over the speaker. Richard had taken the cue too and was quick to get buckled in. She had barely fastened her belt when she was forced against the belt violently. A crashing noise from Richard’s direction drew her eyes to shards of the cup that once held coffee on the floor. Richard had barely been able to save his laptop from all the bustling and was holding on to it with his mere fingertips.
She would have offered to help but in this situation, walking was practically impossible. They would both be fine; he and his laptop. Soon, the plane was bumping and diving, swaying from side to side uncontrollably.
Abby thought they were flying sideways at some point. She took in a deep breath and did a thirty second review. She hoped it wouldn’t come to evacuation with the way the turbulence was striking.
“It’s going to be fine, sir. It’s just turbulence.” She said to Richard.
Please remain seated and have your seatbelts fastened. We hit an unexpected turbulence area. Please keep calm and relax. Everything is under control.”
That was Malcolm again but for some reason, this time, Abby did not believe him. This was one of the worst turbulence she had experienced in all her time as a flight attendant. Something was oddly wrong here.
In that moment, she saw a flash of light and then another. The plane shook even more violently. Richard had by now turned ashen in his chair. The lightning struck again. The way the thunderbolt was striking, it was only a matter of time before something terrible happened.
As though he had heard her inner thoughts, the speaker crackled to life.
“This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on the water.”
Chapter 4
Malcolm woke up with a very terrible headache. As he tried to get up, the headache got even worse. His arms and legs felt really heavy and sore. He moved his arm and felt the lushness of grass underneath him. Around him, he was surrounded by tall trees and short shrubberies. When he lay his head back on the ground, he was staring right at the canopies created by the palm trees.
Despite his hurting head, he managed to get off his back and on his feet and scanned the vicinity for the others. Some distance away from him, Abby and Richard lay sleeping. A heavy burden lifted off his chest. He staggered towards Abby, who was closer to him and felt for a pulse. As soon as he touched her, she woke up with a start.
“Take it easy. We don’t want you making any injuries, you might have, worsening.” He said in a soothing voice. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been run over by a truck. Where’s Richard?”
“Over there.” He said gesturing towards the man’s direction. Richard was still on the floor but he turned just as they were looking at him. They both sighed in relief as they realised he was fine.
“Thank God! I was scared for a second there.” Abby said.
“So was I. I was scared for you both.”
“Where are we? Do you have any idea?”
“I honestly don’t. We’re on some tropical island in the middle of Pacific. I am certain of that. We were above the ocean when I decided to land.”
“What exactly happened?” Abby asked. She was still pretty shaken by the experience.
“Turbulence. An unusual one. I have never experienced one like that before. And then there was that lightning storm. I had to make a call and the best thing to do was to land when we did.”
“Shit. Any sign of help anywhere around?”
“I haven’t had a chance to walk around. I just came to myself.”
“There’s only one thing to do now.” Abby replied and got on her feet. “Richard should be fine here. Let’s go.”
“That is not exactly the wisest thing to do. Both of us can’t possibly leave only him here. What if he wakes up before we get back? We don’t want him walking around without any one of us knowing where he is headed. And he looks quite like the impulsive one.”
“You can’t possibly leave and wander these forests alone.”
“And we can’t leave him here alone. I would be fine. I’ll be back soon.” He said and left before she could stop him.
Abby’s eyes followed Malcolm’s back until he disappeared from sight. The pilot was right and she knew it but she didn’t like the idea of any of them being out there in that forest without any idea of what lay in wait. It might be dangerous out there, for goodness sakes.
She got up herself and did a quick scan of their surroundings. There was no sight of the wreckage of the plane. Making sure she didn’t go too far from Richard, she walked a little further but still saw nothing of importance. A loud rumble escaped her belly and Abby realised that they had nothing to eat or a shelter over their heads and p
robably no form of help. If they didn’t get their acts together, they wouldn’t last our here.
She sat on the floor beside Richard Myers and watched him sleep. Even in his sleep, he looked like he was at war with the world. One would have thought that at a time like this he would be looking a little vulnerable. He sure didn’t let down his guard. She leaned against a tree and continued to watch him sleep.
***
Abby was shaken out of her sleep by a pair of hands. She was shocked by the ride awakening and then her shock turned into anger when she saw who had woken her. Richard stared back at her with a blank stare.
“What in the world?” She asked glaring at him. Richard sighed.
“You’re fine.”
“Obviously!” She replied, still glaring at him.
“Is the pilot safe? He is nowhere near here.”
“Your apology for waking me up so rudely is accepted.” She said sarcastically.
“I didn’t... oh… It took so long to get you to wake up, I thought something had happened to you.” He said.
Abby realized that this was probably the closest he would come to actually apologizing to her. She would take it like that for now. The effort was all that mattered.
“Malcolm is fine. He went scouting for help. Hopefully, he would be back soon. He said he wouldn’t be going too far in.”
“What happened?”
“Turbulence and lightning, did remember?” She replied and started to stand up.
“Is help anywhere close? Did the pilot…”
“I have no idea sir.” Abby cut in before he finished. “I, like you, am waiting for his return. So please, keep calm and wait it out.”
“Are you trying to say that there is no help whatsoever?” he persisted.
“I’m afraid not,” A voice from behind them said. They turned back to see Malcolm standing before them. “There was not a single settlement in sight where I checked. Not a single sign of civilization. The whole island seems to be deserted.”
“So there is no hope for help anytime soon?” Richard asked.
“I can’t say for sure. I managed to send out a mayday message before the forced landing but the sad thing is it could take days before anyone would rescue us. If they ever do. We are on our own from now and if we want to survive, we need to work together to provide the essentials for this unplanned stay of ours.” Malcolm said and sat on the ground. “First up, we need some sort of roof over our heads for tonight. Night would come upon us before we know what is happening.”
Chapter 5
Abby threw the palm fronds she just brought on the pile she had gathered from her previous trips into the deserted forest. As she was returning to get more fronds, her gaze fell on Richard. A fresh release of anger coursed through her blood.
Since Malcolm had returned from scouting the vicinity, they had been trying to get things together to make their stay here a lot easier. They had agreed it would be best to have a makeshift shelter to at least lay their head until the next day and they would take things further from there.
Between then and now, Abby had gone several trips into the depth of the island to get palm fronds for their shelter. Malcolm had gone with her a couple of times at first but he had stayed back to start the actual building process. All the while, Richard had just sat there, watching. It had not gotten to her at first but now it did. He had not even bothered to offer his help. They still had a lot to be done like gathering wood for fire and looking for food and water.
“Would you please come help out with some of these things?” She asked. Richard looked at her without a word and turned back to the other side he was facing before she spoke.
Abby shook her head and went back to get supplies. When she got back, Richard was still in the same spot. She was livid. She might have burst out at him but she didn’t know how appropriate it would be because he was technically still their boss. For Malcolm not to have complained yet despite his seething, he must have thought the same too. Maybe she would just talk to him politely. That wouldn’t hurt.
“You know, it would be really helpful if you decided to come join in, don’t you?” she said to him.
“Why should I? It’s not my fault we are in this situation now, is it?”
“So whose is it? Ours? Because I’m really trying hard to understand this nonsense.” Abby burst out. She really couldn’t take it any longer.
“You don’t have to understand. Just get on with your task.”
“No sir, you don’t get to boss me around. Look around you, mister, this is a world different from the one you are used to. We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere and it’s getting dark. You need to get your shit together and come help build up this thing if we want to survive one night here.”
“I would not lift a finger to do anything here. You guys created this mess, you guys have to fix it.” he replied.
Abby heard the falling of palm fronds and the thundering of footsteps behind her. In the twinkling of an eye, Malcolm had breezed past her and was standing really close to Richard.
“Say that again.” Malcolm thundered.
“You guys created this mess and you have to fix it. Do we have a problem here, young man?” Richard repeated.
“Oh yes, we do! Who the fuck do you think you are and where in the world do you think this is?!? Your company retreat? Get real, dude!”
“How dare you speak to me like that?” Richard said, still not even bothered to stand up from the ground. His eyes were getting red and his hands shook ever so lightly one would never have noticed if they didn’t get up close.
Malcolm let out a dry, humorless laugh. This guy still did not get the memo. He thought he was still in his world where he called the shots. Right here, the only person calling the shots was Malcolm. None other.
“You still do not get it. You are far away from where your word is bond. Here, you have to pitch in your quota. Abby has been going back and forth with frond. I have been building this house that you would probably be the first to run into when it is ready. We are not machines. There is only so much we can do.”
“The earlier you get to work, the better for you. Don’t go expecting me to join in. You both work for me and your duty is to save me from this situation you put us in.” he said, stabbing his fingers in the air.
“Let me spell this out for you; on this island, we do not work for you. We work together for one goal; to get out of this goddamned place alive. You know, I can’t take any of this shit anymore. You feel, for some messed up reason in your head, that the whole world is beneath you. You have the worst personality I have ever come across and trust me, I have seen many horrible people. Get your fucking ass of that ground and be useful, dammit!”
Richard shot up from the ground in anger. How could this lowlife talk to him in such a manner? Who did he think he was? Had he forgotten for a second that he was talking to the Richard Myers?
“Watch how you speak to me, young man.”
“Or what?” Malcolm said and moved closer to him.
Abby thought they were going to resort to punching each other with the way they were at each other’s throats.
“Would you guys just cut it out?! In case you really haven’t noticed, it’s getting really dark really fast and if you continue with this childish squabble we would never get anything done. Malcolm, get back to work. I’ll get all we need if he doesn’t want to help.”
“He shouldn’t...” Malcolm started to say.
“Just go.” She ordered. Malcolm shot Richard a look to tell him it was far from over and went on to continue their shelter. “The least you could do is help.” She said to Richard when Malcolm was gone.
“I’m going to get some air.” Richard said and left the two of them to work.
Chapter 6
Malcolm was beyond tired from all of work that he had to do since he got back. He was also probably exhausted from that episode with Richard but he really didn’t think so. He shouldn’t let that no-good idiot get to him so muc
h. If it hadn’t been for Abby he was this close to sending a punch Richard’s way. One that would reset those fine features of his.
He had managed to finish the shack and even though it was not all that -- it turned out better than he thought it would when he started. They were all lucky he had a little bit of scouting experience and though it might have been years since he did something like this, he still had an idea how things worked.
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