by John Muir
CHAPTER 18
ARCHERY, ESTRANGEMENT & OLD FRIENDS
APUAO GRANDE
After snorkelling, T.A. picked up a compound bow of the right pull length and a dozen dowelling target arrows from the office. Malou enjoyed the snorkelling more than she had anticipated. They had just returned home, showered and changed clothes when Pater arrived.
The archery target range was a crude affair set up a few yards past the tennis court. Behind the well used target was a hard dirt mound topped by loosely cemented blocks to prevent arrows going into the jungle. Many blocks had worked loose and many were obviously missing, probably now part of someone's hut in the local barrio. Eventually they would all disappear for the same use. Management recognised such losses were unpreventable, so just replaced them as necessary.
"We'll start at ten metres to see how you go," said Pater. "Five arrows each eh?"
T.A. was relieved at the short distance selected.
After the first round, T.A. was impressed with Pater's skill. He did not feel too disheartened about his own either. Three of his arrows were inside the inner three rings. All of Pater's were in the bullseye.
"You're not bad," commented Pater. "Let's go back to eighteen metres."
The second round from the greater distance showed little diminution in Pater's accuracy, but T.A. saw a large drop in his own. He looked at Malou for some encouragement. She just looked away disinterested, making sure the shade of the nearby tree fully covered her.
"Gee," commented Pater. "I've watched some tourists miss the target with all their arrows from ten metres. Let's go back to the maximum we're allowed to shoot at here. They don't want tourists killing any of the locals."
Again, Pater continued with his steady accuracy. T.A.'s arrows by contrast, although still hitting the large target board, were widely spread.
"I had expected you to miss the board by now. You're not bad at all," said Pater.
"Thanks. I'd feel more comfortable shooting at eighteen metres," hinted T.A.
Obligingly, Pater moved forward to the shorter range.
By the time they had shot fifty arrows, T.A. was feeling the strain in his shoulder muscle. It was also evident in the further diminishing of accuracy in his shooting.
"I think I've shot my lot for today," said T.A. with a grin. "If you can be bothered with my company I'd love to do it again."
"You're on," accepted Pater. "Same time tomorrow if you've got nothing else?”
"Sure."
T.A. left Pater continuing to shoot another round. As they walked back to the house he rubbed his right shoulder. Malou carried his bow and arrows. Fred, the little stray wire-haired terrier had appeared and began following them as he often did. He always seemed to appear from nowhere. Fred belonged to everyone, yet at the same time, to no-one. T.A. felt in his the pocket of his sweaty shorts and found a packet of boiled lollies. He tossed one to Fred. He sniffed it briefly before delicately picking it up and moving to the shelter of a tree. T.A. watched as he tossed his head back and chewed as though enjoying a special doggy delicacy. Malou stretched up, pulled T.A.'s head down to her level and kissed him on the cheek.
"Little boys, cowboys and Indians and dogs," Malou grinned as she spoke.
T.A. threatened her with his sticky fingers, and she ran off with him in close pursuit.
When they got home she massaged his back and shoulders as he lay nude on the bed. It gave considerable relief from the stiffness starting to take effect. Then, ignoring his sweat, she cuddled in and held him tightly. The soreness in his shoulders was soon forgotten in the pleasure of the love-making that followed.
He must have fallen asleep because he woke suddenly when the cicadas began their farewell commotion at sunset. He turned expecting Malou at his side but she was not there. He blinked his eyes a couple of times to get accustomed to the half light, pushed aside the mosquito net, then lowered his feet onto the cool wooden floor.
When he saw Malou sitting in the lounge gazing in a day-dream through the front window, he moved up beside her. She turned and gave him a big smile.
"You were snoring so loudly I couldn't sleep," she said.
"What? Me snoring?"
"Yes, you often do."
"When?"
"Often after we make love or if you're tired."
"Oh God no." T.A. was going to say that nobody else had told him that he snored and thought better of it. If he had said it, Malou would ask who else he had been sleeping with.
"Oh yes," she went on. "Didn't you know you snored?"
"Well, I haven't slept with anyone else, so who would tell me."
Malou looked with a hint of curiosity, maybe doubt.
"Come on," said T.A., "let's get ready for the restaurant." He did not want to discuss his snoring any further in case he made a slip.
"I'm ready," replied Malou.
In the next few minutes he showered, applied insect repellents, found the torches and gathered the keys. Then as usual he had to wait for Malou before they left for a few pre-dinner drinks.
Some familiar faces were already there. Graham was sitting at the bar on a stool next to Podgy, both enjoying their beer; their respective partners sitting nearby chatting away in one of the Filipino languages. They all turned and greeted Malou and T.A.
Graham was obviously not over his limit as he was talking clearly. Ness waved at them both and they returned her wave. She pointed in Filipino fashion, with her lips, toward the pool table to challenge T.A. Then pointed to her watch and signalled ten minutes with a flash of two hands. T.A. nodded his agreement. She would be taking a break in ten minutes.
The two young Swiss were in deep conversation with the scuba instructor. All three gave a wave as T.A. found a seat. Malou got the drinks from Ness and made her way to the table. Gunther, Di and their son Carlos entered the restaurant and went straight to the menu board. T.A. watched Gunther considering the options. He noticed Gunther's habit with his spectacles of pushing them back on his nose with his middle finger. The peculiarity was that he started with the finger at the tip of his nose then slid up the bony bridge as a guideline before it reached the frame of his glasses. He pushed the glasses back whether they needed adjusting or not. He made the adjustment three times while T.A. watched him study the board. Then he was distracted by the entry of the American Doug, his girlfriend Alona, and the little girl.
T.A. was feeling relaxed. They had settled back into the routine quickly. Being with the people here was like being among people he had known for years. Yet the familiarity among the guests was never intrusive.
Ness had taken her break from bar duties and was standing at his shoulder.
"Go and get beaten by Ness at pool darling."
"Gee, thanks. I'll remember you later."
True to Malou's prediction, Ness beat him. Each time it was only just. T.A. knew that they were narrow victories only because Ness allowed it to be close. After the finish of the third game, Ness returned behind the bar and T.A. returned to Malou who was talking to Gunther and Di. They had already finished their meal.
"How about a round of golf tomorrow T.A.?" asked Gunther.
"I’ve got archery late in the afternoon, but the morning’s fine for me. Nine holes with a fairly wild rough I've heard, isn't it?" answered T.A.
"Yeah. The kids from the barrio offer themselves as ball chasers so you won’t lose too many golf balls if you pay them well.”
"Jesus Gunther, you haven't seen my slice."
"Di is a better straight hitter than I am," Gunther replied. "I put several into the deep scrub today and only lost one ball thanks to the chasers. Go on, give it a go. Come and join us tomorrow morning, around 9:30 a.m."
T.A. looked at Malou.
"Go on," she said. "It might make me laugh. I'm not going to play though."
"O.K., you've got a date Gunther. 9:30A.M. if lazy-bones here can get up in time."
Malou gave him her dirty look.
"Shall we order something to eat now?" said T.A. trying to
change the subject.
"We'll let you eat in peace," said Gunther, hitching his glasses back up on his nose. T.A. smiled.
"Sure, we'll see you tomorrow."
Gunther and Di took up some vacant seats at the bar.
A young Filipino couple that they'd seen the previous day were sitting at the table next to them. They were joined by two other young Filipino males. T.A. watched Malou looking at the taller handsome new male arrival as he sat at the next table. Her mind was obviously racing off somewhere else. T.A. mocked clearing his throat to get her attention but she continued to stare at the newcomer.
"Ready to order?" asked T.A.
She snapped her head back to look at T.A.
"What?"
"If you can get your eyes off the man at the next table are you ready to order?"
"What man?"
T.A. knew it was no good telling her what she was doing. She would deny it.
"Nothing," he said. "Let's eat."
T.A. signalled the waitress who came over. They ordered on her recommendation. Malou said a few extra quiet words to the waitress in Tagalog. T.A. watched the waitress's eyes go to the table that the four Filipinos were sitting at before she answered. Then she moved off to get the cook started on their order.
"Well?" asked T.A. "Did you find out anything about who he is?"
"Who?"
"The good looking guy at the table next to us."
"What good looking guy?"
"Oh, stop talking crap. You asked the waitress about the people at the next table."
"I was not. Why don't you ask the waitress when she comes back."
T.A. knew it was no good trying to argue or to check out Malou's story with the waitress. The waitress would not contradict Malou.
"It would be nice if you were honest with me. I'm not totally stupid," said T.A.
"If you mean him," she said looking at the Filipinos at the next table, "he's ugly."
"Yeah, forget about it," snapped T.A. He remembered one of the reasons why he and Malou had never made that final commitment. He did not trust her. Lies flowed too easily off her tongue.
The rest of the evening was spent in silence between them. When Malou thought T.A. was not looking, she would sneak a glance at the Filipino.
T.A. watched the German couple arrive late. They acknowledged his "Hello" with a nod of the head and sat down to immediately order their dinner.
When T.A. and Malou finished dinner he left Malou sitting at the table and went to join Pater who had arrived at the bar. Pater was drinking with Podgy, Gunther and Graham. T.A. was content just listening, not contributing anything to the conversation.
After a while Malou came up to him.
"Can I have the keys? I'm going back to the house to go to bed," she said.
The conversation stopped as she spoke.
"Hang on," said T.A., "I'll come back with you."
"No," she said, "you can stay here."
"Don't you want me to come with you?"
The others in the group politely started to resume their conversation as they could sense a domestic problem was happening.
"Do what you want to do," she said.
T.A. could not be bothered arguing and stood up to leave.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning for golf Gunther.” Then, looking at Pater, “If I don’t lose my all my balls I’ll see you for archery after that.”
"O.K," replied Gunther with a grin. Pater too was grinning as he nodded.
Other “goodnights” were hurriedly bandied back and forth. Malou had already started back to the house instead of walking by his side as she normally would.
"Aren't we going to the hobie-cats tonight?" called out T.A. from ten metres behind her.
"Go by yourself if you want to."
It was the first night that T.A. could remember that they had broken the routine established on the previous visits, except for the night of the thunderstorm during the previous visit to the Island.
The rest of the night was spent in silence. T.A. fell asleep noticing that each was on the bed with their backs to each other, as far apart as the bed would permit them to be.
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There were no pressures to do anything on the island. No organised games apart from the occasional restaurant events in the evenings. There was no pressure to take part.
Most organised events, apart from the weekly toad races could pass by unnoticed. The toad races required the clearing away of the tables and chairs to make room for a large circle to be drawn in chalk. The centre-point was the middle of the restaurant. Guests were encouraged to bid for the labelled toad of their choice, based on their preliminary assessment made when individual toads were temporarily released and encouraged to show their "racing form". Each toad was named after it has shown its form; then listed on the menu board. Bidding then took place.
It was a winner take-all event. No second or third prizes. The winning toad was the first to reach the outside of the circle from the centre where they were simultaneously released. Days later, quite a distance from the resort, some were still wearing race labels.
Neither T.A.or Malou ever won money on the toads. Malou, after her initial fear and repugnance of them, soon got over it. Then, after the toads were released, Malou would snatch one up off the ground and try and stuff it down T.A's shirt when he was not looking. He never got over his revulsion of them and his running away from a toad-carrying Malou always brought a chorus of laughter from watching guests and screams of enjoyment from Malou.
Of the guests, they only spent time with Gunther and Di. Even then was limited to a couple of rounds of golf and an impromptu game of organised baseball.
T.A. enjoyed his short archery sessions with Pater. Though T.A.'s shoulder would still ache after only a few rounds, his accuracy was improving markedly. Pater was good company. Not too talkative. Not a waster of words. Malou no longer accompanied him to the range passing the time doing her own thing.
She did not enjoy walking around the golf course either. Instead of accompanying Gunther, Di and T.A., she either stayed in the house or went to the restaurant. Because of that, T.A. only had three rounds of golf. Perhaps he was using Malou's lack of interest as an excuse not to play any more. T.A. was quite disgusted with his golfing efforts. Even allowing for the fact that he had not played for over ten years, it did little to placate his self criticism of his slicing, bad putting, and bad chipping. He was playing so few good strokes that even the occasional sweet drive he made did not atone for all the bad strokes which dominated his rounds. His archery affected shoulder was not helping his swing either.
On one occasion they joined Gunther, Di and Carlos on a short hobie-cat sailing jaunts. T.A. did not feel comfortable with Gunther's sailing skills. He wondered if he could survive lost somewhere in the Pacific simply because Gunther could not get them back to land. Gunther seemed to handle the yacht his unique way yet still managed to get them back. Their intended one-hour sailing took more than two hours. Even Malou seemed nervous about it and they skipped the offer of a second trip.
However Malou enjoyed being a passenger on the back of the jet skis. It took an age for her to learn to lean into a turn and not try to counter-balance. They took several tumbles from the virtually non-capsizeable craft which Malou preferred to call "water motor-bikes". T.A. did not bother to argue.
The restaurant and resort saw a lot of "short-termers" come and go within a night or two. Those that T.A. felt were "long-termers" like himself and Malou, always chatted freely with other "long-termers." Graham maintained the same routine day in and day out. Sober in the morning, a little intoxicated by mid-afternoon, and obnoxiously and abusively drunk by the evening.
Gunther had an ability to drink himself to a state where he seemed to get no further drunk than he had achieved by early evening. Di merely showed her disgust by giving Gunther a black steely-eyed look when he made an alcohol affected statement.
The young Swiss men kept to themselves apart from t
alking to the resident Swiss diving instructor. They freely mixed with everyone when restaurant games were being played then reverted to keeping their own company.
The more T.A. saw of Podgy the more he liked him. Podgy was the perfect example of why people should not be judged by their appearance. His bear-like mass that frightened people on first sight covered one of the most caring and thoughtful people that T.A. had ever met. Initially Podgy's words seemed gruff and hard. He was simply a man of few words. The long-termers saw through the facade because of the familiarity that time breeds being in such a small area. His gruffness was soon recognisable as an economy with words. His actions were more demonstrative of his true meaning. Most of the long-termers liked Podgy, and even the resident ex-pats invited him into their after-dinner drinking circle. He would merely have a couple of drinks before returning to sit at the bar with his shadow Ruth sitting equally silently beside him.
Various groups of Japanese came and went. They always kept to themselves. T.A. was never really aware which group was which.
Some Filipino guests always seemed to be present, mostly for only of a couple of days, though the group of arrivals that included the tall good looking Filipino who caught Malou's eye had been around for over a week. She had not made any obvious attempts to speak with him, as far as T.A. knew, but her eyes always followed him whenever he was around.
Other arrivals that had stayed longer included the two Arabs that he had seen on the bus. They seemed to be spending a lot of the time walking around the island on a fitness kick instead of relaxing like most of the others. The German girl, Heidi, with her fit looking male companion, seemed more laid back in holiday mode, though they never took part in the restaurant games. T.A. had once seen them from the golf course. They were standing on the highest point of the island. They were not overly talkative, which T.A. put down to their lack of confidence in English. It appeared that their typical stoicism was even present when they took out the jet skis. They did not seem to be getting any enjoyment from the rides even though they were the biggest users of the skis in an almost daily circumnavigation of the island.
T.A. suggested a game of tennis to Malou but she was not interested. He did not want to challenge anyone else in case they were too good. He did not want to have to play a hard game.
They soon lost track of the days, even the time of day. He had long since put his watch away. Time was irrelevant. They ate when they were hungry and slept when they felt like it. T.A. had totally slipped into holiday mode.
The only thing that they did with almost unbroken consistency was their secret slipping away to the comfort of the trampoline in the dark after the evening meal.
There they watched the stars through Nature's clearest skies, and the occasional fire-fly seeking its partner. Sometimes they watched thunder activity kilometres away over the mainland which somehow left their island untouched. When the skies were clear of cloud, as they were on most nights, they watched the frequent falling stars. T.A. had made many wishes on the stars falling over Apuao Grande on previous visits. None had ever come true.
