by M H Ryan
“Here’s another bundle, Jack,” Sherri said from below.
I reached over the side of the roof and took the bundle of woven fronds from Sherri. Down below, I gazed at the girls as they lined the rows of fronds up in tight packages. When we layered them, starting from the bottom up, they hopefully became waterproof.
The twenty-by twenty-foot shelter currently had four walls, with a plan to build a room or two inside later. We brought the shelter up about four feet off the ground, high enough that the hogs or crocs couldn’t get to us. If we ever saw those cats again, we had plans for that as well. The walls were about seven feet high on two ends, with a gable roof, balloon framed to a ridge on the other two sides. More or less, an A-frame roof with a decent pitch.
The roof frame consisted of long, narrow tree branches going up about every foot half. We tied some of the structure together with the rope we pulled off the parachute and the rest we used soft branches and vines Eliza had found. For the base and posts, we used the cut-down trees. It took most of us to carry them across the forest, but we got it done. We cut notches into trees with our axes and set the beams in place.
I lay another frond bundle on top of the one below it, making it mostly overlaps the previous one and checking underneath for any signs of light coming through. We anticipated some leaks, but we could deal with those as they came. Plus, I had a longer-term plan that involved salvaging that burning ship over on Tar Island. With those materials, we could make a home comparable to the one we were used to. Plus, there should be steel pipes we could use for plumbing. The girls didn’t complain much—well, except Cass—but I knew they wanted more comforts. Like a bathroom. While we had a fantastic shower at the waterfall, especially after a geyser blast and the water temperature was just right but there was plenty more needed.
“How’s this look?” I asked, Eliza, pointing at my latest section of roof.
From the top of her ladder, she leaned over, inspecting my work.
“Looking good,” Eliza said. “Might tighten up that section over there.”
She pointed, and I inspected. She was right; it was a bit loose. I slid it over, getting it tighter against the one next to it. Eliza suspected we would have to do another layer before we could call it truly waterproof. If the life raft had been bigger, we might have been able to take it apart and use it as a roof layer but we measured, and it only covered maybe half the roof. We had a few aluminum panels from the plane, but they weren’t enough to cover more than a tiny section of the roof.
“Boom,” Eliza said, as she slapped down another bundle on her side.
Eliza had taken to the slang the girls used. She picked up on words and phrases and used them with a varying degree of success. Boom wasn’t one of my favorites, but it made her smile, which in turn made me smile.
“Boom,” I said, slapping my frond bundle down on top of another.
“This is so much fun,” Eliza said. “Benji said she’s going to have plays on the deck. She’s dying for me to know all these movies.”
“That will be awesome,” I said.
“Another section, Jack,” Sherri said, handing me up a bundle of fronds.
“Thanks. You guys are hauling ass,” I said, stacking the bundle next to the other bundles.
“We want a roof over our heads tonight,” Sherri said, looking downright giddy at the shelter.
“That should be enough fronds, if you guys want to get back to work on the raft,” I said.
“Okay, cool, we’re wrapping up the last few things on it. Make sure you let us know when you’re done here,” Sherri said.
After a few hours, Eliza and I tied off the last piece over the ridge of the roof. I stepped off the ladder and onto the floor of the shelter. I didn’t see any light coming through the roof. That was a good sign. Eliza hopped off her ladder and crossed her arms, gazing at the ceiling with me. I had leaned on Eliza to help me with this shelter. She knew more about roofs and wall paneling and was invaluable. She had worked hard on this shelter—we all had. It felt great to have the main structure complete. It felt like beginnings of a real home for us.
“It’s incredible,” I said.
“You’re incredible,” Eliza said and then looked away. “I mean, what we built…it’s… it’s a nice shelter.”
“It is,” I said and patted her on the shoulder. “Hey, we should get the others.”
The front door to the shelter was the same, flat chunk of wood we took from Eliza’s house. She smiled as we pushed it open. It hinged to a pole with some of the parachute cord.
Past the front door, we had a deck about four feet deep. Benji call this the stage, and she had plans to educate the naive in the form of slapstick comedies and dramas of old. Benji about lost her mind when she found out some of the girls had never seen an episode of Friends.
While the deck was a grand stage that overlooked our fire pit and the ocean, it also allowed for a few open windows on this side of the shelter. With the overhang, the windows were far enough back to hopefully keep the rain out. A few shutters were built in case of a severe storm.
A railing built out of branches wrapped around the deck. We walked to the opening in the railing and descended the ladder to the sandy floor.
I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled. Then turned and whistled again. The sound carried over the island. It had become our gathering call. I heard a few whistles in reply and soon the girls were running through the forest toward me.
“Is it done?” Benji asked, looking at the house.
The rest of the girls were right behind her, their gaze fixed on the shelter.
“Now, it’s still a work in progress, but I’m happy to say, the main structure is done,” I said. “We can sleep with a roof over our heads tonight.”
The girls cheered and jumped. Even Cass, standing in the back, smiled at the shelter. Admiring it from further back, it looked like something right out of the Swiss Family Robinson line of housing, with a heavy, wood-themed appeal. It blended into the forest as well, with its browns and greens.
“Who wants a tour?” I said.
They all cheered again.
I climbed the ladder first and waited on the deck as the rest gathered.
“Are you sure this can support us all?” Cass asked as she stepped onto the deck.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I said.
It had better support us, with nearly twelve-inch diameter beams supporting it.
“So, this is where I will be performing Napoleon Dynamite,” Benji said and took a bow. “If you have requests for a feature, let me know.”
“How about we do a remake of the movie Dune?” I asked, knowing she hated that movie.
“Get off my stage, Jack,” she said, feigning anger and pointing to the ladder.
“Leonard Part 6?” Sherri teased, bringing up another movie Benji hated.
Benji groaned.
“I think we should probably start with parts one through five first,” Kara said, teasing.
“There is no parts one through five. It was the worst movie—” Benji took a deep, cleansing breath. “If you guys don’t want my magical theater, then I just won’t perform, and you all can stand around looking at that stupid fire.”
“The fire is probably better than Leonard Part Six,” I said. I hadn’t even seen the movie, but I knew Benji loathed it.
“We’re never doing Leonard, ever,” Benji said. “If you guys want older films, we can do Breakfast Club or any John Hughes movie. Don’t say Curly Sue.”
“I wouldn’t,” I said.
“How about instead of dinner theater, we find a way off these islands?” Cass asked.
“We’ve been working on the raft for days,” Sherri said, looking offended.
“Great, can we sail out of here, then? Florida can’t be that far,” Cass said. “We should get everything we can fit on that boat and set sail.”
Cass’s attitude hadn’t improved much over the last few days. Thankfully, there were no more fights, bu
t tension had been building in the group with her around. It was a blemish on our paradise, but it wasn’t like we could choose who we rescued. Whether we liked it or not, Cass was part of the group. I just hoped she would come to the conclusion that there wasn’t anyone coming for us, and that we were, in fact, the rescuers.
“We can’t just sail into the ocean. The waves around these islands aren’t too bad, but if we’re out in the deep blue and a storm hits, the waves could be as big as this house,” Sherri said.
“Plus, we don’t really know where to go. We could be sailing right into nothingness for thousands of miles,” Benji said.
“Can’t you feel the water, Sherri?” Cass asked with sarcasm. “And can’t Aubrey feel the weather? And Eliza can…can…I don’t know…guide us.”
“It’s going to be a bit windy later today, but not bad,” Aubrey said, licking her finger and putting it in the air.
“You can’t predict the weather,” Cass said.
“Want to prove me wrong, bitch?” Aubrey stepped closer to Cass.
“Girls,” I said, putting a hand on Aubrey. “This is a great moment here. We have a shelter, a home. We’re in a good place, with good people around us.”
Aubrey backed up and nodded. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. We’re all in a stressful place—”
“I’m not,” Sherri said. “I fucking love it here, Cass and all.”
“I think we’re all cool here except Cass,” Kara said. “Sorry, Cass, but you need to chill out.”
“I’m chill,” Cass said, looking the victim.
“Okay, great, we’re all chill,” I said, taking her words as fact, and walking into the house.
Stepping on the flat wood floor felt like a piece of civilization brought to the island. One thing I didn’t realize was how much I missed shoes and smooth surfaces. Every step in the forest felt like a Lego firewalk. Even the sand had bits of roots or leaves in it. But here, in the house, there was nothing but a clean wood floor. It had a few gaps here and there, and some lippage, but compared to the outside, it felt like glass.
“Wow,” Benji said as she stepped inside.
“I call the back side, away from the windows,” Aubrey said, running over to a corner.
“Fine, I’ll be next to Jack,” Kara said, and wrapped her arms around my waist. “You did awesome with this, Jack.”
“I’m sweaty,” I said.
“I don’t care,” Kara responded.
“I’m sleeping next to Jack,” Sherri said.
“We can just keep with the current system,” Aubrey said.
The girls nodded softly in agreement.
“We need furniture and beds,” Cass said.
“Actually, we have a furniture maker right here,” I said, gesturing to Eliza.
“That’s right! You had a couch, chair, bed, and shit back at your place,” Aubrey said. “Oh my God, we need to start building that stuff. What did you use for the bedding?”
“Coconut husks and palm fibers. If we can keep everything dry, they last a long time,” Eliza said. “Plus, we grabbed a lot of the material for that stuff. It won’t be hard for me to re-assemble it.”
“Yes,” Aubrey moaned and lay down on the floor.
Sherri walked the walls, pushing on the wood paneling we gathered from Eliza’s place. She inspected the roof and made her way back to me. Kara let go of me but held my hand. Sherri stood in the middle of the place, looking at the vaulted ceiling and the bottom of the palm fronds we had just put in.
“What is it?” I asked.
“This is real,” Sherri said.
“Yeah, it is,” I said.
“I mean, I think we can do this. We can make a life out here.”
“I’d like to think so,” I said, and heard Cass muttering something. I decided to ignore it.
“How’s the raft going?” I asked.
I’d been so into building the shelter that I hadn’t spent much time down at the raft as I would have liked. Sherri had taken charge of the raft-building project with a group consensus that we were going to make it much bigger, with a wall around it, and a small shack in the middle. We learned a few things in our little adventure in getting Cass. For one, we needed more protection in the raft—some kind of wall that would be a barrier from sharks and tentacles. We also needed more storage so that when we found the good stuff, we could take it with us. Finally, we needed a bigger sail. The islands were getting further away, and more sail meant more speed.
“We’re just about done. I think the new sail is going to be amazing. It’s ten times bigger than that blanket.”
“Sweet! Is it ready for a test run?” I asked, getting excited about putting our raft back in action.
“Yeah, I think so,” Sherri said. “As we thought, the new design is too heavy to be pulled up on the sand anymore, but we have an anchor, thanks to Benji.”
“Anytime,” Benji said. “Wait, are you saying I’m an anchor?” Benji teased.
“Such a nerd,” Sherri said. “The only thing we haven’t tested is the parachute sail.”
“Good, because I’ve been getting that feeling lately,” Eliza said, looking meek.
“What?” I said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“We needed to finish these projects first,” Eliza said. “The feeling didn’t start getting urgent until today.”
“You had this feeling yesterday?” I asked. “You can’t keep this kind of stuff from us.”
Eliza had a gift, as well. She didn’t always know exactly what it meant, but she found herself compelled to do things. From what I understood now, that feeling—that compulsion—had kept her alive. I’d learned to trust it. Many times had she done something small that had significant consequences, like moving Cass moments before a stone crashed through our old shelter.
“I’m sorry,” Eliza said, looking at the ground.
“It’s okay,” I said. “What do you think it is?”
“It’s the same feeling I had with Cass. I think someone is in trouble and needs us,” Eliza said, glancing around the group.
“This is how we found you, Cass,” Kara said, spotting the skepticism on Cass’s face.
“We should leave soon,” Eliza said, eyes still lowered.
“Okay. I trust you Eliza and your hooker’s intuition,” I said. “Ladies, let’s get ready to launch the new boat.”
Chapter 5
We gathered on the sandy, white beach. The gentle waves rolled in and out. A mild breeze blew against at our backs, pushing some of the girls’ hair into their faces. Benji tied hers back in a quick motion.
The raft, if it could still be called that, was twice as big as the last one. The girls had cut down a few more balsa trees, and we used the logs as the larger base. The deck of the raft was much like before, with a mixture of bamboo and branches, tightly bound together. Not as delightful on the feet as the house was, but not bad.
The mast had become a centerpiece of the raft. We spent some time getting it into position. It rose high above the craft, near the front. A ladder ran up the mast, and at the top stood what looked like a wooden chair—a crow’s nest.
The front of the raft had a dramatic change as well. We made a triangular shape that hopefully would cut through the water better. We also kept many spears sticking out from the raft and smeared on some of the tar. Or shark repellent, as Benji called it.
At the center of the raft stood a small shack, with four walls and a flat roof. It would act as storage most of the time, but it could be a place of safety if needed. We stored most of our food in there at the moment.
“Wow,” I said, admiring the craft.
“I know, right?” Benji said.
“This brings us to a whole new level out there on the water—and look at the rudder!” It looked like a bunch of cut-up bamboo tied together and mounted on a post at the back of the raft. “I can’t believe what you guys accomplished over the last week.”
They all looked weary but had proud sm
iles. Their hands had thick calluses, nicks, cuts, and bruises. Building these things with no power and minimal tools meant our bodies were the power source. These women were genuinely incredible workers and never ceased to amaze me, even after two weeks of witnessing it out there.
“It was a group effort,” Sherri said. “And I couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out.”
“We can all fit on this thing comfortably,” Aubrey said.
“With room for our sisters,” Sherri added.
A bird above screeched. We all looked up at it. The bird flew a few circles over us and then headed toward Food Island. I knew those birds. They tried to kill us more than once.
“What the hell was that?” Cass said, using her hand as a visor.
Since she woke, she hadn’t seen the violent creatures of this land.
“That was a reminder of what we’re facing out there,” I said. “I think we should start packing the raft and head out today.”
“For where?” Cass asked.
“There is another girl out there that needs our help. You should more sensitive to that than most,” I said. “Eliza, what direction are you feeling?”
“Oh, it’s that way for sure,” Eliza said, pointing toward Food Island. “But way past that island.”
“How far?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but it feels further than Cass’s island,” Eliza said.
“Could be a two-day journey then,” I said, looking out into the waters.
“Could be. It’s already late in the day,” Eliza said.
“Okay, I guess we need to decide who’s going,” I said. “First off, who wants to go?”
All the women raised their hands but Cass.
“We can all go,” Aubrey said. “We built it big enough.”
“So we aren’t even going to spend one night in the new house?” Cass asked, looking back at it. “I mean, it’s not a hotel but it’s a roof over our heads. We go out on this and we’ll be back to camping, and we won’t have our waterfall shower…”
