A New Island

by Nick Niels Sanders

  “That’s like a fairy tale.”

  “He went to university in San Francisco. I was still in high school. I worked hard and graduated early so I could go to university in San Francisco also. When I graduated, we were married.”

  “Now it is a fairy tale!”

  “No, it’s just my life. James and I lived in San Francisco ‘til he finished medical school, then in Santa Rosa, about an hour’s drive north, for three years while he took additional training in family medicine; then we moved to Eugene, Oregon, where we still live.”

  “Do you have any children?”

  “Yes, we have three adopted children. My parents are watching over them while we’re on vacation. It’s the first time James has been away from his practice for more than a few days in his 20 years in practice.”

  “You must find it strange to be away from home.”

  “James is having a lot of trouble unwinding and not feeling guilty about being gone. I think he is gradually beginning to relax. But do tell me a bit about your life.”

  “My father was a very successful businessman. He made a huge fortune over a lifetime in business. He married my mother when he was about 40. I was born shortly after – the only offspring. My mother died when I was 5 of complications of pneumonia. Father raised me with an ambition that I should someday marry into the nobility. I think he explicitly expected that his fortune would be attractive to some impoverished peer.”

  “In America we are without an aristocratic class, but I understand that aristocrats do not take well to employment even when they are poor and need to do so to survive. So they often seem to marry for money. Is this true?”

  “Yes, I fear that all of that is true. I am not sure if it was money that attracted Richard to me or not, but I was soon confident of his love of me, and by the time we were married, I was fully convinced that it was not my father’s money but me that he loved.”

  “How could you tell?”

  “I could feel it in my heart. And I knew that if I controlled all the money in the family, it would eat away at him forever. I prevailed upon my father to bequeath half of his fortune to Richard, to be used in his absolute discretion. That way he would never feel like a “kept man.” Richard has used his inherited fortune to support the family and his political aspirations, and has never asked me for any money from the half that I inherited. I had to insist on paying half of our expenses for this trip.”

  “Really? Do you still have a lot of money, then?”

  “Oh, yes, a frightful lot of it, I’m afraid. My inheritance has more than quadrupled in size over the years because I have hardly withdrawn anything from it. It just sits there growing larger year after year. It is actually a bit horrifying. Richard and I have both taken to donating money to various causes, more out of embarrassment than anything else.”

  “My goodness. Do you have children?”

  “We have three children – two girls and a boy. Our oldest is an assistant to the curator of the British Museum; our second is copy editor for a London daily and an aspiring writer; our son is still at Oxford.”

  “Oh, how wonderful! What does an assistant curator at the British Museum do? I’ve never been to London, much less the British Museum.”

  “Well, you should certainly come to London, if only to see the Museum. You are welcome to stay with us if we are in town – we should plan in advance. Sandra, our daughter who is the assistant curator, helps with creating and modifying displays of artifacts and there is a wing that is changed periodically so that one display goes into storage and another comes out. Someone has to design how the artifacts are put on display. Sandra does that.”

  “That must be a lot of fun. Is she married? Do you have grandchildren yet?”

  “She is not, and we do not. But Sandra is engaged to the son of Susan Thorpe, who is on this cruise. We have never met Mrs. Thorpe before – for reasons best known to her son and our daughter, they have refrained from introducing their parents.”

  “How surprising to meet her here, then!”

  “Yes, the world is full of interesting coincidences, and this is by far not the most surprising of them.”

  “I think the ship is slowing down.”

  “Yes, I think I feel it too. I wonder why.”

  “Let’s go look.” They walked out through the forward end of the main deck, down stairs and along to the forward deck. The ship was heading directly at a small clump of palm trees seemingly rising out of the ocean. As they approached, a sand spit appeared beneath the palm trees. The ship slowed, made very soft contact with sand, ground forward to a halt. The big diesels shut down and the quiet was wonderful.

  Maria turned to Mary Kirkpatrick. “I need to go below to change. I’ll see you shortly.”

  She turned to find Lord Richard and James immediately behind them. She and James walked together to their stateroom, leaving the Kirkpatricks to compare notes on their new acquaintances.

  The Desert Island

  Arrayed for various activities, most dressed in swim suits or the equivalent, a group of passengers gathered on the foredeck as the gangway was lowered into place on the beach, then filed off, wandering in pairs in various directions. They were followed, over time, by others in an intermittent and unsteady stream until all were ashore.

  James and Maria checked out snorkels, masks and fins from the ship’s supply, and began exploring the coral to the starboard of the ship’s prow. The Howlands, similarly equipped, were exploring to port. The Carneys wandered about a bit, then sat together on the sand under a palm tree and speculated what it must be like to be shipwrecked or marooned on an island such as this. Talking of spending long hours together, alone, led to voicing their thoughts of living and swimming naked, which led to a return to their stateroom for a time. When they reappeared on the beach, it was with snorkeling equipment, and they set out in the same direction the Fredericks had gone.

  Lord and Lady Richard asked to have recliner chairs set on the beach for them. Watching the crew rapidly comply with this wish, Susan and Marybeth each made the same request. Marcella sat on the sand nearby, to be within earshot of Susan. Shortly, there were a dozen such recliners set up along the beach, some still vacant, some occupied by the Kirkpatricks, Susan and Marybeth; they were soon joined by the Applebees, who walked the circumference of the island before returning to relax in the sun.

  Most of the remainder walked across the sand spit to the swimming beach to frolic in the water; a few chose to spend time walking around and around the island first. Valerie, in a one-piece swim suit that emphasized her thinness, walked around the island several times with Michelle, who wore a sundress over her bathing suit, not being sure she would take off the sundress and enter the water. At length, Valerie was able to persuade her to do so, and the two swam by themselves at one end of the island, where the small waves from the larger sea to the southeast lapped over the rim of sand to make ripples on the otherwise completely calm waters of the interior of the ring. They splashed together for a bit in very shallow water, then Valerie splashed water onto Michelle’s back and ran off into deeper water. Michelle gave chase, and they were soon both swimming in clear water too deep to wade in. Later they built a castle in the moist sand, an activity eventually interrupted by the cocktail hour bell.

  Jim and Ron had ended up near the opposite end of the island and swam vigorously for some distance out into the ring. They were both very good swimmers, but out of practice and conditioning. Long before either thought it reasonable, they were panting and tired, returning to shore to lie on the sand together. Paul also went in this direction. Not nearly as accomplished a swimmer as the two younger men, he was in better physical condition and swam in a somewhat different direction for quite some distance. To eyes at the level of the water, the sand rapidly dropped below the horizon, and Paul wondered if it would be possible to swim out of sight of the palm trees. He swam as far as the next islet in the group, what felt to him like a long distance, where
he climbed out of the water and surveyed his discovery – a small sand spit, from which the other island’s sand was not visible, but the people walking on it were. He swam some more, then turned back, swimming toward the palm trees and arriving very nearly just opposite the ship.

  The Joneses, the Pinkersons, the Kershaws and the Taylors had all, relatively independently, set out across the island to enjoy the water. The four men, all overweight to some extent or another, were dressed in swim shorts. Also amply padded, Melodie was dressed in a one-piece, as was Sarah, whose figure did not require coverage but whose personality did. Marilyn and Eloise wore bikinis, Marilyn’s small but not daring, worn with an accustomed air, Eloise’s rather smaller, worn with the diffidence consequent on it being a new acquisition, her first bikini ever, purchased just for this trip, its skimpiness once again inspiring speculation about her bosom spilling out of it. Following their separate pathways to the water, the four couples, led by the Joneses, the Pinkersons lagging, ended up in the water. They swam as separate couples for a while, but eventually drew together, splashing and playing, clearly happy to be off of the ship. Eloise, a strong swimmer, plunged right into the water and swam away from the shore, alternating crawl, breast stroke and sidestroke, until she was quite far out from the beach, then turning around, swam back to Marshall, emerging from the water with her bathing suit in complete disarray, exposing virtually everything it was designed to hide, owing to the strings not having been tied tightly enough. This costume failure, noticed only by Marshall, who liked seeing his wife naked and didn’t care much if anyone else did, was quickly rescued by retying strings everywhere; modesty was rapidly restored.

  Mark and Julia walked and walked. She didn’t want to get her hair wet because it would be too much work to get it straightened out again for supper. He actually didn’t want to walk because it made his knees hurt, but walking was better than trying to get Julia to swim. George and Joan walked and splashed a bit in the shallows, but neither swam.

  The island itself was crescent shaped. Beached at the widest point, having approached from the southeast, the Fiji Queen had done essentially no maneuvering to settle into place. The sun was about half way from mid-heaven to the western sea, sinking off the port bow. As the passengers disported themselves on shore, the crew was generally at rest or preparing for the move of an entire supper setup to shore in a couple hours. Tables and chairs, a large barbecue and a number of other items appeared on the foredeck, ready for transport to the beach for supper.

  The cocktail hour bell rang. Ears immersed in water, the Fredericks and the Carneys did not hear it, but everyone else did. Paul was still swimming, far from the island, and was among the latest to arrive for cocktails. Maria heard the second ringing of the bell; she and James began to swim back, and encountered the Carneys along the way. The five late-comers arrived together at the base of the boarding ramp as tables were coming down the ramp toward them, carried by crewmen.

  Cocktails

  As people gathered for cocktails, it seemed that the routine on board was going to be that everyone would dress for cocktails and remain in dress for supper. The Kershaws, Marshall in long cotton pants and a polo shirt and sandals, Eloise in pressed shorts and a diaphanous white blouse with a pocket over each breast were first to arrive. Lord Richard, wearing a coat and tie, and Lady Richard, wearing a calf-length silk dress and pearls, arrived minutes later. Jim and Ron, both spruced up into shorts and polo shirts, followed the Kirkpatricks onto the main deck. Jayne Applebee, in a dress and sandals, and Roger, in cotton slacks and open collar shirt, were not fully formal, but were keeping up appearances. Marybeth was in a dress as was Susan Thorpe, Marcella dressed in her usual white uniform. James, wearing white cotton pants, sandals and a white polo shirt, and Maria, wearing the same sundress as the day before, having hesitated about repeating the same dress so soon, but not having anything else with the same neckline, were late arrivals, shortly before the Carneys. The Carneys, Ralph in sandals, pressed shorts and an open-collared short sleeved shirt, Jeanne in a floral print sundress, with her make-up carefully done, arrived last, creating their own little splash. Valerie, in cutoff jeans and a tee shirt, and Michelle, in shorts and a blouse, were casual, though they had different definitions of casual. The other Americans – the Howlands and the Fullers, were informally dressed, as were the Pinkersons and the Taylors. Paul was somewhere in between, wearing a short-legged version of safari pants, with an extraordinary number of pockets, and a short sleeved hunting shirt, with a competing number of pockets. Some passengers, it seemed, were not to be expected to dress for anything, but sometimes it was just the husband who did not dress even though he wife did. Thus, Mark Winters was in cut-off sweat pants and a tee shirt, while Julia was wearing a nice cotton dress, which, as seemed to be the norm for her, was apparently freshly ironed. Jeff Jones was also in a sweat suit, though Marilyn was carefully dressed in a skirt and a tight-fitting white cotton sweater.

  Marilyn’s choice of attire had come at the end of a long internal dialog. Her marriage to Jeff was not a happy one, but was not one she could afford to divorce herself from. Jeff had gone through school as an athlete, starring on the football team at Penn State, taking just enough courses and getting grades just good enough to keep him eligible to play. His interests then, as now, were centered in sports – whether as star linebacker on the football team, an “also ran” on the basketball team, or an outfielder on the baseball team. When he was drafted by the Packers, he had been astounded by the amount of bonus money he was paid and had followed the advice of his agent to hire a financial manager. Mr. Tetler had rapidly taken control of Jeff’s finances, with the announcement that Jeff should take care of playing football and Mr. Tetler would take care of the money, allowing Jeff an allowance and help in living within that allowance. The pair had been famously successful in both realms. Rather than playing the four or five seasons that some had predicted for him, Jeff played 15 seasons for the Packers, retiring with two Superbowl rings, two selections as defensive player of the year and eight elections to the all-pro team. As his value to the Packers had increased, so had his bonuses and his base salary – and Mr. Tetler had increased Jeff’s allowance accordingly. Unlike some athletes, when Jeff had tried alcohol and drugs, he had disliked both; he had known the danger of steroids and had avoided them as well. His interests continued to be sports and women. When he had met Marilyn, she was an aspiring model, and acquiring her as a wife was like acquiring any other decoration – something to be envied for. Marilyn, in contrast, had modeled to earn the money for college, which she pursued with the eagerness of one ardently seeking knowledge. She had long since earned her bachelor’s degree, but continued to take courses that satisfied her intense hunger to learn more. She had brought Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peopleand Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustraon her Kindle with her as light reading for the cruise – Jeff had brought several issues of Sports Illustrated and a schedule of all the baseball games for the remainder of the season.

  More to the point, the Jonses lived well on the allowance Mr. Tetler continued to provide - $20,000 a month each, which was only a small portion of the annual earnings on the investment corpus of over $100 million. Marilyn was not willing to walk away from that $20,000 a month, even though she was really sick of Jeff. The light in her life was that Jeff’s doctor had told him that he was a heart attack or stroke waiting to happen if he didn’t take medication and start exercising – neither of which he was likely to do. Marilyn had observed Jeff’s flushed face in conversation with George, Mark and Jon; she had wondered if a little jealousy might not help him to have that stroke or heart attack on this cruise – what a reward that would be! So, she dressed to be as sexy as she thought was reasonable in a vague hope of contributing to her husband’s demise.

  Gradually, they arrived, reflecting the order in which they had returned to the ship from swimming, but also reflecting the time they took to prepare. The Fredericks did not arrive unti
l almost half past, and the Carneys were even later.

  Eloise went out of her way to chat with Maria, commenting in a sarcastic way that it was too bad she only had the one dress with her. Eloise was of two (or perhaps three) minds about Maria. Eloise saw Maria as being the sexiest woman on board, which somewhat crimped her style because that was a rating she would like to have had herself; she thought Maria’s husband a doll and would have liked to arrange something among them as a foursome; she hated Maria because she had snubbed Marshall, making such an arrangement very unlikely. The opportunity to snub Maria and be, somehow, one up was too much to pass by.

  The conversation was otherwise both general and friendly. No one spoke of anything more important than the day’s trip and the island and the sunset taking place off the port bow in a show of reds and oranges. The sun disappeared and the colors gradually faded, the sky going from blue to slate to black as the stars began to appear. The crescent moon, slightly larger today than yesterday, hovering over the western horizon as the cocktail hour faded into history, soon disappeared itself, following the sun over the horizon. Lights came on around the main deck, but the bar service was withdrawn, to be set up again on the beach, where the main activity now was, illuminated by the wavering yellow light cast by an army of tiki torches and the large flaming in the barbecue grill. Cautious not to get in the way of the crew setting up the supper, the passengers remained on the main deck until the dinner bell sounded. Moving in an orderly file from main deck to foredeck, down the boarding ramp and across a short stretch of sand to the dining area, the passengers were greeted at the usual five tables for supper al fresco.