Routine Activities

by Nick Niels Sanders

  Roger stayed with them to provide them with additional moral support during their vigil. He did not leave them until James and Paul had gone out and come back again.

  James awoke to a vastly reduced amount of noise, realizing he had slept too long – his mind was fuzzy and it was taking him some time to figure out where he was and what was going on. Immediately aware of the decrease in volume of wind noise, he had some difficulty in determining why that was important. Then the facts of the morning came back to him. There was more work to be done. It was time he got moving.

  He wondered where Paul was. Paul would be a good helper and companion. James stood and looked around. With the wind at his back, he circled around a packing crate and found Paul asleep off to his left.

  “Paul, time to wake up!”

  “Mmrmph.”

  “Paul! Wake up!”

  “Mmmmm. What?”

  “Paul. Come on. The wind is dying down and it is time for us to check out the camp.”

  Paul’s eyes clicked open and he was suddenly completely awake. James envied him his ability to sleep and wake instantaneously.

  “OK, James. Gimme a sec to get my pegs under me and let’s go.”

  A couple minutes later, they left, headed west, to check on the other sleeping lean-tos. The wind was down to moderate gusts with some periods of total calm between some of the gusts; rain was still falling, but it seemed to be a little warmer than what they had both felt before lunch.

  Having sat for a bit by Jeanne and Ralph, not wanting to disturb them, Val became uncomfortable about being a voyeur and decided to rouse them from whatever it was they were doing.

  “Jeanne.”

  Eyes popped open. “Yes? Oh, hi Val.”

  “It is time for your treatment.”

  “Can you do it with me like this?”

  “It would be better if you would lie down.”

  “OK.” She and Ralph began to move together, rhythmically unraveling themselves from one-another. Jeanne lay prone on the blanket she and Ralph had been sitting on, moving from sitting to prone without standing. Ralph stood, then sat down beside Jeanne, out of Val’s way, with one hand on Jeanne’s leg, reluctant to break physical contact.

  Having cloths and sea water in a large cooking pot, Val administered the soaks, changing cloths periodically for half an hour. She could not tell that a single treatment made any difference. Earlier, she had been able to tell that the burns were cleaner after treatment than before, but now they looked very much the same.

  During the treatment, Val could tell that the wind was slowing down; when she got up to take the pot and the cloths away, she found that there was no wind whirling through the Kitchen Tent at all. In fact, the only noise was the continued patter of rain on the tarpaulins overhead, and even that was a significant change from the drumbeat that it had been a couple hours before.

  Shelly stopped, stood, watched a motionless pair of female backs, huddled behind a single canvas apron, staring into the fire with an apparent singleness of purpose that was remarkable, occasionally exchanging a word or two in communication. It was hard for her to hold still but it was equally hard for her to move forward and interrupt them. Finally, she did just that.

  “Hi, Marcella, Maria.”

  The two looked up and smiled. Maria rose and turned to Shelly. “Hi Shelly. How are you doing?”

  “Oh, I’m fine. I was talking to Val and came back to see how I could help. I guess we need to start thinking about supper sometime. The storm seems to be letting up a little.”

  Maria listened and agreed. Shelly stepped forward and gathered the surprised Maria up into a hug. “Thanks so much for what you said to me this morning that helped me so much.”

  “You’re welcome. I hardly did anything but remind you of who you really are.”

  “Sometimes we need reminding.”

  Maria reciprocated the hug and the two women separated.

  Marcella, having drawn the section of the apron abandoned by Maria back around herself, turned to Shelly. “Do you really think the storm is letting up?”

  “Well, the noise is surely a lot less.”

  Marcella also listened and agreed. “I will keep tending the fire. Why don’t the two of you come up with a plan for supper and let me know what you are thinking. Then we can all move forward from there.”

  This plan was agreed. Shelly and Maria began to look through the cans of food to see what they could find. As they sorted through the cans, they recalled that there was still some smoked meat. They agreed that a hot soup or stew would be a good plan after such a windy rainy day. With that in mind, they started collecting the correct ingredients for such a dish, and for a fruit salad to go with it.

  James and Paul set out on a tour of the camp, with the wind now rapidly subsiding and the rain growing gradually warmer. They already knew that Paul’s lean-to was gone. They had checked almost all the others before lunch, so rather than starting with the nearby or easy structures, they decided to start with those farthest away, those they had not previously been visited. They headed east along the beach.

  One of the sand-filled life rafts was still there. Of the other, there was no sign except a wind-blown pile of sand that James thought might be where the sand would have landed if the raft had overturned to leeward in the wind. Once turned and emptied of sand, it would hardly have stayed close. This had been the one that had moved farther east along the beach, and had had less backing by trees, so the wind might have had more effect at ground level. As they circled past the end of the palm trees, looking to their left into the grove, they could see one tall tree had been broken off, its top half missing, to be found by them smashed into the lava wall of Coral Beach.

  They turned up this wall to get to where Jim and Ron had moved their lean-to, and found no lean-to. The tarp totally disappeared, the two tent posts were still standing, leaning at crazy angles downwind. They dug around, hoping to locate a blanket, as they had when Paul’s lean-to had disappeared, but they did not find one.

  They continued up the wall and back into the edge of the palm grove looking for the lean-to of Shelly and Val. Theirs had been tied to four palm trees – at the ground on the east and about four feet above the ground on the west. Three of the four ropes were still there; some scrabbling in the sand uncovered a corner of a blanket, and they soon had the blanket recovered, wet and sandy. They folded it and left it in the middle of where the lean-to had been.

  They moved on through the palms westward to Roger’s lean-to. It was one that James had staked down and covered with sand. The tent posts were still where he had placed them, and a minimal amount of exploration was sufficient to convince them that the tarpaulin was there and intact.

  The next lean-to in the infirmary area was a life-raft lean-to, occupied by Jim during the first couple of days, unoccupied since. James and Paul had lowered it and covered it with sand before lunch. What they found now was disheartening – a palm frond, broken and windborne, had landed on the raft, punctured the bottom of it, then been dragged on by the wind, creating a huge gash that extended into the leeward wall. The life raft had then deflated, pushing the palm frond down onto the ground, and it had moved no more. The life-raft was ruined.

  The other life raft lean-to in the infirmary was the one George had been in, and which had been recently used briefly by Julia. James and Paul had staked it down before lunch and had put as much sand as they could on it, but it had clearly not been enough. The stakes were all there, though none of them was still in the ground; the life raft was missing.

  The last tent in the infirmary was the one that had been occupied by Lord and Lady Richard and had been more recently used by Val and Jeanne as the site of Jeanne’s treatments. James had lowered the tarp to the ground before he had taken the pots of water to the Kitchen Tent. This tarp had survived without event.

  Ralph and Jeanne’s was the first life raft lean-to that Paul and James had worked on before lunch.
In this case, they had piled enough sand on it, and it was intact and in position.

  Mark and Julia’s lean-to was nearby, and it was the second life raft Paul and James had taken down and piled sand on. It also had survived intact. Things were clearly doing better in this part of the camp.

  The position of James and Maria’s lean-to was marked out by tent posts sticking up, leaning to the north at crazy angles. The continued presence of the tarp was easy to ascertain. Another piece of good news.

  Marcella’s lean-to was closer to the Kitchen Tent, and was also marked only by four vertical posts – some digging in the sand was enough to reassure them that the tarp was there and apparently intact.

  Just a bit farther was the Kitchen Tent. With the wind calm now and the rain reduced to a warm mist, James and Paul could assess the damage. Three of the 8x12 tarpaulins were intact. The forth, the one at the north end, was useless. It had torn into two pieces and the remnants had fluttered in the wind to be little more than ragged flag remnants at this point. Paul and James were both aware that the tarpaulin of Lord and Lady Richard’s lean-to was an 8x12 tarpaulin, while those on the other sleeping lean-tos were 6x8. It was a good thing that that particular one had survived, so that it could be used to replace the lost portion of the Kitchen Tent.

  After surveying the damage to the Kitchen Tent, James and Paul set about trying to gather as many of their fellows together as they could, to go over the damage they had sustained. Ralph and Jeanne didn’t want to leave their sheltered spot; Ron was emphatic that he was not going to move until the rain stopped; Julia and Mark were frozen in place by fear and would not move until the wind was gone. Marcella refused to leave her fire. Ralph and Jeanne were physically close to where Jim and Ron were, so they assembled Val, Shelly, Roger and Maria between the two couples so as to get as large a group gathered as they could. They glossed over the details but hit the high points – five of the sleeping lean-tos were gone, and there was damage to the Kitchen Tent. Fortunately, they had another tarpaulin that could replace the torn one at the Kitchen Tent. Fortunately, no one was physically hurt and their food and fire were OK. Eight sleeping lean-tos was the number they normally slept in; only five remained intact.

  James proposed that the first order of business was to attend to the Kitchen Tent. With Roger, Paul, Maria, Val and Shelly, James set out to uncover the tarp of the lean-to formerly occupied by Lord and Lady Richard. The group also recovered and brought the tent stakes and the blanket back to the Kitchen Tent. It did not really need all six of them, but working all together was good therapy for all of them, to reassert the sense of community. It also acted as a stimulus to Ron, Jim, Ralph and Jeanne.

  By the time they finished repairing the Kitchen Tent, Ralph and Jeanne were looking on as audience. Ron had climbed off his plastic packing crate and he and Jim were digging up his sketchbook. And the rain had stopped.

  Maria went to talk with Julia and Roger went to talk with Mark. Traumatized though both were, they were not beyond understanding that the storm was over. Mark’s knees were very painful from having been bent for so long and not moving. Julia was distressed with the disorderliness of the mess left behind by the storm. Paul persuaded Marcella to stoke the fire and come to a general meeting. Jeanne and Ralph had left the Kitchen Tent to look around, and returned in a few minutes with an armload of coconuts each. Jim and Ron found the rubber-encased sketchbook and opened it up; it had remained dry and in perfect condition inside of its waterproof armor. Jim played a happy, celebratory tune on his recorder.

  The thirteen all gathered toward the southern end of the Kitchen Tent, since Marcella was still tied by a short umbilical cord to her fire. Everyone was present and attentive.

  James and Paul detailed the damage they had sustained: The damage to the kitchen Tent had been repaired. Five sleeping structures would require reconstruction, but were going to be usable that evening. The lean-tos previously occupied by Val and Shelly, Ron and Jim and Paul were gone, as were three in the infirmary – two destroyed by the wind and one dismantled to repair the Kitchen Tent. One of the two life rafts that they had kept functional for their use was also gone, so eventually they would have to replace one of the two remaining sleeping structures made from a life raft with something else so that life-raft could become a boat again.

  James summarized: “We have restoration to do before anyone has a sleeping area, and we are three sleeping lean-tos shy of a full complement, but the damage to the Kitchen Tent has been repaired, the fire is going, there will be supper tonight, and no one was hurt. Things could be much, much worse.”

  There were nods all around. Roger spoke: “I suggest that we skip tai chi again this evening and see what we can do about fixing up enough shelter so everyone has a place to sleep tonight.”

  James: “Any ideas?”

  “Julia and I have been working on waterproof mats. I think Ron and Jim have also made a few. Until this moment, they didn’t seem to be very useful, though they are being used as flooring in the Kitchen Tent. Right now, I think they represent our path to reconstruction.”

  “Thank you, Paul. Good thinking. How many do we have? How big are they?”

  “They are not large – to make a 2x3 meter mat for a lean-to would probably take at least a dozen of them. As to how many, do you have an idea, Julia?”

  “I think there are probably about fifteen or twenty of them.”

  Ron: “There are likely to be lots of palm fronds down. We could resupply the palm frond end and weave some more.”

  Marcella: “Paul could sleep with me tonight. That would mean one less lean-to to repair tonight.”

  Paul: “Thank you, Marcella.”

  Ron, Jim and Ralph got together an impromptu mission to gather up more palm fronds; Marcella, Maria and Julia went to work restoring order to the Kitchen Tent’s contents, stoking the fire, and beginning preparations for supper. James, Paul, Val, Shelly, and Roger started work on restoring the lean-tos that had survived the storm, but which needed to be dug out of the sand and raised back up to be usable again. Jeanne began working on weaving a mat. Mark sat down and began to divide and whittle the palm fronds remaining in the vastly shrunken pile by the Kitchen Tent.

  James and Paul led their little group first to Roger’s lean-to. As with all of them, the eastern edge had always been at ground level, so no adjustment was needed there. They identified the western edge, untied the ropes, cleared off the sand, raised it back up again to a reasonable height and tied it in place. The blanket on the ground beneath the tarpaulin was wet and sandy. They dragged it out, shook it out as best they could, and draped it over the tent posts to dry as well as it was going to.

  “This is the same basic task that has to be accomplished on the other four surviving lean-tos. Paul, will you take Val and Shelly and work on the two lean-tos that are life rafts? Roger and I will get the other two made from tarpaulins.”

  “You bet.”

  The group split. Roger and James first raised the lean-to of James and Maria, then moved on to the one used by Marcella. In the meantime, Paul, Val and Shelly raised first the one used by Jeanne and Ralph, then the one used by Mark and Julia.

  It was 5:00 when the five lean-tos had been restored with their five blankets carefully hung out to dry. The clouds were clearing, skittering away to the north in front of a wind that was almost insensible at ground level. Chaotic waves still reigned beyond the reef, but the lagoon was nearly calm again. The sun was low in the western sky, creating long shadows across the beach and brilliant rainbows in the sky, and, for the first time since sunrise, light and warmth for the people on the beach. The low sun penetrated into the Kitchen Tent, illuminating and warming the activities there: cooking, rearranging, whittling and weaving. The supply of palm fronds to be whittled on was now restored, and the three young men were all weaving.

  Paul pointed out that they still did not know how they were going to convert the mats into a lean-to. “Each mat is reasonably
rigid, but there is no connection between them. We must figure out how to connect them, and how to get them to be suspended in mid-air without falling down.”

  James: “Who is the engineer among us?”

  Ralph, the carpenter, was everyone’s immediate nominee for lead engineer. He, James and Paul began working on arrangements of the mats that would make an adequate lean-to. They could tie the mats together with fibers from the backbone of the palm fronds. That would at least hold them together. But any sense of rigidity would have to be based on some additional support. One idea was to use tent posts as a grid, but that would require nine tent posts to make a single lean-to, and they did not have that large a supply of tent posts. Ralph thought it might be possible to weave an intact frond into two adjacent mats, providing the junction between them some rigidity, but also providing rigidity along the junction. He gave it a try. It worked!