Lucas had walked the sands of Village Coast more times than he could attribute a number to. The short, thin stretch of coast that connected Capital Village with the King's Estate was easily the most pleasant walk on the island. The surf there was gentle at all tides and the tropical vegetation was home to cuckoos that sang the theme tune to your stroll.
The warm, thick evening air rumbled with muddled conversations a few hundred yards ahead. An explosion of collective laughter crackled, then fizzled out before being consumed by the rumble again. The pop of a champagne cork forced an ironic cheeer, quickly followed by more laughter. Hearty and genuine cackles. Someone was tickling their audience. It was probably Vasco, with his unrivalled ability to tell the same story seven times and make each recital funnier than the last. Lucas often wished he could make people laugh like that. On an island of 61 people, popularity could take you a long way. People did like him, but not like that. He wasn't known for his charisma or his humour.. He'd always been... What was the word...? "Smart!". A word his Mother liked to use a lot:
- Lucas, if you could find your way to 'Merika (America), you could make enough money there to buy this stupid island. You're the smartest creature on this rock Lucas, and you're put to waste fixing every damn thing in Ducie that breaks. A Handyman they call you? Yeah, I'll say! It's handy for Eduardo that you're stupid enough to take the degrading work he gives you without a murmur.
That was 'King Eduardo' to everybody else, but not to Paula Medina. She was old school something or other, but Lucas had never quite worked out what. Lucas knew that his pensive curiosity that his Mother called 'smart', basically made him a glorified daydreamer.
- Not one employer in 'Merika' or the rest of the world for that matter would pay a chump to stare out of the window all day, cooking up answers to questions that nobody asked Mother.
There were a lot of questions that nobody asked...
As the gentle tide nipped in to steal his footprints again, the smell of barbeques filled the muggy air. Lucas idly began to ponder the champagne cork he'd heard. Nobody asked how it got here. Nobody seemed to care. The same could be said for any of this material stuff that seemed to magically appear from lands afar for the consumption of Ducie residents. Certain things were just accepted by the people as 'part of the deal'. But Lucas was in the habit of allowing his mind to lazily question what others saw as normal. Paradise with no questions asked. No questions asked, yeah... but with one rather large string attached: 61! And these were the sort of things that Lucas pondered.
-Hey Lukie, there's a dead bird here with your name chargrilled on it!
-Lionel my man, I told you before I left that my appetite's gone
-Mrs Medina, your son... he takes this life too seriously. Little Lukie! Always wondering, always pondering, always something putting you off your food. Eat my friend! We're celebrating.
-Can't someone just have had their fill? What makes you say......
-I've seen how you're looking at her Lukie! Who wouldn't? She's a beauty!
Lucas couldn't deny that Daniela was sublime. If she were created for a purpose, it must have been as the perfect matching accessory to this beautiful island backdrop. Daniela was Ducie and Ducie just enhanced what Daniela already was. In reality there were only 14 girls of a realistic age on the island that Lucas could conceivably and legally have romantic thoughts towards. And even then, the closely entwined spirit of this tiny community tainted any romantic notion with an ever so slight sense of incest and guilt. Daniela felt like a sister.
Residents of 'normal' areas of a healthy population take for granted the 'boy meets girl' and 'love at first sight' scenarios. Never a thought is given to the sheer scale of a normal sized city or society that allows chance encounters to take place. Ducie wasn't a normal society. And there were no chance encounters. Ducians knew Ducians.
-The bird, Lukie... I see the way you're looking at her. She's a beauty! Fresh today! Eat!
Lionel thrusted the grilled duck at Lucas in a wicker basket.