The sheet was laid out over the sand and the tarp had been tied at three corners to nearby trees with some sort of vine. Sarah was nowhere to be found.
Candi and Jonathan got Kevin settled on the middle of the sheet, then worked on carrying the supplies out of the boat and over to their shelter.
“We might as well bring it all over here for now, just in case there’s another storm and our boat gets pulled away.”
“I hope that doesn’t happen. We want to keep the boat, right?” asked Candi.
“Of course, but I’d rather keep our supplies close. Those rogue waves scared me.” Jonathan looked at the boat stuck in the sand. “Honestly, though, I don’t know that we’re going to get that boat moved at all. I’m afraid we’re going to have to leave it there.”
Candi nodded in agreement. “Yeah, me too. It’s already sunk into the sand a little bit, even after just thirty minutes.”
Four trips later they had everything around the blanket. Candi started unpacking the first aid kit, laying out the items she thought they could use for Kevin.
“There’s antiseptic here, and some gauze and tape. Also, I think this is antibiotic ointment.” She held up a small, foil packet.
“That’s good. First, though, we need to scrub the cut and clean it out – get all that pus and stuff out of there.”
Candi went a little green. “Ew, are you sure?”
“Yes. Can you do it, or should I?”
“I think you’d better do it.”
“Okay, fine.” Jonathan moved so he was next to Kevin’s hand. “Kevin!” he yelled.
“Dude, you don’t have to shout, I’m lying right here.”
“Oh, sorry, I thought you were sleeping. I’m going to clean your hand now. It’s probably going to hurt a lot. Don’t hit me.”
Kevin opened his one good one eye. “Don’t worry, I can take it. I play rugby.”
Jonathan took Kevin’s hand and pulled it towards him, muttering, “Playing rugby is not the same as having surgery without anesthetic.”
He took a deep breath and began.
His plan was to use the gauze and antiseptic to wipe off the goop that had hardened on top, but as soon as he started, he noticed his heart rate starting to climb. Then several droplets of sweat broke out on his upper lip. He started feeling dizzy and queasy ...
“What the ... ?”
Jonathan sat up, looking around in confusion. Sarah was sitting nearby, smirking at him, and Candi was packing up the first aid kit, casting glances his way.
“What’s going on? What happened?” He was completely bewildered.
“You passed out, that’s what happened,” laughed Sarah. “Your little sister had to clean up after you and take care of our patient without your help.”
Jonathan looked over at his sister for confirmation, then looked at Kevin’s hand. Sure enough, it was neatly bandaged with gauze and tape.
Jonathan looked sheepish. “Sorry, Candi. It must have been a vasovagal response.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure that’s what it was – the vasowhatever thingy. I took care of it, and I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.” She smiled, proud that she hadn’t passed out or puked when that gooey pus had come out of Kevin’s poor hand.
“Yeah, Candi’s like Florence Nightingale over there. I vote she’s in charge of the island hospital from now on.”
Candi looked up from her packing. “And I vote Sarah’s in charge of shelter arrangement on this island from now on.” She smiled over at the girl who had single-handedly made a pretty nice field hospital for her to operate in.
Sarah smiled back. “I don’t mean to brag, but I also managed to find these for us.” She pulled out a bunch of bananas from behind her back.
“Holy crap, bananas!” exclaimed Candi.
“Yep!” said Sarah, as she ripped one from the bunch and started peeling it. “There are trees full of ‘em on this island.” She took a bite of it and continued, “They’re kinda little, but they taste fine. I also saw some coconuts, but they were up too high to get. Plus I have no idea how to open one.”
Jonathan sat up slowly, holding his spinning head gingerly. “I think we could figure out how to open them. I’m glad to know they’re here, because we only have a little bit of water. Until we find other fresh water, we could survive on coconut water.”
“Isn’t it called coconut milk?” asked Candi.
“No, not really. What we call coconut milk that people make daiquiris out of is actually the juice squeezed from the white meat of the coconut, not the liquid that swishes around inside the round nut.”
Sarah looked at him with exasperation on her face, like she couldn’t figure him out. “How do you know all this stuff? I mean, the difference between coconut water and coconut milk? How esoteric can you be?”
Jonathan shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Bill Nye the Science Guy. A variety of sources, really.”
“Yeah, but, how do you remember all of it?
“I don’t know. I just do.”
Candi nodded her head. “He’s like an elephant. He never forgets anything. He’s still mad about a lollipop I stole from him when I was three.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “How annoying.”
“Well, people shouldn’t steal other people’s candy. That’s just not right. Anyone would remember that.”
Candi laughed at him and reached over to play-slap him on the arm. “Sorry, Jonathan. I’ll buy you a new one when we get home.”
The group fell silent as they thought about the idea of going home and being able to just walk into a store and buy a lollipop. It seemed so simple, purchasing candy. Now, it was something they couldn’t do and maybe would never be able to do again. It was a sobering thought that no one wanted to say out loud.
“Mmmph ... wanna lollipop ... ” Kevin’s head moved from side to side.
Candi, Jonathan and Sarah all shared a look and then burst out laughing. Leave it to Kevin to rein them all in again. Even when he was passed out, he was still keeping it real.
“No ... notta lollipop ... wanna gumdrop ... heh, heh ... ” He smiled in his delirium.
Candi’s eyes bugged out of her head, afraid she had just heard what sounded like Kevin saying he wanted a gumdrop. Her face turned burning red.
Sarah got a wicked look on her face. She leaned in towards her brother. “What’s that Kevin? What do you want? Tell us again.” She looked over at Candi’s face and lifted her eyebrows twice, signaling that she had heard the same thing Candi had heard – and now she was going to torture Candi with it, just for fun.
Jonathan leaned in curiously. “What is it? What does he want? Maybe we can give it to him.”
Sarah rocked back on her heels laughing her head off. “Jonathan, you are hilarious, you know that? I love it. I agree – maybe we can give it to him. Candi, what do you think? Can we give it to him?” She snorted at her own teasing.
“What? What’d I say? What’s so funny?”
Candi stood up and patted Jonathan on the back. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Sarah’s just insane. We’re going to need to build a cage to put her in later. We’ll call it the coconut house.” She looked over at Sarah and glared at her.
The girls spent the next couple of hours forcing water down Kevin’s throat while he yammered on and on about gumdrops and rugby. His fever seemed to be dropping which made them all feel a little bit better. He hadn’t vomited anymore which was definitely a good sign.
Jonathan did a little nearby exploring, bringing back a coconut that he had found on the ground and proceeded to examine it in great detail, before laying it in the sand near the blanket.
They ate only a small amount of their food and water. Not wanting to risk being discovered by who knows what, and the night being pretty warm, they vetoed building a fire and went to bed early. They agreed to come up with a plan of action when they woke up the next morning – no use trying to figure anything ou
t now in the dark when all of them were too exhausted to think straight.
They opened the ponchos and laid them out as covers for all of them to share. Each one was almost big enough for two people. Kevin was still a little hot, but he was shivering. Sarah and Candi positioned themselves with their backs up against him to keep him warm.
One by one, they drifted off to sleep, left alone in their thoughts of home and being lost in the middle of nowhere, none of them hearing the distant sound of a powerful motor slipping past the island, far out in the ocean waves.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Getting Acquainted
Kevin was dreaming. He was in a burning bed. The house was on fire around him and he was trapped in his sheets. He had to get out!
He started thrashing around. If only he could get the covers from around his legs. It’s as if they were tied around him, intent on making sure he would never escape the flames.
“Kevin, what the hell! Stop it!”
In his sleep-induced haze, he heard his sister’s voice. Is she trapped in the house too? I have to save her, but where is she?
“Kevin, cut it out or I’m gonna slap you.”
Huh. Well, those aren’t the words of someone who should be grateful they’re about to be rescued from a blazing inferno. She’ll be sorry if she gets stuck in this fire.
“What are you mumbling about a fire for? There’s no fire. Just you, kicking everyone who’s trying to sleep here, you idiot.”
Kevin’s mind started to clear as his sister’s words began sinking in.
“Give him a break, Sarah, he’s still sick.”
Sick? Who’s sick? Me? Who was that?
Kevin struggled to open his eyes. Only one was obeying his command.
“What’s going on?” he mumbled, “Where’s the fire?”
Candi sighed and sat up, giving up on the idea of any more sleep. “Good morning, Kevin. There’s no fire. You used to have a fever. I guess you’re dying of the heat now because you’ve got a rain poncho on you and no more fever.”
Kevin sat up slowly, looking around him. “Don’t forget the two hot butts that are pressed up against me too, Gumdrop.”
Candi looked down at herself and then over at Sarah. “Okay, so you have a point. Wow, is it ever muggy here with that humidity and heat.”
“You said it,” agreed Kevin, using his shirt to wipe his face off.
“Well this butt is getting up now. Sorry about getting you all hot.”
Kevin lifted up his bandaged hand, waving it weakly. “No, don’t get up on my account. I’m sure at some point I was appreciating your butt being here.” Then he looked over at his sister and nudged her awake. “You, on the other hand, can take your butt on over there, if you don’t mind.”
Sarah reached back and slapped his hand away, as if she was going to ignore him. But the flies had other ideas.
“Son of a BITCH!” she yelled, as she slapped at her neck. “You have got to be frigging kidding me. What is it with these goddamn flies anyway?”
She sat up, rubbing her neck and arms, trying to get the flies to go feast on something else.
“They aren’t bothering me at all,” said Kevin.
Sarah shot him a stink eye and mimicked him, “They aren’t bothering me at all. Eewwwmew mew mew mewwww.”
Kevin laughed.
Jonathan sat up and rubbed the top of his hair, which made absolutely no difference to its totally unkempt state, except maybe to add another teaspoon of sand to it.
“Studies have shown that blood-sucking insects are attracted to some people more than others. One recent study I read suggested that they were attracted to people who were more stressed. People who were able to manage their stress levels more effectively attracted less bites than others who weren’t.”
Kevin watched Candi send a worried look over to her brother and then turned to see Sarah’s reaction.
Sarah very carefully stood up, and calmly brushed the sand from her legs and arms. She walked over to where Jonathan was innocently sitting on the edge of the sheet, with no idea that Sarah was coming closer.
“Stressed?”
Jonathan looked up, surprised and instantly looking a little wary.
“Stressed?!”
Jonathan got a very worried expression on his face.
“Stressed?!! Do you think I’m stressed, Jonathan?!”
Jonathan’s mouth dropped open; he froze in place, unable to move even a finger. Only his eyes followed her movements.
She was looming over him, her crazy, knotted and salty hair sticking out on one side; remnants of her black makeup still stuck under her eyes; chapped and crusty lips, thinned into a white line ... an angry, sunburned, scary woman face like Kevin and Jonathan had never seen before.
Kevin was pretty sure she was going to attack Jonathan. He didn’t know if he should rescue him or let it play out.
“Um, yes?” Jonathan answered meekly, ducking his head a little and hunching his shoulders – keeping an eye on her lunatic face, waiting for the physical attack he was wisely expecting.
“Well, isn’t that very astute of you, Jonathan, resident brainiac. You are, indeed, correct. I am very stressed. I am more stressed than I have ever been in my entire life, in fact.” She paused to catch her breath and then continued, counting off complaints on her fingers.
“Let’s see ... two days ago, I caught my boyfriend cheating on me with my brother’s girlfriend. Then, I was forced onto a cruise ship with the brother and sister tweedle-dumb and tweedle-dee team from hell. Then that stupid cruise ship sank, sending me into the bowels of hell where my brother has laid near death for twenty-four hours. I got to watch him almost get eaten by a shark. Oh, and my hair has knots in it that will probably never come out, which will force me to have a very short, very ugly haircut that will make me look like a very manly lesbian, not that there’s anything wrong with being a manly lesbian if you are, in fact, a manly lesbian, which I am not. And, I have just started my period, and I don’t have any tampons or pads with me. So yes, I am just a little bit stressed out. AND I THINK I’M ENTITLED TO THAT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”
She finished her tirade by storming off into the jungle, leaving the three of them in stunned silence.
“Well, that explains it. She’s on her period.” Jonathan stood up and brushed himself off, oblivious to the daggers his sister was sending him with her eyes and the silent laughter shaking Kevin’s shoulders.
“You are an inconsiderate oaf!” yelled Candi, getting up and storming off in the direction Sarah took.
Jonathan looked after her, confused. “What? What’d I say? It’s true, you know!” he yelled after her. “The hormonal instabilities present during a woman’s menses make women act unreasonably emotional!”
Kevin held up his hand, gasping for air. “Dude, stop. You’re killing me.” He kept laughing while he was talking. “Who says that shit, seriously? You’re hilarious. Thanks, man, I needed that.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think Sarah or Candi appreciated my medical information or research findings,” said Jonathan, looking around their shelter site. “Should we go after them?”
“No way, dude. That’s like hunting jungle cats. Wait ‘til they cool down and come back, then we’ll figure out what’s what.”
***
“Wait up, Sarah. Wait! You have longer legs than me.” Candi could hear Sarah crashing through the trees ahead, still muttering to herself.
“Asshole. Asshole, asshole, asshole. They have no idea. None! Assholes.”
Candi caught up to Sarah and reached out to grab her shoulder and slow her down. “You’re right. They’re assholes. Now slow down before I barf from all this exercise and humidity.”
Sarah stopped in the middle of the path she was following. “Seriously, Candi, what am I supposed to do with a friggin’ period in the middle of the jungle?” Sarah swept her arms around her, gesturing to the trees that rose up high above their heads, some of them leaning together so close they blocke
d out the sun. The sounds of birds calling out to one another filled the air around them.
Candi looked at the surrounding wildness and threw up her hands too. “I don’t know, but we’ll come up with something. Look, I have all the incentive in the world to help you. My period is coming any day. Come on, don’t look so sad, we’ll work it out. We’ll tear up the sheet or something and stuff our underwear like they did in the olden days.”
All of a sudden, Sarah started crying. She stood there looking so pitiful with her awful hair and destroyed makeup, ruined leopard print dress still clinging sadly to her dirty, sandy, and sunburned body, wearing flip-flops that didn’t fit.
Candi couldn’t help herself. She reached out and hugged Sarah.
Sarah grabbed onto her and started crying even harder. “I’m sorry I called you tweedle-dumb. I’m just so pissed right now, I can’t see straight.”
Candi chuckled into her shoulder. “I thought I was tweedle-dee.”
Sarah laughed and quickly pulled away, embarrassed by her weakness, swiping at her eyes. “Whatever. I didn’t mean to say it. I’m not mad at you or Jonathan, even though sometimes he can be a total pain in the ass. No offense.” She hesitated and wiped at her eyes again before saying, “If it hadn’t been for you two, I don’t even want to think about what might have happened to Kevin and me. We would probably be in a shark’s stomach right now or something.” She looked up above them and then gestured all around her with her arms open wide and a tremulous smile on her lips. “Instead, we have all this!”
Candi and Sarah smiled at each other and then laughed. A little at first, and then more, until they were both hysterical.
“Oh my god, stop, stop – I’m gonna pee on myself,” gasped Candi.
“Go ahead, you couldn’t possibly look or smell worse than you do right now!” laugh-screamed Sarah.
“Oh, y-y-yes I could ... I could b-b-be on my p-p-period!!”
They both fell to the ground, laughing like hyenas. All of their problems were temporarily forgotten as they held their sides, laughing like they’d never laughed before.