Candi’s heart was in her throat. “What?! They’re here? Now?”
“Yes,” gasped Sarah. “One boat. Two guys. They’re anchoring in the cove now. Kevin is there, in the tree. He said to come and get you right away.”
Jonathan released Candi from his embrace and strode over to where they kept their fishing spears. He grabbed four of them. “Come on. Let’s go.” He didn’t hesitate – he just started striding through the trees towards Kevin and their designated lookout tree. He increased his speed to a steady jog, and the girls kept pace with him, stride for stride. All those weeks of exercise and healthy eating had built up their endurance.
As they approached the tree, they looked up to see Kevin. He noticed them below and motioned for them to be quiet and to come up and join him. They all climbed with well-practiced motions, moving silently through the leaves and branches.
“What’s going on?” whispered Jonathan, once they were all gathered near the same branch as Kevin.
Kevin merely pointed out towards the water.
There was a medium-sized powerboat anchored in the cove. No one was on it.
“Okay, guys, this is it,” said Kevin. “Let’s review the plan. Candi?”
“Alright. First, Jonathan goes around and gets as near the pot plants as he can to get eyes on the dealers. How many are there, Kevin?”
“Two. A black guy and a white guy.”
“Okay, Jonathan, you find them and first signal to us through Sarah that it’s okay for Kevin to go out to the boat. Then you keep watching them. If you see them going back to the beach, you signal Sarah again and she will signal me in the tree.” She turned to Kevin. “Kevin, after you get the first signal from me, you swim out to the boat, get on the radio, and send our distress signal. You remember everything you have to say, right?”
“Yes. I say that we are the Petersons and Buckleys, there are four of us, we are from the cruise ship Columbus, that rogue waves carried us very far on the lifeboat, and we don’t know where we are but that it’s an island shaped like a peanut with rocks on the south side. And there are drug dealers on the island too and we need to be rescued.”
“Right. Then you swim back as fast as you can. You will check the lookout tree from the boat to see if you can swim above water or if you need to go into underwater stealth mode. If I get Sarah’s signal that they’re coming back, I will put up the signal for you. That means ‘get the hell out of there.’”
The signal was a piece of the white sheet they had torn off to hang on one of the branches, visible from the water and hopefully not visible from the jungle where the pot plants were.
Sarah’s signal would be sent using a slingshot they had made out of bamboo and a ponytail rubber band she had found in the bottom of her makeup case. She would be waiting on the ground in a spot where she could hear Jonathan, who was spying on the bad guys, and still be close enough to Candi’s lookout tree. If she got the birdcall signal from Jonathan indicating that the drug dealers were moving back to the boat, her job was to shoot a series of hard berries into the leaves below the lookout tree so Candi would know to tie the white strip to the tree for Kevin to see.
Jonathan had been practicing his birdcall for weeks. It was nearly perfect, only barely distinguishable from the bird sounds they heard most often on the island.
“Okay, that’s the plan. Any last minute issues?” asked Kevin.
“Just this,” answered Candi, reaching up to grab him and plant a huge kiss on his mouth. “Come back safely.”
Kevin smiled. “Of course. You guys have my back; I’ll be perfectly fine.”
***
They all moved off into their positions, intent on doing everything they could to keep each other alive. No doubt these drug dealers had guns either on the boat or on their persons.
Kevin stood in the tree line, waiting to get the signal from Candi that it was safe to move to the water. A couple of very long minutes later, he saw her waving the white flag, so he quickly sprinted down to the water’s edge and slipped quietly into the gentle waves that were hitting the edge of the beach. He swam freestyle, confident that he could get to the boat before they moved from wherever they were near the pot plants. There was no time to waste.
***
Jonathan kept his eyes on the drug dealers from a safe distance up in a tree that had a good view of the pot grove. He could hear them talking, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. They seemed to be walking around, bending down, looking at the grove. Probably checking their irrigation lines. After they stood in one place conferring about something, gesturing to the area around them, they started heading back in the direction of the beach. Jonathan’s heart started beating three times faster than normal.
He put his hands to his mouth, getting ready to make his birdcall signal to Sarah who he could not see from where he was sitting. All of a sudden he realized that the drug dealers weren’t going back in the direction he expected them to. They were angling to the left, heading right towards Sarah’s hiding place.
“Ke-ke-ke-caw!” burst out Jonathan, but the sound was all wrong. He was so panicked, and his blood pressure was so high, it was affecting the sound of his voice. His birdcall sounded like an island bird being strangled to death.
The two guys stopped walking and turned around. They whispered to each other as they looked at the surrounding trees. Jonathan held his breath and hoped that his cover was good enough that they wouldn’t spot him up above. Don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t look up, he chanted inside his head. And don’t run into Sarah.
The two guys shrugged their shoulders and then turned back towards Sarah’s hiding place, continuing on. Jonathan didn’t want to risk another strangled bird sound, so he climbed down the tree as quietly and as quickly as he could. He was going to follow the two guys to make sure they didn’t run into Sarah. He was prepared to kick some serious butt if they did.
***
Sarah heard Jonathan’s mangled-sounding call, and immediately pulled back on the rubber band to send the berries off towards Candi’s hiding place. But the rubber band snapped, managing only to send the berries into a pile at her feet and put a welt on the back of her hand.
Oh no! was all Sarah had time to think, before she took off running as quietly as she could to the lookout tree. She reached the base of it in less than a minute and signaled Candi with a loud “Pssst!”
Candi looked down and saw Sarah gesturing with her broken slingshot. Candi got a look of horror on her face as she realized what this meant. She scrambled to tie the white flag up in the branches. Sarah stood below, praying Kevin would see it before it was too late.
***
Kevin made it to the boat and climbed up on the platform next to the motors. He was dripping wet but didn’t have time to worry about whether the drug dealers would notice the puddles on their boat or not. Hopefully they would be so wet when they came on board they would blame themselves.
He saw the radio attached to the console near the steering wheel. He ran over and grabbed the handset. He pushed the button on the side but heard nothing. He looked at the front of the radio, noticing immediately that it wasn’t on; the lights were all off, the screen black. He jiggled the first switch he saw up and down, trying to get it to power up, with no luck.
Shit! He thought to himself. Where is the friggin’ power on this thing? His eyes were scanning the console when he noticed a white and fluorescent orange, miniature buoy-looking thing hanging from the console; attached to it was a key that was sitting in a keyhole.
Duh, he admonished himself. He turned the key partway, hoping it was like a car and would turn just the power on to the radio and not actually turn the engine over.
It worked.
The console lit up, and the radio suddenly had power. Kevin pressed the button on the side of the handset, putting it into transmission mode. He began speaking.
“Hello?”
He lifted his finger off the button and waited for a response. Then he pre
ssed it again. “Hello? Is there anyone out there?”
He waited again, the silence deafening.
“Hello? Mayday, mayday, is there anyone out there?”
He turned to glance at the lookout tree, expecting to see nothing, but instead saw the signal. Holy shit. Then he heard some static on the radio and a voice.
“Hello, Juan? Is that you? Who is this?”
Kevin didn’t hesitate. “This is Kevin Peterson ... me and three others are stuck on an island ... our cruise ship the Columbus sank about two months ago and we were thrown by some rogue waves way off course in our lifeboat ... the island we’re on is shaped like a big peanut, there are rocks on the south side ... we need to be rescued, there are drug dealers on this island ... please come help!”
He waited for an answer, but none was forthcoming, and he knew he had to leave. He put the handset on the hook and ran to the edge of the boat. Just as he was getting ready to jump into the water, he heard some static and remembered the key. He had left it on position.
He was turning around to go back and turn the key to the off position, when he suddenly heard voices coming from the trees. He ducked down and peeked over the edge of the boat toward the beach. The two drug dealers were walking out of the trees, heading towards the water.
I’m trapped! The panic began to rise up and made it hard to breathe.
He crawled over to the console, reached up, and turned the key back to the left. Then he scrambled on his hands and knees over to the side of the boat facing the ocean and carefully slipped over the edge, into the water, trying not to make a splash as his body hit the surface.
***
Candi couldn’t tell from where she was sitting in the tree if Kevin had been able to get on the radio or not. She saw him go to the console area but that was it. Then the bad guys came walking out onto the beach towards the boat. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Sarah appeared at her right elbow, now able to see what Candi was seeing.
She whispered in Candi’s ear, “What the hell! They’re going to see him! My damn rubber band broke.”
“Get out, Kevin, get out, get out, get out,” whisper-chanted Candi.
They watched as Kevin turned back around from the console area and crawled to the edge of the boat.
The bad guys had started walking into the water and were only about twenty feet from where Kevin was hiding.
Kevin slipped over the edge of the boat and entered the water. Candi and Sarah looked at the drug dealers who were now swimming breast stroke style, about five feet away from the swimming platform near the engines. They gave no indication that they had seen Kevin.
Candi could see the outline of Kevin’s body beneath the surface of the water. He was swimming parallel to the shore, underwater, away from the boat.
“What’s he doing?” asked Sarah. “Why isn’t he coming to the shore?”
“I think he’s trying to get as far away from them as possible before he comes in, just in case they look back at the shore or whatever.” She nodded her head in silent approval. “I hope he can hold his breath long enough,” she added, worrying he wouldn’t be able to; none of them had held their breath for longer than two minutes and thirty seconds.
Soon, Jonathan joined them at the base of the tree. He climbed up in seconds, getting as close to them as he could.
“What’s going on?” he whispered.
Candi said nothing – just pointed out into the water where Kevin’s form was barely visible beneath the water.
“Smart. He’s going to surface far away from the boat. That’s brilliant.”
At least, it looked like a brilliant plan – until the boat started up and headed directly towards him.
“Holy shit, do they see him? Are they trying to kill him with the boat?” asked Sarah, horror coloring her voice.
The boat wasn’t moving fast; it was just trolling along, as the two on board seemed to be moving around, getting things out of cabinets and stowing the anchor they had just pulled up by hand.
The three watched in fear as the boat closed in on Kevin’s submerged form. Closer and closer it got. Kevin had been underwater at least two minutes by now, according to Candi’s estimate. There was no way he was going to survive this.
“We need to get down there, right now!” said Candi frantically. “Move!”
They all scrambled out of the tree. Candi was deathly afraid of what they were going to see when they got there, but knew they had to do whatever they could to help Kevin.
By the time they reached the tree line, the boat was heading out of the cove. Jonathan held up his arm, stopping them from moving out of the trees. “Wait until they’re farther away.”
“I need to get in the water and find Kevin!” insisted Candi. He still hadn’t surfaced yet that she could see.
“Look, they’re hitting the gas, they’ll be out of sight in ten seconds. Just wait. Kevin wouldn’t want you to blow our cover after all he’s been through.”
It was the longest ten seconds of her life.
As soon as the boat left the cove and turned the corner out of sight, Jonathan lowered his hand and said, “Go!” They all took off running to the shoreline, Candi diving into the water and swimming over to the place where she’d last seen him. He wasn’t there.
“Candi! Look!”
Candi was treading water when she heard Sarah’s cry. She saw Sarah standing on the beach, pointing off to Candi’s left. There, she saw Kevin’s head surfacing above the water.
“Kevin! I’m coming, hang on!” Candi and Jonathan both raced over to where Kevin was treading water. Candi was so happy, she couldn’t stop smiling. The sense of relief that she felt nearly overwhelmed her. Then she noticed that the water around Kevin was turning a darker color – dark red.
Candi’s heart went into her throat. He’s bleeding ... a lot. She reached him at the same moment Jonathan did.
“What happened?” Jonathan asked.
Kevin was gasping for air. “I went under and stayed there. I opened my eyes and saw the boat coming in my direction. I tried to dive down farther, but I didn’t go down far enough. Propeller caught my arm.”
Kevin’s water-treading was awkward, Candi could see that now. He was only able to use his legs and one arm.
“We need to get out of the water, ASAP,” said Jonathan. “This blood is going to attract sharks.
Candi nearly passed out. Sharks. Kevin was injured badly – she didn’t even know how badly - and now they had to worry about sharks. The fear gave her renewed energy. She grabbed Kevin’s t-shirt and started heading for shore. “Kick your legs, Kevin. I’ll drag you in,” she gasped. “Come on, Jonathan, grab his shirt with me.”
With the two of them pulling and kicking with adrenaline-fueled muscles, they were able to get Kevin to the shallow water where he could stand and walk the rest of the way. He held his injured arm close to his chest where it quickly covered the front of his body with blood.
Sarah was waiting for him as he emerged from the water, wearing only her bra and underpants. She’d already taken off her leopard dress, ready to use it to help stop the bleeding.
The others waited as Kevin pulled his arm away from his body. Sharp intakes of breath revealed what none of them wanted to say – it was bad. A deep, vertical slice laid open his skin and muscle, down the length of his forearm. It was bleeding freely, pouring down into the sand.
Candi felt queasy, but she took charge anyway. Jonathan immediately sat down in the sand, putting his head between his legs. “Sorry, guys! Vasovagal response again. Gotta get my circulation back under control, I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Tell me what to do.”
“Get me some plant rope. We need to tie this thing closed.”
Sarah was back with some plant rope in less than a minute. Together the two girls worked to get the wound closed up as best they could, securing it with Sarah’s dress on top and ropes holding it all together. “This will do for now,” said Candi. “When we get ba
ck to the treehouse, we’ll figure out something more permanent. Can you walk okay, Kevin?” Concern filled her eyes.
“Yeah, I think so. Nothing wrong with my legs, I’m just a little lightheaded.”
Jonathan spoke from his sitting position on the beach. “He’s lost a lot of blood, better get him back before he passes out. He’ll be hard for us to carry.”
Jonathan joined them and they managed to get Kevin back to the treehouse and up the ladder before he did pass out. They all stood over Kevin’s bed, discussing their next move.
“We need to get that wound cleaned and closed,” said Candi, sick to her stomach over the idea that they didn’t have the supplies to do any of that properly.
“How do you propose we close it?” asked Jonathan. “We don’t really have any stuff for that.”
“How about a needle and thread?” asked Sarah.
Candi shot her a disgusted look, angry that she would be so glib at a time like this.
“What? I’m serious.”
“Yeah, okay, great idea, except that we have neither a needle nor any thread, Sarah. Don’t be so thick.”
“Yes we do.” She turned and left the room.
Jonathan and Candi exchanged questioning looks. What did Sarah have up her sleeve this time?
Sarah returned in less than a minute with her Louis Vuitton makeup case.
Jonathan stared at it with suspicion. “That friggin’ makeup case. I should have thrown that thing overboard with the radio.”
Sarah opened it, rummaging around inside. “Ah-ha!” she said, holding up something in her hand, a triumphant look on her face. “Then you would have gotten rid of a perfectly good sewing kit!”
Candi’s face registered the shock she was feeling over Sarah’s announcement. She held out her hand, wordlessly.
Sarah placed a small, plastic packet in it. Inside was a single, thin needle and five different strings of various colors. It was the kind of sewing kit you get at a hotel for button that fell off.
Candi couldn’t think of anything to say. It’s as if a miracle had just happened in their little treehouse, compliments of an angel named Sarah.