Forever and a Day (49 page)

“Yes?” Halo asked.

“Can we chat for a moment about the Satellite phone?”

Halo felt her insides jump, “Ok…”

He patted the top her hand before he continued, “Halo, I’m not sure I can fix it…”

She suddenly felt relief flood through her at his words, which left her feeling perplexed, but she listened on.

“I need a very small Philips screwdriver. I tried my knife but I couldn’t get it to turn. I actually do repairs of this sort back home, but the only other option is to break it open. I may permanently damage it. On the other hand, it could be damaged beyond repair already. In the raft I tried to turn it on and it was dead… and there is no power cord.”

“Oh hell, it’s probably in JJ’s suitcase. So… our options are?”

“Try and break it open and hope for the best. Wait out a rescue party? I’ve read that in the summer, divers and fishermen visit small islands out here in the Pacific. I’m not positive where we are, so I’m not sure about the last part. I do know that normal rescue searches last at least two weeks. I think we have a window still. Uh, unless…” Xander paused.

“Unless they think we are dead?” She added.

“Yeah…”

“If you are asking my opinion, I think we should wait before we try and break open the phone.”
 

“Sounds like a plan.” Xander shrugged, “So, now that Xan is done and has left Halo’s Island…”

“Hey! What’s with this Halo’s Island thing?”

“Sorry, named it already. I had dibs!” Xander laughed.

She smiled happily at him, “Well then, the other island can be yours: Xander’s Island.”

“Why thank you, one moment!” Xander said and reached behind the log and brought out a beautiful purple flower, “Here, I thought this might cheer you up.”

“For me?” Halo accepted the flower and smiled, “Thank you, Xander!” She felt her cheeks get warm.

“I was going to put it in your hair, but I wasn’t sure if it would turn you hair purple.” Halo looked up from her flower and simply smiled at him in silence. “Well, let’s get you home, er well I mean back to camp.”

With a smile on her face, she gave him a nod. He leaned down, picked her up gently and carried her back to the tent. She stayed silent until he set her down then she looked up at him, “Are you leaving me now?”

Xander’s heart lurched at her question; his brain thought one thing, his heart another. “Well, I was going to look for parts to build a fish trap. I can stay if you like?”

Halo looked down at her flower, “Can we talk for a bit? Until I get tired?”

“Sure! Uh, are you ok?”

She nodded still looking at her flower as she slowly twirled it with her fingers, “I—we really don’t know each other. I want to get to know you better…”

He eased himself down on the silver blanket in the tent and began to feel the warmth of the sun as it heated up the plastic covered interior, “Halo is it too warm in here for you?”

She looked up at him, “A bit.” She whispered.

“Would you like to go sit out under a shady non-coconut tree?” He asked with a smile.

She cocked her head slightly at him, “Why not a coconut tree?”

“Falling coconuts don’t do well on the head!” He replied smiling as he fell over mimicking being knocked out by a falling coconut.

“Oh… I wouldn’t have even thought of that, but yes I would like to go out with you.”

Xander’s butterflies woke up in his belly and he fought to keep his face passive at her remark. He lifted her up and strode out of the tent with her arms wrapped around his neck. He looked around and found an appropriate tree with ample shade. He began to set her down and she squeezed her arms tight around him. He altered his motion and sat down with his back against the tree with her in his lap.

“Do you mind? I only have my panties on, you know… sand and all.” She whispered.

“Oh… no worries. So what can I tell you about myself?” He asked as settled against the tree and she rested her head against his shoulder.

“I dunno. Tell me about your wife. What was her name again?”

“Oh! Evie… like I mentioned before, she is half-Greek like me. Her father passed away a long time ago. Like I mentioned, her mother is Eugenia, she’s from Greece, but we all call her Yiayia, which means grandma.”

“Oh… does she look like your daughter?” Halo whispered.

“Uh, well I can show you a picture… didn’t you look through my pictures earlier?”

Halo looked up at him, “I wanted to, but I figured I would be intruding.”

He smiled and reached into his pocket and produced his phone. He brought up his photo album and scrolled to his most recent picture of her. He showed her the picture, “Here she is on her birthday from July.”

Halo looked down at the picture and almost sighed with relief. The woman was pretty for sure, with long black hair, large dark eyes. She had thin lips and almost had a hard look to her smile. She looked just a little thick, but looked like she had small breasts. She definitely looked Greek and nothing like her daughter, “Xander, she is a pretty lady, she is lucky to have you.”

“HA! Not sure she sees it that way… but thank you for complimenting her.”

A silence came over them for a long moment. She had a huge urge to explore his comment, when she was about to ask, he ended up breaking the silence, “So, Halo Heaven Raines… you have quite the unique name. May I ask about it?”

She nodded, looking at her purple flower.

“I know about your mother, hell who doesn’t? So how did they come to name you your beautiful name?”

Halo glanced up at him smiling at her, “I came out with a lot of blonde hair, when they saw it all around me, my dad exclaimed that it looked like I was surrounded by a golden halo. My mom right there told him that would be my name.” She let out a giggle, “My dad wanted to name me Michelle. My mom insisted that my middle name be unique. So, Heaven it was. You know my sisters name, right?”

“I know she’s a singer, Storm is it?” He asked.

“Yeah, Stormie September Raines, and yes her name fits her personality well.”

“I bet you miss them all a lot too… do you want to talk about JJ?” He felt her shrug, but she kept silent.

“Halo, I’m sure she made it. Joel is the survivor type. I’m sure he turned on the ELT. I bet she is worried sick about you. I could tell from the short time I knew her, that she cared for you greatly.”

“She’s like another sister. She has been with me more than half my life. She’s always been there.”

“Well, you can count on me. I can be your friend too, you know.”

“Thank you, Xander. I know I can count on you. I appreciate it.” Halo looked up at him for a long moment, “Can I ask you a silly question?”

“Shoot!” He replied with a silly smile.

“You know that film with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche, ‘Six Days and Seven Nights’?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve seen it. Why?”

“Well Anne asks him if he was the type that can build a strip mall with his pocket knife… are you that kinda guy?”

Xander chuckled deeply and did his best to keep from bursting out laughing, “As I recall Harrison said ‘no’. I’ll tell you what, let’s just see.” He gave her a hard wink.

“Deal.” She stated with a little smile.

They both remained silent as they looked out and watched the gentle surf roll up onto the white sandy beach.

Xander ignored the cramp in his back as he was enjoying holding her up against himself. He felt the body heat from her and kept his mind off the proximity of her on him. Still, just her being in his arms was like heaven. He laughed to himself, yeah, Halo ‘Heaven’ Raines.

He thought back to his past with his wife and could never recall Evie ever having the patience to simply sit in his lap or by his side and just be together. She always had to be doing something. Several years ago, he gave up trying to convince her to just sit and share her heart or time with him. With Evie, everything had its purpose: sex on Saturdays and rarely on other occasions. She kept up the house with a vengeance, and everything had to be in order and within her system. She was way too structured, he simply figured that was how she dealt with life. Eventually he just fell into step with Evie and her dull and mundane routines. His real joy was with Athena and watching her grow up. She was the reason why he kept on doing his best to love and understand her mother.

Halo wanted to sigh as she felt herself surrounded in his warmth. For the first time in her adult life she felt warm and safe. With her ear against his shoulder she could hear the echoes of his thumping heart, she pressed herself closer and wished she could stay in his arms forever.

“Whoa! Someone is hungry! I hear your stomach rumbling.” Xander smiled.

“Oh… um, you seemed so into your thoughts, I didn’t want to bother you.” Halo whispered.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat.” Xander ignored her protest and slowly stood up with her in his arms and twisted his back until it popped. “Ah…” Xander chuckled as he headed back to the tent.

“I’m thinking you are the one who needs a back rub.” Halo giggled.

“When you get stronger I might take you up on that. Back rubs are few and far in between at my house.”

“No way!” Halo gasped.

“Way.” Xander shot back.

She smiled at him with an ever so slight arch in her left blonde eyebrow, “I’m sorry…”

Back at camp Xander prepared a quick late lunch for them, it consisted of them splitting a ramen cup with more beef jerky and they shared a soda. When they were finished, he left Halo in the tent to nap then set out to find some materials to construct a fish trap.

When he gathered up enough branches, he brought them back to camp. Checking on her, he saw she was fast asleep and her blanket was cast aside. He had to tear his eyes away from her shapely legs and her skimpy black panties. His belly was warm as well as other parts of himself at the sight. He quietly reached in and quickly covered her back up.

Leaving her alone to rest, he went out and began working with his fish trap. After quite some time, he became frustrated with it, as the branches were difficult to work as none of them was even close to being straight. Instead, he constructed a stand, which looked like a miniature swing set, complete with three lines with hooks. He used beef jerky as bait and was ready to place it in the lagoon.

Peeking in at Halo, he found that she was still asleep. Gathering up his fish rack, he set out to position it in the water. Stripping off his shirt he waded carefully out into the lagoon, he stopped when the water came up to his chest. Taking a deep breath, he submerged himself in the warm water and located a good place to mount the rack.

After several attempts and repeated times of having to come up for air, he finally got the fish rack secured with heavy rocks. He walked out of the lagoon to the beach where he left his shirt and marked the area by pushing a large piece of driftwood into the sand. Picking up his shirt, he headed towards the breadfruit tree to pick more for dinner. He took his time picking out the breadfruit and considered getting another pineapple, but he passed on the idea as he saw the sun beginning to get low on the horizon.

Walking back, on a whim he decided to see if there were any nibbles at the bait. Taking his shirt off, he dived into the clear warm water and looked for the rack. He found it by seeing small fish swarming the area, as he approached he nearly shouted out from under the water with elation. A large perch like fish was flopping around with a line in its mouth. He quickly grabbed it and holding it from under its gills he got the hook out and surfaced with a huge intake of air. Panting, he held up the large fish and he almost kissed it with joy. It would feed both of them and maybe have some leftover. He was excited to see what other kind of fish the lagoon offered.