Island Rush (55 page)

I smiled, grabbing the thick layers of leaves and flung it onto the bamboo, grabbing the ends and spreading them out evenly.  It fit the bed nicely, covering most of it in silky and thick green leaves.  Sure, some of the leaves would break since we will be sleeping and shifting over them, but it didn’t matter because there were so many I sewed together.  We still would have a soft support under us. 

Proceeding with collecting the clothes we used before to sleep on, we spread the clothes and soft fabric evenly out and all across the bed, moving back and seeing the end product.

However, once we realized we were finished, other things became more important, more apparent as we stood there.  One was that we still had dinner to make and that dinner would be made at the beach.  We couldn’t have a fire here after since the damp brush wrecked that option.  My growling stomach reminded us of that… as did the shivers that I saw we already had but didn’t bother to notice yet.  Night was coming and the cool weather with it.

“We better get to that fire.  We should take some clothes with us to cover up with since it will be cooler at the beach.  Also, grab whatever you can that might help with the fire.  Anything dry that will burn will help because it will still be harder trying to start a fire after it rained, even on the beach.  Plus, there will be more of a breeze by the ocean.  I’ll grab the snake,” I said, shrugging.  It’s not like we had many other options.

He bit his lip and smiled.  “Yes ma’am.”

I scoffed, and we collected our things, walking down the bank and heading to the beach.  We followed the blackening creek as it glittered with the darkness invading the sky. 

It had been one long day and now it was dark.  We still had a fire to make, and that was sure to be a challenge this time.  We also had dinner to make and eat, which would be interesting since we were feasting on snake tonight.

I sighed as we walked, pressing into his side as we moved, becoming colder.  All I wanted then was to lay and relax in our bed.  Screw the fire.  Casey could keep me close and warm in our new bed and dinner didn’t seem worth it.  At least we could suffer from the cold together on the beach.  That’s all the counted.

Chapter 56

“Jesus, it’s cold.  Hurry up and light it.”

I scoffed and looked up from where I was bent over the branches and ready to light it.  “Um, I think something else added to the fire would help before I light it,” I said, gesturing to the book neither of us was interested in reading and the dirty magazines laying in the sand.

He acted as if it nearly ripped his heart out to hand me the magazines, and I laughed as he spoke, “You’re killing off my manhood.  Here take it.  Burn it before I begin to cry.”

“‘Killing off my manhood?’”

He broke, chuckling, “I don’t know, but I’m freezing and being by the ocean isn’t helping.”

Taking one of the magazines, I tore it down the middle and stuffed a few pages between the branches.  After that, I tore out a few pages from the big book and figured that was enough to get the fire started in the chilly and breezy weather.

It was dark now, but the moon was shining and nearly full of its circle in the sky.  The stars were visible and bright, millions spread out on the black canvas of the world.  The waves were distinct, crashing several yards away since we were built the fire a few feet outside of the cover of trees.  We were right in thinking the sand would be dry, and it helped that our brush was dry too.  The only thing that made this difficult was that we were, in fact, trying to make a fire on the open beach. 

I hit the stones together maybe a dozen times.  Usually with how well we were getting, we would have seen a spark at least.  Nothing yet, though.  With a groan, I kept trying several more times again.  Still nothing.  As the breeze moved in, I shifted with the hope that my body would block out the wind.  With the breeze now blocked by my back, I tried again.  With a hard strike, I saw that once the rocks made contact, this time, a spark produced finally.

“Alright, come on,” I muttered under my breath as I tried with more confidence now.  Finally, I managed to get a spark strong enough.  The orange speck landed on one of the ripped out pages of the book and spread.  Creating more sparks and watching them catch on the edges of the paper, the whole thing burned.  Once I knew the wind couldn’t kill it, this time, I smiled and set the flint down, moving to where Casey sat in the sand. 

I was surprised to find him shivering, but I knew I shouldn’t be.  I wasn’t cold to the point of shaking yet because I worked up a sweat trying to start the fire.  But after a minute, I would be in Casey’s condition.  That’s why we ended up changing into warmer clothes before we came.  Casey wore jeans and a dressy shirt, and I wore a thicker tee-shirt with men’s khakis to keep warm.  We both knew that these wouldn’t be enough so we also brought a stack of clothes to cover ourselves with.

His shoulders were draped with a big shirt and pants, the pant legs tied to each of his arms as he began to put a part of the dead snake on the little ‘cooker’ he made.  He twined the remains around the twigs over the small circle of twigs on the long stick.  The rest of the snake was on the leaf beside him. 

I sat down next to him, pushing into his side to hopefully stop the chills from coming to me.  I watched as he held the snake over the flames. 

He turned, looking down at me.  Holding the stick over the fire with one hand, he grabbed something from behind him, moving it over me.  With the article of clothing he brought forward, he wrapped it around my back, tucking it so it would stay under my arms.  He grabbed another, wrapping it around my arms before he grabbed a longer piece of clothing and draped it over our laps so it covered our feet in the sand.

“Better?”

I nodded and offered him a grateful smile.  “Thank you,” I said. I rested my head against his shoulder, his body heat still reaching my cheek and warming me through the fabric.  We watched silently as the snake became engulfed by the flames.

It was nice, relaxing despite the cool air.  With our backs to the ocean, to the breeze, I felt it.  I really felt it now.  Felt this was home.  Sure, Casey would always be my home no matter where we are.  But the island itself... the atmosphere was continuously shifting after we got here.  Now that we were settled and living again, it was nice, warm, and welcoming. 

After he had flipped the snake to cook it on its other side, he removed it from the fire, letting it cool for a moment.  A minute later, he took it off and handed me my half, the other half in his hand.  I looked at it, able to make it out quite clearly since we had the moon and the fire.  It didn’t look any better than what the fish looked like.  I knew it would taste different.  Hopefully better.

“Are you sure it’s safe to eat?”

He chuckled, looking down at me, “You’re asking me this now, right as we are ready to eat it and not when I first said this is our dinner?”

I smirked and shrugged, “I trust you.  I’m just checking.”

“Yeah, it’s safe.  My parents ate snake once before, and they told me it was perfectly safe.  They said it tastes good too, but we’ll find that out for ourselves.”

I sighed as I took a bite.  The crunching sound it made was sickening, and I tried to forget that I was, in fact, eating a snake.  I chewed it and felt it was a little slimy in my mouth.  I didn’t gag though since the taste of it… well, it wasn’t bad.  I chewed it and swallowed and looked at Casey to see he was swallowing it too.  He looked to me, shrugging as he took another bite as I did of my piece.

“Better than the fish,” he said after he finished that piece and I was still eating mine.

Once I swallowed, I nodded.  “It does taste a little better than the fish.  It’s too bad that fishes are way more common in our diet than snakes.”

He nodded as he turned to his other side, and with a disgusting sound, he tore another long piece off of it so it would fit when he twined it with the twigs. 

“That’s not all though we will have to eat,” he said as he finished, letting me guide it and hold it over the fire, cooking it.  “Fish and snake aren't all that’s on this island.  We can probably find crabs and lobsters.  There must be some trees with fruit that survived that storm.  There must be more on the island.  Plus, there are most likely more animals deeper into the woods, deeper than where our camp is.”

Watching the snake burning and checking to see if it was done on one side, I flipped it and let the flames take it over.  I cooked it a little longer than Casey, recalling that slimy taste.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”  After I knew the snake was done cooking, I pulled it off and watched it sizzle.  I looked up at Casey as I waited for it to cool.  “You know something?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“We know a lot about each other, right?” I pulled the snake off, breaking it in half and handing him his piece.  I set the stick down and began to eat it.

He was watching me, wondering where I was getting at.  “Yeah.”

“Then what’s my favorite movie?” I asked, smiling.  I thought about this and realized that we knew everything important about each other.  We knew secrets and about our background, about family.  We had no knowledge of the small innocent things.

His eyebrows dipped, thinking.  “I… I don’t know.”

“Exactly.  We know a lot about each other, but not the small things.  So, you start.  Favorite food? More specifically, dessert.”

He smiled and liked that I wanted us to know more about each other.  From his warm gaze, I knew he wanted to know those small things too.  Not just because we were curious, but I also wondered how much alike we were.  I mean, sure.  We understood each other, had the same sense of humor, both respected and loved each other to death.  But what about the little things?  It wouldn’t make a difference, but I really was interested.

“Well, if we ever get off this island, I’m never eating another fish in my life.” He laughed and said, “My favorite food or dessert is carrot cake.  What’s yours?”

I scoffed, “Not carrot cake.  Carrot cake can go kill itself.  Simple chocolate ice cream is the best.”

“Simply stupid is what it is,” he muttered smiling.  “Have you ever even had carrot cake?”

“Yeah, and it’s disgusting,” I said.  He laughed at my words as he took the last of the snake and wound it over the twigs. He let me put it over the fire again, and I cooked the last of our dinner. Surprisingly, I was nearly full.

As I cooked it, he went on speaking, “Okay, what about games?  Favorite game.”

I thought about it, nodding, “My favorite game is Trouble.”

He laughed, “Well, it sure fits.  You are trouble.  I can see it.”

“Jesus, a little respect for the game, please?  What’s yours?”

He laughed, “Hangman.  I am the king at Hangman.”

“I’m sure you are.  You’re an English teacher.  That should be considered cheating if you’re playing.  You would pick words never heard of outside of the dictionary.”

“That’s why I always win.  I use words that are really hard.  Then sometimes, I make up words because the person I’m playing knows how good I am since I’m a teacher.  They assume I would pick a word they don’t know.  So, I make them up when I feel a little risky.”

I gaped as I took the last of the snake off the fire.  Letting it cool, I looked up into his eyes, my heart skipping from the happiness flowing from them.

“Ooh… that’s pretty bad especially for you.  I thought you always were for doing the right thing.  I guess I fell in love with a complete stranger.”

“Hey, if they checked, they would have caught me, and I would have respected that.  Besides, you of all people know I’m more than an innocent school teacher.”

I blushed and turned back to the snake, taking it off and breaking it in half, handing him his piece and biting into mine.  As I put the stick aside, I looked back up at him.  He smiled down at me and spoke after swallowing. 

“I like this game,” he said.

“So do I.”

When we finished up with our dinner, we got up, shedding off the makeshift blanket and walked out to the ocean.  The wind we faced as we walked was brutal.  We raced to the edge of the water that happened to be much closer up shore than it usually is.  We quickly ran our hands in the water, scrubbing them and getting the smell and slime off before we splashed water up to our mouths, wiping around our lips. 

When we were done, Casey and I quickly made our way back up the beach.  When we got to the fire, we nearly sat right in it.  Our knees pulled up to our chests, we moved so close to the fire, our feet, hands, and mouth becoming dry quickly. 

He grabbed the clothing that was wrapped around us before when we were sitting.  Only now, Casey stretched out on his side, close to the fire that he was facing.  I saw his skin was covered in chills as he worked to get comfortable.  When he did, he looked back up at me. 

“Come here,” he said in a shaky voice.

I crawled over to him, and he guided me to lay in front of him, between him and the fire.  He pulled my back into his chest, both of us facing the fire as we rested on our sides.  My breath wavered, but it faded at how close we were to the fire.  With that, I felt him shift again, draping the fabric over our feet.  He took another piece of clothing and draped it over his shoulders and mine as he spooned me, his breath hot in my ear.  I rested my head on his arm.

His other arm came over and around me, tucking it around me against my chest.  It gave his fingers the chance to twine with mine. 

“Are you warm?”

“Yeah.  Thank you.”

“Warm enough to go on with the game?” he asked, his voice playful.

I chuckled, “Sure.  Favorite movie?”

“
Star Wars
.  I can’t pick which one because I like them all,” he said.

“
Star Wars
is more than one movie?”

He gaped at me as if I were crazy.  “You never saw the movies?  Are you serious?  And yes, of course, it’s more than one movie!  You should have at least known that.”

I smiled and bit my lip.  “Nope, never and yeah I’m serious.  It’s not that crazy,” I mumbled, chuckling.

“You have never lived a day in your life if you haven’t seen Star Wars.  Oh my God!  I don’t think I can even talk to you right now.”

“Would it help if I offered a distraction?  I could tell you my favorite movie before you blow up,” I said with a small smile.

“It wouldn’t hurt.”

“Well, I like the movie,
Forrest Gump
.”  Watching him after I spoke, he only nodded.  I chuckled, “Well, are you going to talk to me now?  Christ, I didn’t know you were such a nerd over
Star Wars
.”

“Hey, don’t diss
Star Wars
!  I am not a
Star Wars
nerd either!  If you haven’t seen it, you’re the nerd.”

I laughed, “Fine.  Can we move on now?”

“Fine.  If you had a million dollars, what would you buy?”

I thought it over for a minute.  “I would buy an airplane.  That way, I can go wherever I want, travel the world.  And with my own plane, I’ll get my pilot license, so I am the only one who will be in charge of flying the plane.  No more plane crashes for me.”