LC 04 - Skeleton Crew (21 page)

"When you're raised around boats, you learn how to deal with
emergencies," said Harper. "Besides, there are usually so many
fishing boats about, someone would find us, eventually. The
important thing is not to panic."

"Couldn't we signal a boat with a mirror?" asked Lindsay.

"It's nighttime, Lindsay," Harper replied.

"I have a flashlight. We could signal someone with that,"
Lindsay said. Bobbie and Harper laughed. She hadn't meant to be
funny.

Lindsay had a lot of lower body strength-she rode her horse
and jogged for exercise, but she was sorely lacking in upper body
strength. Perhaps I should get a rowing machine, she thought. She
rowed until her shoulders ached, but the shore seemed no closer.

"How about if I take over for a while?" Harper offered.

Lindsay changed places with her. With three of them to switch
out, Lindsay thought they should make it to the shore fine. When
Bobbie spelled Harper at the oars, the shore did look closer. They
all had a turn at the oars again before Bobbie rowed the raft up on
the narrow beach.

"Land at last!" Bobbie exclaimed.

They pulled the boat onto the sand as far as they could, and
Harper tied it to a tree.

"But where are we?" asked Lindsay.

"The motor died a couple of miles out from St. Magdalena,"
Harper said.

"So we must be on the north end of the island," Bobbie added.

"Great," said Harper. "We can walk to the lab. About how far is
it?"

"The research station is at the southern end of the island, and the island is about twelve miles long," said Lindsay. "I'd say about
ten miles."

"Ten miles. Ten miles!" exclaimed Harper. "We have to walk ten
miles?"

"It won't be bad. We can always walk on the beach and end up
at our dock," Lindsay said.

"Nope," said Bobbie and Harper together. "The tide is coming
in. It'll cover the beach."

"Okay," said Lindsay. "We'll have to walk overland."

"How about the shoreline on the other side of the island?"
Harper clearly didn't want to hike ten miles through the forest.

"When Bobbie and I took the ferry," said Lindsay, "that side of
the island looked like swampland. We'll have to travel inland, but
we can't make the trip in the dark. We'll have to stay the night
here." She began collecting things from the boat. "You guys have
your purses and jackets?"

"What do you mean stay the night here? This is the wilderness," Harper complained, following the beam of Lindsay's flashlight as they walked toward the woods.

"We can't go through unknown woods at night. Walking in the
morning will be much safer and faster," Lindsay explained.

Bobbie and Harper went over all the reasons they couldn't stay
the night before they noticed that they were no longer near the
shore and that Lindsay was busy constructing something.

"What are you doing?" asked Bobbie.

"Building us a shelter."

"I must say," said Harper, "you don't seem too upset over this
turn of events."

"You guys were raised on the water. I was raised in the woods.
The trick is not to panic, as someone once said. Why don't you
guys collect some wood for a fire?" She handed them the flashlight
from the boat. "Stay together and don't go far from this clearing.
Watch for snakes and other nocturnal creatures."

Harper and Bobbie delivered several armloads of firewood.
Apparently, a recent storm had freed up all the dead wood in the
trees. Probably the storm Bobbie had mentioned. When the two of
them returned for the last time, each with an armload of wood,
Lindsay had finished a lean-to constructed with limbs and a tarp
from the boat.

"Well, that's cute," said Harper.

Lindsay threw her a bottle of insect repellant she found in the
first-aid kit. "Rub this on yourselves. There are lots of insects
about, especially mosquitoes and ticks."

"I've felt them already," said Bobbie.

Lindsay used her Swiss army knife to whittle off a pile of shavings from a piece of wood. She placed the shavings over a pile of
pine needles, then began stacking wood over the tinder and
kindling.

"That looks like a Mayan temple," Harper observed.

"It's a good design that will last most of the night. The fire will
keep the chill off the night air and help with some of the mosquitoes. After stuffing ourselves with that Chinese meal, we shouldn't
have to eat again for another week. We have bottled water, a firstaid kit, and some blankets from the boat. I'd say we are pretty well
off."

Bobbie put one of the blankets on the ground under the shelter,
and she and Harper sat down. Lindsay lit a long sliver of wood
with a match and used it to light the tinder. She gently fanned and
blew between the logs until she got a stable flame. She joined them
after she was confident the fire was going well.

"We need some marshmallows," said Harper, "and a bottle of
wine."

They sat watching the fire, listening to the sounds of the nighta cacophonous mixture of ocean waves, tree frogs, crickets, night
birds, and wind in the trees. Off in the distance there was a scream.

"What was that?" asked Harper.

"A bobcat," answered Lindsay.

"Bobcat-as in wildcat?"

"Yes."

"Oh, Lord."

"He'll probably stay away from us-" said Bobbie. "Won't he,
Lindsay?"

"Yes ... unless it's a rogue male, and then he may pick up our
scent and come to drive us out of his territory."

"Really? Really?" replied Bobbie and Harper together, their
eyes wide.

Lindsay laughed. "Haven't you ever heard ghost stories
around a campfire? No, he won't bother us. I don't think-I mean,
they hardly ever do."

"Oh, you," said Bobbie, laughing uneasily.

"What other animals are on the island?" asked Harper.

"Well," said Lindsay, "you know about the alligators. You live
with one next to your house."

"You mean they aren't confined to the pond?"

"Think about it," Lindsay said. "It's really a pool, and it isn't a
closed system. The alligator has relatives somewhere on the island.
There're also raccoons. They will probably come around and try to
steal stuff from our campsite. I think there are also some feral
cows. Deer, lots of birds. I saw an eagle the other evening."

"I saw one, too, last week," said Bobbie.

"I've never seen an eagle," Harper said wistfully.

"Maybe we'll see one on the way back tomorrow," said Bobbie.

"If we ever get back," Harper said. "These woods are like a jungle. How will we ever find our way through them?"

"There are trails made by the larger animals, and the biologists
survey the island all the time. I'm sure we'll find the trails they
use." Lindsay tried to reassure them. "It'll be a beautiful hike
through the woods."

"So, while Bobbie and I were growing up in the water, you were
out in the woods?"

"My dad loves the woods and is pretty good at woodcraft.
When I was growing up, he took me with him a lot when I wasn't
off with my grandfather surveying for archaeological sites. We'd
camp a lot, too. When my brother, Sinjin, was home, he, Dad, and
I would go fishing. We knew how to rough it pretty good."

"Your mother didn't go?" asked Bobbie.

"She didn't like to leave the horses." Lindsay told Harper about
her mother's Arabians.

"Sailing was my dad's thing," said Harper. "Mom didn't like it
much. I took after him. I love the sea."

"My whole family scuba dives," said Bobbie. "I don't remember any vacation where we didn't go somewhere to dive."

Harper grabbed a blanket and pulled it around her, squinting
into the woods. "What kind of trees are those? I'd like to have one
in my yard at home."

"Live oaks. Picturesque, aren't they?" said Lindsay. "They look
like the jungle."

"What about that one, the one that looks like it's blooming?"

"I'm not sure what kind of tree it is, but those are probably
orchids."

"Orchids?"

"This is a subtropical island. You get quite a few flora here that
are also found in the tropics," answered Lindsay. "In fact, there's a
program to place a lot of endangered tropical species of animals
here to increase their numbers."

Harper started to laugh.

"What?" asked Bobbie.

"I'm shipwrecked on a tropical island. I somehow thought it
would be different."

Lindsay and Bobbie laughed with her.

"Too bad Trey isn't here. I might like to be shipwrecked with
him." Harper gave Lindsay a little shove. "So, how about it,
Lindsay, wouldn't you like to be here with John?"

Lindsay thought about John and what it would be like if it were
just him and her here in the shelter. She smiled.

"What about you, Bobbie? Who would you like to be shipwrecked with?" Lindsay asked.

"Adrian Paul."

"Who?" Lindsay asked.

"That guy with the sword," said Harper.

"Yeah, that guy with the sword." Bobbie smiled.

"He'd do," agreed Harper. "How about somebody here at the
site? Met anyone?"

Bobbie shook her head. "No, nobody I'd like to be shipwrecked
with."

"Some of the guys guarding the dam look really good," Harper
replied.

"They're mostly Indians from tribes different from mine," said
Bobbie. "We always get into arguments."

"Well, from what I understand, Lindsay and John started by
getting into arguments."

"How do you manage that?" asked Bobbie. "John's not ever
going to change his attitude about Native American burials, and I
can't see you changing, either."

"Right now we just don't discuss it."

"That won't last forever," said Harper.

"I know, but I'll think about that tomorrow."

"Where do you stand on the issue?" Harper asked Bobbie.

"I can see both sides. But I'd like to check the DNA of Native
American burials and compare them with my people. I'm a Lumbee, you know. Nobody knows where we came from. The
truth is out there somewhere." She grinned.

"You mean there's no knowledge whatsoever of where your
tribe came from?" asked Harper.

"Not really. My ancestors were living like Europeans when they
were first discovered, so to speak. Their Indian culture was completely lost. We do have many of the names of the lost Roanoke settlers. I believe my ancestors absorbed them into their community."

"Lacayo is Spanish," said Harper. "Have you traced that?
You're probably related to some of these guys in the wreck."

"I've done some research, but Lacayo is a common Spanish
name. There were lots of them that came over during the expeditions." Bobbie sighed. "Maybe we should try to get some sleep."

"You're right," Harper agreed. "We have a long way to go
tomorrow."

"It won't take that long," Lindsay said, rising to put a blanket
over the opening of the shelter. "I do a ten-mile run at least once a
week."

"Great," said Harper. "Bobbie and I'll stay here while you go
get help."

Just then, like a sudden explosion nearby, another cry of a bobcat split through the calm.

"OK," said Lindsay. "You two can stay here."

"Never mind," said Harper. The three of them settled back in
the shelter that Lindsay had constructed and pulled the blankets
over themselves.

Lindsay awoke first. She slipped out of the makeshift bed and
made her way into the woods to go to the bathroom. When she finished, she walked to the shore where the waterline was up to the
vegetation. Sure enough, there was no beach. The sun was just
above the horizon, giving the ocean a golden sparkle. Lindsay
slapped at her arm. The mosquitoes never rested. She made her
way back to camp just as Bobbie and Harper were waking up.

"Oh, good," said Harper. "We are still alive." She sat up. "God,
I'm stiff. And bitten."

Lindsay put out the smoldering fire and gathered up the supplies they would take.

"We'll put the rest in the boat."

They folded the tarp, gathered the extra blankets, and walked
to the boat.

"The boat's gone!" cried Bobbie, as the three of them stood on
the bank where Harper had tied it to a tree.

"That's impossible. It couldn't have pulled loose."

"Did you use a quick-release knot?" asked Lindsay.

"Yes, but the boat wouldn't have pulled it loose."

"It was probably a raccoon," said Lindsay. "I've had them
unzip my tent and come in and steal food."

"You're kidding. So-what, it was looking for food and when it
didn't find any it untied the boat for spite?"

"Quick-release knots are often used to tie up sacks of food in a
tree. It probably learned how to release it while stealing food.
They're smart little guys with humanlike hands. The boat can't
have gone far. The tide was coming in. It probably drifted down
the shore. Trey can send someone to look for it and tow it back."

They decided to take a bottle of water for each of them, the
insect repellent, the first-aid kit, and one blanket, but left the rest
of the supplies under a tree to retrieve later. Then they headed
south. Lindsay looked at her watch. It was just past seven A.M.

"We don't have a compass," she said, "so we have to try and
keep the sun to our left ... and stay on the trail."

"I'll bet you can find your direction looking at the shadow of a
stick in the ground, can't you?" said Harper.

"As a matter of fact, I can," said Lindsay.

"I thought so. Okay, Daniel Boone, lead the way."

Finding a good trail wasn't that easy. They passed through
areas under stands of live oaks with no visible trails. Lindsay constantly checked the rising sun to make sure they were going
straight. When she did find an animal trail, it was narrow and
overhung with brush and thick with sharp palmettos.

"Okay, B'wana," said Harper. "I'm getting scratched up and
eaten alive by insects. When's the trail going to widen some?
Aren't there any big animals on the island?"

Lindsay passed down a bottle of insect repellant. "They may be
inland. I was trying to go more parallel to the shore so we don't get
lost."