The sun outside this thicket of ferns and bushes is bright and I have to shield my eyes for a moment before I focus on Lacey and Richard. She’s sleeping with her back against a coconut palm, Richard is on the ground with his head in her lap. Both of them are snoring.
My first thought is that I am so happy that they’re alive.
Things could have gone so much worse than they did.
My second thought is that Richard snores like a banshee, and Lacey is drooling on his forehead. My god, it must run in the Lewis family.
And Tai…
I look around, slowly getting up.
He’s nowhere in sight.
I try not to panic, looking around.
The jungle behind me is thick with foliage and the sound of birds and buzzing insects. The air is so humid that it takes me a moment to realize my clothes are still wet from the ocean and my skin is damp. The jungle looks like a dangerous place, and by dangerous, I mean full of insects and gross things that I don’t want any part of.
I walk past the row of palms and fragrant flowers between the jungle and the beach, and step out into the sand.
Holy crap.
In the burning light of what must be mid-day, it’s apparent that not only is the storm completely gone, but it’s dropped us off in the lap of a quintessential deserted island.
The sand is blindingly white, the water the palest of blue. To the right of us, the land slopes upward until it forms steep rock cliffs. To the left, the beach continues in a flat track, on and on.
In front of me is Tai, sitting on the sand where it meets the water, gentle clear waves lapping his feet, as if a storm never passed through here at all.
His back is to me and he’s looking out across the blue lagoon, toward the reefs.
Toward Atarangi.
She’s still there! She’s on her side and the sails are ripped to shreds, but she hasn’t sunken into the depths. She’s still there.
Something about that warms my heart.
I want to go and say something about that to Tai, but I think he’s probably still mad at me, since this thing is pretty much all my fault.
At the very least, I need to use the washroom.
I quickly turn around and start looking around where we slept. Lacey and Richard are still snoring away but a quick search of our bags proves that nothing stayed dry.
I’m looking for tissue, to be precise, since none of us had the smarts to bring toilet paper.
Who knew it was one of the essential items?
So I head into the bush, trying not to go too far because, got to admit, it’s kind of scary being on an island like this. Maybe people do live here, which is great, but I don’t want them to watch me pee. Or maybe there are some crazy lizards that bite your butt or something. I don’t know.
What I do know is I squat and go about my business and…
I feel eyes on me.
Hear a snuff of air.
From the side.
You know that scene in Jurassic Park, when Robert Muldoon, the sexy Australian warden, is hunting for the raptors and the raptor suddenly appears from the side and he’s all “Clever girl”?
Well, yeah. I just looked over and there’s a fucking pair of eyes looking at me.
A motherfucking goat.
I scream and fall over, scrambling to my feet and yanking up my pants and then I’m running, I don’t know in what direction but I don’t care, I’m so disoriented.
That was a goat, right? Goat eyes are so damn creepy, it could have been some demon!
“Daisy?” I hear Lacey’s voice.
I run toward her voice, nearly knocking her over when I crash through some bushes.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, holding onto me, her eyes wide. “What happened?”
“A goat!” I manage to yelp.
She frowns. “A goat?”
“Was watching me pee!”
“What? Where?”
I try to point where I came from but I have no idea anymore. “I don’t know but I was going to the bathroom and minding my business, and I looked over and a fucking goat face was staring at me.”
Clever goat.
“Well that’s a good sign,” Lacey says. “Means there might be people here. Goats are an introduced species.”
Even so, I get the feeling she doesn’t believe me.
“Come on, let’s go back to camp.”
“To camp?” I repeat. “It’s like we already live here now.”
She gives me a look that says, We do.
Back at camp, Richard is now awake, leaning against the palm tree and rubbing at his head.
“Are you okay?” Lacey asks, dropping to her knees beside him.
“I have an atrocious headache,” he says, slowly looking up at us. “And a face to match.”
Yeah, so Richard isn’t looking the best right now.
He’s pale, his tooth is missing, his one lens is still cracked, he’s got a spreading bruise under that eye, and a split upper lip.