Chapter 22

Jeremy found a deposit of clay near the middle of the island. It wasn’t a lot, but it might work for his needs. He called Naomi over, and they worked out a simple sledge to move quantities larger than they could carry across the sand. Jeremy also realized that he needed a table or two before they got too far ahead of themselves. Tables were going to be a big pain in the ass, he realized. With no saw, he would have to hack and scrape to make a table.

The next week seemed to go on forever. There was never enough time, and there was always too much that needed his attention. The girls, well, aside from a few, were all about as helpful as a warm cup of piss in the Mojave. Still, he pressed on, pushing himself to make things work, to make a working salt works as well as getting some tables and chairs later built.

On the bright side, he thought that Sunni’s work with the new clothes, although a bit bizarre, was a great improvement. Not that it changed his opinion of her too much. She was still annoying. In fact, he decided that most of the girls were annoying. He sighed as he leaned against the wall of the hut.

Nicole lay between his legs, her breasts on either side of his cock as she softly tickled his balls with her fingertips.

“Jeremy?” she said finally.

“Hmmm?”

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, ... everything, it’s almost too much.” Jeremy said.

“Is it something I did? I mean, if you don’t want me anymore I’ll, I’ll understand there are...” Nicole whispered.

“Nicole love,” Jeremy chuckled, almost out of sheer frustration to keep from crying. “Nicole you are the least of my problems, it’s the other girls and the fact that I somehow have to serve every one of you, and service every one of you, nevermind providing for you all and insuring you’re all taken care of. It’s enough to give a devout Mormon a headache. Never mind someone who never gave the whole polygamist concept a second thought, but that’s what I’m dealing with. I suppose I could do with a little less drama. I’m really happy with what Sunni has done.

“Me too,” Nicole said, as she surveyed her own outfit, which was essentially a bustier with a skirt, though the skirt part was more like a loin cloth than a skirt. It looked good. The whole interlocking plates of coconut shells gave it a very interesting texture to say the least, but at the same time it was functional.

Jeremy didn’t really want to get into the semantics of it, as the outfit was sexy. Hell, who was he to judge what was sexy and what wasn’t?

He walked out to the salt works. The salt works ended up being two large logs that held a series of clay pots. They already had accumulated a small amount of salt for the purpose of tanning. Maybe a 1/4th of a kilo, he thought, which was about half a pound. He liked to do the mental gymnastics of conversions when he was frustrated. He sat down and ate some fruit that one of the girls had set out.

Naomi came up to him. “I think it’s time for you to get a new girl.”

“Aww do I have to?”

“You sound like I’m telling you that you have to go back to school.” Naomi laughed.

“This is worse. I have, I don’t know, how many insecure girls and the ones who aren’t insecure are perverts one way or another.”

“Oh come on Jeremy, at least most of them are devoted to you.”

“I didn’t ask for this. I mean, at first it was fun but now its, its just hard.”

Naomi chuckled. “I bet it is, nine willing women would make it hard for me too, if I was you.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jeremy said, punching Naomi playfully on the shoulder.

“I know Jeremy. I know what you meant. I can see where you are coming from. Hey, lets go survey the rest of the island. We could take Nicole with us, just so there is no one saying that any hanky panky is going on.

“I know we really haven’t had a chance to do a full survey. With all I have been doing, its been near impossible to get a chance to do anything aside from keeping time and making sure that everyone has enough to eat.” Jeremy sighed.

“Well, everything is pretty well caught up, and I’m fairly sure we have a little before the next crisis.”

“What about Joe and Gary?”

“What about them?”

“Should we check on them or?”

“Jeremy, I know, well, no that’s not true. I understand that you want to try to make sure everyone makes it through this okay, but from what I have seen of those two, unless they wash up on the beach or something, out of sight, out of mind. I don’t care what has happened to them. Maybe in a few weeks we can have a look and see, but right now I don’t give a crap about them.”

“Gee Naomi, you’re a real humanitarian.”

“Sue me,” Naomi said and Jeremy laughed. They collected Nicole and the three of them walked single file down a game trail into the jungle.