Chapter 41: Best Laid Plans?

Island Day -36

Brad Lowenstein POV:

Brenda and I hadn’t been here for the last four days and a whole hell of a lot has happened! Darren even came to ‘face the music’, as he put it, that JB was no longer with us.

At first I thought maybe our young friend may have gotten in a car wreck or something and had gotten himself killed.

But, no, he said JB was fine. He had gone to Perdition Island.

More or less to stay!

“What?” I asked surprisedly, “Why didn’t he say something to us first!?”

Darren sighed, “He was afraid you’d try talking him out of it or even forbid him from going. Look, Professor, JB is totally in love with Annie and felt that begging forgiveness would be easier than asking for permission.”

“I’m hurt that he feels that way. After everything you two have done for us, I would have listened and tried to see his side of things?”

Brenda giggled, “Yes, my dear, but then you would have tried talking him out of it, right?”

I nodded like a bobble-head, “Aaargh, yeah, you’re right. I’m just afraid he’s going to become at least a small part of the story now?”

Darren looked like he was choking, “Ummm, more than just a small part, I’m afraid. Maybe you shouldn’t go back in time to see what happened the second day he was there?”

Ibera was also now also nearly choking, looking at Darren conspiringly. When I asked the portal to show me, Darren filled me in on everything.

Holy SHIT.

In just two days he was well on his way to becoming one of the prime players! Many of the more intelligent prisoners even wanted JB to lead them. When Ibera showed us his ‘feat’ at the mine, I fell into my chair, nearly catatonic!

I would never have guessed that JB had that kind of ... extreme violence, in him!

Darren no longer had to convince me of JB’s deep love for Annie, though. Had someone done that to Benda, right in front of me, there’s no telling what I would have done if I had powers like he does. The way he never gave up on her made me view his going in a much different light.

Darren went on to show us most of the other important ‘goings on’ that we’d missed.

I started laughing, “Well, so much for my idea that there’s not much going on! I wonder what Elmer and his sisters are up to? It’s been an entire day since Chen taunted them about being screwed?”

Brenda grinned, “Let’s check them out. Should we start in the past or present?”

“Let’s see where they are now, then, we can see how they got to, wherever they are, if we need to?” I asked.

When we dialed up the portal, we found them.

They were hopelessly lost and as we viewed out, Ibera calculated they were approximately 400 miles northwest of the Island. Basically adrift, with a tarp tied haphazardly to the mast, acting like a sail, with only a wisp of a breeze blowing them slowly to the east-southeast.

Elmer had stripped to just his underpants and a T-shirt, while his sisters were wearing, what appeared to be very large T-shirts and probably nothing else. Darren explained those were most likely taken from Hugo and his buddies. He further explained that when they left they took everything they could get their hands on with them, including the guys’ personal belongings.

Lola was hanging on to a nearly empty water jug, while Marcella was desperately begging her to share what tiny amount was left with her and Elmer.

“God damn you Lola, that’s all the water we have left!” Marcella lamented, “Why the fuck didn’t you fill them like we asked? If you had, we wouldn’t be nearly out of water now!”

“What the FUCK difference is it going to make? We’re all going to die anyway!” She screamed, then broke into tears.

Elmer was just staring at his two sisters, shaking his head, dejectedly, “Both of you are to blame for this. You made us rush off before we could truly be ready. You two need to stop this bickering and the three of us need to figure out how to get out of this mess.”

Marcella huffed, then sighed, “I’m sorry ... for everything. E is right. Fighting with each other is not going to help even one little bit. The only food we have left are a few tomatoes, six carrots, some raw potatoes and string beans. We should have stopped and regrouped after our little visit from Chen, or whoever that was. I fear that our arrogance, continuing to go away from our Island, was a huge mistake.”

She looked up to the sky, “If anyone is watching us, I just want to say that we’re all sorry? The three of us have been so pigheaded and stupid. Please, I’m begging you, if there’s any way you can help us, we’ve all learned our lesson...”

They were all looking up to the sky, until, after a few minutes, it was apparent her plea wasn’t heard.

Brenda, Darren and I spent the next several minutes watching them. Darren asked, “Do you think they’ve really learned their lesson or, was her plea, just another scam?”

“It’s hard to tell, really.” I said, “Lola and Marcella can both put on a good act when they want to. The question is, are they desperate enough yet, to truly be ready to forget their vendettas and change their ways?”

Brenda was slowly shaking her head, “I don’t know guys. They seem to be getting desperate, but I too, can’t be totally convinced they’re sincere.”

Ibera had been watching with us and asked, “Since they’re out in the open and just barely moving, I could conceivably open a wormhole to dump something out right onto their boat. When I zoomed out the portal, I noticed there’s an island about 15 miles from their position, but they’re going to have to turn the boat and paddle Northeast to find it. Do you want to run our own little test?”

I started chuckling, “I like the way you think, Ibera. I can see why my two young friends keep getting into so much trouble! When it comes right down to it, you have a soft heart, don’t you? What exactly do you have in mind?”

She gave me a soft smile, “I was thinking, that maybe we drop them a small care package of five gallons of water and a note, telling them how to get to that island. I am going to tell them to use their compass and paddle in the direction of 45 degrees’ northeast, and that there’s an island there. I’m also going to tell them that is all the help I’ll be able to give them. It will be up to them to believe me and do what I tell them. If they refuse, then we’ll just keep checking in on them every so often until we see that they are all dead.”

We gave her the okay and she prepared a small toolbox with her note, the water, and a full-size compass. She included a few extra ‘goodies’ like a box of matches and a reminder that they still had all the seeds that Mario had given the guys.

We watched as her toolbox landed on the seat between Elmer and Marcella.

They both jumped like they’d been struck by lightning. Then, they all looked up into the sky in utter disbelief. Marcella quickly opened the toolkit and seeing the water, began crying. She quickly unfolded the note and started reading.

“I heard your pleas. You have to admit; you don’t really deserve my help. Everyone I sent to that planet, with the exception of you three, have all made great strides in trying to improve their lives. If you will paddle in the direction of 45 degrees, Northeast, you’ll find an island. I do not know what all that is there, but there is freshwater along with some small game that can be hunted. You can also use those seeds that you stole from the boys and you will never go hungry. Things on that planet grow extremely quickly. From the day that you plant something, you could expect to be eating it within two weeks. This island is over 400 miles away from the island you left. You will need to take down your sail or it will continually pull you off course. I will check in on you in a week or so. Good luck, signed,

Ibera.”

Elmer and Lola were listening intently to every word. For a second, it looked like Lola was going to say something only to have Marcella put her finger in her face, “Don’t even think about it, sister! Ibera just saved our fucking lives! Let’s take down that damn sail and start paddling. Oh look, she even gave us a real compass to use.”

“How do we know this compass even works?” Lola scoffed.

Elmer slapped her in the face, “DAMN you Lola, Missy Ibera would not have given it to us and told us what direction to go if it didn’t work! I want to untie that sail and take it down right now. You and I will paddle while Marcella keeps us on course.”

Elmer quickly untied the sail, then he and Marcella folded it up and stored it in one of the big toolboxes.

Surprisingly, Lola helped and soon, she and Elmer were both rowing, following Marcella’s directions.

After a couple hours, Marcella stood on one of the seats and yelled, “Ibera wasn’t lying! I see that island she told us about. Give me two of those oars so I can start helping you guys paddle!”

I don’t know that any of us had ever seen the three of them working so hard together. The closer they got to the island, the faster they began paddling. We watched as they found a small inlet, beached their boat, pulled it further up on shore and even set the anchor.

They took a few minutes to do a quick survey of their surroundings.

Elmer pointed to the mountain that was only a short distance away, “Let’s see if we can get lucky and find a cave? If not, we’ll have to try and make a tent again. I don’t know that we’ll have any more success than we did the first time?”

Lola actually smiled, “If you guys want to start unloading the boat, I’ll do a quick look around. Okay?”

They told her that was a good idea, and she actually started running along a path that led toward the mountain. We were stunned as we followed her, noticing that she was truly looking around closely at everything along the way.

She stopped at one point and listened, then ran between the trees and found a good size stream flowing out toward the south end of the island. She dropped to her knees and quickly used her hands to take a drink of the water. The smile on her face was utter joy.

“Yes! Oh my God, she really wasn’t lying to us! I found water!” She shouted.

Elmer and Marcella could just barely hear her, but both smiled at each other. Lola made her way back to the path, then, continued toward the mountain. Soon she found what she was really looking for, a cave. Again, she could barely contain herself as she screeched, “I found one! Oh God, I can’t believe I found one!”

When she didn’t hear a reply, she realized she might be a little too far away for her brother and sister to have heard her. She quickly ran back along the path where she found Elmer and Marcella waiting for her with open arms.

She rushed to them, with tears flowing down her face, “This is even better than what we had on our other island! I found a cave and a stream and both are not too far from here. Let’s hurry and get our stuff to the cave so we can set it up, gather some wood and get a fire started so we can cook up some of those potatoes. Aren’t you guys starving?”

Elmer started laughing then picked Lola up, swung her around, then kissed her on the cheek, “Who in the hell are you, and what have you done with my bitch sister, Lola?”

Lola playfully tapped Elmer on the cheek, “I told your bitch sister to get fucking lost! A few hours ago, I was convinced we were all going to die. Now, here we are on dry land and we already found freshwater and a place to live! I found a nice cave that’s not even a third as far away from the beach as our other cave was from the other beach. There’s a stream, not too far away, and the water is ice cold and tastes great. We have everything we need. Isn’t it great?”

Marcella hugged her, “Well, I hope my bitch sister stays lost. I like this new one much better!” She giggled.

Elmer chortled, “I too like this new Lola. She already done more work in first 10 minutes than she did in first 10 days back at our other place!”

As they all started carrying their stuff toward their new home, we decided to see what else was going on with the big family.

Hugo and his buddies were all in one of Blaine’s old boats that was now sporting a 100-horsepower Mercury outboard motor. They seemed to be having fun as they were zipping around testing it out.

Max, JB and Steve were just getting into the huge boat that they’d gotten from Elmer that was now sporting a 175-horsepower Mercury outboard motor. They had just pushed it into the water and after a short while, were having no problem keeping up with Hugo and his buddies. It didn’t turn as sharply, but seemed to be able to go even faster in a straight line. That was surprising considering this boat was nearly five times as big as the one they were chasing.

After a bit, both boats stopped and they started having a spirited conversation.

Hugo chuckled, “Damn, that big sucker really hauls ass. We could get ahead of you after a sharp turn, but you caught right back up to us in nothing flat! I gotta tell you, this is one of the fastest boats I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving. Just how fast you reckon we were going?”

Max laughed, “I think you guys were topping out well over 50 miles an hour. I can’t believe it, but our yacht probably tops out at near 60 miles per hour. That’s mostly because we have the most aggressive prop JB brought with him. We could put a more aggressive one on yours too, if you feel the need for more speed?”

Hugo grinned, “Nah, this is plenty fast enough for me. Hey, since we have our fishing gear with us, would you mind if we go out and do some fishing?”

Steve nodded, “Go ahead. I would suggest taking little Hera with you guys. That little cutie has a real knack for telling you where the big fish are!” He hesitated for a second then added, “speaking of the little devil, I haven’t seen any of those little guys for a while. Does anyone know where they’re hiding?”

JB chuckled, “I think little Zeus and Hera went back to Ibera’s. They didn’t feel they were needed around here anymore, so last night Ibera sent a wormhole and they went back. Athena and Apollo should be around here somewhere though, they wanted to stay behind to be with Annie and Lolita.”

Just then, Athena appeared on the bow of the boys’ boat. Otis chuckled, giving her a pat on the head, “Hey Little One, do you know anything about finding fish?”

“Heck yeah, Mama taught me everything she knows!” She flashed, but it was apparent none of the four could actually ‘hear’ her.

JB relayed the message then teleported into the boat with them.

They were surprised when JB asked, “How would you guys like to be able to actually talk to her? Chen and I have discussed it and I’d like to give you guys telepathy, if you’d like that? That way, you guys can always talk to any of us, including little Athena and Apollo, without having to say a word. Even if we’re all the way on the mainland.”

The four of them looked stunned.

Otis asked, “You could really do that? I thought we had to be like, really smart or something?”

JB chuckled, shaking his head, “Nah, you guys are plenty smart enough. You just have to promise not to tell anyone who can’t talk back to you this way, about how you got this ability, or who gave it to you. If you do, you’ll get a really bad stomach ache. It’s called the ‘Confidentiality Agreement’, and you have to agree to it before I can give you telepathy. All of us also have this same deal, so you’re not being singled out. If you start accidentally saying something, the pain will start out slowly, giving you a chance to realize you’re messing up and then you can just shut up really quick. Do you agree to this?”

The four of them were looking at each other, incredulously, but were also slowly nodding their heads.

Hugo asked, tentatively, “Is it going to be hard for us to learn?”

JB chuckled, shaking his head, “Nope, it’s really easy. I’ll give it to all four of you then the seven of us can practice before the whole family welcomes you.”

He touched each of them on the shoulders and no sooner than he did, their eyes lit up as Max and Steve started talking to them. JB had to remind them a few times not to also talk out loud, but within a couple minutes they’d gotten the hang of it and were all smiling, chatting away like crazy.

I was glad we were Spirit Walking when all the rest of the family joined in to welcome them to their little club. Even little Athena and Apollo welcomed them.

Hugo grinned, “This is really cool! And you’re saying, we can just silently call anyone we want to talk to, anytime we want?”

Max nodded, “You got it! Now, the next time we go on a mission, you’ll be able to hear everything that’s going on. Back at the mine, the other day, you guys missed out on a lot of the conversations we were having. Now, that won’t happen again.”

Fredo chuckled, “It was kind of confusing at first when it seemed like everyone was talking over each other. Then, after a bit, it’s like I could understand everything everyone was saying! What’s the deal with those little pictures that keep popping into my head?”

“That’s so you know who you’re talking to. If you want to talk to somebody, privately, just think of them first and call them after their picture comes into your head. That way, whatever you say between the two of you, no one else will know. That’s called private mode. When everybody talks as a group, we call that broadcast mode. Basically, if you’re not talking to someone privately, almost everyone will be able to hear you.”

Now the four of them were all grinning and nodding their heads.

We could tell they were all practicing and Otis seem to be having a blast, talking to little Athena. She was now in his lap and licking his nose like crazy. We heard him ask her if she was ready to do some fishing and started laughing like crazy when she replied, “Heck yeah, I’ll look at em, you throw your hook at em!”

We watched JB teleport back to the big boat as the four intrepid fishermen headed out deeper into the ocean, with Athena leading the way.

JB looked at Max, “Well guys, I think it’s about time we paid Markus and Sonny a visit, don’t you think?”

Max nodded, “We should probably tell Chen to meet us there, does anyone know where he’s at? I haven’t seen him since breakfast.”

JB huffed, “Aaah, that’s right. He and Jasmine took off to meet that general dude. He had a feeling they were getting close to the castle. No sense bothering him, I think the three of us should be able to handle everything that needs to be done. You think we should bring Blaine with us?”

Steve shook his head, “Nah, he’s with Mario and the gang. They’re going to build a bigger outhouse so four people can go at once. Tumrik gave them this big basin contraption to put into the hole so he could pump it out and use it for their food replicator. Something about needing more raw materials since they’ve been replicating so much stuff for us.”

JB and Max looked like they are going to vomit. “Eeew, are you telling me that’s what they’re using to make all of the cereal, booze and another food that they’ve been giving us?” JB asked, frowning.

Steve started laughing like crazy, “I wish I hadn’t told you, but Tumrik said that works better than anything else they can put into it. You should have them put one in that hole you dug over by your place, too. It wouldn’t stink as much as having it just covered with that tarp.”

Darren and I looked at Ibera who was grinning like crazy. She giggled, “Are you guys really going to make me say it? I have a feeling their technology, in that regard, is nearly the same as ours. Not to worry, it’s all perfectly sanitary.”

I looked at the ice tea and cookie I was eating, and that just made her giggle all the more.

I have to admit, if everyone on earth could take advantage of that technology, no one would ever go hungry and we wouldn’t need smelly sewage treatment plants any more. I reminded Darren and Brenda that a lot of Chicago’s drinking water came from storm water sewage treatment plants!

Ibera went on to tell us that virtually all organic garbage worked great for supplying their food replicators.

Chen POV:

When Max and JB said they were going to finally work on the boats today, I pulled Jasmine aside and we made plans to meet up with the General. Right away, she said she had bad vibes about just the two of us going.

“What’s the matter Babes? Don’t tell me the guys got to you.” I asked.

She shook her head, “No, it’s not them. It’s more like a premonition, I guess. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but, I’d feel better if we had more backup?”

“Look, we’ve got this! You saw how I had that General eating out of my hand, didn’t you?”

“Did you ‘push’ him, not to betray you?”

I shook my head, “No, the way he was agreeing with everything I said, I guess I just didn’t feel it was necessary.”

She was giving me this look that left me wondering. I just know this guy doesn’t have a second medallion. I watched the thing flying off into the distance and there’s no way he could’ve just stumbled on it. No, we’re safe, and I’m sure of it.

She sighed, then shrugged her shoulders, “Alright baby, if you’re that sure, let’s get out of here!”

I grinned, “Now that’s the Jasmine I know and love. Give me a couple seconds to find and drop in on him, then teleport in just above us and invisible. I’ll let you know when to join us in person, okay?”

She nodded and I pictured the General and teleported to about 10 feet above him. He was riding shotgun in what looked to be a 13^th-century equivalent to a chuck-wagon. I noticed an empty space behind him and ported in, invisible. It wasn’t really a seat, more like an empty space where you could store things. I listened to their conversation for a couple minutes, just to see what they were talking about.

They were talking about me.

The driver, named Jack, asked if he thought ‘that wizard’ was really going to come back.