Chapter 3: Day Three

That morning I finally lost my patience.

I had burned my fingers while attempting to start a fire using wet wood. The three cold hungry miserable females huddled under the dripping lean-to were in a foul humor. I had smoked some fish the night before and I had seen the three gingerly pick at the cold food then throw it into the jungle.

Kimberly bitchily advised me, "Any moron could have that fire lit by now."

A heat flared at the back of my neck. I slowly set down the firewood and stood up. I brushed sand from my knees and turned to the women.

"I am done with this," I said. "When any of you cares to behave as a decent person, come and see me."

I grabbed half the matches, the knife, and a box of supplies and strode down the beach. I felt their collective eyes boring into my back as I put some distance between us. I had seen a perfect camping spot a mile up the beach.

In fact by that evening I had constructed a low shelter with a tight roof and walls. There were sheltering palms, fresh water and some nearby fish-stocked tidal pools. I had speared a delicious fat fish for my supper. At sunset I was sitting against a palm tree, weaving fronds into a sleeping mat and enjoying a cocktail. The supplies I had snatched had included a wide selection of those little flight bottles of booze. While tepid coconut milk was not the best mixer I had ever tasted, after numerous attempts I had come up with a palate-pleasing concoction. I smacked my lips and congratulated myself again on my latent, never before used, survival talents.

I heard approaching voices and the three girls appeared. Standing by my fire the three faced me. Kimberly had crossed her arms and began a hot tirade involving my lack of common decency, bad attitude and my responsibilities.

I had been debating this problematic situation in my mind all afternoon and her little tirade cemented my ultimate decision.

I held up my hand. "Okay, stop," I said. "This is the way this is all going to work." The three stared at me. "If you want to live and maybe get off this island then you will do it my way.

"First off, I am the boss," I said. I was a bit pissed and a little drunk so I expanded on that. "No. I think king is a better description." I smiled at them and sat back.

Then I added, "You will keep your mouths shut and do everything exactly as I say."

I looked at Kimberly with an open leer. "And I do mean EVERYTHING I say."

Kimberly spat at me in disgust, "You are crazy and sick." She added vehemently, "My days of taking any shit from any man are long past!"

She spun on her heels and disappeared into the darkness. The two teenagers were looking at me with wide-eyed shock. Brittany turned and went after her sister. Jennifer stared at me. "Does that mean we would have to have sex?" she said.

I was momentarily taken aback at her youthful effrontery. Then I thought I would come right back at her. "Yes Jennifer. You would fuck me, you would suck me and I think I would put my cock right up that tight little ass of yours."

She gasped, turned and went running after the others. I noticed her legs rose straight to that firm compact butt. She had one of those flat gaps at the junction on her thighs and sex.

"Damn!" I murmured. I had a hotly intense vision of cupping my hand there.

DAY FOUR

I had awakened with a bad hangover. I was also very hungry. Yesterday I had thought of an easy way to catch seagulls. Today my simple plan was proving to be effective, but onerous.

I had scooped out a body-sized depression in the loose sand and then lay down and buried myself.

My final moves had been to place the remnants of last night's supper on my loosely covered belly, cover my face with some seaweed and lastly to burrow my exposed arm into the sand.

The rapidly rising sun had uncomfortably warmed the sand. I began to sweat last night's excesses. The rank seaweed filled my senses and my head pounded claustrophobically. Time passed slowly. Finally though the green cover I saw several gulls land nearby and peer at the offered bait with cock-headed suspicion. My stomach groaned in emptiness. I concentrated in an effort to remain still.

Suddenly with a keening squawk one flapped up and then down to land on me. In the same instant I brought my arms together to clasp the wilding struggling and crying bird. Within moments I had managed to wring it's neck suffering only several beak induced gashes to my arms.

In victory I held the bird above my head and screamed, "YES!"

"DAMN" Kimberly swore.

She had been knocking two coconuts together as she attempted to crack the hard shells. She had broken a nail off at the quick. She watched as blood beaded at the new wound, and she started to cry.

Kimberly had started the morning eager to prove her self-reliance and self-sufficiency. But as the hours progressed her efforts at foraging for food had been less than successful. She resigned herself to the fact that supper tonight was going to be quite meager at best. The only coconuts and fruit she had found on the ground were too hard, cracked open or were soft and mushy. She had been unsuccessful in throwing rocks to dislodge the less ripe fruit that dangled above her. She finally had to resort to trying to find any fallen debris that might at least have a semblance of being edible. Her early-day optimism had faded to a gray depression.

She would not allow herself to be dependant on a man. "Even a damn good-looking one," she told herself with a slight bitter smile. She shook her head in dismay at this fix she and the girls were in. "Mother must be frantic," she thought. Her mother had always made great attempts to de-glamorize Kimberly's pin-up career for the sake of the younger Brittany. But now Brittany was eighteen. She had graduated high school and had been accepted at a good college for the coming fall.

Once Kimberly had suggested this trip to her mother and younger sister, all maternal misgivings had been overwhelmed in the ensuing teenage excitement. "A simple trip to Hawaii," Kimberly remembered telling her mother. She tossed her long hair from her face and looked down the beach. "I hope those two are having better luck with fishing," she thought. Her stomach cramped when she looked back down at the fruit she had found.