Chapter 2

I woke up. The girls were still asleep. I dipped into the water to rinse the sand off my back then did some preliminary exploration.

The beach was beautiful white sand made even more beautiful by the fact we were alive on it. The beach was lined by the ocean on one side and tall, jungle trees and foliage on the inside. There was a lot of deadwood and fallen branches that could be used to make some kind of shelter. I gathered a handful of wood plus kindling. A fire would warm everyone up.

"Jack!" Jan yelled out.

"Over here!"

I reappeared a moment later. My nieces were stirring also. I dropped the wood on the beach half way between the jungle and the ocean.

"It's a great day to be alive!" I said cheerily.

"No, it's not," said Amy.

"Yes, it is," said Jan. "Uncle Jack rescued us all. You should be appreciative."

"It was his stupid boat that put us here."

"Amy!" Jan said angrily.

"It's okay," I butted in. "My stupid boat did put us here. I don't know what happened. Could you hand me my vest, Jan?"

I arranged the wood. I took waterproof matches out of the vest pocket and started a fire. When the matches were gone, I would use a magnesium bar and my pocket knife. The girls immediately gravitated to the fire like moths.

As the girls warmed, I went and brought more wood back. I found a good long stick and took out my pocket knife from the vest pocket to begin whittling.

"What are you doing, Uncle Jack?" Amy asked.

"Making a spear. We're going to need to eat and hopefully I can spear some fish."

"I'm hungry."

I was too. We hadn't eaten since dinner last night. Looking at the position of the sun, it was probably early afternoon.

"What about water?" Amanda said.

"We have all this water here!" Amy said, pointing at the ocean.

"We can't drink it, dummy! It's saltwater."

"Amanda!" chided Jan.

"It's true!"

"You can say it nicely."

I said, "It looks like it rains a lot here, so if we can make things to collect rainwater then we won't go thirsty."

"There could be a magic lake in the middle!" Amy said, excitedly.

"That's nice for movies but I would be surprised if we found such a place."

"Oh," she sadly.

"We'll explore when we have a chance. Who knows what we'll find? A freshwater lake or stream would be nice." Amy's spirits seemed to brighten. "The rain will solve our water problem. Now we have to prioritize building a shelter."

"What do you want us to do to help, Jack?" asked Jan.

"For now, rest and get warm. I'm going to try to catch us some fish."

I took my makeshift spear and headed into the water. There were many, many fish and of various types in the shallows of this island beach. I hadn't noticed them before because I was too busy just trying to survive.

I was out there for probably half an hour when Amanda called out, "How's it going?"

"Almost," I said, but I didn't feel any better at this than when I started.

Amanda left after ten minutes or so of me floundering in the water. I'd certainly take a flounder for a meal.

"Yes!" I triumphantly said when I speared one. It wasn't big but I had a fish!

"Mom!" Amy yelled noticing. "Uncle Jack got one!"

I tossed it into the sand.

Jan came over and retrieved it.

"I'll cook it right up!" she said happily.

"How are you going to do that?" I said.

"I'll figure something out.

"Be careful."

"I will."

I ended up with three fish total. It wasn't much food, but it was the tastiest semi-cooked fish I ever had. Jan had placed the fish on a flat piece of wood. She used a couple of sticks to turn and move the fish. She retrieved our lunch before the wood burned through and we lost the fish to the fire.

"If we had some rocks, the fire would heat the rocks and we could cook the fish on them," said Jan.

"Good idea."

The three girls wanted to go collect rocks. I wasn't comfortable with the idea.

"Stay together," I ordered, "and don't go very far in. If you lose sight of the beach then you've gone in too far."

"Then we can hardly go in at all," complained Amy.

"It's the way it is. I want us all to be together when we explore deeper."

"Just do what Uncle Jack says," Jan said. "He knows best."

I didn't know if I knew best, but I didn't want anyone getting hurt or getting lost.

Jan helped build the shelter. There was enough fallen wood, probably from the storm, that I decided we could actually start with a floor. With my knife and also twine from my vest, we laid out wood so it could easily sleep the five of us. It had extra room so we could move around.

The floor was the easy part. Standing up walls was the challenge. I thought and hoped we would be found quickly, but I felt we needed to build as if we would be here for the long haul. I didn't want something that would fall down during a storm. The storm that sunk my boat wouldn't be typical, but we still had to build something strong. I wanted to be dry during the rain and I wanted shelter from the burning sun.

The pocket knife was quality but it was still only a pocket knife so it took time to tightly wedge and interlace pieces together. By the time it was getting dark, I only had the floor built and four corner posts up but I felt it was an accomplishment.

"Let's go hunt dinner," I said to Jan.

She had a makeshift spear now.

In the water I said, "You need to be patient and thrust fast."

I speared in and missed. The results were usually a miss but it was still the best technique. I was much improved since earlier and was able to snag four quickly.

"I got one," Jan shrieked giddily.

I gave her a big hug.

Per my instruction, the girls had a rock-lined fire ring with wood inside and rocks in the middle of the wood to lay the fish on. The girls would gather the caught fish and begin to cook them

"Uncle Jack?" Amanda called out to me in the water.

"What's up?"

"You know in old times how they cooked meat on a stick over a fire. Can we do that?"

A spit? Why didn't I think of that?

"Great idea! I'll be right there."

"There's a big fish!" Jan said, excitedly.

"Where?" I said.

I turned too abruptly. For one, it would scare the fish away. For two, Jan thrust her spear and it went through the right leg of my swim trunks.

Jan screamed.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. It didn't get my leg."

The girls came running wanting to know what was wrong.

"Nothing," I assured. "I moved too fast and almost got speared. I was stupid. It only ripped my trunks."

When I got out of the water, I noticed my trunks were torn worse than I expected. It was a big gaping hole. Oh, well. I didn't expect to wear them all the time anyway. Clothing and nudity were issues we'd have to deal with eventually.

I rummaged through the wood and found some sticks that I could build a spit from. A little digging to drive the two poles securely into the sand and a little whittling of a thin stick that could hold the speared fish over the fire and we had our own rotisserie.

It was an easy task, but it was made hard because the rip in my swim trunks exposed my cock. I was very conscious of Amanda looking at it and I knew the others noticed too.

"Uncle Jack?" Amy said.

"Yes?"

"Your ... I can see your thing."

"It's called a cock," Amanda said.

I said, "I can't do anything about it right now. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," said Amanda. "We understand."

I guess this was as good a time as any to bring up the topic of clothing.

"I wasn't going to be able to wear my swim trunks all the time anyway," I said. "I'm going to have to be naked in front of you and you're not going to be able to wear your night shirts all the time."

"So you're going to see us naked?" inquired Amy.

"Yes."

"He's your uncle," Jan said. "It's okay."

"Besides, I practically saw you naked in the bikinis you were wearing," I joked. "Or should I say the bikinis you almost were wearing. Especially yours Amanda."

She blushed lightly.

It was almost dark so we decided to sleep.

"This is it?" complained Amy about the partially built shelter.

"Amy! Shut your mouth!" angrily chastised Jan. "Jack has worked hard."

"You could be sleeping in the sand," I said. I was a little miffed at the unappreciative girl too.

"I'm sorry," Amy said meekly.

I slept on the far right with Jan next to me. Amanda was on the far left and the twins were in the middle. It was a cold night and when I woke up in the dark, Jan was curled up against me. The three girls were all huddled together too. I went back asleep.