Island in the Sun

by Janice Horton

  She got the message loud and clear and she suddenly felt sick. What a mess she’d made! Leo had made a deal with Jack to get her off the boat and he’d gone to prison to protect her. Kate had been right when she’d written: ‘It’s just a shame that while protecting you he was also protecting his uncle.’

  To think she had spent the last ten years being angry with Leo for lying to her. She could only imagine how he’d felt when she’d turned up that night after he’d specifically told her to stay away.

  Leo reached out to tenderly touch Isla’s face with the palm of his hand. ‘At least now do you understand?’

  She nodded. ‘Yes. I do. Because of me you had to make a deal with Jack.’

  Jack gave her a shrug of resignation.

  ‘Does this change anything, Isla, now that you know?’ Leo pleaded.

  ‘There’s still one more thing, Leo,’ she answered. ‘It’s about you and Anya…’

  But just at that moment, the noise of the storm returned with a vengeance. It resonated through the cave quickly. It began as a low rumble and soon became a terrifying and deafening roar.

  It had also suddenly gone very dark. It had been a twilight world when they’d first arrived. Their eyes had soon adjusted to it but now it was almost too dark to see anything at all.

  ‘A question for another time, perhaps?’ Jack answered flatly.

  ‘Can we leave now?’ Isla begged.

  ‘Do we have a torch?’ Leo asked.

  ‘The life jacket has a torch on it,’ Isla pointed out.

  Suddenly, there was a huge and startling bang. It sounded like a bomb going off. The three of them leapt back in fear of their lives.

  ‘What the fuck was that?’ Jack yelled, as the explosion dissipated to what sounded like a violent hailstorm all around them.

  Once the noise had settled, Leo scrambled to his feet and, taking the lifejacket and its torch, he went over to the cave entrance to investigate. A thick cloud of dust hung in the torch’s narrow shaft of light.

  ‘Please be careful!’ Isla pleaded with him.

  ‘Oh no. This is bad!’ Leo said a moment later, panic rising in his voice.

  ‘What? What is it?’ Jack demanded.

  It was impossible for them to see through all the dust and debris in the air.

  ‘The entrance. I mean the exit. It’s blocked!’ Leo yelled.

  ‘A landslide?’ Isla queried, frightened, noting how the trickle of water into the cave had now become a torrential flood.

  They each knew this cave very well and so they also knew there was no other way out.

  Jack was now by Leo’s side. ‘Stand back. This rock has shifted. I can move it.’

  Isla felt immensely grateful that Jack, a bear of a man with the strength of ten men, was here with them. She stood back and watched him pushing against the giant rock; putting his powerful shoulder and his back into it. Jack grunted as he pushed hard but it only moved a fraction of an inch.

  Isla had once seen a TV show called Strong, in which men competed with each other for the title of the strongest man by moving trucks. They were all built like Jack, so if he said he could shift the rock, then she was sure he could.

  Leo was also watching his uncle struggle. Wanting to help him, he positioned the lifejacket and its torch onto the offending obstacle and began to lean against the rock too.

  Isla yelled at him to stop. ‘No, Leo! You’ll do more damage to yourself. How about we use the rope to make a winch?’

  Jack stopped pushing and took a breath. ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s do it. We can tie the rope around the rock and then use that bigger boulder over there as a cantilever.’

  Leo and Isla set to work and Jack tied the knots. Once he had the other end of the rope securely tied around his own waist, he began to take small backward steps to take up the slack. The strain was making the rope creak and Jack groan, but slowly and surely the stone began to lift.

  Leo yelled encouragement as Jack made progress then he yelled, ‘Okay, stop! That’s it. I can see daylight. Can you take the strain while we find something to hold it up, Jack?’

  Jack yelled back, ‘Yeah. I got it!’

  ‘What something?’ Isla questioned, frantically searching around and suddenly realising there were no handy logs or lengths of driftwood around as you might expect to find in a cave. Or, in fact, any smaller rocks that they might pile together to make a sturdy support. The ceiling of the cave was quite low, only eight to ten feet high in places, and everything around them was too big and too heavy to move. Leo joined in the hunt for leverage while Jack continued to take the strain.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Isla pleaded with Leo.

  After a few minutes, Jack had had enough. ‘Okay, clear. I gotta’ let it go!’

  The rock settled back onto the floor of the grotto with a thump.

  They continued to look around to try to find a solution to their problem, but soon realised that they were running out of time because the water level was rising fast. With the exit plugged and the pools now full and with freshwater cascading through the cracks in the walls, the floor of the grotto was flooding quickly. They were already ankle deep in water.

  ‘Look, the way I see it…’ said Jack, ‘there’s no way out of this other than for me to lift the stone again and for you both to crawl out underneath it.’

  ‘No,’ Leo said adamantly. ‘I won’t leave you here.’

  ‘Let me finish, Leo. I have dynamite in the boatshed. If you bring it back here and blast that rock away, I’ll make sure I’m up there and out of the way.’ He pointed up to a rock ledge near to the ceiling.

  ‘But the way this place is flooding we might not have enough time,’ Leo put to him.

  ‘But we have to do something, and soon, or we all die,’ Isla maintained.

  ‘Go. You can do it!’ Jack insisted. He tied the rope around his waist again and began to find a grip for his feet in the water and silt, which was now up to his knees. ‘Now hurry!’

  As he pulled back, the rope began to creak. Then came the grunting and the cursing as the rope began to strain and the big rock slowly began to move again. When it had lifted it a little over a foot, Jack held it firmly. ‘Go! Now!’ he yelled.

  Isla suddenly felt terrified. She shook her head. The escape route was now fully submerged and the water too silted to see right through to the other side like before. All she could think about was getting stuck in the small space under the rock and drowning, or Jack not being able to hold the rope. Or the rope snapping and her being crushed to death under it.

  ‘I can’t. I can’t do it, Leo!’

  ‘Isla, you are a brave woman. You can do this.’

  The torch light was starting to fade now too. Unable to see his face, she threw her arms around him. ‘Oh, say you’ll be right behind me, Leo. Promise me you won’t stay behind this time.’

  ‘I promise. Come on. You must go before it’s too late for all of us.’

  Isla got on her hands and knees in the muddy water and felt for the gap underneath the rock, then she took a deep breath and crawled under it. Her heart was beating fast, pumping oxygen around her adrenalin fuelled body. She pushed with her legs and used her fingers to pull at the silt and the stones beneath her until she was out at the other side and could lift her head up to suck in the fresh air.

  She’d done it! She’d made it. She scrambled to her feet. Outside the cave it was raining lightly and the wind had dropped. The hurricane had passed. She picked up a rock as big as her hand and banged it against the giant rock to let Leo know she was safely through to the other side.

  She glanced around her and saw that she’d been right about the landslide. There was now a huge pile of rock and mud that, had it fallen just a few more feet to the right, they’d have been buried alive and drowned before anyone could have got them out. The thought was terrifying.

  Now it was Leo’s turn. He’d promised he’d be right behind her. But where was he?

  Chapter Thirty
One

  Leo – Present Day

  Leo waited until he was sure Isla had made it through, then he waded over to Jack, who was still braced and holding up the rock. The water was now waist high on them.

  ‘I’ll be back as quick as I can with dynamite and the charges. I’ll be back in time, Jack, I swear it!’

  ‘It’s okay, son. You stayed behind for me once and I’m grateful I got the chance to make good.’

  ‘This is not about taking turns,’ Leo reasoned. He realised Jack had never called him son before.

  ‘Go! Save yourself. And make sure you marry the girl. You two work well together.’

  ‘Keep the rock up for as long as you can, Jack. It’s acting like a big plug pulled out of a plughole. It’s going to give you more time!’

  He knew there was only so long that Jack could hold up the rock, it weighed tonnes, so he took a deep breath and scrambled down under it. The weight of water also escaping had the effect of pushing him out through the space and he came out the other side in a rush.

  Isla was anxiously waiting.

  He was up and on his feet in a split second, the pain in his ribs forgotten. ‘We have to get to the boatshed and back with the charges quickly. I reckon Jack’s got about twenty minutes once he lets that rock fall.’

  Just at that moment they heard the rock fall, sealing both the exit and Jack’s fate if they weren’t able to get it cleared in time.

  Leo checked his watch. ‘Come on!’

  They ran as fast as they could. It took them five minutes to reach the path to the harbour. In three minutes they were in the boatshed. Everything in there was soaked from the sea surges during the hurricane. There was a padlocked cupboard at the back of the shed.

  ‘This is where Jack keeps his dynamite and charges,’ Leo told her.

  ‘Do you have the key?’ she gasped, trying to catch her breath from the running.

  ‘It’s usually on this wooden shelf.’ His voice cracked in pain and distress. ‘But it’s not here!’

  Isla spotted a machete in the corner. She grabbed it and gave it to him.

  ‘Stand back,’ he told her, just before he smashed the padlock off the cupboard.

  The door sprung open. Inside there was several guns and several packs of explosives.

  Isla grabbed a net from the Perfect Pearl in dry dock and, from what she could see, it had survived with little damage. ‘Here, put everything in this. What will you use to light the charges? Everything here is so wet.’

  Leo grabbed a blowtorch and a lighter and they both ran back outside and up the path and across the headland. Leo checked his watch again. They’d taken sixteen minutes so far and they still had to lay the charges. His hands were shaking so much that he was becoming clumsy.

  ‘Leo, how can I help? What can I do?’

  ‘Hold on to the torch and lighter. When I say go, light the torch but when I take it from you, you must run – not up the path, but over to those big boulders over there. They’ll offer some protection from the blast.’

  He quickly laid the charges around the space that used to be the entrance to the grotto.

  ‘Go!’ he yelled, as he fixed the last one in place.

  Isla tried desperately to light the blowtorch but the wind kept blowing out the lighter flame. After three attempts, she handed the torch to an angst-ridden Leo to see if he could do better.

  It had now been twenty-three minutes since Jack had been sealed in the grotto.

  ‘Run!’ he yelled.

  Isla did as she was told and headed for the big boulders.

  A few seconds later, Leo slid towards her, pulling her towards his chest and cradling her head with his arms, just as there was a huge explosion. The sky rained rocks for what seemed like forever, but the moment it stopped, he was up and running towards the grotto, with Isla in hot pursuit.

  There was a great slick of mud and water and rock pouring out from the entrance. There was so much debris in the air that it was hard to know if the great rock had been cleared, but then they saw it had worked. The obstacle had not been destroyed but blown further inside and there was enough room now to get in and out of the cave.

  Leo dashed inside. ‘Jack! Jack!’ he yelled, stumbling around looking for his uncle.

  Isla caught up with him. The dust began to clear and rays of sharp white sunlight lit up the grotto. Then they saw him. Jack was where he said he’d be, laying on the rock ledge next to the roof. Leo climbed up to him. When he reached him, he shook him. Jack was soaking wet but looked to be sleeping. He shook him harder but Jack did not stir. He checked for a pulse but couldn’t detect one. He tried to do CPR but it was difficult so high up in the grotto on such a narrow ledge.

  He yelled to Isla for help. ‘He’s not breathing! Quick, bring the rope. We need to get him down.’

  She worked quickly and when they got Jack down and into the light, they could see that his lips were blue and his skin pale. His black eyes were wide open. He looked dead. Leo started doing compressions on Jack’s chest.

  ‘I’m going to get help,’ Isla told him.

  She ran back outside, but she didn’t have to go far because all the men from the village had heard the explosion and had come running over the headland to find out what had happened.

  Isla waved her arms in the air. ‘Help! We need help. Jack needs help!’

  Some of the men went inside the grotto and some stayed outside, trying desperately to get a signal on their phones but there was still no cellular service on the island. One of the men, a tall lean athletic type, said he would run back to the village to bring medical help.

  Isla stayed where her legs had collapsed on her and waited for news on Jack’s condition. Sitting there, she happened to glance over to the Mango Cay and she caught her breath as she could hardly believe what she was seeing. The natural bridge that must have stood for many thousands of years, and had formed land access to Mango Cay, had collapsed into the sea.

  Mango Cay was now a separate island.

  As for Jack’s house, it had taken the full force of the hurricane. The damage was catastrophic. She found herself thinking ‘poor Jack’, but then the longer she waited for news, the more convinced she became that Jack was beyond caring about a house.

  It was only then she noticed that she had a huge bloody gash on her leg and that her fingernails were bleeding. She couldn’t account for the leg but remembered that her fingers had been shredded trying to undo the knots in the rope that they needed to get Jack down. She hadn’t felt a thing at the time but now her hands were throbbing with pain.

  Leo and the other men brought Jack out; it took them all to carry him. One of the men took over from Leo administering CPR until help arrived in the form of Nurse Rose from the island clinic.

  The man who had ran to alert her was running behind her carrying her medical bag. Nurse Rose was red faced and breathless but she worked quickly and used a defibrillator on Jack. With each attempt at reviving him she yelled, ‘Clear!’, and everyone, including Leo, stood back.

  After three unsuccessful attempts, Jack was pronounced dead.

  Leo, totally exhausted, soaking wet, plastered in silt and sand and mud, sat down next to his uncle and sobbed like a baby. Isla’s heart went out to him. Tears were streaming down her own face as she went over to comfort him while Jack’s body, now covered over with a blanket, was carried away on a stretcher.

  They were both shivering violently so blankets were wrapped around them before first aid was offered to Isla for the gash on her leg. She protested, insisting that Leo’s injuries were attended to first. Leo, in turn, insisted that his ribs were only bruised and he stayed with her while Nurse Rose dressed her wounds.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  The following day, in the aftermath of Hurricane Kate, the big island clean-up began and a plane full of food and drinking water and medical supplies arrived courtesy of the Cayman Islands government relief fund. They also sent a team of engineers to repair and restore telephone and inter
net connections. The wind had calmed and it wasn’t long before the sun was shining again and everyone on Pearl Island was back in business of sorts or operating almost as normal.

  Isla had slept fitfully during the night and was awake at dawn. She didn’t bother with breakfast, mainly because she had no appetite but mostly because she was keen to see Leo first thing this morning. She wanted to check on him and to ask if he needed any help with the arrangements for Jack’s funeral.

  She also hoped to catch Anya. After trying to broach the subject of their relationship unsuccessfully with Leo, she had decided that perhaps a woman to woman chat was in order.

  Maybe it was just wishful thinking on her part that Anya’s relationship with Leo was platonic, but she needed to know for sure because she was confused. Some things just didn’t add up. Suddenly, there didn’t seem to be conclusive evidence of a romantic affair, and besides, Anya was being far too nice to her. After all, what girlfriend wouldn’t display a little anxious behaviour or jealousy when her boyfriend’s old girlfriend came back into town? And of course, then there had been the kiss out on the pontoon and Leo declaring that he still loved her. Assumptions were one thing and truth was another. Isla was on a mission to find the whole truth.

  She limped over to the Rectory first, to ask Minister John if she might borrow his golf cart, as he was now the only person on the island who had one since she had lost Grace’s cart to the hurricane.

  Above her the skies were intensely blue and clear but the morning air was heavy with humidity. Steam was rising from the ground where coconuts and palm fronds littered the way. As she picked her way carefully along the wet sand pathway she spotted and picked up several wooden windchimes that had been blown away from the Rectory.

  John was sitting on his porch in the lotus position making ‘Ooooooooommmmm’ sounds when she arrived. He immediately sprang to his feet when he saw her and offered her some green tea.

  ‘Thanks, I’d love some,’ she said, sitting down carefully on the wooden bench and stretching out her bandaged leg. ‘I’m looking to borrow your golf cart just for today, if you wouldn’t mind. I really need to head down to the pearl farm this morning.’