by S G Read
I unscrewed the screws holding the windows and levered them free, making sure I did not break the glass, if it was glass. When both windows were out, we loaded them onto the trolley and started back. We took a flatter route than usual and I noticed some different fruit. They looked like grapes and I pictured myself drinking homemade wine from one of the glasses from the boat. The glasses were stored in the chest for safety, as they were not being used at the moment.
The fruit grew up high and I needed the assistance of the climbers to harvest them. We pushed on with our load and as soon as we were in sight of the camp willing hands lifted the windows off the trolley and carried them into camp. I climbed up to the first floor and stood a window on the wall, it needed to be higher but I knew I could fit it. The only snag was the fact that they did not open at all but after deliberating sometime I worked out a way to do it. A wooden lintel across the top with the window tied to it so that it could be lifted up and lowered down again seemed the best idea but where to fit them? I looked around. You could only see what was going on in our little campsite; all other views, apart from the side that looked out to sea, were blocked by the monolith or trees. I ruled out the sea side as that was where the weather came from, that wall needed to be solid. A tap on the shoulder made me look round. George stood there and just pointed out to sea. The clouds rushing in looked very ominous.
'We need to cover the tops of the walls so that they aren’t washed away.' I called. 'Anything waterproof is good, after that anything will have to do.'
Girls rushed about, some swarmed up the ladder and covered the walls with the things thrown up to them from below until the walls were covered. Just in time, it poured hard. The rain beat down and the only shelter we had was the bamboo flooring with the two windows laid down on it. We huddled underneath; dodging water as it dribbled down, then it cascaded down. We realised too late that the windows should have been laid in the front corner so that we were sheltered from the rain blowing in. We all got soaked, little by little but the rain did not ease off. It kept pouring down with the wind driving it under our shelter. We had anything we could find wrapped round us just to keep warm, we were still there when night came. We huddled together for warmth and slept as best as we could.
-Tomorrow we bring the dinghy here- I decided. -At least we could sit in there and be dry!-
Day 39 on the island.
When the storm abated we stepped out, cold and wet. It was just like the first day on the island all over again. The sun came out and the clothes were laid out to dry before cold wet bodies were lined up in the sun to soak up some much needed heat. Every now and then someone would look in the direction the storm clouds had come from to satisfy themselves that there were no more on their way. I lay there until my body felt recovered from the soaking it received; I felt obliged to keep my shorts on for the sake of decorum although some of the girls had not bothered about such things. When my shorts felt dry at the front I turned over to dry the back. Finally I stood up, I was now hot!
As everyone was still laid out in the sun I walked to my clothes and tried them for dryness. My shirt was still a little wet but it felt nice when I put it on this time. I felt my socks and ruled out putting them on; wet socks are never nice to put on! I walked to a suitcase to find socks, hopefully dry. The lid was closed and the contents were dry when I tried them but when I thrust my fist into the first pair of socks I grabbed to open them out something stuck into my hand. I cried out in pain, stopped my hand moving forward and carefully pulled it out again. Stuck in it was the end of a hypodermic needle. I pulled it out and watched the blood ooze out of the wound. I laid the offending article onto one of the shirts I had already removed and carefully tried again fearing the worst. No more pain. I turned the socks inside out to check, then turn them the right way again and put them on. Now I investigated further. The next pair of socks yielded another needle.
'Is that one of the needles they use in hospitals?' George asked, standing next to me.
'It is,' I replied, 'and I hope it was unused.' I added holding up my bleeding hand.
'You might get aids.' She cried and covered her mouth in horror.
Wrapped in a shirt I found half the body of the syringe, then another. I found the rest in another shirt, laid the shirt on the floor to transfer the parts I had found to it so as to be able to check the first shirt I took out. There was the final part of the second syringe. I looked on and found two phials of liquid which I held up like trophies. By now they were all stirring and coming over to where I was kneeling.
'Is that heroin.' George asked.
'More like morphine.' Charley replied.
Natasha poked her head through the crowd for a second to look.
'Na its insulin, my grandad uses things like that for his diabetes.' She pulled her head back and walked back to her blanket.
I put the hypodermic needles together and gave them to George with the phials. 'They’d better go into one of the first aid kits in the cave.'
She looked at me, then at what she was wearing, as if to say -what dressed like this-.
I smiled.
'I’ll do it.'
She handed them back to me.
'I’ll get something for us to cook out of the cave while I am there and some fruit.' I wrapped the syringes up in a shirt but then saw a flattened leather box. It was obviously what the syringes started life in. I rescued them from the shirt and put them in the leather box, then walked up to the cave. Two girls joined me armed with the bow and a spear.
We were soon back and I lit the fire as no one else was doing it. When it was blazing I left it to burn and walked to the edge of the campsite. The same two girls followed. I walked down the path looking at the size of the trail with an idea of bringing the dinghy up there but there was no way it would come up here as it was. I walked back to the house and looked at it. I climbed up to the first floor and pulled off the covering. There was very little damage thanks to our fast work covering it up at the cost of getting soaked ourselves. I looked out to sea to make sure no more weather like that was on its way. The skies were clear. I dropped the wet things over the side to let the wall dry out and came down again.
I cooked the meal and served it up to the girls where they lay in the sun, then I served up fruit before lying down on my own blanket, after laying the things which had covered the walls out to dry. We did nothing more all day except dry out our bedding so we had somewhere to sleep, after that we only went into the house when the sun finally dropped below the horizon.
Day 40 the island.
I lay there whittling in the morning and finally had the piece of wood the shape I wanted. It was only then I went out to make myself feel human by washing in the stream. When I walked back I George and Charley passed me on their way to do the same. I passed two more before I reached the house and found the other four hauling up a rock.
'That storm freed a lot more rocks Walter,' Natasha called down from above, 'it saves us from having to dig them out!'
I climbed the ladder and work began. I knew where I wanted the windows and what height I wanted them so we worked on the walls to make them high enough to fit the windows. As soon as the walls were high enough work stopped and I stood the first window in place. It would sit on the edge of the back wall and open out and up on a string. I rigged it up with bamboo to hold it in place and work started again. We worked from the window making sure the rock next to it was a snug fit. Two rocks up we knew we had to go round and do the other side as well as we went and just worked our way round in a circle. I stood the second window in position so that we could fill in between the two windows. I fixed it in place as I had done the other side. We were two rocks up the windows all round when we stopped work. The girls took turns looking out each window, it was hard to believe we had done all this, just the nine of us but we had.
Day 41 on the island.
Work started again but now they could see and end in sight. With the block and tackle it was easy lifting and the lo
nger bamboo legs on the tripod gave us enough lift to put the rocks straight onto the wall. We reached the top of the windows and stopped. I could now design my opening device. Three short lengths of bamboo over the window were the lintel, with the window tied to the outside length. To do this I had to drill holes through the window frame. Now I fixed a root to the bottom of the outside of the window so someone could lift it up by pulling on the root. A notched piece of bamboo the right length would hold the window open as a safety device. By the time we stopped the windows had one rock on top of them and the wall was level all round.
'Is it high enough yet?' Natasha asked hopefully.
'No, we need one more rock to make sure we don’t pull the wall over when we pull the window up.' I replied.
'Only one more rock?' Tammy cried. 'Let’s do it now!'
'Don’t forget the gable ends.' I replied. Making an upside down v with my arms but they had their own way and we put one more rock all round. It was dark when we finished and all we had to eat was fruit but no one minded. They slept well that night, upstairs under the stars!
Day 42 on the island.
The girls woke, ready to work.
'Today we hunt, collect fruit and I fish.' I announced. 'It’s Sunday and I for one am not doing any work.'
A cheer echoed round the campsite but soon stopped when Tammy pointed out to sea. We all looked; what we expected to see no one knew she had not said anything. There were no boats or planes but there was a mass of black clouds there and they were coming our way.
'Cover the walls with anything you can find and weigh them down with spare rocks.' I cried. 'As soon as it is done we make tracks to the dinghy. I for one am not getting another soaking all night or all day!'
We covered the walls as best we could and then we hurried out of the campsite. We were still travelling when it grew dark because of the black clouds and by the time we reached the dinghy we were running. It started pouring down as we climbed inside. I was last in and closed the flap behind me! We sat there for some time listening to the wind and rain battering the cover. Soon we started a game of eye spy to pass the time, not helped by the gloom but no one wanted the door open!
Four hours later, by the watch I had found in the same suitcase that had the syringes in, the rain stopped and the sky grew bright. We stepped outside. The clouds had gone and the sun was shining.
'Just time to hunt and collect fruit. I will fish in the lagoon.' I announced. 'I want three hunting, three fruiting and two with me when I fish.'
The girls sorted it out and we were soon on our way. We needed fruit meat and fish and we aimed to get them.
That night we ate well. I took the time to collect the grape like fruit for my wine and I had the things to be able to make it. I was already looking forward to my first taste of home made island wine!
I stored my grapes just where I wanted them and made sure they were not touched, the word wine made some of the girls eyes light up and I did nothing to make them think they were not going to even taste it, which is exactly what I planned. I sat looking up at the walls above me, thinking about the roof. -I could make it a flat roof- I mused -but that meant more of the thick logs to take the weight and they were few and far between. The one log would have to suffice so we would need strong gable ends-
We could start on them in the morning.
Day 43 on the island.
We planned to start early, the girls wanted to finish the walls today but the first girls to go and get a rock came running back.
'The big rock’s gone!' Tammy squealed as she ran up.
We all followed her back down to where the big rock, which had been part of the rock fall, had stood. It was true it was no longer there and there was a route past the dangerous rocks. We walked through to where the dinghy sat.
'That makes it easier to come and go from this end of the island but we will need to stop daddy pig from coming through.' I said thoughtfully.
'And make sure pirates don’t see it.' Natasha added.
We walked back and started work but the legs holding up the block and tackle were only tall enough for the first three rock layers and that was not high enough. We had to pull the tripod up and stand it on the floor we were working off. I tied bamboo from one leg of the platform to the other to pull the legs together and did not put them in a hole. We did another two layers easily and had a break; the worst was still to come. Each layer meant fewer rocks required but higher to lift them and I was the one lifting. When I had five rocks to go I knew I could not lift the rocks any higher, whatever method I used and I had tried all I could think of. Not to be beaten we moved to the other end and started again. When we reached the same position at that end I called it a day, I needed to think about it some more! We ate while we looked at what we had achieved.
'It’s a shame we couldn’t finish it today.' George complained.
'What we need is a way of getting the rocks up that high.' Charley replied. 'Any ideas.'
There were plenty, ranging from catapults to tying longer legs on the support to the block and tackle.
'Why don’t we just take the block and tackle thing upstairs and use it there?' Natasha asked idly, expecting to be dashed down as all the other ideas had.
'It would go through the ceiling.' Tammy said through a mouthful of food.
'Not if we did what we did with the platform.' She argued.
They all turned to look at me.
'It might work,' I admitted, 'I’ll think about it some more.'
We ate quietly while I thought.
'We will give the idea a try,' I said after a while, 'but we need to get the roof support up there before we move the block and tackle.'
'How?' Charley asked.
'With the block and tackle.' I answered.
'How?' She repeated.
'Trial and error.' I answered.
'You don’t know do you?' She accused.
'No idea whatsoever,' I admitted, 'but we have got it up this far and I am not about to stop now!'
That night I slept fitfully, tomorrow was a big day on our island.
Day 44 on the island.
We stood looking at the long log, which I had earmarked for the roof support. It had already been raised on to the wall at first floor level and lowered back down, now it had to go up to the second floor level. We tied one end to the block and tackle and winched it up so that the end we were winching was above the side wall but with nothing to fix it to at first I was dumbfounded. It was a metre over the sidewall and that is where it stayed for several minutes while a thought about it. In the end we tried lots of different ways of getting the log onto the gable ends, learning as we went. When it was finally in place we all cheered.
'What do we do now?' Tammy asked.
'Absolutely nothing.' I replied firmly.
An even louder cheer echoed round the camp. We climbed down and walked through to the beach, where we stayed until we wanted to eat or sleep.
Day 45 on the island.
All we had do now was to make a bamboo roof, again by trial and error. We soon learned we needed a wooden support on top of the walls to stop the sloping bamboo from slipping down. There was no shortage of bamboo and we tied three together on either side to fix the sloping wood to. We covered the ridge with anything we had that was waterproof, plastic sheeting, rubber car mats and a couple of raincoats. We covered the rest in large leaves and then with turf, with bamboo at the bottom to stop the turf from slipping.
We stood back and looked at our creation. To get upstairs we used the ladder and we pulled the ladder up to stop anyone coming up uninvited. We walked to the boat, liberated the door and walked back with it above our heads. I fitted it in place and the house was finished. I had other ideas to make it more user friendly but for now it would do! All our finds were stored downstairs in the dry and after a good hot meal we slept up stairs under the new roof. No one stirred that night, they were all too tired.
Day 46 on the island.
We trea
ted today like a Sunday. Hunters hunted, I fished and mashed my grapes to get the juice out of them. Others collected fruit and then we lazed on the beach. I had another piece of wood, this time a bit softer which I was trimming into shape. The next part of my new hunting aid. When it was finished, I put it with my other shaped piece of wood.
It was a lazy time but we all needed the rest, it had been hard work but well worth the effort as long as the roof did not leak. I had ideas about making proper beds upstairs with bamboo and the clothes we were never going to use but for now it was sit and do nothing much. We ate when it was ready, or in the case of fruit, when we were hungry.
I had thoughts on a lot of things but nothing was getting done today.
Day 47 on the island.
I started by taking the alternator to pieces, far enough to clean it thoroughly inside, I wanted it to work. I worked slowly and methodically while the girls did their own thing. What they were doing I did not know. Only when the alternator was back together and I stood up did Natasha walk over to where I stood stretching.
'Want to see what we did?' She asked, obviously wanting yes to be the answer.
'I wouldn’t miss it for the world.' I replied. 'Lead on.'
I followed her down to where the big rock had stood and found a camouflaged bamboo gate blocking the way. I looked it up and down. Then opened it to walk through.
'Well?' She asked.
The girls, who were now relaxing on the beach, all looked my way.
'Excellent. One job off the list.' I said and flopped down on the sand near the girls.
'What’s next?' Charley asked, raising herself up on both elbows to be able to see me.
'The wall at the narrowest part of the track into there,' I pointed back through the gate I had just walked through, 'but on the other entrance.'