by Lilly Wilder
“I totally understand, but I think you’re really going to want to see this. Trust me, it’ll be worth it, and Vincent will understand when we get back to him. Come on, it’s not that far, we’re just through here,” he said, pointing into the jungle. Since Thomas was used to getting his own way, I had the feeling that arguing with him was going to be an exercise in futility, and quite frankly I didn’t have the energy to go through all that, so I held my hands up in surrender and looked down forlornly at the broken flower. I had been so proud of my idea, and it had failed at the first surprise.
I stayed behind Thomas, still wary of the unexpected, but I followed him nonetheless. I wanted to get water back to Vincent anyway, and if they did have a crate then I wanted to make sure they were going to share it. Thomas I could just about trust, but William I had no idea how to feel. It wouldn’t surprise me if he tried to keep it all for himself.
Thomas led me through the lush undergrowth towards a huge tree, a tree that dwarfed every other tree I had seen. From one look of it I could tell that it was as old as time itself and it must have had its roots deep in the island. It loomed above me, and in its bark were etched twisting expressions of souls that had lived under its watchful eye. Its branches stretched out like long arms and seemed to reach into eternity. There was a huge hollow at its base, from which William emerged. His face darkened when he saw me.
“You found her,” he said.
“I did, and I thought she’d be interested to see what we found. Vincent survived as well. We’ll have to take water to him, and then we can figure out what we’re going to do next,” Thomas said. I had the feeling that this was a fragment of another conversation they had had outside of my presence.
“What have you brought me here to show me? What’s more important than Vincent’s life?” I asked, crossing my arms across my chest. I was getting tired of their games. William smirked and stood aside, showing me the way in. I walked into the old tree, sighing, and shook my head vehemently.
The hollow led into what amounted to a small cave, although instead of sand underneath my feet, there was soft soil. Thomas and William had already made a small fire, which crackled and illuminated the cave in a soft orange glow. I breathed in the smell of burning wood and my eyes watered as plumes of smoke drifted pass. I caught sight of the small crate, an oblong box which had been opened and an empty packet of peanuts sat on top of it, but as my gaze moved around the cave it settled on what the brothers had found. There were two skeletons, sitting together at the rear of the cave. I moved forward carefully, reverently, and reached out to them.
“I told you it was worth for you coming here,” Thomas said. I was silent as I moved closer to them. From a cursory glance I could tell that it was a man and a woman, and from the way they were sitting, they were close. Their clothes were in tatters around their bones and they had evidently been here for a number of years.
“They must have died together,” I said.
“Were they the inhabitants of the island? I have to admit I was expecting to find a vast metropolis or something, and I wouldn’t have expected to find bodies outside of tombs. What does this mean?” Thomas asked. He had other questions, ones I didn’t bother listening to. Breath caught in my throat as I gazed upon these two people, these two strangers, and then realized that they weren’t strangers at all. The closer I got, the more detail I was able to make out on their torn, tattered clothes, and when I did I lost all feeling in my legs and I fell to the floor. Thomas rushed up beside me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, helping me regain my balance. I couldn’t take my eyes off the skeletons though.
“They’re not people who lived on this island, just people who died here.” I ran a thumb along my pocket. “These are my parents,” I said numbly.
The world seemed to melt around me as I gazed at the two skeletons. The more I looked the more I could see the same clothes they were wearing. On the blank bony faces, I saw my father’s smile and my mother’s tears. I saw the way they held each other on long winter nights, and remembered how they used to whisper secret things to each other. I flipped open the locket and held it up, and as soon as I did, tears streamed down my cheeks and my entire body trembled.
“Oh my God,” Thomas said. He wrapped an arm around me and I didn’t care that I didn’t like him, I was just grateful for the feel of human warmth. I wept fretfully as I grasped at his clothes like a frightened child. He made comforting noises, and he tried to tell me that everything was going to be alright, but I knew he was lying. Nobody could guarantee that. Eventually, I pushed him away and scrambled to be with my parents. I sat at their feet and looked up to them, wishing that somehow they would come back to life, but their hollowed eyes stared blankly into nothing. Somehow, like me, they had survived the plane crash, but they couldn’t endure the island.
“I knew she’d have a meltdown. Thomas, we need to go,” William said.
“Go the fuck away!” I screamed, and because he was too far from me, I ended up pushing Thomas with all my might, although he stood his ground, and I ended up falling to the floor. Thomas directed William to go and wait outside while he came back to me and sat with me.
“You can push me again if it’ll help. Hell, you can even punch me, although I’d ask you to avoid the face. It’s already taken enough of a beating today,” he said, rubbing his bruise. “I know this can’t be easy for you. Hell, I don’t know how anyone is supposed to feel in this situation, but if you want to talk about it, you can. I know we didn’t get off to the best start, but I’m here and, well, it doesn’t seem like you have many other options right now.”
I don’t know what it was exactly; I must have been desperate in the moment, but I found myself opening up to him.
“I’m a fool. When I washed up on this island I thought they might be alive, I thought that if I had survived then maybe they had too, and I could actually be reunited with them after all these years, because deep down the real reason why I’ve wanted to come back to this place is just to find them. I wanted to know what happened…I wanted to see them again. And now I have, and what has it cost? Two people have died, and there’s a chance that we’re going to end up just like them. Is it even worth it? Is that what my life has amounted to?”
“I know you didn’t come here just for them Amber. You told me yourself that it’s more than that, but at least you have closure now. And we still have the whole island to explore. You never know what we might find while we’re here.”
“I can’t imagine anything we’ll find is going to be worth it,” I said morosely. I ran my sleeve across my nose and wiped my eyes. I stared at my parents, at what was left of them anyway again and pushed myself to my feet.
“Is there anything I can do? Do you want to bury them or anything? I’m sorry, I really didn’t expect them to be your parents. I guess the excitement got to me.”
“It’s not your fault, and it’s probably better that I have a reunion like this now rather than live in hope. I guess it’s just a reminder that the impossible never happens and we don’t live in a fairytale. Let’s not worry about burying them. They’ve been at peace here for this long, we might as well leave them undisturbed.” I trudged out of the hollow and ignored William. I barked at them to get the crate and to follow me, for I had to get back to Vincent.
9
We walked in silence. I got the feeling that William wanted to speak, but that Thomas had forbidden it. At least he was proving himself to be something of a gentleman and respected that I was going through something huge. My parents must have washed up on the shore like the rest of us, and they had died here. It didn’t prove to be a good omen for us. If they weren’t found, then the chances are that we wouldn’t be either.
I called out to Vincent as we approached the cavern and he called back, glad to see me.
“I thought something might have happened to you,” he said.
“Well, I did run into some nefarious characters,” I said with
a smile, tossing my head towards the Mapother twins. Vincent smiled out them and held out a weak hand.
“It’s good to see you boys. I’m glad you survived.”
William and Thomas set down the crate and pulled out the water, handing a bottle to Vincent. He took small sips, knowing that he had to make sure his body got used to water again. Thomas also handed out some rations and we all nibbled at them while I pulled out the sticky leaves. I checked with Vincent that it was what he needed, and he nodded. I unfolded them and placed the sap on the wound, cleaning away the dirt that had gathered there, and then I pressed the leaves onto his skin. Vincent gasped with relief and wore a satisfied smile.
“There’s something else,” I said, and proceeded to tell him about my parents. He listened solemnly and pressed his hand on mine.
“I’m sorry Amber. That can’t have been easy. I’m sure they would have been thinking of you when it happened, and I know they would have been proud of you,” he said.
“It does make me worried though,” I spoke to all of them, “because if they couldn’t make it off then I don’t know how we’re supposed to. My parents were two of the most resourceful people ever and if they couldn’t make it off this island then it’s not going to be an easy thing. I think we’re all confused about the storm, and if that does rage all the time then it’s going to be easy for people to assume that we’re just dead. We have to think of some kind of signal.”
“Is that all you’re worried about, getting away?” William said in a surly manner. Vincent and Thomas both glared at him.
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve spent a lot of money getting to this place, and you’ve spent a lot of time and effort. Aren’t you curious to find out the secrets of Dragon Island, or were you really only concerned with finding your parents? I don’t want to have given my time and money to a selfish course. We have a whole island to explore here. The last thing I want to do is try and get home. What do we care about that? Do any of us really have anything waiting for us? There’s a reason why we all wanted to come here, and it’s because we’re explorers. If you’re going to spend your time sending up signals so that we can go home, then I’m going to take my share of food and water and go into that jungle and you’re never going to see me again. We all know there’s something out there, something waiting to be discovered, and it’s our job to figure out what that is.”
I arched an eyebrow. Thomas and Vincent were seething in silence, and they both looked at me, evidently curious about how I was going to handle the situation. I think what I said surprised them.
“William is right,” I admitted. “We didn’t get here the way any of us would have liked, but the fact is that we did get here. We might not have the equipment we wanted, but that just means we’ll have to do things the old-fashioned way. There’s a big island for us to explore, and that’s just what we’re going to do.”
Somehow, looking forward like that made the whole world seem brighter, I reminded myself that I was an archaeologist like my parents, and that I would have to keep on searching for the truth even through the most arduous circumstances. I told William and Thomas to make an inventory of the food we had while I went to the jungle and broke off a stick, returning to the cave. When Thomas and William told me what we had I was a little disheartened. It wouldn’t last us long.
“Looks like we’re going to have to tame this land and become masters of it. We need to find fruit and berries, and perhaps even hunt for wildlife. There’s a great deal we don’t know about this place yet, but we’re soon going to find out. Now,” I began to draw a rudimentary map on the cavern floor, marking out lines in the sand, “this is where we are. I think we should try and climb one of the mountains when we’re ready,” I glanced at Vincent, “as that will give us a better view of the surrounding areas. If there are any ancient cities then we should be able to have a good vantage point of those as well. I don’t need to tell you that we have to be very careful. We don’t know what predators are out there, or if there are any tribes. We have to make some weapons. I think we should spend the rest of the day and the night making whatever tools we can, and then hopefully tomorrow we can start to move and really get our teeth into this island,” I said. I was starting to feel more excited. For better or worse, this is exactly what I had planned; to be on Dragon Island, and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from exploring it.
Everyone had their jobs so we all got to work. I left the others to go and explore the beach by myself, hoping to see if anything from the plane had washed up on shore. When I was sure that I was alone I opened my locket and looked at my parents again.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner,” I said. Part of me felt responsible that they had died alone. I told myself that I couldn’t have tried any harder. The temperature dropped rapidly as the sun dipped below the horizon and relinquished the celestial throne to the moon. I gazed up and was awed by the sight of twinkling lights, a blanket of endless wonder hanging above me. There definitely was something special about Dragon Island because even the stars seemed brighter than usual, and the storm seemed so far off. It was so peaceful that it was easy to forget that this place had costed the lives of at least four people, perhaps more over the years, yet the sea was still and wine-dark, there was no sign of the plane wreckage, and the air was sweet and crisp. Goosebumps prickled on my arm and I rubbed myself to keep warm, taking it as a sign to return to the others.
When I got back, I saw that a fire was raging and I was glad of the warmth. Vincent looked in better spirits and the brothers were finally pulling their weight. I nodded to them, and even gave Thomas a smile. We shared out food and sat around the fire, enjoying the warmth.
“You know, when I’ve been on other expeditions we usually use these moments to bond, but I can’t say I feel much like bonding. I’ve been on other jobs where I’ve lost people and you’d think that over time, I’d have steeled myself against it, but you never do. One minute you’re alive, and the next you’re gone. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, no sense of destiny, just cold, cruel luck. It could have been any of us in the sea with Duncan and Daniel, so let’s not make their lives be in vain,” Vincent said. We all cheered to his toast and took sips of water. The food was bland, but welcome sustenance. We all stared into the fire, each one of us accompanied by our own demons.
The evening passed, and eventually Thomas and I were left by the fire. Vincent was sleeping and William had gone outside, wanting to spend some time by himself.
“Are you afraid of what you might find on the island?” Thomas asked. I looked up at him. The fire cast his face in a luminous glow and I don’t know how to describe the way he looked properly, but it was almost like he was more alive than before, as if some aura cloaked him and made the air around him sizzle. I was probably just tired. I rubbed my eyes and thought to myself that I should get some sleep soon because I was getting tired of seeing things that weren’t there.
“I’m more afraid of finding nothing. The worst thing I can think of is that we’ve come all this way only to find that the island has no mystery, has never had any mystery, and is just a hunk of rock that’s shaped like some mythical being.”
“So, you don’t believe in dragons then?” Thomas asked, looking amused.
“I don’t see why I should. There’s never been any evidence of them. Do you?”
Thomas shrugged and shifted around so that he was sitting beside me. The air was suddenly rife with tension. Despite all we had been through, all the sweat and blood and tears, he still looked and smelled amazing. I gulped, feeling my heart race, and my head swim with intoxicated desire.
“I think there’s some truth in every myth that exists. Every story has to begin somewhere after all,” he said, dropping his voice an octave. It was low and smooth, dripping honey, and I wasn’t quite sure what was happening. “I’m sorry for everything that’s happened to you. I’d love to say that I understood, but frankly I’ve never had that much of a
close relationship with my father so I wouldn’t know how to feel if I ever came across his skeleton, but I think it’s poetic and admirable that you’re here. Everything you’ve told me gives me confidence in my decision. When I first looked into you and read about you and saw your proposals for the project, it was clear that your passion was unrivaled. You wear your heart on your sleeve Amber, and that’s something I greatly respect and admire. In my world, people always say one thing and mean another, but not you. You might not believe me when I say this, but there’s nobody I’d rather be stranded on a deserted island with than you.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. For a moment I enjoyed the heat, enjoyed the passion, but then I recoiled in horror as I realized what was happening and jumped up.
“What the hell are you doing?” I said, wiping my lips. Thomas smirked.
“I’m just starting a new story. Amber, you can’t deny that there’s something between us, and what could be more romantic setting than this?”
“But…but I’m not interested.”
“That’s not the way it seems,” he said, stretching out his legs.
“I already have a…someone I’m interested in.”
“Oh please, that charming young man at the plane? What was his name, Billy?”
“Bobby,” I corrected him, glaring at the arrogance.
“Oh yes, Bobby. And tell me Amber, how many times have you thought about Bobby since you’ve been here? Was your first thought that you couldn’t live without him, that you couldn’t get back to him? Or have you not thought of him at all?”
I stood there, utterly speechless. I don’t know how Thomas did it, but he seemed to have a window into my mind. My cheeks flushed red and I was too ashamed to admit that he was right. I hadn’t thought of Bobby at all, and it made me wonder if my feelings for him were as strong as I had believed. I clenched my fists by my side and huffed, then stormed out of the cave, only to bump into William. Looking at him was like looking at Thomas again, although the only way to tell them apart was that William didn’t share his twin brother’s smug look.