Island Life

by Nick Niels Sanders

  “I took classes for many years, but I have never considered teaching. I would be willing to try.”

  “I’ll talk to the others about it. I think this is really neat!”

  Mid-Day

  Valerie discussed the potential benefits of tai chi with James. Having taken some tai chi classes, James thought classes for everyone would be a great idea. He found Roger at his lean-to and sat for some time assessing Roger’s willingness to give lessons. Roger seemed to recognize the difficulty of teaching and to accept the burden. He told James that he was so very grateful to all the people on the island because each of them had contributed to his recovery – some in ways he knew and others in ways he didn’t even begin to understand – and he really wanted to give something back to everyone if he possibly could. James asked him how he would like the word spread, and Roger said he would prefer James do the talking.

  They talked about the arrangements. They walked the beach and found an area Roger thought would do well, where the firm, moist sand extended far enough inland to allow two rows of participants. Roger agreed with James that two half-hour lessons a day would be better than one longer lesson. James suggested 7:30 in the morning and about 5:45 in the afternoon to end just before sunset; Roger agreed.

  Roger went back to his lean-to.

  James arrived back at the Kitchen Tent to find a virtual palm frond weaving industry going. Ralph and Jeanne were working studiously to fit woven palm fronds to Ralph’s hands and feet. Julia, Mark and Paul were working on making what looked like large placemats. Val and Shelly, now freed from supervising Roger, were trying to learn to make baskets. Maria was watching over Marcella’s shoulder as she was tending her smoker, from which good smells continued to emanate.

  Marcella pulled a piece of beef from the smoker, carved off a small amount, cut it into three pieces, tasting one and offering one each to Maria and James. James thought it was remarkably good. Marcella was not convinced that it was done yet, but seemed pleased with the taste. She had still more brined meat sitting in two pots of sea water, so the smoking was going to take some time and a lot of her attention. James remarked that it was fortunate that she had thought of curing the meat, since essentially all of the meat in the brine and the meat already smoked would have been lost without it. Marcella reminded him that it really had been Paul’s idea which James had expanded, for which she was very grateful.

  “Was it really?” James responded. “Funny, I thought you had thought of it.”

  “Now, m’sieur, if we could find more vegetables, I would be happy; if we could find more fruit, I would be very happy. But there are still lots of cans.” She sighed heavily, as if she knew all canned food to be inherently inferior to fresh food, and as if, in addition, she found much canned food to be inedible. James, at least, heard that message in the sigh.

  During the late morning, Marcella had split her time between watching over the smoker and creating a meal from what little remained of the perishable foods. She used the last of the tropical fruit to make a fruit salad, hoping that some of it would remain for dessert after supper. She also made a chicken salad, grilling several chicken breasts that had been brined but had not made it to the smoker. She chopped the chicken breasts and added chopped walnuts, mayonnaise and spices. Today’s mixture included coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin and cayenne. The effect was aromatic and tangy, reminiscent of curry.

  When she clanked the pot to announce lunch, everyone stopped work to eat. Jim and Ron reappeared and Roger walked to the edge of the tent from his lean-to. Everyone enjoyed the chicken salad, though no one guessed the presence of the cinnamon and cloves.

  James clinked his spoon on his glass to get everyone’s attention – and, for the first time, everyone was gathered at a meal at the same time.

  “Valerie noticed Roger doing some interesting exercises this morning and asked him about them. It turns out that Roger has been studying Tai Chi for a number of years and is quite knowledgeable about it. Tai Chi is an exercise form that is derived from hand to hand combat, but is not itself a martial art. It is excellent exercise. Roger has volunteered to teach tai chi to everyone for half an hour twice a day. Lessons will begin this afternoon at 5:45. Roger and I have located a place on the beach to the east. We’ll meet you there. I strongly suggest that everyone participate. It will be good for all of us.”

  There was a general murmur. Val spoke up to support both the arrangement and Roger as a teacher. Maria and Ron had both had a few lessons in Tai Chi and also made positive comments. Other heads nodded in agreement.

  At the end of the meal, each member of the group washed his or her dishes – this was something Roger would become accustomed to, but he thought it a good idea. Julia and Marcella cleaned up the food preparation area and set the clean dishes to drain and dry.

  A few moments later, as the conversation turned in a different direction, and people drifted back to work on palm fronds. Roger drifted away to his lean-to. Maria turned to James, “We need to talk. A problem has arisen.”

  They looked around the Kitchen Tent, and, finding it to be full of people, they moved quickly through the bright sunlight to their own lean-to. It turned out that one of the women had started her period, and the women felt ill-equipped to deal with it under the present circumstances. Among all the other things no one had brought along, no one had thought to bring tampons. James opined that an adequate substitute could be made from clean absorbent cloth, and suggested that flannel might be the best choice, though terry cloth might also work. Cut into strips, the only issue would be not to lose track of it.

  James suggested that she consult with Valerie, who might have additional, more feminine thoughts on the subject. Maria mulled that over for a bit, then indicated that a talk with Val was probably exactly what she needed. She intended to remain in the lean-to until 2:00, but if James could induce Val to come to her, that would be convenient. She took out her papers and pencil and began to record for her journal as James departed to the Kitchen Tent.

  Valerie was engrossed in weaving a basket, but hastily agreed to visit with Maria when James asked her to do so. Michelle continued, taking lessons from Julia when she ran into difficulty, and soon had a rather irregular, though presentable rice steamer.

  James visited with Ralph and Jeanne and rapidly surmised that they were intent on getting Ralph up a palm tree to get coconuts. He applauded their industry and the design of the gauntlets and anklets they had created for Ralph. They looked sturdy and functional.

  “When were you thinking of using them?”

  “Perhaps this afternoon, if we are really satisfied with them by then.”

  “Oh, Ralph, you are so brave. You are my hero, you know.”

  “Now Jeanne, don’t get all carried away. Everyone is helping, you know.”

  James moved away. When Valerie returned from her talk with Maria, he went back to the lean-to, where Maria was still writing. He chatted with her for a few moments, but realized that she really wanted to continue her writing, so he headed back to the Kitchen Tent again.

  He found the group discussing what to do that afternoon. Ralph announced his willingness to climb a palm tree to knock down some coconuts. James was concerned that a scouting party needed to see what vegetation might be growing after yesterday’s rain. The general agreement was that the coconuts should come first, but should be followed by the exploration.

  Ralph chose his palm tree and everyone quickly gathered to witness his feat of daring-do.

  Coconuts

  The gauntlets Ralph and Jeanne had been working so hard to design and create provided covering for the palms of his hands and forearms and were connected by a broad strap. The anklets protected the feet and ankles on the insides, again with a broad, strong strap linking them.

  An audience of twelve eager and concerned faces gathered, Ralph approached a coconut palm, stood at its base and extended his hands around it. The link between his wrists lay against the
tree and was brought tight by the pressure as he extended his hands around the tree, becoming quite tight as he laced his fingers together.

  Ralph then imitated an inchworm, hunching his back and flexing hips and knees to bring his feet up onto the trunk of the tree. As he wrapped his feet around the tree, the strap between his ankles became tight. He crossed his toes, tested the security of his hold, then relaxed his hands, extended his legs and back and moved his hands up the tree.

  He grasped again with his hands and again moved his feet up, grasped with his feet and extended. His head was now nearly twice as high as when he stood at the base of the three. Everyone applauded. There were shouts of encouragement and Jeanne shouted, “Be Careful!”

  Slowly at first, then with gradually increasing speed, Ralph moved up the palm tree. This particular tree leaned moderately; Ralph climbing on the upper surface of the tree was less and less on a vertical climb the farther up he went.

  Finally, he reached the lowest of the fronds, which were dried and hanging down in his path. Even though the coconuts were below the attachments of the lowest fronds, he needed to be able to climb farther up the tree to reach them. He pulled on a couple of the dried fronds and found that they detached easily, dropping to the sand below. Inching up a bit further, he detached more and more until he was close enough to reach the coconuts with a detached frond, using it as a club to knock the coconuts off of the tree. The watchers below backed away as a rain of coconuts fell near the tree. Leaning out a little further to try to get at one more coconut, feeling his left foot slip just a little, Ralph dropped the frond and grasped the trunk of the tree with his hands as hard as he could as his feet continued to slip.

  Suddenly, he was dangling from the top of the palm tree by his hands with his feet kicking in the air. There was a uniform gasp from below. Arm muscles bulging, Ralph slowly flexed his hips and his back, getting his feet back to the trunk and around it and tightly attached. Instead of being on top of a tilting tree trunk, he was now hanging off the bottom. There was no question that he would continue to poke at the two remaining coconuts still attached to the tree; the only priority was returning to the ground safely.

  Very slowly, Ralph retreated back down the tree. It was clear to those below that moving either up or down the tree while hanging from it was much more difficult than doing so while on top of it. But he was in good control and gradually made his way down the tree to where waiting hands were providing additional support to help him down the last few feet.

  “You gave us quite a shock.”

  “Hey, Paul, I gave ME quite a shock.”

  “Well, we got seven coconuts anyway.”

  “Yes. I have to think some about what happened up there. Maybe I can redesign my equipment to help avoid that. It was a lot too close for comfort.”

  “It sure was!” Jeanne was at his side. “But you were so brave. You are my hero.”

  Jeanne helped Ralph to take off the gauntlets and anklets as the group returned to the Kitchen Tent. Jeanne and Ralph immediately went to work looking at the anklets for damage and to think about redesign. Mark returned to whittling palm fronds in preparation for weaving. Marcella started to fret about supper. Maria invited Julia, Val and Shelly to go snorkeling. Roger went to the water to swim. Ron, Jim, Paul and James set out to see if the rain had produced plants on other parts of the island, and to collect drinking water, carrying four empty jugs to fill either at the spring or at the pool they had uncovered.

  Vegetables

  They crossed to the upper reaches of coral beach and headed to where the stream was sure to be. It was there, running briskly. On both of its banks small leaves were poking up through the sand. Ron and Jim ascended the rocky slope to the plateau while James and Paul began an attempt to head downstream. The sand was wet and they began to sink in more and more as they walked downstream.

  Retracing their steps, James and Paul then walked the edge of the bog, finding the bog greatly expanded from what it had been when they had last checked it out. The same green leaves were poking up everywhere, making the entire area look like a fuzzy green carpet. James wanted to check out the drainage from the pool of water they had found, which he had surmised must run below the rock all the way to Rocky Beach. At Rocky Beach they found the water emerging from a lava wall at the head of the beach in the midst of a fuzzy wall of small green leaves.

  They climbed back up to the pool, filled the four water bottles, then climbed up to the plateau to find Ron and Jim. Emerging from the rocky climb onto the irregularly flat upper surface, they were amazed to find that it too was carpeted in small green leaves. Ron and Jim, at the far end of the plateau, gazing out over the water, responded to a call, returning to the others, walking carefully over the irregular surface to avoid stepping on the plants. There was clearly a harvest here, awaiting the reaping, but probably tomorrow. They climbed back down to the water bottles and started back toward camp.

  As they crossed the streamlet, Ron called out, “Stop!”

  They did. He was pointing at part of the mass of bushes to their left, where orange flowers were coming into bloom. They were not completely unfurled, but he hazarded a guess that they were hibiscus. There were lots of buds, as if the bushes had been waiting for the rain to come into flower. “Tomorrow we will have flower necklaces for everyone!” Jim offered.

  “Looks like it,” was James’ response. “Let’s keep quiet about it and surprise everyone tomorrow morning.”

  “Great idea!” was the unanimous response; they walked in silence back to the Kitchen Tent, delivering water bottles.

  Jeanne and Ralph were still hard at work, now on reweaving Ralph’s climbing equipment. Mark was persistent in his carving. Marcella had disappeared, apparently to go snorkeling with the others, because all the snorkeling equipment was gone. The returning men looked out across the lagoon and saw the splashing of the snorkelers just inside of the reef.

  Paul, Ron and Jim decided swimming sounded like a good idea, and went directly to the beach to swim. James indicated he was going to visit with Roger, and went to do so.

  James found Roger doing tai chi in front of his lean-to.

  “Hi, Roger, how are you doing?”

  “Pretty well, Doc. I am limbering up for our tai chi lesson later on.”

  “You look pretty good.”

  “I’m getting the kinks out. Want to go swimming?”

  “Sure. How are you doing with swimming?”

  “A bit farther and a bit longer each time. I feel really good about my progress.”

  Leaving his sulu draped over the corner of Roger’s lean-to again, James followed Roger down to the beach and into the water. Roger was right. He was able to swim for several consecutive minutes now without becoming winded. Feeling hot, sweaty and dirty after the trip for water, James rinsed himself off while watching Roger swim. Roger reached the point of needing to sit and rest for a while after about 15 minutes of pretty strenuous splashing around. His swimming style was far from efficient, but his stamina was improving rapidly. James started giving him swimming lessons. He started out with a breast stroke done with the head out of the water – something close to, but more organized than Roger’s enthusiastic dog paddle. Roger caught on quickly and felt he could soon swim farther. James told him to go back to his lean-to and rest up for tai chi. Another lesson was promised for the morning.

  James dove into the water and swam a slow crawl toward the snorkelers, reaching them in a few minutes. He spotted Maria, got her attention easily by swimming under her, spoke briefly to her, then swam back to shore. Arriving at Roger’s lean-to, James found him lying down to rest – a position James had not seen Roger in for several days.

  “Good idea,” he indicated. “I think I’ll do the same myself.”

  He gathered up his sulu and walked to his lean-to, where he lay down and promptly went to sleep.

  Tai Chi

  James awoke because someone was calling his name. In his d
ream, it was an attending surgeon at the hospital who was calling his name because James was late for surgery. He fought his way up through cloudy layers of sleep. It was 5:40. Roger stood at the opening of the lean-to. “Dr. James, it’s time for you to wake up for tai chi.”

  James sat up and held up his hand. It took a couple minutes, but his head slowly cleared and he came back from some hellacious dreamland hospital to an island in the Fijian Pacific. “Sorry, Roger. Difficult dream. I’m coming around now.”

  It needed a few more minutes, but he rose, wrapped himself into his sulu, and accompanied Roger to the designated part of the beach for the tai chi lesson. The tide had fallen in the interval, and the sand looked even better than it had earlier. Gradually, the others arrived, Valerie clearly pleased, Mark grumping about how his knees would not stand up to this nonsense, Maria clearly supportive, having watched James do tai chi for years, the others not quite sure, but all figuring that if Roger, who was the oldest member of the group, could do it, so could they.

  Roger started them with some qi’gong exercises to limber up. Some were limbering exercises, designed to get the body moving and warmed up; some were breathing exercises, with back, neck and arm movements that emphasized breathing in and breathing out. To spare Mark’s knees, Roger deliberately left out the balancing exercises and the knee bending exercises, though he thought he would approach them slowly over the next few lessons.