Val: “Have you seen Jeanne?” The four men shook their heads. “Oh, my. She is missing another treatment for her back. I hope it doesn’t do permanent damage.”
Julia: “Oh, look. We’re making something new. What is it?”
Paul, reminded of his resolve to consult her, responded, “I am trying to make a hat. We were making mats and discovered that mats make great shade, so we thought maybe we could use the same kind of weave to make hats to shade our faces when we are in the sun.”
“Oh, what a good idea! Were you thinking of having the hat cover the head, or just be a ring of mat to cast shade on the face?”
“I don’t know. I was just trying to figure out a way to start weaving from a circle.”
“Well, that would be like making a bowl. If we weave a bowl to go over the head, then we should be able to build out from that to make the brim. Let’s give it a try.”
Julia sat down to work with Paul on the project, and the two worked together for some time.
Roger drifted away to do tai chi, rejoining the group about half an hour later. Maria went to look for James. Marcella made note of the four fish. Her mind was planning supper as she rejoined the others in palm-weaving, happy to feel cool and to be doing something. The women chattered about what they had seen on their snorkeling expedition; after a bit, Ron, Paul and Jim got up, took snorkeling equipment, and took their turn looking at the reef today, so they were absent when Roger returned to the group and joined in the continuing conversation about colors of fishes and coral animals.
Maria found James asleep. She lay down beside him, but even this much motion was enough to disrupt his pattern and awaken him.
“How was snorkeling?”
“Beautiful, as usual. How was the fishing?”
“There are four yellow fins awaiting Marcella’s attention.”
“A success then!”
“Yes and no damage to the net, which is hanging on the Kitchen Tent. We caught about twenty fish, but threw the rest of them back.”
“Good. We might want to catch them again someday.”
“Just what we thought.”
“Shall we go for a swim?”
“Good idea.”
They rose and walked to the cool water, a gentle cooling breeze coming up from the west that would help to cool off the camp if it got strong enough to penetrate the trees. They ran into the water, leaping and jumping like a couple of young kids, then dove and swam toward the reef. After James’ exemplary efforts chasing after George and Roger, anyone would have been surprised to see that Maria was actually the faster swimmer, arriving at the reef about a length ahead of James. They lay, side by side, in the shallow water covering the top of the reef, talking.
“Do you hear a noise?” asked James.
“I think I do.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does your noise sound like?”
“It is a humming or grinding noise.”
“That is the one I was listening to. I think it might be an airplane. We’d better swim back!”
They covered the distance even more rapidly than the first time, Maria leading all the way back. As they walked out of the water, James looked up and pointed. To the south of them, headed east, was a small airplane. It looked like a single-engine private airplane. Could it be a search airplane? They didn’t know and didn’t care. They ran to the fire and stoked it with some palm fronds to make it good and hot. As the flames blazed up in the stony enclosure, they put salvaged chunks of the sunken life raft onto the fire. Billows of black smoke rose almost instantly into the air. Quickly, there was a column of black smoke rising from the island, bent to the east by the gentle westerly breeze.
The airplane continued on its way.
“Do you think they saw the smoke?”
“One can only hope. We made a lot of smoke!”
“Yes, we did. I still wonder if they would have seen.”
“Maybe tomorrow will tell us.”
Tai Chi
By the time the airplane disappeared from sight, it was 5:30. Everyone had gathered around the fire as soon as James and Maria had started piling the rubber onto it. They were impressed by the amount of smoke. They took turns, in groups, watching the airplane. Shelly and Julia both waved at the plane, even though both knew it was too far away to see them. Then the airplane was gone, and they turned from the fire to go to tai chi class, still chattering about the airplane and the column of smoke they had made. Val again asked about Jeanne, though no one else could have seen her without Val knowing about it, and sparked a side conversation about what had become of Jeanne and Ralph. Ten castaways gathered on the beach, grateful for a cool evening breeze.
Roger started off with qi ‘gong exercises, then moved on to the form: “Starting position. Exhale. Bounce the Ball. Strike palm. All in. All out. Grasp bird’s tail. Extend and push. Single whip. Strike past ear. White crane. Push to the Right. Push to the Left. Brush knee. Parry and Punch. False Close. Push. Carry tiger. Good. Close up and I will show you what comes next.”
He demonstrated two movements, called “carry baby” and “fist under elbow.” Having demonstrated, he led them through the sequence several times, started at white crane several times; they started at the beginning of the form and did the whole thing. They did a few more of the qi ‘gong exercises then all moved to the Kitchen Tent for supper.
The sun was getting low in the sky and much of Black Beach was in shadow. Feeling a need to be moving on, Ralph and Jeanne examined the wall before them and found a way to climb it. They were met with a breeze from the west and a walk across the plateau that had been a green carpet two days before but was now dry, crackling and rustling under their feet.
Hand in hand, they walked along the cliff, looking over into the waves crashing against the lava cliff below them, rejoicing in the cooling brought by the breeze. Even though they stopped several times to look down and out to sea, it didn’t take them long to reach the Front Wall and climb down into third beach. The sun was now very low in the reddening sky with the promise of a beautiful sunset. They decided to wait on Third Beach and watch the sunset together before going back to the others. Reds and oranges finally gave way to pinkish slate as they turned to walk and swim through the softening light of the gloaming, noticing for the first time the almost-full moon that had risen unnoticed during the sunset.
During the hubbub about the airplane, Marcella had spiced the four yellow fins, dividing a sliced lemon among them, and had wrapped them each in aluminum foil. When the fire was subsiding, she placed them in a place where she judged the heat would be about right before going to tai chi.
As she returned from tai chi, Marcella was approached by Shelly again, wanting to help. “What do you want to do?” she asked Shelly.
“I don’t know. What do you have planned to go with the fish?”
“Well, we need to have vegetables and fruit. Do you have suggestions?”
“My mother used to make a nice vegetable dish by combining various canned vegetables and cooking them together briefly. I could do that. For fruit, I noticed there is applesauce and pineapple. Maybe some chopped coconut with that would be good.”
“Both are wonderful ideas. Why don’t you select cans of vegetables and get them ready to cook. I’ll check the fish and chop up some coconut. I don’t know why I didn’t put coconut in with the fish!”
Shelly opened cans of peas, carrots, beets and lima beans, retaining the fluid from the peas and carrots and draining the beets so the whole mixture wouldn’t be too red. When she was done, it was a large pot of vegetables, suitable for thirteen hungry mouths, and there was plenty of fluid to cook the vegetables in. Marcella was very pleased. Putting the pot by the fire, she suggested that Shelly might want next to open the appropriate cans of applesauce and pineapple for the fruit salad.
As a joint venture, it went very well. Shelly recognized that the mixture
of herbs and spices that Marcella had added to the vegetables and fruit were things her mother would never have thought of, but that did little to damp her joy at having been allowed to be part of the food preparation process.
Dusk was settling in as Marcella announced that supper was ready. Everyone turned with hungry minds toward the food as Marcella unwrapped the first fish and the aroma filled the Kitchen Tent. From behind them came a deep voice:
“Well, I’m glad we didn’t miss supper. I’m starving.”
It was Ralph, with Jeanne standing beside him. It was a complete distraction from the business of supper; the reaction varied from inquiries about “Where have you been all day?” to Val’s scolding of Jeanne and telling her she should eat quickly so they could give her a treatment before story time. But one by one, led by Ralph’s appetite and the couple’s general reticence to say anything other than “we walked around the island,” everyone gradually turned back to the business at hand – eating.
Jeanne and Val ate hurriedly and left for the infirmary. The others ate at greater leisure, complimenting the food, the fishermen, needling Ralph about his day, and telling Ralph about the airplane that had flown by, far out to the south, and how James and Maria has sent up a great black smoke signal.
Jeanne tells her story
During her treatment, Jeanne endured a scolding from Valerie with stoicism, though not with indifference. She was shocked and touched that Val cared so much about her as to be this worked up over her having missed a few sea water treatments. Jeanne thought it was just fine and her back felt fine. But for the first time in her life, she endured a scolding without rejoinder or any other reply than, “I’m sorry I upset you. I didn’t mean to do that.”
Valerie, observing with her eyes what her emotions would have denied, saw clearly that Jeanne’s absence had not produced any significant harm. With her usual gentleness, she did the soaks and applied the honey prescribed by Dr. James. She lapsed into silence after receiving Jeanne’s apology. She had expected something quite different. Clearly, Jeanne had not run off with Ralph as an act of rebellion. It was something else, to serve another motivation, with another meaning that was positive for Jeanne, and Jeanne’s contrition was genuine. Val accepted that apology and moved on, her anger completely gone.
Jeanne looked up at Val and said: “Val, I would like to tell the story tonight. Finally, I think I have a story worth telling.
“Oh.”
“Yes. Will you support me if someone else wants to go?”
“Certainly.”
When they returned to the Kitchen tent, Marcella, Maria and Julia, assisted by Jim, were nearly finished with cleaning up. As all six of them rejoined the circle, Jeanne said that she wanted to tell the story tonight. No one objected, so she didn’t need Val’s support after all.
“Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Cinderella. Her mother had died, so she lived with her step-mother and her two older step-sisters. They hated Cinderella and were not very nice to her. They made her do all the chores around the home that no one else wanted to do.
“One day, the King announced that there would be a ball and all the unmarried women and girls of the land were invited to come and dance with his nephew, Prince Charming. Prince Charming would be choosing a bride. Cinderella’s step-sisters were eager to go to the ball, and their mother bought them beautiful new dresses to wear. Cinderella also wanted to go, but her step-mother told her she had to finish her work first, and then gave her extra work to do to be sure she couldn’t possibly get done before the ball was over.
“The step-mother and the two step-sisters went off to the ball. Cinderella was left at home to cry. Suddenly, a fairy appeared in front of her, saying, ‘I’m your Fairy Godmother. I’ve come so that you can go to the ball.’
“Cinderella could hardly believe her ears and eyes. ‘But I’ve so much work to do,’ she said.
“The Fairy Godmother got her to list the work and with a wave of her wand, all the work was done.
“‘But I’ve nothing to wear to the ball,’ complained Cinderella.
“The Fairy Godmother waved her wand again and Cinderella was dressed in a beautiful ball gown and beautiful glass slippers. They stepped outside and the Fairy Godmother turned a pumpkin into a coach and mice into the horses and coachmen. ‘Remember, at midnight all of this magic ends and you will be dressed again in rags and the coach will turn back into a pumpkin.’
“Cinderella got into the coach and off it took her to the ball. She danced all evening with a variety of men, but mostly with Prince Charming. She was in the middle of a dance with Prince Charming when the church clock began to chime midnight.
“‘I must go!’ she exclaimed and ran off, leaving Prince Charming with empty arms and a puzzled expression on his face.
“Cinderella ran as fast as she could, out of the palace and down the steps. She ran so fast that she lost both of her beautiful glass slippers. The clock was on the third stroke of midnight when she reached the coach, climbed in and ordered it to take her home as fast as possible. At breakneck speed it left the castle and got her almost half way home before the mice scurried away and Cinderella found herself on the street, dressed in rags, sitting next to a pumpkin.
“Prince Charming found one of the glass slippers and started a search for the girl who wore the glass slipper. Every girl in the kingdom was ordered to try on the slipper. It did not fit Cinderella’s step-sisters, and they weren’t going to let her try it on, but the King’s Chamberlain saw Cinderella and said that every girl in the kingdom must try it on, and that surely included this ragamuffin too. And the slipper fit her perfectly!
“She was taken to the castle, dressed in rich robes and brought to Prince Charming, who recognized her at once. He wanted to know why she had run away. She told him of the visit from her Fairy Godmother, and how the enchantment ended at midnight, leaving her on the street, dressed in rags, standing next to a pumpkin.
“They were married at once.
“Later that night, as the church bells again were ringing midnight, Prince Charming turned to his bride. ‘I have a confession to make. I am not Prince Charming. Like yours, my Fairy Godmother came and made me into Prince Charming for a week so I could find a bride who was honest, hardworking and beautiful, and I have found you. But now, my enchantment too will end, and I will go back to being a hard-working tradesman. I work for the King. It is a hard life, but a good one. I hope you will stay with me.’
“Nothing could have made Cinderella happier. She had been thinking how hard and horrid it was going to be to have to play Queen, when all she really wanted was to be with her prince and have a life together and raise a family. Now she didn’t have to pretend to be a queen. She kissed him, and he turned into the handsomest, most honest, hardworking tradesman. They lived happily ever after.”
Everyone cheered and agreed that this was far the better ending to the story. And Ralph understood what she was telling him, too. It had been a wonderful day, one that neither of them would ever want to forget.
Singing
By general agreement, the group wanted to sing the songs they had learned before. They bounced among them, having a very good time singing and enjoying listening to themselves sing. As they sang, they recovered the sense of unity of purpose that they had found the previous night. They saved “Dona Nobis Pacem” for last, and it was the best – almost as good as it had been the night before.
At the end of the evening, finding their way to their sleeping places through the gently fluctuating illumination of the nearly-full moon peeking in and out of a thin layer of high clouds moving quickly across the night sky, the castaways were thinking their own special thoughts.
Jim and Ron were reflecting on another lesson learned about the complex roles they played in society.
Jeanne and Ralph were still filled with the memories of a wonderful day spent alone, if chastened by the anxiety they had caused in some of the others.
Val’s love for Shelly continued to grow in depth and breadth as Shelly expanded into a more mature role in their little society. Shelly the helper, Shelly the contributor. And Shelly had no doubt that what enabled her emergence, and the satisfaction of being able to help without feeling burdened, was the love she and Val shared. Strangely, her love for Val was also deepened by the realization of the level of support she derived from Val’s love for her.
Routine Activities Page 3