Page 71 of Adrift

I look up at Dante, but he’s gone. “Awesome. Don’t go too far into the woods.”

Zane and I neaten the hole up. Calvin’s back and forth from the woods with armloads of wood.

“We can do it today. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, what did we lose?” Calvin points at the pit.

“Sleep?” Zane answers.

“We’re going to be rescued.” I say it the same way I would tell myself I’m going to win the race.

Haley cups her hands around her mouth, yelling at us from the fire. “When you guys are done, wash up. Dinner’s ready.” She’s using her chief stew voice. Like we’re about to sit down to a five-course meal.

I’ve lost track of how much time has gone by or how hungry I am. I scrub as much sand off my hands as I can in the shallow waves. As I wade out of the ocean, the sun is almost down and there’s a chill to the air. The wind changes, and something smells delicious from the fire. I find my shirt. Someone has hung it over the edge of the raft. Dante’s pushing at the fire where one large stone is sitting on coals. He’s got a smaller one on top of it. Around the fire is a mat of fresh palm fronds far enough back to keep embers off. Five large rocks circle the fire, and on top of them are hollowed-out coconut bowls set on banana leaves.

“Bloody lovely, Dante. This smells amazing.” Zane plops down next to Haley. “I’m knackered. Thank you for cooking. Both of you.” He touches her shoulder, but he does that with everyone. Zane’s comfortable with everyone, it seems. Not me. It takes a lot for me to get comfortable with people. It always seems that people have an ulterior motive. They want money or to be attached to the limited amount of fame I have as an Olympian. But then I didn’t seem to have any problem getting comfortable last night.

“Yes, it’s good. Thank you.” I sit next to Dante.

“This isn’t half bad.” Calvin takes the last spot between Zane and me. He puts the hatchet down next to him, within easy reach. It’s become attached to his hand. But I don’t blame him. We need to be protected if we get attacked again.

Dante uses two sticks like giant chopsticks to move the top stones from the slice of meat on the rock and replaces them with new ones. “The thicker pieces are almost done. But here’s some to start.” He passes a thick leaf with small chunks of meat on it to me. I take a few and pass it to Calvin, who takes the smallest one before handing it off to Zane.

“You need more.” Zane pushes the leaf back to Calvin.

“I’m good.”

“There’s tons,” Haley says. “Literally.” And she laughs.

“Okay, thanks.” He puts some more in his bowl.

I hadn’t noticed, but there’s cooked coconut pieces in the bowl. It’s salty, crunchy, and a tad sweet. “Wow, this is delicious.” I glance around.

“Thanks.” Dante inclines his head. “Our lovely chief stew did a lot of the work.”

Haley smiles. “Zane found a couple of bananas. Wild ones are full of seeds, but Dante removed them and some?—”

“Don’t give away all my secrets, darling, or they’ll vote me off the island.” Dante laughs.

“It’s good.” Calvin frowns. His eyes flit along the horizon.

When I haven’t been in a deep pit, I’ve been watching too. Nothing. Not a plane or blip of movement on the ocean horizon.

The food is good, and we eat in silence. Another round of meat is passed between us. We finish off everything we have. I think none of us are confident that what’s in the tree will be good tomorrow. But we’ll see at first light.

My body is shutting down as the stars start their show. I missed them the last two nights. We had the windows closed up,all but a small part for the person on watch. Which was mostly Calvin. The man’s got issues.

“I’ll wash up.” I take the coconuts from everyone and rinse them out in the shallow waves. The wind is blowing onto the beach, and it’s almost high tide. I’m glad we have cover for the night. I scrub the leftover bits out of the cups and bring them back to the fire.

Calvin’s sitting by the fire when I get back, but the other three are in the raft. “I’ll take first watch.” He’s gruff as he inclines his head at the raft.

“You sure? I can.” As much as Calvin wants to control everything, he is an asset to our team, and I’m not going to let him overwork himself.

“I’ve got it.” It’s more of a“I don’t trust the fuck out of you to not fall asleep and let the fire go out.”It took him a long time to make the fire, even with the lighter Dante had in his pocket, one he’d used to light the gas stove on the yacht.

“I can keep the fire going. You sure you don’t want to sleep first?”

“I’m good. I hear one thing out of her that sounds like distress, I’m coming in and making you pay. Don’t scare her.”

“Only good sounds, got it.” I try not to smirk.

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