Chapter 6
Acrust of sand and salt kept Mark’s eyes sealed shut until he forced his eyelids open, and he stared up at the overcast sky while his brain caught him up on recent events.
The ship, the excursion, swimming with dolphins, a sudden storm, dolphin rescue.
It wasn’t raining at the moment, and he’d slept (or passed out?
He wasn’t sure) long enough that his clothes weren’t soaking wet, so he tried to focus on the positive instead of freaking out over being washed up on the beach of an island that might or might not be inhabited.
He sat up slowly and glanced around, looking for Terry. That was another thing to be grateful for: he wasn’t here alone. But for a moment, he was alarmed because Terry was nowhere in sight. But he caught sight of footprints leading off into the treeline, and his tension eased.
“Ah! Gotcha!” Terry’s laughter floated from somewhere nearby, and Mark relaxed completely.
Terry stepped back onto the beach, his arms full of bananas. He grinned as he saw Mark looking his way. “Great! You’re awake! I hope you like bananas, because that’s all I could find close by.”
Mark’s stomach growled in response, reminding him he hadn’t eaten anything since the breakfast buffet.
Instinctively, he reached for his phone to see what time it was, but then he remembered he’d left it in his tote bag stowed away on the catamaran.
Hopefully, it had survived the storm and made it back to port more safely than he had.
His mouth felt parched, so he worked up some spit before he tried to reply.
“Bananas sound great!” he called back.
Terry made it to him and placed the bananas in the sand between them.
There were several green ones, but most of them looked nicely ripe.
“I’m grateful my diving knife survived our little swim,” he said, as he pulled it out and cut off a large fruit.
He handed it to Mark with a grin. “Once we’re fed, we can look around and find the way back to civilization. ”
Mark accepted the banana with murmured thanks and didn’t waste any time peeling off the skin.
Bananas weren’t his favorite fruit, but this was the best banana he’d ever had in his entire life, and he was grateful for it.
Devouring the banana helped settle the shaky feeling that accompanied his noisy stomach, and he felt much better despite being encrusted with sand.
“Do you know which island this is?” he asked. There were countless islands in the area, and he didn’t know if all of them had been mapped, but maybe Terry recognized this particular one.
Terry cut several more bananas off the stalk, then peeled one for himself. As he ate, he looked up at the sky.
“No idea specifically, but we were south of Great Exuma. I think the current carried us further south and likely east, which means we’re probably in the Ragged Islands or near Long Island.”
That didn’t mean anything to Mark, but it sounded good because anything named was likely inhabited. Besides, Terry sounded confident enough that Mark felt he could relax a little. Knowing where they were was a big net positive.
“So we’ll find somewhere we can call for help?”
“I hope so,” Terry said. “If we are where I think we are, this is one of the least populated areas of the entire Bahamas. But remember, boats come through this area all the time. Cruise ships, sailboats, and lots of fishing vessels regularly use this area. Even if we’re on an island without any people, we can see if we’re close enough to swim to another, or maybe light a signal fire to draw attention.
” He reached out and squeezed Mark’s hand.
“We’ll be fine. It might take a day or two, but they’ll be looking for us, too, remember. ”
A knot of worry tightened in the pit of Mark’s stomach, but he squeezed Terry’s hand, drawing comfort from the reassuring contact. “You’re sure? They won’t assume we drowned?”
That was his biggest fear: that they’d be left behind and forgotten, chalked up as casualties of the storm. Maybe it was a rational fear, or maybe he’d watched too many Gilligan’s Island reruns as a kid, but either way, he didn’t want to be abandoned on a desert island.
“Nah, that's not a concern for at least a week. The Bahamas has agreements with the US Coast Guard for help in search and rescue, especially when it involves American citizens. It's your tax dollars at work doing something useful, for once.” Terry smiled in encouragement. “But don’t get ahead of yourself fretting. Let’s do a walkabout of the island. For all we know, there are people just a mile away, and you’ll feel silly for having worried, won’t you? ”
“When you put it like that….” Mark chuckled, partly out of amusement, but mostly out of relief. Everything Terry had said made sense and gave him hope that their stay here would be short-lived. “Yeah, let’s take a couple of bananas for the road and go on that walkabout.”
Terry nodded, rising gracefully to his feet and extending his hand in an offer to help Mark up, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
“Besides, I don’t think the dolphins would have bothered to save us only to dump us somewhere uninhabitable.
Unless they figured you didn’t give them enough fish the first time around.
Then I suspect all bets would be off. They seemed pretty serious about the fish. ”
Mark accepted Terry’s help and stood up with less grace and more grunting than Terry had.
Once he was upright, he glanced around, but all he could see was an empty beach stretching out in both directions and the ocean stretching all the way to the horizon.
The breeze carried the rhythmic splash of the waves, punctuated by occasional squawks from sea birds, but he couldn’t hear any human voices or the growl of a boat motor.
It was just…quiet. At home, there was some kind of noise even when he was alone.
Either he had music or the TV on as background noise, or he could hear traffic and people on the street outside the windows of his apartment.
There were also the various dings from his phone or computer, notifying him that he had a text or a call or a message somewhere. His life was never this silent.
“This is weird,” he said, still looking around the beach in hopes of seeing something that indicated civilization was nearby.
“What is?” Terry asked, looking puzzled as he walked parallel to the water. “It’s a pretty standard beach for these islands.”
“The quiet.” Mark gestured broadly to encompass everything around them as they walked along.
“There’s no music, no talking, no screaming kids, no phones dinging, no car engines–nothing.
I don’t remember the last time I went somewhere without any background human noise.
” He paused, casting his mind back to previous trips he’d taken, but no, they’d all been to well-populated places.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere like this. I’ve never even been camping before.”
Terry raised an eyebrow. “I guess the important question is, do you find it restful or disturbing? I know the quiet isn’t for everyone.”
Mark walked beside Terry without responding for a minute or two, taking time to consider both the question and his own answer.
“I’m not sure yet,” he said at last. “The circumstances might be coloring how I feel about it, you know? It’s not like I chose to be here, and it’s kind of scary not knowing where we are or when we’ll be back on the ship. So right now, it’s not restful.”
He glanced around again, trying to imagine how he’d feel if he wasn’t stranded here, if he was walking along the beach with Terry by choice, maybe even on a date where he was holding Terry’s hand instead of a banana straight from the tree it grew on.
The slow rhythm of the waves and the warm breeze would evoke a far more romantic atmosphere instead.
“But I think under different circumstances, it would be,” he added, trying to distract himself from thoughts of romance and dating. It wasn’t the time or the place. Not now and perhaps not ever.
Terry smiled, seeming pleased, and he reached out to touch Mark on the shoulder, his hand warm.
“I get the feeling you’re a type A personality, am I right?
So think of this as a pause from the rat race.
An adventure rather than a dire emergency, you know?
It’s not a matter of if we get back, just when.
Maybe this is the universe’s way of telling you that you need a break for a little bit. ”
“If that’s the case, the universe and Felicia have been conspiring together against me,” he muttered.
Terry’s smile faded into a puzzled frown. “Felicia?”
“My personal assistant,” Mark said. “Although that’s a paltry term that doesn’t do justice to her role in my life. Her family moved in next door to mine when I was eight and she was ten, so she thinks she’s my big sister and acts accordingly.”
Terry’s frown cleared. “I have a bossy older sister myself, so I know the type.”
They had continued strolling down the beach, which curved to the left.
Ahead of them the sky was again growing dark, and Terry stopped as streaks of lightning arced between the clouds.
“Crap. I think another band of storms is headed this way. I think we’re turning southward, and that would be where the center of the depression was. ”
“Great.” Mark blew out a frustrated breath. “I guess that means we need to take cover somewhere?”
“Yeah, unless we want to get soaked again,” Terry replied. He grabbed Mark’s hand and tugged him toward the trees. “Come on, let’s see if we can find some shelter. It’s getting late. After the rain passes, it would be best not to stumble around in the dark.”
Where the trees met the beach, there was a lot of undergrowth, but Terry pulled out his knife again, cutting away vines and low-hanging branches. “Be careful,” he warned, pointing out a spiky-looking shrub on their right.