Chapter 9
Terry woke in the dim light of early morning, and this time he felt no confusion at all about finding Mark in his arms. In fact, he snuggled closer, barely resisting the urge to press kisses to the back of Mark’s neck.
They weren’t quite at that stage yet, but Terry was more hopeful after the previous day that they might give dating a shot.
It might be difficult at first, unless Terry could get himself released from his contract, but he was more than willing to burn that bridge if he had to for a chance at a real relationship.
It might seem rash to some people, but Terry had always trusted his instincts, and they were practically screaming at him that Mark was Mr. Right.
His ruminations were interrupted by his stomach suddenly rumbling, and he knew they needed to find something more substantial than fruit.
Fortunately, Mark woke up hungry as well, and after they’d eaten a few bananas and gotten water from the spring, Terry led Mark to the beach, where the sun was just above the horizon and a pleasant breeze seemed to promise a cooler day.
“I can’t make any promises,” Terry said, pointing to a shallow cove area where seagrass spread from beneath some overarching trees and down into the water.
Terry found a long, straight stick for himself, and another for Mark, to use in case they also found some fish.
“But conch like that kind of marshy salt flat. We can go out to about thigh depth, but try not to kick up any sand from the bottom. Then we look for our tasty friends crawling along the bottom.”
Mark listened with the intensity of a student who sat in the front row of every class. “Thigh high, no sand, look for crawling shells. Got it.”
Terry found a long, straight stick for himself, and another for Mark.
It took only a moment to sharpen the ends with his diving knife, readying them in case they didn’t find any conch but located some fish.
Then he led the way into the shallow water.
It was warm, and he started scanning the sandy bottom.
“Have you ever eaten conch?” he asked as they moved slowly along the shoreline.
“It can be a bit chewy, but at this point I’m so hungry, I’d eat a barracuda. ”
“No, I’ve never had it,” Mark said, and as if in response to Terry, his stomach chose that moment to growl despite their banana and coconut breakfast. “But yeah, if it’s edible, I’ll take it even if it’s chewy as an old tire.”
Terry chuckled. “I agree.” The sun was up enough now to light the bottom of their hunting grounds and he pointed to Mark’s right. “Look! See that pinkish thing? Grab it!”
Mark glanced around, his face alight with excitement, and he lunged at the conch. For a moment, Terry couldn’t see anything because the sand got stirred up, but then Mark straightened and held out both hands, revealing a conch.
“I got it!” He looked as thrilled as a kid on Christmas morning, his eyes alight with pride.
Terry whooped in delight and leaned in to give Mark a smacking kiss on his cheek. “You’re a mighty hunter. Why don’t you carry that to shore, and I’ll see if I can find another.”
Mark’s cheeks grew flushed, and he smiled bashfully. “It won’t crawl off if we leave it there?”
“Just flip it so the opening is upright,” Terry told him. “But why don’t you gather some firewood so we can get cooking? Just give me a couple of minutes to see if I can add anything to our breakfast, and then we’ll cook it.”
“You got it.” Mark gave him a thumbs-up and a cheerful smile, and he waded back to shore, still moving carefully to avoid kicking up too much sand. Once he was back on land, he waved to Terry before trotting back to the treeline, the conch cradled in one hand.
Terry chuckled and shook his head, then turned his attention back to the water. Mark was a lot more capable in the “wild” than he gave himself credit for, and Terry felt honored to get to watch Mark discover that his life was bigger than his company.
Mark seemed to have gotten the one and only conch in the area, but after several minutes Terry was able to spear a hogfish, which he carried back to shore.
Mark had gathered plenty of firewood, and so even though their fire had gone out overnight, Terry was able to get a blaze going once again.
He gathered some more banana leaves, several rocks, and several coconut shells, which he cracked open with his knife.
“Now let’s see about cleaning this up,” he said, holding out his hand for the conch. “Unfortunately, we have to damage the shell to get our sandy friend out.”
“That’s okay. I’m not looking for any souvenirs from this island,” Mark said as he handed over the conch. He gave it a little pat. “Sorry, buddy. If it’s any consolation, you’re going to taste delicious.”
“That he will.” Terry wasted no time using a rock to break the tip off the conch spiral, which released the suction in the shell.
He removed the conch meat, cut off the inedible bits, and washed the meat in the ocean.
After cleaning the coconut from the shell, he placed the conch meat inside two of the halves, along with some water, and put the tops back on and carefully placed them on the edge of the fire to steam in the shells.
“That’ll take a bit, so let’s work on the fish,” he said, placing the hogfish on a banana leaf.
He showed Mark how to strip off the scales and cut two thick fillets, which he speared on sticks and placed over the fire.
In short order, they were seated on the sand with sliced banana, roasted fish, and steamed conch ready to eat.
“I swear, the entire buffet on the ship never looked as good as this,” Mark said as he surveyed their meal with an eager gleam in his eyes.
“Dig in,” Terry said as he used a banana leaf to serve Mark a piece of fish. He picked up one of the still-warm coconut shells gingerly and scooped out a bite of the conch. It was chewy, but he was ravenous, and it tasted delicious.
Mark devoured his fish, his eyes closed, and he hummed with every bite. “Best fish ever,” he said, opening his eyes at last. He ate a few banana slices, and then he reached for the conch and popped a piece in his mouth. “My compliments to the chef.”
Terry swallowed and raised his coconut shell in acknowledgement, giving Mark a wink. “It was a team effort,” he replied. “You should see what I can do with proper spices. Or, you know, pots and pans.”
Mark laughed, but there was a flash of admiration in his gaze as well. “You can cook too? Is there anything you can’t do, or have I found myself a true Renaissance man?”
“Hmmm…” Terry held up a hand and waggled it back and forth.
As much as he wanted Mark’s approval, he wasn’t about to be deceitful.
“I throw myself into an interest and get obsessive for a time, then move on to something else. For what it’s worth, I’m hopeless with most mechanical things like cars, and my parents swear I caused my first grade music teacher to go deaf with my horrible singing voice. ”
“I’m glad to know you’re a mere mortal like the rest of us,” Mark said, but he winked as if to take any potential sting out of the words.
“I can change a tire and the oil, but that’s the extent of my mechanic skills.
No one has complained about my singing or dancing, but it’s been a while since I’ve done either.
I used to be a regular at karaoke, but that was back when I was in college. ”
“Trust me, my feet are totally made of clay.” Terry had finished the conch, so he reached for his own piece of fish. “So what all do you like to sing?”
While they finished up their meal, Terry learned Mark enjoyed classic rock, but that his guilty pleasure was show tunes. That was great with Terry, who revealed he had a weakness for Disney movies and had a huge crush on David Grohl as a teenager.
They finished their breakfast, and then Terry rolled to his feet. “Time to build that signal fire. We’ll need a lot of wood, but I think that if we build it just down the beach from here, it should be visible to anyone cruising by.”
Mark jumped up, seeming energized, although whether it was from the protein or the possibility of rescue wasn’t clear. Perhaps both, but either way, he started bee-lining back to the beach.
“Let’s do it!”
It took several minutes to get the pyre built, but fortunately the fire from their breakfast was still burning.
Terry carried a stick from that fire to their new woodpile and set it ablaze.
The wood caught and sent up a lot of smoke.
“Hopefully someone will spot it,” Terry said, feeding some brush into the fire to make it smoke more.
“We can stay here today and keep dumping wood on it.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Mark turned his gaze to the horizon and scanned the area, and then he glanced at Terry with a sheepish smile. “I’m too antsy to go far anyway. I’d want to keep running back here to check if anyone was approaching.”
“I get it,” Terry said, looking out to sea and shaking his head. “If we’re anywhere close to where we went overboard, someone ought to come to investigate. You’d think they’d be looking for signs that we made it to land.”
Unfortunately, the day wore on without them catching sight of any vessels.
Terry remained hopeful that since the smoke was visible from miles away, they’d draw attention that way.
He had Mark watch the fire while he went back into the water for more fish, and they ate while sitting in the sand and staring out to sea.
They spent a lot of the time talking, with Mark telling Terry all about building his business, while Terry shared his desire to have his travel agency cater to a mostly gay clientele, with adventures to gay friendly places that would go beyond the standard ones other agencies offered.