Chapter Nine
The sheep shoulders and chops and whatever parts that Oskar had given me for dinner the night before had been delicious.
After so long with no meat and no fat and minimal calories, the chops, glistening with what little fat the sheep contained, had been exquisite.
I had set up a rough spit and roasted the meat as quickly as I could.
The men had set upon the mutton as if it were their last meal, and I hadn’t been much better, licking the drippings from my fingers.
After we had finished, we had all collapsed into a drowsy pile, the food putting us into a twilight state of being half-awake and half-asleep.
I had thought of doing so many things last night: saving the drippings from the roasted meat to use as cooking oil, collecting and cleaning the bones for soup, and scooping the marrow out of them, but after my stomach was full and happy, it had been hard to want to do anything.
So I was left with a mess and a dozen projects to complete in the morning.
Luckily, I had three and a half minions that I could coerce into being my drones.
Since arriving on the island, I had mostly been up early, early enough that I could watch the red sunrise in the east. It reminded me of the old saying, ‘red sky at night, sailors' delight, red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.’ It seemed that the morning was frightening the sailors every day since the eruption. It was most likely due to the sun catching on the particulates in the air, but I watched it with impatience. Oskar had suggested that we try to light the bonfire on the first day, when the sun didn’t rise, a lusty, almost neon red, as it meant a considerable amount of the ash and smoke had dissipated.
The guys were still in bed, well, floor, when I returned.
Ettore and Jin Woo tangled up in each other like they always were, Ettore’s head resting on Jin Woo’s bicep.
Bartosz had taken my place, and he was half-curled around Ettore’s back.
Ettore and Jin Woo had tried to put me in the center, but Ettore had been sniffling, so I had insisted that he take the middle place.
Oskar slept, stiff as a board, close-ish to Jin Woo, close enough to get the combined body heat, but not close enough to be truly part of our little huddle.
That was alright, though, let him be a stubborn dick, I had other things to deal with.
“Good morning! Get up, everyone!” I called out, before laughing at the absolute mess that Ettore’s hair had become; it stuck out in every direction like a dandelion head.
“Per favore, salvatrice,” Ettore whined, “a bit more sleep, please!”
Not many people would have been able to say no to his beautiful, droopy, sleepy eyes and his delicious-looking pouty lips, but luckily, I was one of the few.
“Nope! We have things to do!”
Once all of the guys had washed their faces and were looking a bit more awake, but no less disgruntled, Ettore grumbling about espresso, they all watched me march back and forth like a general.
“So! Gentlemen!” I said dramatically, “We need three teams, one team to clean and collect all of the bones for the sheep for broths, I think they’ll keep without refrigeration.
The second team is to collect more firewood for our stew and to keep our reserve up.
The last group will wash the sheep's wool and hang it in pieces to dry. If we stay here longer, we can use the wool as the stuffing of a blanket that we will make.”
Did I know where we were going to find the fabric to make the outside of the blanket? No, but that was currently not my concern.
However, Oskar had thoughts.
“Nah, that’s a bad idea, like quite bad. What are we going to stuff? Washing wool is a pain in the ass. Just pick off the shit and sticks and leaves and stuff. It may be smelly, but since it’s in one piece right now, we can use it as a small blanket.”
I had no idea who in particular he was speaking to.
“Oskar! Thank you for volunteering!” Oskar groaned and dragged a hand through his hair.
“I’ll collect the wood,” Jin Woo offered.
“Thanks, but could you also grab some seaweed too? We want more than just meat in the stew.”
“Do we, though?” Bartosz snarked before he melted when I sent him a look.
“Bartosz, can you and Oskar check the smoked meat and then help Ettore collect and clean the bones?”
Bartosz nodded, but still looked peevish.
“And what are you going to do?” he asked, and I couldn’t quite tell if he was actually annoyed with the distribution of labor or was just trying to get a rise out of me that would cause me to put him in his place, which he very obviously enjoyed.
“Well, thank you for asking; I will be building a little stand out of rocks to hold the wheelbarrow over a fire, then hauling water to fill said large wheelbarrow, then preparing the meat, seaweed, and anything else I can for the stew, then tending to the stew for several hours, and then serving it to you. Happy?” I shot back with a smile.
I knew that it would be a lot of work, but I could already feel the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile with your hands, along with the satisfaction of feeding people whom you care about.
Bartosz nodded, chastened, and all of them went away to do their tasks, some more happily than others.
It had taken a while and quite a bit of Jenga-like maneuvering to make a functional stand that wouldn’t topple and would keep the heavy, water-filled wheelbarrow upright and sufficiently above the fire.
I ended up using a whole lot of mud, which was, luckily, full of clay, and a couple of logs.
The wheelbarrow wasn’t as high above the fire as I would have liked it to be, but the day was awasting.
The cold weather overnight had kept the large cuts of sheep cool, and about thirty minutes after I had finished the cooking stand, the water was simmering, and the meat, in chunks or bigger pieces like the ribs, were quietly cooking away.
The stew looked a little sad, with just meat in the water.
I was half-tempted to pour a little seawater into it for the salt, but was worried that it would just make it taste fishy, or I would somehow be contaminating our food despite all of the boiling.
Sighing, I cut the seaweed that Jin Woo had delivered into pieces.
The guys were being good sports about the food, but I would do horrible things to get my hands on a croissant, or a slice of key lime pie, or even a turkey sandwich.
Regardless of my wants, the seaweed and sheep soup-stew thing eventually became fragrant, and I yelled at myself mentally for not being grateful for the meat.
How quickly had I become dissatisfied with something that I had once practically prayed for?
Jin Woo came back to the fire, his pockets bulging.
“Would you mind scooping this soup into the buckets?” I asked him, “My back is killing me, and I want to go up and wash my hands and stretch for a bit before we eat. I might take a nap; the stew should be done in around an hour. ”
Jin Woo slipped an arm around me, drawing me in and placing a hot kiss on my forehead.
“Of course, Naekkeo, thank you for cooking, it smells delicious,”
Turning my face to him like I was a sunflower, I basked in his warmth.
Things were looking up! We had food, I had a weird relationship that made me happy, and there was peace between the five of us.
The air had even begun to taste less of ash and smoke and more of pine.
Maybe this would be over soon. Maybe I could invite everyone to stay with my godmother for a while.
Maybe it wouldn’t be the same as being on the island, but I wanted to eat a juicy burger and hear Ettore complaining about how messy it was as he chowed down enthusiastically.
I wanted to see them in the real world, even if only for a little bit, even if the end result was disappointing. I could handle a little heartbreak.
When I came back, at least two hours later, the boys were chowing down on the soup, scooping stew up in their cupped hands and pulling flesh off of ribs with their teeth.
They were outside, with Jin Woo being the only one who was eating out of a bucket; even Ettore only had a stick as silverware, which was mostly ignored as he used his hands instead, dropping chunks of meat into his mouth.
Bartosz was the one who noticed me and froze guiltily, which Ettore noticed and turned to look at me with only a little guilt.
“Salvatrice, we saved some for you. Sorry, we were hungry,” He said, gesturing to the other bucket that was indeed filled to the brim with soup, a large amount of meat bobbing in the broth.
I sighed gently, but I couldn’t help the smile on my face. I had taken a long time; I had rested on the stone near the watering trough, closed my eyes, and soaked in the sun, letting it warm my bones.
“You should’ve woken me. Sorry for making you wait. Thanks for saving me some.”
I settled down between Ettore and Bartosz and picked up my bucket, but before I reached in for my first scoop of food, I paused.
The bucket was truly mostly meat, with some seaweed thrown in, but, along with the pale brown of the meat, there were small brown bits and some pale white pieces that didn’t look like fat or bone and bobbed, innocently, among the rest of the stew.
I reached into the soup, pulling out, between two of my fingers, two mushrooms, one pale and one brown.
Flinging them away, my breath quickened, hot flashes of terror coursing through me.
“STOP! STOP EATING!” I yelled.
The boys froze and stared at me in shock as I leapt up and pulled the bucket out of Jin Woo’s hand and kicked over the wheelbarrow pot, spilling the contents, still enough for another meal for all of us, into the dirt.