“Okay thank you,” I tell him, turning around before he can give me the history behind it. “Oh, and if you hear anything in the jungle, it’s probably a goat.”
“What?” he asks, but I’m already running to the beach.
I spend the next hour trying to use my clothes and items, plus various sticks and branches and coconut shells trying to spell out SOS. Because of the size, I have no idea what it looks like or if it’s even legible, but it’s probably good enough.
By the time I’m done I’m exhausted and starving, and both Lacey and Tai have returned from their expeditions.
“What on earth are you doing?” Tai asks me, hauling a duffel bag over his shoulder, soaking sleeping bags hastily tied to it.
My heart skips a bit, that he’s actually talking to me. It’s good to see him.
And I mean, like, really good.
He’s shirtless, wearing just his boxer briefs, zero hint of modesty whatsoever. Instead his golden brown, built as fuck, taut and muscled body is on full display. I hadn’t even noticed that he has a Polynesian-looking tattoo across his chest. I want to ask him about it, I want to take my time admiring him. I especially want to let my eyes drift down to his junk.
But this isn’t the time or place.
“I’m building an SOS signal,” I tell him.
“No need.” He waves the satellite phone at me. “I talked to rescue.”
“You did!” I exclaim.
“Oh thank god,” Lacey says, wiping her brow.
He nods. “Yes, well there’s good news and bad news.”
“Bad news first,” I tell him.
He sighs. “We have to call back in a few days.”
“What?” Lacey exclaims. “Who did you call?”
“It’s complicated,” Tai says. “I had to not only swim back to the boat so I could actually pick up a signal, but there really isn’t any protocol for figuring out who to call. You can’t just call 911 here.”
“So who did you call?”
“I eventually got through to a search and rescue out of Suva. They were able to see where we were because of the phone’s GPS, but because we’re all alive and we don’t have any life-threatening injuries, they said we’re low on their priority list. Apparently that storm was a wild one. Lots of people worse off than we are on other islands, not just other ships.”
“Maybe call back again, try someone else? Maybe a private company?” Lacey asks.
“I don’t think it would be any different,” he says, “and it’s important we don’t waste the battery. Took me ten minutes to finally get through.”
“So, what’s the good news?” I ask.
“I managed to salvage some stuff from the boat.” He pats the duffel bag “And at least they know we’re here. If we’re placed low on priority, well that makes me think the situation isn’t half-bad for us.”
“Isn’t half-bad?” Lacey exclaims. “We’re shipwrecked!”
“We’re going to have to rough it for a few days,” he says, walking past us. “Could be worse.”
I have to say, with everything Lacey told me, I expected Tai to be taking this a lot worse. Now that I know he’s not that worried, it makes me feel less scared.
“Hey,” I call after him. “My phone works. I was able to pull up the island on the map.”
He reluctantly stops and turns slightly toward me. “And?”
“It looks like a dong.”
He flinches and I swear I see a hint of a smile on his lips.
Worth it.
Then he shakes his head and keeps walking to the camp.
“Grow up, Daisy,” Lacey hisses at me, following him.
I shrug.
Thirteen
Daisy
Our first day on the island passes by somewhat comfortably, given the circumstances of us being shipwrecked.
Other than the fact that Richard is still giving Lacey the cold shoulder, and that makes her mad at him, for some backwards reason.
And Tai, of course, is still mad at me. He’s not ignoring me completely, but I can tell he tries not to address me, and he definitely doesn’t want to look at me. There have been numerous times that I’ve wanted to pull him aside and apologize profusely for what happened, as well as talk about his sister, but I know when to keep my distance.
Besides, he can’t ignore me forever. Where is he going to go?
Actually that’s a stupid question. I can’t really tell how large the island is, but I know that it’s big enough (and phallic enough) to show up on my phone. I suppose if he wanted to, he could head down to one end and create a separate “No Redheads Allowed” camp. That is what happened on Lost, isn’t it? Half the people stayed on the beach, the other half went into the jungle. Live together, die alone?
At any rate, we’re stuck together for now, having just finished eating heated up cans of beans. We weren’t spared Richard doing an overly dramatic “I have made fire” Tom Hanks impression after he created the fire, but it’s easy when you have a lighter.