Candi tracked Jonathan down and had him crack open six coconuts, saving the water that was in the nut. She used several of their bamboo cups and worked on mixing the coconut water with some of the guava slices. She used a bamboo stick with a small, round, conch-like shell tied to the end of it to mash the guava pulp into the coconut water. When she was finished, she took a taste, immediately spitting it out.
Eww, that’s pretty gross.
She set the cup down next to the others on the shelves Kevin had built – bamboo poles lined up next to each other between two tree roots and secured together, side-by-side.
Maybe after they sit for a while they’ll taste better.
She went back to the fire and took the fish off, completely forgetting her experiment.
“Dinner time everyone!”
The others filtered back to the campsite to join her. Kevin immediately took the space next to Candi.
“Hello, girlfriend,” he said, winking at her.
Candi smiled and looked at the ground.
Okay, so he isn’t going to hide it.
She looked up to find Sarah smiling at her. Jonathan was waiting for his piece of fish, having completely missed the import of the word ‘girlfriend’. Candi sighed at his innocence. He would catch on eventually.
She passed out portions of the steamed fish, coconut and guava to everyone. After they’d all had a taste, they agreed that the guava was a nice change. It was better than what they’d eaten every night since the fish started making up the main part of their dinner meal, and that was the goal – consistent improvement.
“I think tomorrow I’d like to try smoking some fish,” said Candi.
“What do you need to do that?” asked Sarah.
“Well, some sort of chamber that will hold smoke inside for as long as possible. The fire would be at the bottom. There would need to be shelves up above the fire, high enough not to burn. And we’d need lots of both dry and damp wood, and things that smoke a lot when they burn.”
Jonathan and Kevin thought about it for a minute. Kevin was the first to speak. “Can we use the tarp? Because if I build a bamboo chamber in a box or teepee shape, I could drape the tarp over it and that would keep the smoke in. Or we could use palm fronds probably.”
They all looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders in agreement.
“Good. I think with everyone’s help, we could do this, no problem,” said Kevin.
“Excellent,” said Candi, smiling. “Smoked fish is really yummy. We used to get it around Christmastime every year. I hope I can make it taste okay; I think the smoke does most of the work though.”
Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, I love smoked fish. I’m surprised we didn’t think of this sooner.”
“Actually, I’ve been trying to block out thoughts of home.” Candi didn’t want to finish her thought – that she really missed their parents – because she was afraid she was going to cry in front of everyone.
“I think I’ve been doing the same thing,” said Kevin.
“Me too,” said Sarah, suddenly very sober.
Jonathan raised his hand, “Guilty.”
Kevin started to squirm. Candi watched him and got the distinct impression that he was uncomfortable. She reached over and touched his arm, a question in her eyes.
He looked at her briefly and then took a deep breath, letting it out in one long short burst. He looked at each of their faces in turn and then began to talk. “Listen guys, I have a little confession to make.”
Candi looked at him with alarm, wondering if he was going to confess something about her. She didn’t know why it suddenly made her nervous. These guys were her family; she had nothing to worry about with them. She was only a little embarrassed about how she’d let that kiss get away from her earlier. But she soon found out this little confession had nothing to do with the kiss.
“Before we left on the cruise, I found out some stuff that I haven’t told anyone, not even Sarah.” He looked over at his sister, and Candi followed his gaze. Sarah reacted in a confused way, confirming she had no idea what he was talking about.
“It’s about Mr. Buckley.” He looked at Jonathan and Candi. Candi sat very still, just waiting to hear what he was going to say and trying to ignore the sick feeling that rose up from her stomach.
Kevin sighed, continuing. “My dad was making all these phone calls in the weeks before we left on the cruise. He was talking to these guys I know he used to work with, real assholes. Sarah, you know who I’m talking about … that guy, Mr. Summers, and his buddy Mike Holder.”
Sarah nodded her head. “Yep. Assholes. I can confirm that part of the story.”
“Anyway, I overheard some of the things he was saying, so I was kind of able to put some things together. I also read an email on his computer when he left it sitting on the dining room table one afternoon.” Kevin paused and looked at Jonathan.
“Jonathan, your dad had invented some sort of software that was for telephone stuff, right? And no one had ever solved some sort of problem like this software did if I understand correctly … ”
“Well, the software is for telephone relay systems which are all completely computerized now. His software more efficiently routes the signals that go through those systems, which saves energy, time and resources. It has pretty far-reaching effects, particularly when one considers how relay traffic has steadily increased year over year for the past, I don’t know, twenty years.”
“Exactly. Well, my dad knew of some other uses for the program that I’m pretty sure your dad didn’t – some sort of military uses I think. So he had hooked in with some guys through these a-holes that he knows, and once he signed your dad to a contract, he was going to cut your dad out and work the commercialization himself … and I got the impression it was for purposes that your dad wasn’t so crazy about.”
Everyone was dead silent around the campfire. Kevin looked at the ground, clearly ashamed.
Candi was the first to speak. “Is this why you asked me to be your girlfriend today? So I would be more inclined to forgive you?” Her heart had gone cold, and all she could think about was being betrayed. He had been so smooth out on that rock today.
“What girlfriend? You’re his
girlfriend?”
Jonathan stared at them in shock. “Since when?”
“Kevin, excuse my French, but what the
fuck?”
said Sarah, seriously pissed. “Why didn’t you say anything to me?” She looked around the campfire. “Why didn’t you say anything to
us?”
Kevin started to look panicked. The looks he was getting from around the campfire were none too friendly. Candi was happy to see that everyone was supporting her dad.
“I’m so, so sorry guys. I know, I should have said something earlier. Believe me, I started to so many times; but I was just too much of a wimp. I knew it was wrong, what my dad was doing, and I wanted to tell you; but since we’ve been here, I don’t know, it’s just seemed so far away – like it was a bad dream or something.”
Candi gave an inelegant snort. “Sha, like that’s an excuse.” She shook her head silently in disappointment, letting his story and lame excuses confirm the realization that he’d asked her to be his girlfriend to try and get some sort of alliance going to cushion the impact of his treachery; and that’s exactly what it felt like –
treachery
.
“Oh, shit, Candi, not
you!
Don’t be mad at me! I asked you to be my girlfriend because I like you, I want you to be my girl! It has
nothing
at all to do with this crap. Nothing at
all,
I swear.”
Sarah spoke up. “Kevin, you may think you’re right about that, but the truth is, we can’t have secrets from one another. For now and until the foreseeable future, we’re family, all four of us. We’re all we have. We are totally connected by what we do and say
and
what we don’t say. Without each other, we won’t survive this island. And the shit that happened before we came here, and the shit that will happen when we leave, it’s all
real
. It all matters, because it’s going to impact us as a family now.” She looked at all the faces around the fire; they were all listening to her intently. “I don’t mean to be overly dramatic here, but really – I consider you guys my family. We live together, we eat together, we sleep together, we survive together, we are building a
life
together … Candi and Kevin, you are my brother and sister. Jonathan, you’re my, um, I’m not exactly sure yet – but whatever, we’re family. And that’s all I have to say.”
Jonathan cleared his throat and looked at Kevin as he spoke. “I’m not sure that I can speak for Candi on this one, since she, uh, apparently has a different relationship with you than I realized, but anyway, speaking at least for myself, I can say that over the past few weeks, I have learned that you are not your father. You may look like him a little, but that’s where the similarities end. I know you’ve got my back, and you’ve got my sister’s back. I know you wouldn’t do to us or to our parents what your dad is doing or trying to do. So I, for one, am not going to hold it against you that your dad is a douchebag.” He paused before continuing, “However, I do have a problem with you keeping secrets of the type that are bad or could hurt us; so if we’re going to continue to live on this island together, like a family as Sarah said, we have to have an understanding. No more secrets. Secrets are like lies as far as I’m concerned, and I need to be able to trust my family.”
Candi nodded her agreement. “I have nothing to add to that. I agree with Jonathan and Sarah.”
Kevin’s eyes were bright with unshed tears. His voice was hoarse when he said, “Thanks guys. Like I said, I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner. I should have. I know that. From now on, no more secrets. No lies. We are a family.” He stood up and held out his hand over the fire.
The group knew this was Kevin’s call for a team huddle, since he’d done it enough times during their morning rugby games. The others slowly stood and put their hands out, silently stacking them in the middle over the fire, looking into each other’s eyes. “Family,” said Kevin.
“Family,” said Sarah.
“Family,” said Jonathan.
Everyone looked to Candi to see if she was ready to forgive. She sighed heavily.
“Fine. Family.”
“Whoot!” yelled Kevin, before turning and lifting her up, grabbing her in big bear hug and spinning her around.
“Put me down, you troll!” she yelled.
“No! You’re my girlfriend, and I’m dancing with you!”
“Oh, my god, you need some serious dancing lessons if this is what you call dancing.” Candi looked over at Sarah when the spinning had finally stopped to see what she thought about her brother’s public display of affection. Sarah was watching them with a pleased expression on her face.
“I miss school dances,” Sarah said wistfully.
Kevin put Candi down and hugged her hard, before letting her go to begin cleaning up around the fire. Candi pretended to help him, but listened carefully to the conversation Sarah and Jonathan started to have, sneaking glances over as often as she could without being too obvious.
“Not me,” said Jonathan, a note of horror in his voice.
“Why don’t you like school dances?” Sarah asked. “I thought everyone liked them.”
“First, I can never get a date; and second, I can’t dance … so that kind of destroys the only two things that make a dance worth going to.”
“Well, we could have a prom here on the island, and I could be your date. That is, if you want me to be your date.” Sarah looked at Jonathan, the bait dangling between them.
Candi smiled as she looked at the expression on her brother’s face – hope mixed with fear.
“That doesn’t solve the dancing problem,” responded Jonathan, appearing neutral to her invitation.
Very cool, bro, very cool.
Candi was impressed with her brother’s handling of Sarah, who she knew could be intimidating as heck to any guy, let alone an inexperienced one like Jonathan.
“Well, I could teach you to slow dance and then after that, maybe you could just speed it up for the fast dances. Besides,” she continued, as she moved closer to stand in front of him, “we don’t really have any music, so we’d just be swaying from side to side. What could be easier than that?”
Jonathan held his ground, looking down into her eyes at the invitation that was definitely being issued from them. “If we were back home, would you go to the prom with me?”
Candi held her breath as she waited for Sarah’s answer.
“Yes. In a second.”
And Candi could tell she meant it.
Jonathan smiled. “I wish I could believe that.”
“Believe it,” said Sarah, just before she reached up on tiptoe and gently kissed him on the lips.
Jonathan moved his hands to rest them on her hips. “Do you have any idea what my friends back home would do if I walked into the prom with you as my date?” The idea made him nearly glow with happiness.
“Well, I don’t know about your friends, but my friends would be jealous.”
That comment made Candi smile. She could totally see it. Jonathan had changed, as had Sarah.
Jonathan chucked. “That’s funny. Your friends would probably refuse to eat lunch with you ever again and you’d be banned to the chess club table with me for life.”
“You underestimate your charms, Jonathan.” She ran her hands up and down his upper arms, which by now had become quite well-muscled and very tan. “I’d have to work, I think, to keep my old friends from trying to steal you away from me.”
Jonathan pulled her closer. “So, will you go to the Peanut Island prom with me, then?”
Sarah put her arms up around his neck, “Yes, I would love to.”
They leaned in and gave each other a hot, wet kiss that threatened to turn into more – until they started hearing catcalls from across the clearing.
“Woo hoo, get a room, you two!” they heard Kevin yell.
“Wow, hey … rated G, please, guys,” from Candi.
Jonathan and Sarah instantly broke apart, both of them acting a little embarrassed.