Page 24

Broadsided

Easton

“ W hat the hell?” I stand from the table, grabbing one of the sharpened sticks that are all around camp in piles of twos or threes.

Calvin puts his hand out, and I toss him one. We’ve all gone silent. Penny barks again. It’s drawn out, not her cute I’m barking for fun —it’s a distress bark. The get-the-fuck-out-of-my-home bark you never want to hear.

Calvin points at us to fan out and for Haley to climb up into the treehouse. Thank fuck she doesn’t balk but heads right up the ladder to the living room platform. His beefy finger points again, and she goes the rest of the way up to the sleeping area.

The gun is up there. Not that I want her to get it. We haven’t taken it out; they brought it over when they came to search for Calvin and me. And it can stay in its box, but if she needs it, I want her to have it.

Penny’s barks are coming from the ferns now. Not a pirate, then? But then Penny comes crashing down the path with a boar on her tail. The damn thing is focused on her. They both run right through the middle of camp, past us.

Sam throws his spear, and it grazes the side of the beast but crashes to the ground, bouncing off the path. I throw mine nearly at the same time, but it doesn’t go far, not with my arm. Fuck, it barely makes it past the table. My arm is shit after the swim.

My heart races. Until the island, I never fully understood how large boars are. Its head reaches past my waist. This one is bigger than any of the others we’ve seen.

Zane and Calvin take off after it. It’s chasing Penny, and the tusks on it could really hurt her.

I scoop up my spear and head after them.

Sam’s at my side. We charge off after it, but damn, Penny and the boar are moving fast. We fly around the bend; I have to quickly stop to keep from running into Zane.

“I can’t see either of them,” he says.

“Me, either.” I close my eyes and listen—something Calvin taught me to do a few months back. And I hear it off to the side. My eyes fly open, and I spot a broken twig and what looks like tracks? “This way,” I yell at Calvin’s back. He’s a hundred yards up the path already.

Now I’m in the lead. Me and my screaming shoulder and arm. I plow forward. Sam’s behind me with Zane.

This part of the island we’ve gone over many times, and it shows. There are crisscrossed paths through the ferns.

A hundred feet in, I lose the trail. “Fuck.” I crane my neck around, looking for any signs that could help me find it. Off to the side, I see an area that looks like it could be a new disturbance, and I go that way, stopping after a few feet to listen again.

There’s a rustle to the left, and I change course toward it. Here, the land dips down before it goes out to a rocky outcropping that joins up with the beach. Penny has jumped up onto a large boulder, and the boar is snorting beneath her.

But the second it sees us, it turns and charges straight at me. My heart thunders as it does. The tusks seem to glisten in the air, catching the afternoon’s dappled sunlight. I hold my spear up, Zane on one side of me, Sam on the other. Calvin is nowhere to be seen.

Instinctively, I hold the spear as long as I can, wanting to get off a true shot even with my bum arm and then be ready to jump out of the way.

Twenty feet. Fifteen feet. Ten feet.

I throw my spear. Zane and Sam do as well. One goes into the beast’s right front leg. The others bounce off. I don’t know who’s made contact, but the boar comes forward at full tilt. I scramble to the right, my eyes scanning the low scrub jungle, searching for a tree to climb.

There’s a shot, and the boar comes skidding to a halt right where I had been standing. Dante’s here, the gun in hand. The limp corpse makes a sound I don’t want to think about.

Calvin skitters to a stop. He’s circled back around, and his eyes land on the pig first, then us, then Dante.

Dante blows on the end of the muzzle, shrugs, and then goes over to the pig.

He shakes his head and says, “I don’t want to be associated with anyone who takes joy in killing an animal.

Now, eating an animal, that’s a different story.

Don’t mess with friends, pig.” He closes the pig’s eyes.

“What?” he says. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to bring a spear to a bar fight? A spear to a boar fight.” He laughs.

Sam takes Penny back to camp and fills Haley in on what happened. It takes the six of us two hours to drag that boar to the beach, where we’ve set up smoking racks.

Calvin’s far into butchering it when we realize we still haven’t eaten dinner. Not only that, but we haven’t finished our Island Festival Day. We’re all moving.

It’s well past sunset by the time we’ve got everything cleaned up and are back at the table. Penny’s up on the platform, Pepper at her side. I’m not sure either one of them is ever going to come down again.

“They really have become friends,” Haley says and heads to her cubby in the kitchen, Zane’s phone in hand. She points it at the unlikely best friends.

Penny puts her leg around Pepper’s back and cocks her head to the right, like she’s a paid actress. Haley takes the shot, but Penny changes positions. Damn, that dog should have its own show.

“You’re such a ham.” She turns, her beautiful face twisted up.

“Good one, Sassy. Here you go, Penny.” Dante tosses her a treat. “Now you really have the ham.”

Groans circle the table. Dante managed to whip up a fresh meal. Once our Pepperfruit dessert is devoured, I just want to crawl up into bed and sleep for a hundred years, but Zane and I gather the bowls and put them in one of the tubs.

“With the lid on, the dishes will keep until tomorrow, right?” I say.

Zane snaps the lid in place, and we both ignore the stares from Dante. I’m two steps away from heading to the sleeping platform when Haley stands up and takes the centerpiece in her hand. “Are we ready?” she asks.

“I can hardly wait, Sassy,” Dante says, but I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“Ready for bed?” I ask hopefully.

“No, I have something planned for us down at the waterfall. Unless everyone’s too tired? We can do it tomorrow.”

Sam and Calvin stand up immediately.

“Not like that, blokes. This is going to be nice,” Zane says.

Calvin turns to Sam. “I thought what we normally did at the waterfall was nice.”

“Agreed,” Sam says.

“Today is Island Festival Day. Tomorrow is Thanks-o-weenie. Geez, get it straight,” I say.

I glance back at the treehouse, but everyone else has gathered towels and the rechargeable flashlights.

Haley’s vibrating with excitement. I would reincarnate for this girl, so I need to get my shit together.

If I thought things were acting up before with my arm, I had no idea.

Swimming, soccer, and then throwing a spear?

Yeah, I’m ready for twenty hours of sleep.

But something has Haley bubbling with a second round of energy, so I’m in.

Anything that makes Firefly happy, I’ll give her.

“You okay, Rockwell?” Sam puts his hand on my shoulder. He’s got a small pack on his back.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Fuck, old habits of never admitting weakness are hard to get over. “Arm’s sore.”

“Damn, I’m sorry. I’m in the best shape of my life. Odd enough to say. But today I’m feeling it, too.”

“We can do this tomorrow. It’s fine.” Haley has snuck up behind the two of us. She still has the cloth-covered package under her arm.

“I’m good to go, if the old guy here is.” I smirk at Sam.

“Let’s do it,” Sam says. Guess I’m not the only one who’s tired.

I take long steps and catch up to Haley. “What’s under the cloth, Haley?” When we first sat down at dinner, I tried to lift the cover and see it, but she grabbed my hand. That was a heck of a long time ago, though.

“You’ll see.” She gives me a kiss on the cheek.

The waterfall feels especially far away tonight. It’s dark, but the moon has come out and there’s a glow around the pool. A light breeze sways the palm trees, and I’d really like to strip my clothes off and go for not a swim but a soak.

Haley places her package on the big rock near our feet. “Today has been... a perfect example of this island. We had so much fun: the beach games, the table?—”

“The decorations,” I add.

Haley smiles. “Everything and then the boar. It was scary. For all of us. Pepper, Penny. But we handled it. You guys handled it, but as a team. This place has become home, and I want to thank it.” She removes the cloth from a wreath with a bird of paradise flower in it.

Dante lights the wick in the middle of it, and Haley gently places it in the water.

She gives a clap as it floats to the middle of the pool.

“I’d like it if we can each say something we’re grateful for. ”

“Are we doing the no repeating rule?” Dante asks.

“The what?” Zane cocks his head.

“My family had a no repeating rule for things like this. You have to come up with something original.”

“Oh, I’d like that. It was just my mom, grandma, and me most Thanksgivings. But yes, let’s do that. I’m grateful for this land providing us with food.” Haley turns to Calvin.

“Me next?” Calvin says.

“Yes.”

“Right, I’m... grateful for all of you. I wouldn’t have made it this far without the rest of you...” He takes a step back and shakes his head, his eyes on the float in the water.

Sam’s next. “That the current brought me here. But I guess that’s not something on the island.” He blinks. “That Penny and Pepper get along. Well, I guess for Pepper too. I’ve never really had a cat. She’s a nice one.”

Zane’s standing next to Sam. “That the bloody rainy season has ended.”

“Amen,” Dante says. “I’ll go next. I’m grateful for the stove in the derelict, but also the treehouse.

The rainy season would have been a lot worse without it.

Zane, you were an ass while you were making it, but I’m damn glad we have it now.

And the fish weir that Calvin made. Without it, we would have been a lot hungrier. ”

“What you got, Rockwell?” Zane asks.

I’m the only one left. My brain whirls because they’ve said everything. Dante cleared the rest out.

And then it snaps in me. It’s wrong, but I’m going to say it, anyway.

“I’m grateful we wrecked. I’m grateful for the island being here.

That my whole life was turned upside down.

I’m sorry that I had to drag all of you with me.

But this is the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me.

Better than winning the gold or being born into a rich family.

This circumstance, this place—it’s made me better.

It’s given me a rich and unique family, one that I never want to give up.

It’s made me realize who I am and what I want.

And what needs are and aren’t.” I’m staring at the float.

It has me in a trance. It’s spinning in the middle of the pool, deciding if it wants to take a ride on the current down the stream. And then it shoots off, flowing away.

“Should we go after it? I don’t want it to start a fire.” Haley takes a step behind the rock toward the entrance path.

“There’s not much fuel on it. It will burn out soon,” Calvin says, reaching for her.

“But... only you can prevent a jungle fire.” Dante laughs. “I’ll get it, Sassy. Be right back.”