Chapter 3 Hugs

Hailey knitted her eyebrows. “What makes you so sure? You made the fire so effortlessly. They should be able to do it too.” I scoffed, “Wanna bet? If you can start a fire in an hour, I will wash your undies for you for the rest of my life!” Hailey’s cheeks turned rosy. Before she got to nag me, I threw her a wink to gesture at Jude, who was lurking in the dark. “We’re all stuck on this island. We should certainly help each other out!” Jude flaunted seven or eight cookies in one hand, then waved a torch in the other. As I looked up to meet his eyes, I couldn’t help but give him a hard time. “Aww. Thanks for the gift. How nice!” Jude didn’t leave after getting what he wanted. Instead, he stayed to study me for a bit. “I was contemplating why you dumped those dead bodies. I have to say. You’re a dab hand at this.” I observed how the dancing flames contoured his face, which made his expression hard-to-read. I decided to open up to him. “I was amazed by how soon you came back as well. I think we might get along if it’s for a short period. However, if it goes any longer—” “I hope not!” Jude cut me off firmly. A sharp look flashed across his eyes. After his departure, the girls turned to me in confusion. I lowered my head. “I provoked him so much that he left abruptly. So I wanted to see if a proud man like him would swallow his ego and return in five minutes. He’s quite something for making it in three minutes.” The fog remained on their faces, and so I elaborated, “Getting fire couldn’t be easier when we had the convenience of civilization. All we needed was a lighter or a gas stove. It’s a different case on an uninhabited island.” “But you just...” Tina innocently blinked her doe eyes as she asked. Playing with a piece of plane debris, I continued, “This is what I wanna clarify. A lot of things might seem easy, but only on the surface. How would you judge which kind of wood to go for? Hard, soft, fine, coarse... Would you know to observe the wind and place the sticks accordingly? These are all from training. He didn’t have that. Therefore to him, it was almost an impossible task. That being said, he is pretty decisive as a leader. What he cares about the most now is his authority. He doesn’t have room for failure as other people’s confidence in him is crucial to keep him in power. That was why he didn’t hesitate to come back for the trade. That also means he’s a tricky opponent to tackle!” “Why would you see him as an opponent? Aren’t we supposed to look out for each other?” Yara questioned. “Do you trust him to be absolutely fair and square?” I retorted. Yara shook her head without any delay. Then her face lit up. “I get it now!” “Wait... I don’t!” Tina naively looked around for an answer. Hailey smiled as she patted Tina’s shoulder. “You will, eventually.” Tina observed closely as I utilized another metal dish to make a pot like a curious kid. “I’ll be right back!” I went back to the sea with the pot in my hands. It didn’t take long for me to return with a pot full of sea water. I laid the pot on fire. “Are we drinking this?” Tina cringed. “No. We’re distilling it.” I covered the top of the pot with my shirt to let the steam moisten the fabric. After a while, I wrung it, and drops of water trickled down. The girls puckered their eyebrows in disapproval. In all actuality, there were cleaner alternatives available to us. I chose to go with this method because I needed them to get used to the current standard of living soon. The pot dried out shortly. Our distilled water also filled multiple bottles that we had collected. Thanks to the cloudiness of the water, it remained untouched even though everyone was equally dehydrated. I wasn’t bothered by it. This was in my anticipation. I removed the white crystals on the bottom of the pot with my axe. “Is this sea salt?” Tina’s eyes twinkled in excitement. It almost resembled a look of admiration. “Yup.” I nodded my head and poured some water into the pot to wipe it clean. After that, I poured all the distilled water back into the pot. The fierce flames brought the water to the boiling point in no time. I threw all the cookies in. The girls were stunned when they saw the cookies dissolve in the water. A second later, the air swirled with a heavenly aroma of cream and strawberry. I found a stick and used it to stir vigorously. I wanted to make sure that it was evened out, to be fair to everyone. The end product resembled cheap coffee - ash gray and topped with a thin layer of froth. “Dinner time!” I took out a few plastic cups from our pile, which I had cleaned with seawater. This cookie soup couldn’t even fill four cups, but I did my best to ensure all of them were equally filled. “From now on, we have to ration our food fairly and strictly. Only then can we keep our desires in check. You might not understand everything I’m doing now, so let me get it straight. It’s all for survival.” I then took my cup and started sipping on my food. Despite its aromatic disguise, it had a somewhat unappealing flavor. Nonetheless, this could be the last time we tasted food produced in the civilized world. Hailey took a small sip. Even though her eyebrows were wrinkled, she continued drinking while gesturing for Yara to try. Without a word, Yara pulled a long face and started her meal. On the contrary, Tina stuck her tongue out to have a taste before she started spitting on the ground. I recommended, “Leave it if you don’t like it.” “Okay.” Tina nodded her head innocently. Just as she lowered her cup, she detected Hailey and Yara’s strange facial expressions. Tina touched her face instinctively. “Something on my face?” Hailey sighed bitterly. “We’re out in the wild, not some big city. There’s no food delivery or grocery at your disposal here. We don’t even know when our next meal will be. Are you sure you wanna give this up?” Tina rolled her eyes at me and pulled her lips down. In the end, she pinched her nose and gulped it down like cough syrup. “All right. Dinner time’s over. Let’s get cracking!” I chopped down a great number of branches and made one end sharp and pointy with my axe. Then, I appointed the girls to stand them up around our tent. They knew without my explanation that this was for safety reasons. When it was all done, I sprinkled the ashes from the campfire around the tent evenly and added sufficient wood to get the fire going. The tent’s bottom was lined with leaves and the deceased passengers’ clothes. It was so crowded that we were breathing into each other when I joined them in the tent. “Can you tell us about your plan?” Tina inquired. I lay down in exhaustion. “I already told you.” “You did?” Tina’s eyes widened. “To survive!” “Hah. Thanks for the suspense.” Hailey pouted before she kicked my lap. An idea came. I swiftly grabbed her leg as my eyes lit up. “I almost forgot something important!” “Let go—” Hailey jerked her leg to break free. “Stop moving. I need this!” I slid my hand up her thigh until I reached her hip crease. I felt her body shiver. “I need your stockings!” I then held the top of her uniform stockings to remove them. “Pervert!” Hailey cursed as I exited the tent with her stockings. After around ten minutes, I returned empty-handed. I ignored their inquisitive faces and lay back down with a reassuring grin. I acted like a tough cookie in front of those girls. But that was because I had to keep my anxieties to myself. We were suddenly thrown into this plight, and there was no telling if we would ever be rescued. It’d be a big, fat lie if I said this wasn’t daunting at all. As advanced as technologies were, they still had their limits. MH370 was a good example. I shut down my wandering mind and closed my eyes. Before I knew it, I dozed off. In my dream, I arrived in Dubai and started my dream job in front of Burj Al Arab. I admired the stack of banknotes in my begging bowl before stuffing them into my pocket. Suddenly, I caught a whiff of delicious perfume. Looking up, I saw an Arab woman wearing a white veil. She drew out a small pouch and tossed it into my bowl. I opened it to see forty or fifty shiny diamonds inside. When I looked up again in stupefaction, she gently unmasked her delicate face to give me a suggestive look. Wait... I’ve seen this face somewhere. Before I got to put a name to that face, she bent down to give me a tight embrace. Delirious with happiness, I savored the softness of her body while surrounded by the fragrance of her sweet perfume. Sadly, moments like this never seemed to last.