The Island, Chapter 17

Chapter 17

After a brief post-coital swim across the crater lake, holding our clothes out of the water, we came ashore at the headwaters of the main stream on the island. We climbed out onto a small, stony beach, redressed, and continued our hike. Following the creek out of the crater through another break in the rocky wall, we began descending the northwest side of the mountain, following the water as it cascaded down the side of the old volcano.

As Stu scouted a way down during a particularly steep section, we heard him cry out in surprise. Rounding the rocks, we found him peering into a small crevasse.

“Hey guys, check it out!” he called to us. “There’s a goat in here. I think it’s hurt.” We crowded around, and sure enough, a nanny goat, bleating plaintively, was 6 feet down in the hole, favoring a foreleg.

“Oh, the poor thing!” said Dakota. “Let’s save it.”

“Do you guys know anything about goats?” I asked skeptically.

“Dakota and I worked on a goat farm for 3 or 4 summers when we were growing up,” replied Summer. “We can handle a nanny goat.”

“There’s a kid, too!” Stu called out. “It’s behind the mother.”

He climbed down carefully, the goat frantically bleating as he got closer. She was too weak to put up much of a fight, and he was able to pass her up to River and me. Dakota and Summer accepted the kid, squealing for its mother, as Stu hoisted it out next. Rain gave him an arm and he struggled out of the hole.

The nanny goat appeared to be relatively uninjured except for the broken leg, and the kid was perfectly fine. We carried the two animals, taking turns, down the remaining rocky pathway. Soon we were deep in jungle again, and the only way to make progress was to stick to the stream bed where the vegetation was thin. Eventually we emerged at the shallow, dammed up section above the waterfall.

Making my way to the top of the falls, I confirmed no kids were swimming underneath, then jumped into the pool below, sweaty clothes and all. Laughing like children, Rain, Summer, and River followed suit, cannonballing into the cool water one after another. Stu and Dakota carried the mother and baby goats respectively down the pathway and met up with us at the pool. I took the nanny goat from Stu, letting him jump in to cool off, and Rain gave Dakota a break, letting her rinse off the sweat and grime of the trail as well. Clambering ashore on the rocks, we made our way back to the beach along the primary game trail. This had been now so well used by human feet that it was wide and clear of vines and brush, and fairly easy to navigate.

Emerging at the beach, we soon had a posse of kids swarming around us petting the now frantic animals.

“Shove off, you monkeys!” I hollered. “Give them some air! The mother is hurt, and I need to get her fixed up.” They reluctantly fell back, and let me carry the creature to the medical hut. Joelle was there, trying to weave a basket from palm fronds, and she dropped her work in surprise as I heaved the animal onto one of the pile of seat cushions we had used to make our “hospital beds.” Dkembe occupied the other one, still unconscious.

“Oh my god!” she said. “Is that a goat?”

“Yeah,” I replied, wiping my streaming face with my shirt, which now smelled like goat, unfortunately. “I think her leg is broken. I’d like to see if we can get her splinted. Can you get some bamboo and duct tape?”

She hopped up and ran to collect the supplies, and I enlisted two of the hovering kids to collect some leaves, fruit and water for the injured animal while I inspected the limb. It seemed like a clean break, obviously fairly fresh since the swelling was minimal. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the rest of her, so when Joelle returned, we quickly immobilized the leg with a bamboo cage wrapped in duct tape. I figured she’d be less likely to chew it off than if we used vines. She bleated complaints until we let her go, and then staggered around getting used to walking on 3 legs. Rain deposited the kid next to her, and Summer looked it over with a critical eye as it began to nurse from its mother’s full udder.

“That kid’s old enough to wean,” she said. “Then we can keep the milk for ourselves. If we hobble the mother’s rear legs, she won’t get far. We can let her graze at the edge of the beach and collect some fruit and fresh water for her. The kid will stay close.”

It sounded like a good plan, and she and Dakota used some cord salvaged from the plane to do so. We left the animals to their own devices, after providing a bucket of water for them to drink from.

“Where did they come from?” asked Janie, who appeared at my side moments later.

“We found them in a crack in the rocks on the side of the taller mountain,” I answered as I walked with her to the “mess hall” to get some food. “She must have fallen in. Maybe the kid got stuck and she was trying to rescue him? I don’t know. But now we’ll have fresh milk.”

I scarfed down some fish and pork, and a breadfruit. In between bites I told Janie about my day. She smirked when I got to the part about the group sex.

“I should have known you weren’t just hiking for fun,” she said. “You were chasing tail!”

“I wasn’t!” I protested. “Honest! I didn’t know what they had planned. They surprised me with it. Not that I’m complaining. I think they’d be happy to have you come on the next ‘hike’.”

“I may take you up on that. I haven’t been in a good old-fashioned orgy in a while.”

“But you’ve been to one before?” I asked, intrigued.

“A story for another time, bucko,” she said tartly. “I hope you saved some jam for later. I have a little surprise waiting for you this evening.”

“What?” I asked. “You know I have buckets of the stuff!”

“If I tell you, it wouldn’t be a surprise now would it?” she teased. “You’ll just have to wait. Sort of like you made me wait yesterday.”

“Ah, so this is payback,” I said.

“It’s a bitch, baby!” she laughed, walking away.

After I finished eating, I wandered to the shore, where Sharon and Rodney were putting some supplies into the raft. “Going on another fishing trip?”

“Yeah. Rodney’s really taken to it. You want to come?”

“Sure. You mind if I bring Jared?”

“Not at all,” Rodney replied. “Can you grab some fruit and water to bring with us?”

I did as he asked, collecting an excited Jared from a card game in Boy’s Town.