All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer
Dollybigmomma is my beta queen. Love her, it's completely appropriate.
Chapter 3 - Waking Dreams
BELLA
I decided to go further up the mountain. So far I had taken to staying on the level part of the island. I thought if I looked a little higher up, I might come across the chickens and some eggs. I gathered a few more coconuts, so the baby would have some milk.
I took a break for lunch, sharing a banana with the baby. As we sat, I thought I heard some scratching. I was silently trying to make out what it was, when I heard the clucking of a chicken. I was kind of shocked that Edward had been right, that there really were chickens.
"Here, chick-chick-chick," I called softly. I heard them scatter, realizing I had just frightened them. I moved stealthily toward the sound and was met by a beautiful rooster. He stood tall and puffed out, trying to be threatening. I moved back slowly, not wanting to provoke him. I didn't want to seem threatening to him. Edward said we should try to domesticate them.
The hens were all hiding in the bush. I knew they wouldn't come out, not until the rooster gave the all clear. I noticed a few berry bushes and silently wanted to remember they were here. I picked off a few berries and tossed them toward the rooster. He hopped over them, ignoring my offering.
I was walking slowly backwards and almost fell when I tripped on a small branch. It reminded me of the one I'd used to beat the bugs out of the moss. Chickens liked bugs, right?
I backed away from him and beat the moss on the side of the path. Several beetles and bugs came scampering out, and I saw the rooster cock his head in interest.
"That's right, come get the yummy beetles." I moved down the path towards our camp, smacking the moss free of bugs. It took a while, but the chickens finally followed. It was a hen that snuck out and ate the bugs first. The rooster chastened her for coming out of hiding, but since I continued to back away, freeing more bugs, more hens came out of hiding, going after the easy meal I was offering. The rooster followed me, but never once ate my bug offering. He left that to the hens.
When I finally returned to camp, our house looked so much different. Edward had put lean-to's all around it. He heard the commotion the chickens were making, as they fought over the beetles. He poked his head out the door to see what was going on and smiled brilliantly at me. I held my finger to my lips, so he wouldn't startle our new little chicken friends.
I beat out several bushes, knocking free more bugs, and then I slowly went inside the house with Edward, peeking around the door to watch them, to see if they would settle near us.
"You found the chickens," he whispered.
I nodded my head yes and then pouted. "I didn't fish today. I was so busy with the chickens, I didn't get to it."
He smiled at me again. "It's alright. I figured something was keeping you, when I didn't find you at the water while I refilled the pot." He walked over to one of the makeshift shelves and pulled out some sort of squash-looking thing.
"I found this when I was moving the big logs." He pointed to the huge tree-length logs laying across the top of the wood stacks that made up the walls. They were compressing them all together, making them dig further into the ground. The compression logs were strapped tightly to the trees at either end of them. Inside, he'd put several long thin posts flush against the walls. The tops reached well past the tops of the log walls. The roof peak was about six feet over the top of our logs, making it about twelve feet at its highest point.
Edward saw me examining his handiwork and decided to explain. "The angle of the roof directs the smoke to go out there," he said pointing to the wall supports. "They make kind of a vent and will let light in as well. Once I'm done with the roof, it'll be more stable."
To my surprise, Edward cooked the squash thingy, making it soft so the baby could eat it with us. I took the skins of the squash that were left and tossed them over by the chickens. They made quick work of our scraps, eating it up eagerly. Edward saved the seeds, saying he would plant them.
The way he was working, he acted as if he didn't plan on being rescued for years. It made me nervous.
He settled right into bed, not saying a word. Sometimes it felt as if I was on the island alone. Three days I had lived with this man, and I didn't know anything about him, other than his name was Edward and his dead wife was Alice. I'd noticed he didn't like to be touched. I had bumped into him a couple of times, and he always glared at me when I had. I had taken to rolling my eyes at him. I was clumsy, so he had better get used to getting bumped. Also, at night, he moved as far away from me as possible. Little Ben slept between us, but usually ended up snuggled on my chest.
I hadn't been asleep too long, when I was woken up by a grumbling next to me.
"Don't touch me," Edward snapped in his sleep. His words were half mumbled. He was flopping around restlessly, and I worried that he would hit the baby. I moved little Ben to the far side of the bed and then rolled over to Edward's side.
"Edward," I whispered. He didn't respond, still fighting the bad dream he was having.
I hesitantly grabbed his shoulder, giving him a shake, calling his name a little louder. He grabbed my hand, and suddenly I was pinned underneath him. His groggy eyes narrowed on me. "Don't fucking touch me!" he growled.
I shushed him. "Don't wake the baby," I whispered.
"Keep your fucking hands to yourself," he growled quietly.
I rolled my eyes at him. "Like I wanted to 'fucking touch you.' You were having a bad dream and flopping around. I was worried you'd hit the baby," I scowled back at him. "Now get off me," I growled, shoving him unsuccessfully.
He looked over at Ben and then back to me. He scowled down at me and stormed out. I lay back down in the middle of the bed and let little Ben squirm up next to me, both of us going back to sleep.
"Alice, you fucking genius!" I heard Edward shout.
My eyes fluttered open, and I realized it was morning. I didn't think Edward had ever come back to bed, but I could hear him now. Little Ben was still asleep. I moved out from under him and snuck out to find Edward smiling widely, tugging on some huge trunks. Edward's name was painted on the top of each of them.
He saw me watching and waved me over. "Don't just stand there; give me a fucking hand with this shit."
His swearing was really starting to grate on me. "You want me to give you a fucking hand with your fucking shit?" I said raising an eyebrow at him. He looked at me confused. "Lose the swearing," I said with an eye roll and pushed off the tree to help him.
"Lose the eye thing," he said annoyed.
"Right, because 'fuck' should be little Ben's first word. God, Edward, how on earth has he survived this long with you being his father? You don't even know his age! You had no clue how to feed or change his diaper. Did you leave all that to his mom? You're all little Ben has left, and so help me God, I'll make you into a better father, whether you like it or not! NO SWEARING!" I snapped, pushing right up into his face.
His eyes bore down on me, like he was debating whether or not to snap back at me or let it go. I held his gaze, not flinching.
He finally turned away from me and grabbed the edge of one of the trunks. "Give me a hand," he muttered, not looking at me.
I grabbed one side of the trunk and helped him drag it back to camp. We went back for the other one, after I peeked in on Ben to make sure he was still sleeping. I saw Edward look at the little boy with glassy eyes. I knew I shouldn't have yelled at him.
Apparently, Alice had sent these two trunks on the plane for him, and they'd finally washed ashore. He opened the first one. It actually had the numeral "1" painted on it, next to his name. When he opened it, the first thing that came into view was a pile of metal gardening tool heads that needed handles attached, along with a huge axe and a wood saw.
"Alice, you're fucking beautiful. I'll carve you a fucking statue and worship you when I get out of here."
He picked up another envelope and then glanced over to the other trunk. He pouted for a moment, and then looked at me. "It's for you."
"What?"
"The second trunk is for you."
I must not have heard him right. I looked at the trunk confused.
He shook his head at me, folding the letter in his hand, so that I could only see the first couple of lines.
"The second trunk if for her, Edward, and you better be nice to her or by god, when I come for you, I'll beat you to a bloody pulp. No one should have to put up with your moody ass 24/7.
She'll have her own letter, with instructions that you're not allowed to read, so don't bug her about it. She hasn't bugged you about yours."
I stood staring at him in shock.
"That's just Alice for you," he said shrugging at me and started digging through his trunk.
I walked over to my trunk, examining it. It had "Edward 2," painted on the top of it. I had just gotten it open, when I heard Ben waking. I snatched up my letter from Alice and hurried inside to get Ben, before he could crawl off the bed and hurt himself.
I scooped up the baby, smiling at him, because he was smiling at me. It was hard not to smile when Ben smiled at you.
I talked to him about going out and working with his daddy as I changed his diaper. I hadn't even noticed Edward was watching us, until he handed me the sippy full of coconut milk. I blushed, because I had been doing baby voices and making faces.
He smirked at me and walked out.
Ass.
A/N: Thanks for reading and please review!
