Chapter Seven
A thick silence engulfed them after Sara stormed away. Ecklie stood rubbing the side of his head, his eyes staring out of the cave opening. Greg stood with his hands in his shorts' pockets.
Catherine wanted deeply to say that Ecklie deserved it, but knew that it was probably a bad thing to say at the moment, so she preoccupied herself with Lauren and Matt, hoping to get them back to sleep.
"I think we can all agree that was completely uncalled for." Ecklie said after a few minutes of standing dumbstruck.
Catherine and Greg said nothing.
"I think this crash has everybody in a bad mood." Ecklie stated.
Silence.
"Well, isn't anyone going to say something?" he snapped. He spun around to everyone else.
Greg raised his hand like a schoolboy would to ask permission to speak.
"I say we should go find Sara. There's no telling what could happen on this island."
"You're on your own with that one Sanders." Ecklie walked over to his right, sat down on his pile of leaves, and he breathed out a sigh. For the first time Catherine had ever seen, Ecklie actually looked worn and vulnerable. The coldness in his eyes was slowly ebbing away, replaced by hollowness and his shoulders sagged. Catherine tore her eyes away from Ecklie as a couple faint pangs of pity hit and she turned to Greg.
"Give her a few minutes to calm down, all right? She doesn't really act well under stress."
"What if something happens?" Greg peered anxiously out of the cave through the rain.
"We'll give her ten minutes. If she's not back in ten minutes, we'll go find her."
Sara stomped through the sopping wet vegetation, down the slope she had first used to get to the cave. She was traveling blindly through the dark, nothing but the extreme need to get as far away from Ecklie as possible pushing her forward. Her feet met sand; she walked for a few more steps before stopping and taking deep breaths. She needed to get her head straight, and stomping away in a huff wasn't going to help.
Okay…so the plane had crashed…they had picked up two little kids and swam to the island. Ecklie continued to be an ass towards everybody…a greedy one at that. She had gotten fed up and slapped him. No big deal. She had been completely justified, right? He had provoked her. Besides, they're on an island in the middle of nowhere. What was he going to do about it?
Sara didn't even feel the rain soaking her skin as she stepped slowly through the sand. Her hair was flat against her face once more, wet and dripping. Lightning showed where she was, heading straight for the violently tumbling waves at the shore. She wasn't sure what drove her towards them, but she kept walking. Maybe she was planning subconsciously to drown herself? Or maybe not. Maybe she wanted the shark to come up and eat her.
The water rushed up around her ankles, soaking her shoes. She was just at the very, very edge of the water. They crashed down yards away from her and then swirled up towards her ankles, pulling greedily at her feet, trying to draw her in.
Sara took additional deep, calming breaths. It was too dark to do something like find shells and rocks to throw far into the waves. She couldn't put her problems with the rock and then get them as far away as possible. Besides, just like her problems, the rock would come tumbling back with the waves of time. She'd need a lot of rocks before she would be 'free of problems' and she couldn't see even one.
Huffing, she reached up to her sea-sprayed face, brushing away some stray curls. The wind was blowing her hair everywhere, whistling in her ears, turning the flecks of saltwater flying in the air into daggers.
Sara turned to her left, walking slowly along the very outermost part of the shoreline, keeping her distance from the threatening waves and the possibilities of undertow. She vaguely wondered if the shark was still out there, swimming in the gently churning deep ocean water while the surface whipped violently.
Her heart rate, which had been pounding after she had smacked Ecklie, had slowed within a couple of minutes of blind walking. Her breathing had eased after her walk and she felt almost ready to go back to the cave.
With a giant breath, released with sigh, Sara turned on her heel, heading for where she thought the cave sat. A flash of lightning showed her to be heading in the right direction, as well as a soft flicker of flame through the wall of trees. Sara climbed up the embankment, sliding on mud, reaching around for firmly rooted plants to help her hold her ground.
She got to the top of the slope and looked around. She could go left and get Greg a new papaya to eat since he was probably starving and just not admitting it or she could go with the much less appealing prospect of going to the right into the cave where Ecklie was no doubt sitting.
Sara decided instantly to go to the bush to fetch another fruit. She slid down the muddy slope, leaning back to avoid falling face first into the muck. Halfway down she latched onto a palm tree and pulled herself off the animal trail. She wasn't sure what kind of animal walked that path, but she couldn't come up with any Polynesian predators that would really cause problems for them other than poisonous things like snakes and spiders.
More flashes of light showed her where she was and she reached forward to the papaya tree. Tugging and twisting, she attempted to heave the papaya off its stem. But then a rustling in the leaves to her left caused her to freeze. She blew some rainwater out of her mouth and tried to steady her breath. Maybe she was hearing things. The leaves shuddered and all thoughts of hearing things left her thoughts, unless she was seeing things as well.
Sara let the only half-free papaya fall back into place and moved towards a tree slowly, when a sudden loud, high-pitched squeal erupted from the leaves and a pig of some sort burst out of the plants, charging straight for her.
"How long has it been Catherine?" Greg asked quietly, his bare back against the cool wall of the cave, his head bent backwards and his bandaged arm resting in his lap.
"How should I know? I don't have a watch!"
"Well you were the one who suggested a time limit."
"You know as well as I do that if we went to look for her right away she'd bite our heads off."
"She's a vegetarian."
"I didn't say she'd eat us."
Greg smirked and pulled his head away from the rock and looked at Catherine. She was sitting cross-legged next to the two kids who were dozing quietly, covered with Ecklie's jacket. Ecklie too was sleeping, or at least pretending to be asleep. He was snoring lightly and Greg thought vaguely that it might be fun to chuck his sandal at him…after all he did owe him dinner.
"What are you smirking at?" Catherine asked suddenly.
"Hmm? Oh…I was just thinking how fun it'd be right now to chuck another rock at Ecklie's head…"
Catherine's face scrunched up with poorly suppressed laughter.
"I think he deserves another bump right about now." Catherine agreed.
"That was a pretty stupid thing to say about Sara. Especially with everybody so tense."
Catherine agreed with a nod, when a sudden loud squeal reached their ears.
"What was that?" Greg asked, his eyes wide.
Catherine's mouth was open and she shut it with an 'I have no idea' look.
Greg and Catherine stared at each other for a few moments before a scream followed the squeal. They both sprang to their feet and headed out into the downpour, squinting around in the rain.
"I told you something bad could happen! There's no telling in this place!"
"Shut up and look for her, Greg!" Catherine snapped, brushing her hair out of her face.
Greg turned and followed orders. "Sara!" he yelled. "Saaa-raaa!"
"Sara!" Catherine mimicked Greg, cupping her hands to her mouth and calling.
"What the hell is going on?"
Ecklie showed up in the cave entryway, looking ornery. "You think you can leave me in here alone with those two kids?"
"They're sleeping." Catherine said, quieting her voice to just above normal. Water was pouring down her and she wiped her face.
"Well they won't be for long if you keep yelling!"
"Look, something might be wrong with Sara. We're going to go find her." Greg interrupted before Catherine could cut in. She looked slightly annoyed, but said nothing. Ecklie huffed then turned back into the cave.
"Sara!" Greg called again.
Then they heard something undistinguishable, very faint, from a distance away.
"Over here…" Greg treaded through the muck towards where the call had come from. "Sara?"
"Up here…" It was very faint, nearly lost in a giant tumult of thunder.
"Sara? Are you all right?" Greg followed the voice and looked around. He saw nobody. Catherine came up beside him. They were at the very edge of a slope, looking down a muddy knoll lined by trees.
"Up here!"
Greg and Catherine looked up and saw nothing in the blackness.
"No, come closer and look up!"
They did as they were told, slipping and sliding on the hill and coming to a stop halfway down.
"Sara? Where—" were the only words he could get out before Sara's voice shouted, "Look out for the pig!"
Greg and Catherine raised their eyebrows in confusion when suddenly a blur of something of mid-thigh height sprang from behind a tree and charged straight past Catherine and Greg, sending them backwards into the mud, cursing all the way. The backside of the pig disappeared behind a couple of large ferns, but they could here it running the entire way, squealing up a storm.
"What the hellwas that all about?" Greg gasped, wincing as he picked his bandaged arm off the ground, waving it lightly to rid it of mud. Catherine was back on her feet, wiping her hands on a leaf and groaning at the sight of a mud-covered butt. Now she, Greg, and Sara would all have matching butts. How wonderful.
"It's a wild boar, I think." said Sara from above somewhere.
"Well it's crazy. You sure it doesn't have rabies?" Greg said, standing up, then slipping and falling on his behind again. Catherine walked over towards his outline, thanks to her finally adjusted eyes and picked him up off the slippery ground.
"Of course it doesn't have rabies." Sara said, still unseen. "But it's crazy, I'll give you that much. It took a gash out of my leg…and to think I became a vegetarian because of a pig. He should be thankful."
"Sara, where are you? You planning on coming down from wherever you are?" Catherine called.
Some rustlings came from a tree nearby and Sara appeared next to it.
"F'in pig," she muttered, limping towards Catherine and Greg.
"That was you who screamed, right?" Catherine said, eyeing Sara's left leg.
Sara looked quizzically ahead for a moment before saying, "Oh…I suppose I did scream…Where's Ecklie?" Her voice took on a different tone, an angrier tone when she spoke of Ecklie.
"Back in the cave."
"Alone?"
"With Lauren and Matt, but other than that, yeah alone."
Sara huffed then moved over to a bush, tugging at a piece of yellowish-orange fruit.
"Need help?" Catherine asked.
"You're full of mud."
"So are you."
"Not as much."
Sara continued tugging at the papaya. It was a lot more difficult than the last one, which she supposed might have had a riper stem. Finally, the papaya came loose, nearly letting Sara fall backwards onto the ground.
"I decided Greg needed something to eat." Sara said, acknowledging the two who were watching her.
"Well…we should get back to the cave…we don't want that pig coming back…" Catherine declared.
"It's a wild boar." Sara corrected.
"You called it a pig."
"I was in a furious rage."
"Well it looks like a pig."
"Yeah, except it has tusks that can take a good piece out of your leg." Sara muttered.
"We should take a look at that when we get back to the cave," Greg said, nodding at Sara.
"We need to take a look at your arm first. We were supposed to do that first thing but you decided you were hungry. Now we have food and you've had some sleep and something to drink." Sara said, hobbling up the slope with the papaya tucked under her arm. She pulled on vines and other plants to help her up the slick hill.
Greg sighed heavily and followed her, Catherine trailing after him. They soon made it to the top of the slope, the flickering fire coming into view. They could here faint crying from the cave and they hurried over to the cavern.
"What do you mean you can't make her stop crying?" Ecklie was shouting hysterically. His hands were over his ears and he was sitting cross-legged on his leaves.
"She said 'Sawa' but Sara isn't here." Matt's tiny voice echoed out to them as they neared. Lauren was crying steadily in the background.
"Well do something!"
"I can't!"
"Ecklie, you're such a pig." Sara snapped, walking in through the wall of water. She shook her head out, and wrung out her hair.
"Sawa!" Lauren cried, her face tear-stained and dirt-streaked.
Ecklie, surprisingly, held his tongue against Sara's comment but glared at her as she limped into the cave.
"Sawa! Sawa!" Lauren reached her arms out to Sara expectantly, more tears welling up and falling.
"Gimme a second Lauren…" Sara said gently, waving a hand at her. Lauren pouted and let her arms drop. Greg and Catherine walked in and stuck their hands in the waterfall, rinsing off the mud.
"Saawwaa…" Lauren whined, her eyebrows pointing skyward in a pitiful expression.
"Hold on, please." Sara tried her best not to limp over to Greg and Catherine, though there were remnants of it there. Greg took the fruit from her and dug in instantly, but not greedily. He walked over to his bed and sat down, eating the papaya slowly.
"Saawwaa!" Lauren wailed.
Sara had crouched down in the middle of the cave, pushing her left-jean-leg against her skin. The blue material was died a burgundy-type color, due to obvious blood. Sara pressed the jeans tightly against her skin, grimacing slightly, ten turned to Lauren.
"What?" Sara asked breathlessly.
"I have to go potty."