Chapter Eight
"One…two….heave!" ordered Eko, and the three men brought their weights to bear against the trunk of the tree until it crashed to the jungle floor.
Sawyer handed Sayid an axe and told Eko, "We'll take the wood gathering from here. I know you got that spiritual mumbo jumbo to attend to."
"Mass," said Eko with a soft smile and bright eyes.
"Yeah, whatever," replied Sawyer, taking up a second axe that had been recovered from one of the hatches some months ago. "Enjoy shepherding your mighty flock of eight."
Eko showed no reaction to the bating but merely bid the men farewell before walking away.
Sawyer's teeth flashed at Sayid. "How come you ain't in church with your girlfriend?" Claire had never been a churchgoer before the island, but ever since Aaron's baptism, she had found herself incrementally drawn by the assurances of religion. Once the church was built, she and the former altar boy Charlie had attended semi-regularly.
"You start at that end," Sayid commanded, "and I will begin chopping over here."
"You know, it's gotta come up sooner or later, Mohammed," Sawyer said to his back.
Sayid turned. "What has to come up?"
"The fact that she's Christian and you're Muslim."
"The subject has arisen. We have dealt with it. I am not particularly religious, and I am respectful of her beliefs."
"Respectful, huh? So you don't think it's ridiculous that Claire believes Christ was born of a virgin?"
"The Koran also teaches that he was born of a virgin."
Sawyer raised an eyebrow, but he went to work splitting wood. However, after half an hour of back-straining labor, he lodged the axe handle in the fallen tree and approached Sayid with a different offensive. "So, whatcha getting the little lady for Christmas?"
Sayid turned his axe upside down and leaned on the handle. He dragged the back of his hand across his glistening brow. "I have not yet decided."
"Uh…oh, "chided Sawyer in a dramatic voice. "You better start thinking, Romeo, 'cause these women folk take the gift giving very seriously. She's going to be reading all sorts of things into it. It could be the biggest misstep you ever make."
A dismissive puff of air escaped Sayid's lips. He let the axe lay flat and picked up a canteen. After taking a swig he said, "I am sorry to disappoint you, Sawyer, but you are not going to worry me. I am not an inexperienced schoolboy. I know how to behave toward a woman."
Sawyer laughed loudly. "Confident, are we?"
"It is not a complex matter. I will give her something that is neither a vacuum cleaner nor a wedding ring. It will suffice." Sawyer blinked. He was greeted by Sayid's smirk. "And what are you giving Kate?"
"Ahh, see…" Sawyer shook his head with a dimpled smile, "It don't matter what I get her none, because she's already definitely mine. I even got the kid to anchor her down real tight. I mess up, and the worse I'm going to get is a sigh and a tilted head and a couple of nights sleeping in the sand. You mess up, on the other hand--"
"Sawyer, finish chopping."