The next few days dragged by. At first I was still the alien, still the lab rat, the new girl at school that sat alone while others talked between themselves. I went for strolls around the barracks and began to see the same faces go by. What they did each day I wasn't sure. Some clearly had specific roles within the barracks, and others seemed to come and go throughout the day. After a few days though I noticed that a couple of them would meet my eye contact and even smile slightly, though they were clearly still suspicious of me. They probably thought I had come as a spy and was one of the people that wanted to hurt their island. I bumped into Ben a couple of times and he would eye me cautiously. He was polite but gave nothing away about what was in store for me. I had clearly disrupted his little community and it's routine and he didn't like it. In return I didn't like him much either. It was hardly my fault that I was there, I had done nothing wrong and had been completely honest with him. So why he had turned everyone there against me I had no idea.
I pondered over my future and could think of 3 scenarios. 1) They would kill me. Though I got the impression from Richard that this was unlikely. 2) They would keep me there forever (this horrified me nearly as much as being killed). 3) They would let me go. But if they went with the third, would that mean they would simply send me off on my way and leave me to fend for myself, or would they help me get home? And where was home? Would I go back to England? I wasn't sure there was much for me to go back there to. I had friends but nobody that I went back with a long way. Me and my Dad had moved around a lot with his work so friends had come and go throughout my life. I was half way through my gap year but hadn't really thought about what I would do afterwards. I had been rather hopeful that I would come across somewhere that I really liked, where I would get a job and stay for a while. But that hadn't happened yet.
I killed time by reading. I would take two or three books at a time and then go and replace them. I had always loved reading but never had much time to do it. David actually had a very good collection and there were plenty of very well known titles as well as some more obscure stuff. Richard had given me a few recommendations and I read all of them. Maybe I could start my own personal book club with Richard and we could sit and discuss them at depth. I wished he would hurry up and come back. I wanted to know what Jacob had said to him about me, but I also just wanted to see the friendly face of the one person there that was actually nice to me.
I started to pay more attention to cooking. I had plenty of time on my hands, and David had plenty of different stuff in the store. I wasn't exactly a whizz in the kitchen but could put a few meals together. I found a couple of recipe books to get some ideas. From what I could gather, there was a small farm on another part of the island, run by someone called Mikhail. I don't think it was his main function on the island, but in his spare time he grew vegetables and bred chickens. There was therefore a good supply of veg, chicken, eggs and milk. There was also fish and seafood that were caught daily, and endless fruit from the jungle. Everything else came out of the Dharma packets and tins. Bread had to be made from scratch, but tasted glorious when freshly baked. I decided I would bake a fresh loaf for Richard as soon as he got back.