J.M.J.

Author's note: Thanks for reading and reviewing! The next chapter will be up tomorrow. God bless!

June 23 – Friday

In the morning, the boys were still feeling the ill effects of their adventure so far. As much as they wanted to explore the island and hopefully find a way off as soon as possible, they realized that setting out into what essentially amounted to a jungle while still recovering from such an ordeal was not the wisest choice. Besides that, even if there was a boat, they would need to rest before they would be in any shape to attempt to set out in the ocean on it. They decided that they would take another day or two to rest and to make plans.

It was clear to all of them now that they couldn't expect anyone to come and rescue them. Even though by now, after three days, people would have realized that they had gotten into some kind of predicament, no one could be expected to guess exactly what had happened. Even if anyone did think of it to look for the boys on a deserted island, they would have to find the right one, and that would take some time. As for finding a way off the island themselves, there was only so much they could do. Eli McKellern might have had a boat, but it would undoubtedly need repairs and those repairs might be beyond the limited supplies that the boys had. Eli evidently didn't have any type of communication device. At least, the boys had searched the cabin thoroughly by this time and hadn't found anything.

"That means," Frank said in conclusion, "that we should make some decisions with the understanding that we might be here for a long time."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," Biff replied, stretching himself out on the sandy ground in front of the cabin and trying to act nonchalant. "Remember Miss Daly, the tenth grade English teacher? She made us read The Mysterious Island, The Lord of the Flies, and Robinson Crusoe all in the same year. She has us well prepared for this."

"Just as long as we're all agreed that Lord of the Flies is what not to do," Tony said.

The others chuckled, but the seriousness of the situation was sinking in on them. When Frank said it could be a long time, they all knew he didn't mean a week or even a month. None of them even wanted to think about how long it could be.

"I know that was a joke," Frank said, "but there is some truth in it. We're all going to be homesick, worried, and probably tired and hungry most of the time. I mean, we don't exactly have ideal sleeping conditions and every bit of food we have, we're going to have to work for, and we all know fruits and vegetables aren't the most filling of food. Then, too, when we're not working, it's probably going to be a little boring. So it's going to be tough to keep tempers in check, but it's essential that we do."

"The food situation maybe isn't quite as bad as all that," Joe interjected. "We have fishing supplies and a whole ocean full of fish. That will help with the boredom problem, too. We all go fishing for fun."

"Yeah, but we've never had to do it every day," Phil pointed out.

Joe shrugged. "There are six of us. We can take turns. Most weeks, each of us would only have to do it one day in the week."

"All right, but the point remains that this isn't going to be easy," Frank insisted.

"In other words, we've got to figure out a way to not live like barbarians, so we don't find ourselves acting like them," Tony said.

"Exactly," Frank replied, glad that he didn't have to say it so bluntly.

"So, are you saying we should appoint a leader?" Biff asked.

"I don't know about that," Frank replied, hesitating slightly. "There are only six of us and I think we can get along well enough that we don't need a leader. Honestly, it could cause more problems than it would prevent."

"Okay, but I think we should leave it as an open option," Joe said. "We might need somebody who can settle disputes."

"That's a good point," Phil agreed. "There are six of us, so we could be split evenly if we have to take a vote on something. Like when we decided to stay in the cabin. Tony was about to vote with Chet and me. What would have we done then?"

Frank frowned as he considered this. "That's a valid concern, but if we give one person tie-breaking authority, that could just make the argument worse."

Joe nodded. "Then we'll just have to pick someone who's not going to abuse the power. You know, only use it when it's absolutely necessary. There's only one man for that job. I nominate Frank."

"I second that," Phil said, raising his hand.

"All in favor?" Joe asked.

Everyone raised their hands except Frank, who looked decidedly unimpressed.

"There we have it," Joe announced with satisfaction. "And we know we picked the right man, because he didn't vote for himself."

Frank rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I was thinking that it's going to be important for us to keep track of what day it is. That way, we can know how long we've been here and celebrate holidays and such. We're going to have to figure out a reliable way to do this, since we don't have a calendar."

"We could use some of the notebooks in the one chest," Tony suggested. "It shouldn't be that hard to keep track."

It was agreed that Tony would be in charge of the calendar. Since it had been Tuesday, June 20 when they had been captured, they figured it was now Friday, June 23.

"That brings up another point," Tony said. "What about Sundays?"

They all agreed that they should have some sort of Sunday service and everyone but Tony agreed that Tony would be in charge of that also.

After that, they had sundry other things to talk about. Most importantly, they agreed that as soon as they all felt up to it, they would explore the island and see if there were any boats or other means of getting off the island. They also agreed that they should all stay together until they knew the island better. They would use one of the notebooks to make a map and take note of any food or dangers that they found during their exploration. Chet was put in charge of this task. Finally, little by little, they would work on clearing the area around the cabin and ridding the garden of weeds and any inedible plants, but like the exploration, that could wait until they had rest for a few days.