‘No.’
‘Then you’d better cooperate.’
I knelt in front of Thelma. She glowered at me and held out her hands. I bound them together, wrapping the rope around her wrists, going in and out between them in a figure-eight pattern. I made it tight enough to keep her secure, but tried to avoid cutting off her circulation.
When I was done, a lot of rope was left over.
I picked up the hanging tail. ‘What about this? Should we cut it off? I could tie it around her feet, or ...’
‘Maybe just let it hang,’ Billie suggested. ‘That way, we’ll have something to grab hold of if she tries to run.’
‘A leash for the bitch,’ Connie said.
‘You’re all just horrible,’ Thelma said. ‘How can you do this to me? I know I made a little mistake, but... I’m all beat up. It isn’t fair. You saw what he did to me. How can you tie me up? I saved you. I saved you all from Wesley, and ... you’re treating me this way. You’re horrible.’
‘Why don’t we put a gag on her?’ Connie suggested.
‘No!’
‘Then do yourself a favor,’ Kimberly said, ‘and stop whining.’
Thelma shut her mouth and turned its corners down. Soon after that, we broke up. Thelma wanted to lie down, so Kimberly, Billie and I led her over to her sleeping place. We helped lower her onto the bed of rags. She curled on her side. With her tied hands up close to her chin, she looked like she was about to start praying. But then she plucked up the end of a beach towel - one of the several towels we’d brought along on the picnic - and covered her face with it.
‘Don’t get up without asking,’ Kimberly told her.
‘Go away and leave me alone,’ Thelma said through the towel.
Kimberly crouched beside her. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘cut the attitude. We’re being damn nice to you, under the circumstances.’
‘Like fun you are. Am I supposed to be grateful ... ?’
With the flat of her open hand, Kimberly smacked her on the side of the head.
Thelma let out a startled yelp.
In a slow, steady voice that wasn’t like anything I’d ever heard from her before, Kimberly said, ‘You brought Wesley into our lives, sister. We warned you about him. You wouldn’t listen. You thought he was so damn wonderful. Now, my husband is dead. Dad is dead. It’s all because of Wesley - and Wesley is because of you. Do you get it? You did this to us! You!’
She gave Thelma’s head another slap.
Billie put a hand on Kimberly’s shoulder.
Kimberly raised her head. Her eyes were brimming with tears. As she looked up at Billie, she blinked. Tears spilled out and trickled down her face.
It’s amazing to see Kimberly cry. She is so tough, most of the time. But when she weeps, it’s like watching a heartbroken kid trying to act brave.
I choked up, myself, at the sight of her tears.
It made me remember Keith’s funeral, and how I’d sung ‘Danny Boy’ like some sort of idiot, and how she had hugged me afterward.
The best hug I’ve ever had. All sloppy and sentimental, but coming from the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known - not to mention that Keith’s shirt was open so I could feel all that bare skin against me, and the soft push of her breasts through her bikini.
I wonder if I’ll ever get another hug like that from her.
Who knows? There’s always hope, I guess.
I’d really like a lot more than a hug. I’d like her to fall madly in love with me, and seduce me.
Fat chance of that happening. I’m not much of a prize. Gals who look like Kimberly don’t give guys like me a second glance.
Though, who knows? As long as we’re marooned on this island, anything is possible. I am, after all, the only living male. (If you don’t count Wesley.) Maybe, eventually, all three of the gals will get after me.
Who am I kidding?
Anyway, it’s nice to imagine. Except that the fun of imagining such things has sharp edges that hurt.
With me as the only guy on the island, these gals would probably turn to celibacy or lesbianism before they’d throw themselves at my feet. That’s the kind of luck I have with babes.
What got me started off on this tangent, anyway?
Kimberly crying.
I would’ve liked to kiss the tears off her eyes.
Licked them off her cheeks.
Licked her everywhere.
I just stood there watching. She’d hardly begun to weep before she stood up, brushed the sand off her knees, and wiped her eyes. ‘Keep an eye on her, Rupe,’ she told me.
‘I will.’
Billie still had the hand on her shoulder.
Together, they turned away and headed for the water. They went back to spear-fishing. Connie had already returned to her shelter, and was lying down. I went to mine, took out my journal, and got down to business.
I started to write about Thelma coming out of the jungle.
But I was facing the inlet, which put Thelma behind my back. So I changed positions, turning sideways. Now, I’ve got Thelma off to my left, Kimberly and Billie in the water to my right, and Connie straight in front of me.
Connie is lying on her side, like before.
Facing me.
She is probably suspicious of the fact that I turned myself in her direction. It would never occur to her that I did it in order to keep Thelma in sight. She is sure to think I’m ogling her.
Every so often, she has opened her eyes and sort of gazed across the sand at me.
She hasn’t said anything, though.
No ‘What’re you looking at!’ No ‘Fuck off!’
Getting beaned by Thelma’s rock really took the starch out of her.
I ought to give Thelma my thanks.
Anyway, I’m all caught up, now.
Day Seven
My Visitor
With Connie out of commission and Thelma as our prisoner, the watch duty last night was being divided among me, Billie and Kimberly. Last night, they gave me first watch.
I stayed by the fire. After everyone else went to bed, I had nothing to do except sit there, sometimes toss in some driftwood, and keep watch.
I sat with my back to the inlet. That way, nobody would be able to come out of the jungle and sneak up on the gals without me spotting him.
I kept wondering if Wesley was really dead.
He had sure done a number on Thelma, no question about that. An awfully good reason to kill a guy, even if you weren’t especially bothered by the fact that he had murdered your own father.
I sure hoped she’d done it. If Wesley was dead, I could stop trying to spot him sneaking through the dark toward where the gals were asleep. I could stop glancing over my shoulder every few minutes to make sure he wasn’t creeping toward my back.
I kept wishing we’d gone ahead and checked on the body, right after Thelma came in and told us about it.
Then we’d know by now, one way or the other.
On the other hand, some of us might be dead right now.
Especially me.
I’d always figured I was next on the list. It stood to reason, considering that Wesley had killed off both the other males almost as soon as we got to the island. But now we’d had it confirmed by Thelma. Over at the falls, Wesley had given her orders to nail me with that rock.
Sitting there by the fire, though, I wasn’t especially worried about myself. The danger to me didn’t seem as important as my duty to watch over and protect the women. I felt very protective of them.
While they were asleep and I was on guard, they were my flock.
I occupied my mind, now and then, with some gallant fantasies about rushing to their rescue. With other fantasies about them, too. I won’t get into that stuff.
Anyway, about an hour into my watch, Thelma came over.
When I first saw her getting up, I thought she might be making an escape attempt. Instead of running for the jungle, though, she stepped cautiously away from the sleeping area, and wa
lked toward me. The leftover rope hung between her legs and dragged behind her.
None of the others stirred. Which convinced me that they were asleep. Kimberly would’ve raised holy hell if she’d seen Thelma up and around. The same goes for Billie and Connie.
Looking back on it, that’s what I should’ve done - raised holy hell.
It’s what I almost did.
My first inclination, when I realized none of the others would be putting a quick end to the situation, was to shout for Thelma to halt.
A shout would bring the whole gang running. (Except maybe Connie.)
But I kept quiet.
No need to wake everybody up. I can handle this on my own.
That’s what I told myself.
It wasn’t the whole reason I didn’t shout, though. There was also the fact that I was curious. What did Thelma have in mind? Why was she coming to me? I wanted to find out.
As she walked closer, I grabbed the ax, stood up, and stepped around the fire so it wouldn’t be in the way if I needed to get at her. I held the ax in both hands, at waist level, to let her see that I meant business but didn’t have any immediate plan to chop her.
Neither of us said anything until she was just a few paces away. Then she stopped and said, ‘I couldn’t sleep. I mean, I was asleep, but I woke up a while ago and ... I couldn’t get comfortable.’ She raised her bound hands. ‘I don’t guess you’ll untie me?’
‘No, I can’t.’
She shrugged and winced a bit. ‘I didn’t think so. No harm in asking, though. You oughta try to sleep with your hands tied together like this.’
‘Did you try sleeping on your back?’ I asked.
‘On my back? Have you seen my back? No, I guess you haven’t.’
I didn’t correct her.
‘Wesley whipped me. My back is so sore and tender ... everything is. He really hurt me, Rupert. He hurt me everywhere. There is no comfortable position to lie in. It’s a wonder I was able to fall asleep at all.’
‘I’m sorry about that,’ I said.
‘It’s not your fault. I’m the one that was fool enough to marry him.’
I said, ‘Well ...’
‘Anyway, that’s all over and done with, now. The thing is, would you mind a whole lot if I just stayed here for a little while? I won’t cause any trouble, I promise. I just can’t go back there and lie down. All I do is toss and turn ... it’s just so miserable. Can I stay with you? Please?’
a. She had to be in a lot of physical discomfort. She wasn’t lying about that.
b. What could she do to me? Her hands were tied and I had the ax.
c. I could always shout if she tried to pull a stunt.
d. I was still curious. Did she have some sort of secret reason for coming over? Did she have a trick up her sleeve? Just exactly what would happen if I let her stay? Maybe something interesting, or even exciting.
Not to mention that I really wanted to ask her about a few things.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘You can stay, but just for a while.’
‘Thanks, Rupert.’ She sounded sincere. ‘You’re sure a life-saver.’
‘One condition, though,’ I told her.
Some of her friendliness suddenly evaporated. ‘What’s that?’
‘You have to answer me, no matter what I ask you.’
She blew out some air. ‘Oh, forget it. I thought you were different from them. You’re just like them, aren’t you? For once, I thought somebody was being nice to me around here.’
‘All I want to do is find out a few things. What’s the big deal?’
She took a deep breath and used it to form a long, annoyed sigh. ‘Everybody wants to give me the third degree.’
‘Maybe you’d better just go back to bed,’ I said.
‘No, no, no. I’ll talk. Whatever you want. Lord knows, why should you be any different from the bitches? What do you want to know?’
‘Let’s sit down,’ I said.
I went back to my place at the other side of the fire, sat down, crossed my legs and rested the ax across my thighs. I told Thelma where to sit: in front of me but over to my left, facing the fire. That way, we didn’t have the fire between us. Also, it would be easy to give her a nudge with the head of the ax, if she caused trouble.
‘For starters,’ I said, ‘did Wesley tell you why he did all this?’
‘Did what?’
‘Blew up the boat, marooned us here, killed ...’
‘He didn’t blow up the boat. I asked him all about that. What happened is, he smelled gas and jumped overboard just in the nick of time. He was almost killed. He no sooner got off the boat than it blew sky-high.’
‘That’s what he told you?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you believed him?’
‘Why shouldn’t I?’
I could only think of about a million reasons. ‘If that’s what happened,’ I said, ‘then how come he didn’t swim in to the beach? We were all there. He knew we were there. He obviously wanted us to think he’d been blown up.’
‘Well, that was the whole idea.’
‘What? What are you talking about?’
‘He had to disappear. He was afraid he’d get all the blame for the explosion. Which is just what happened. You heard my dad. It was all Wesley’s fault.’
‘And that’s why Wesley pulled his vanishing act?’
‘Sure. Lord only knows what you all would’ve done to him.’
‘Yeah, Lord only knows - somebody might’ve called him an idiot.’
‘You don’t know anything.’
‘Was he afraid Andrew might make him walk the plank? Or keel-haul him? Whip out the cat-o’-nine-tails?‘
‘There’s no telling.’
‘Nobody would’ve done anything to him, not for having an accident.’
‘You haven’t got a clue. You have no idea how cruel Dad could be. How vicious. If you knew half the things he’s done ... what he used to do to me ... and to Kimberly, too.’ She shook her head.
I suddenly found myself very interested.
‘Like what sort of things?’ I asked.
‘Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is, having your hands tied like this?’ She held them toward me. ‘Kimberly made the rope too tight.’
Before turning in for the night, Kimberly had freed Thelma’s hands for a visit to the latrine - then had retied them.
‘You knew the right way to do it,’ Thelma told me. ‘When you tied me, the rope didn’t cut in this way. Kimberly did this to hurt me.’
‘No, she didn’t.’
‘Look. Just look, why don’t you?’
I leaned toward her and checked. The rope did appear to be awfully tight. It was making grooves in her wrists.
‘Can you make it looser for me? Please?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe Kimberly had a reason ...’
‘She had one, okay. She just loves to hurt me. It turns her on.’
‘Sure,’ I muttered.
‘If you make it looser,’ she said, ‘I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.’
Naturally, I was suspicious of her motives. I couldn’t get around the fact, though, that the rope was digging into her wrists.
‘I’ll redo it,’ I told her. ‘But you’d better not try anything.’
‘I won’t. I promise.’
I put the ax out of reach behind me, then moved in close to Thelma on my knees and picked open the knot. When the knot came apart, I began to unwrap the rope from around her wrists.
She suddenly pulled her hands free.
I was left holding empty loops of rope.
Before I could do anything, she swung both her arms around behind her back and started shaking her head. ‘Please. I’m not doing anything. Don’t tie me up again, okay? Please? Give me a break. I can’t stand having them tied. Just give me a few minutes, okay? Please?’
‘No. Come on, you promised.’ I glanced over at the sleeping area. The gals were still down, thank God. I faced Thelma
. ‘You’ll get me in all kinds of trouble.’
‘They don’t have to find out. I won’t tell them if you don’t.’
‘Damn it.’ Dropping the rope, I leaned forward on my knees and reached out and grabbed Thelma’s upper arms. They were thick, but not flabby. They felt strong. Squeezing them, I tried to pull her arms out from behind her.
She struggled not to let me. After a few seconds, though, she said, ‘Stop it or I’ll scream.’
I let go fast.
It took a while to catch my breath. Then I said, ‘Come on. If somebody wakes up and your hands aren’t tied ...’
‘You’ll get in more trouble than me.’
‘We’ll both be in trouble. Come on.’
‘I’ll make you a deal,’ she said.
I picked up the rope. ‘Like what?’
‘Just let me stay untied for a while, okay? Just while we sit here and talk, and then - I’ll let you tie them up again, I promise.’
‘Somebody might wake up. And besides, you tricked me. You took advantage of me trying to do you a favor. So just give me your hands.’
She shook her head, and kept them behind her back.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Please. I’ll make it really loose.’
‘I thought you wanted to ask me a lot of stuff about Wesley. And about Kimberly? Don’t you wanta know about how Dad used to abuse her?’
‘He abused her?’
‘He used to do all sorts of things to her. To both of us.’
‘Really?’ I glanced over at the sleeping area. So far, so good.
‘You’re so worried, we’ll just pretend I’m tied.’ Thelma offered her hands. I wrapped the rope around them a few times to make it look good, but left it loose and unknotted. ‘There,’ Thelma said. ‘Now you’re covered if anyone comes snooping.’
‘Just don’t try anything,’ I warned her. Then I went back to where I’d been sitting, sat down and put the ax across my thighs. ‘What did he do to her?’ I asked.
‘To both of us,’ Thelma said.
‘Okay.’
Family Ties
‘It’s ... awful nasty. Sick. Are you sure you want to hear about it?’
I nodded. Already, I was feeling a little shaky inside with a mixture of dread and excitement.