Page 40 of Stranded

“But, why?”

“Because we like you.”

“And you deserve it. You’ve been nothing but kind, helpful and sweet since we arrived here, even before we knew you existed,” King adds from beside her.

“You better get used to it, Tink. We aren’t budging on this,” Bower tells her with an unusually serious look on his face. I lower my hand and stand up straight as her eyes bounce between us.

Finally, she shakes her head and lets out a breath of air. “Let’s just get going, we’re almost there.” I catch King’s eye and smirk. She didn’t argue, that’s something.

A couple minutes later, we arrive at the mango grove and she shows us how to pick ripe ones.

As we sit side by side, quietly slicing mangoes, I can’t stop glancing at her out of the corner of my eye. Zee peels fruit with fast, steady movements, like she’s done this a thousand times before.

I chew slowly, my mind drifting. She’s like an engine running with a few misfires, steady one moment, then jerking in a direction I didn’t see coming. If her brain were a carburetor, I’d have it dismantled by now, every piece laid out and examined, then cleaned and put back together, making it run like new. But with Zee… I don’t know which pieces need fixing, not really, but I keep trying to figure it out, anyway.

“Hey, Zee?” King asks cautiously as he waits for her to look at him. “Do you think when we get back to the beach, you could try to teach us how to light a fire quickly?”

“You want me to show you at the beach?” she asks in confusion.

“Yeah, we need to be able to light the woodpile as quickly as possible if we see a plane or boat.”

“Oh, uh, sure,” she says, dropping her eyes to look at her last slice of mango. Frowning, I glance over at King. He shakes his head and shrugs, telling me he doesn’t know what that’s about either. Does she not want us to know how to do that? What possible reason could she have?

“Should we take back some mangos for later?” Bower asks, getting to his feet.

“Yeah, just four though. Zee said not to take more than we can eat in a day,” I tell him as the rest of us stand.

“That’s smart,” King says, his eyes roaming the trees for the best ones to pick.

“I’ve got one,” Bower says, pulling one down.

“Here, I’ll take it,” Zee says, reaching for it.

But he quickly pulls it to his chest and shakes his head. “Nope. I’m carrying them, I brought my bag, see?” He points to the bag at his side. I’m relieved to see he has that, she hadn’t let me get mine earlier, and I felt weird about her carrying all of them back. I knew they weren’t heavy, but four mangoes weren’t exactly light either.

King and I quickly pick three more between us and pass them to Bower before she can get any in her bag. When she realizes what we’re doing, she narrows her eyes at us, making Bower smirk. “Sorry, Tink. It’s in our nature to take care of you, don’t take this away from us, okay?”

She rolls her eyes and walks past us. “Come on, let’s get out of here before you decide to carry me, too.”

“Don’t tempt me,” I whisper under my breath.

When we make it back to the beach, I notice the yellow of our rafts up ahead. I considered myself incredibly lucky that my parachute pack came equipped with a small raft. It was almost a quarter of the size of the one Bower and King rode in on, but it saved my life and got me here. The night I spent out at sea had been the most terrifying of my life, and I hope to never have to go through anything like that again.

I scan the sky and sea and see no sign of rescue. I wonder how often Zee is out here, looking for help? The guys built the woodpile and SOS sign, so I wonder what her plan was if she ever saw a passing boat.

“Zee?”

“Hmm?” She waits for me to catch up to her, so we can walk side by side.

“Have you ever seen a plane or ship?”

“I saw your plane,” she says, surprising us. For some reason, I hadn't considered that.

“You saw it crash?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she says quietly as we continue walking.

“Do you see many planes or boats?”

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