Page 1 of Totally Shipped
JULY
DAISY
“Iknow I put it down somewhere…”
Leander looks up at us, a guilty expression on his face.
“Guys, I think I lost the fire-starter,” he says.
By ‘fire-starter’, Leander means the one object that makes at least one thing on this island relatively easy. And nothing is easy when you’ve been marooned on a deserted island in the South Pacific for months.
With an exaggerated sigh, Gray pulls it out of his pocket. “I found it on the sand earlier.”
“Whoa, nice one! Losing that would have sucked,” Leander laughs.
Gray walks over to the shelving and places the flint-stone in the correct spot.
Nine-year old Keyara immediately gets up, shaking her head. “I’ve rearranged the stores, Uncle Gray. Now the flint goes over here.” Moving a couple of feet, Key carefully sets it next to some bundles of dry grass. “I made kindle packs, so you can just grab them to start a fire. The lighter goes next to them.”
That’s our Keyara. Getting more independent in actions and thinking as the weeks pass.
“Nice one, Key.”
The little girl gives Gray a pleased smile.
My old boss at the children’s library said there are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who return the shopping cart to the corral, and the kind who leave it loose in the parking lot.
I always return my cart.
Brooke?
She never does.
Not because she is some kind of monster, but because she has already moved on to the next thing in her brain. Someone else will put the cart away; it’s no longer her problem.
Key obviously puts the cart away.
Leander? He wouldn’t return the cart. Leander has ADHD, and without his meds, he skips from one thing to the next in no particular order.
It drives me and Gray a little crazy. We both like things to be ordered, thought about carefully, and carried out in a methodical manner. I’m a librarian; dewey decimal systems are heaven for me. Gray also loves to bring order from chaos. I wonder if it’s because he grew up in chaos?
Rex wouldn’t use a shopping cart. It wouldn’t even occur to him. He’d go to the store, grab the two items he needs, then head out again as soon as possible.
Rex ‘get shit done’ Malone.
And finally, my lovely Killian. He’d wander the aisles, his head probably thinking about poetry and the light reflecting off the jelly jars. He would use a cart—or a trolley, as he would call it—and have just a couple of things rattling around in the bottom. He’d walk around aimlessly, changing his mind about what he was buying, and finding odds and ends he didn’t realize he needed..
And I imagine his cart would not get to the corral because he would see an elderly couple getting out of their car and wheel it over to them to be helpful. And then he’d get in a conversation with the pair and end up back in the grocery store, helping his new friends do their shop.
Sweet dreamer, Killian.
Learning to survive together on this island is interesting. All our different personalities are revealing themselves, bit by bit.
I’m thinking about this as Leander zips off across the sand.
We’re a good team.
Yes, we may all be broken or flawed in some way, but together we made an incredible whole. And yes, when I’d said that out loud, Leander had made comments aboutmyincredible hole.
