Page 15 of Totally Shipped
“Pitch,” says Leander. “You know, resin. But that is only in evergreen trees, like firs and cedars. I’ve no idea if the trees in the tropics are resinous.”
He’s right; pitch is a reasonable accelerant. Gray, Leander and I know that firsthand. “Can you and Killian start investigating all the trees on the island, find out if any of them are resinous? If nothing else, it will make our fire-starting at camp easier.”
None of us have talked about the rainy season yet. It’s coming up fast—maybe another twelve weeks or so. Today we’ll brainstorm rescue, but soon we need to figure out how to survive the cyclones if we don’t get rescued in time.
Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
I look to Leander. He looks back at me, a frown on his face.
“Well?” I asked him.
“Well…” he replies. “I think I want to piggy-back off Gray and Keyara’s ideas.”
We all look at him.
“If Gray is floating out at sea and a ship sees him, they pick him up right? And then he tells them we are out here somewhere and need help. But does Gray actually need to be on the raft? What if we treat it like a message in a bottle? Make a raft, make it visible, and have a message attached to it?”
“I like it,” Daisy says, sitting up straighter. “It has exactly the same odds of working, but without a human having to take a chance.”
“But would a ship stop if there wasn't a human on the raft?” Killian asks.
“It just needs to look as though therecouldpotentially be a person onboard and they’d have to help—it’s maritime law that you have to help another vessel in distress.”
“I think that’s a clever idea, Leander.”
“And we could make several rafts,” adds Gray, “just keep churning them out. Each one would improve our odds.”
“And so that leaves us with you, Daisy. What have you come up with?”
She blushes prettily. “I haven’t really come up with anything good. I did have some wild flights of fancy, like catching one of the migratory birds that comes through and putting a note on its leg, like homing pigeons. Then I thought about trying to make a piece of aluminum real shiny so we can use it as a signal mirror, in case we ever see another plane or boat in the distance.”
“I think the homing pigeon, or homing parrot, might be a little bit of a stretch, but I think trying to fashion a signal mirror is a must. Next time we go to the plane, you come with us and look for something you think might work.”
“What about you, Rex? Did you think of anything else?” Daisy asks me.
“Truthfully, I’ve been really struggling. But one thing we definitely need to do is have a bigger and better SOS sign.”
Early on, we had spelled out SOS using seaweed and logs, but the wind or tides would batter it around, sometimes leaving it unreadable.
“We need to make it a sturdy permanent sign, as big as possible. We never know when a plane, or even a satellite, could go over us. It’s crazy that we don’t have our SOS sign at maximum efficiency.”
I don’t know about everyone else, but I for sure feel a little better having some tasks to do that work towards rescue. I honestly don’t think the giant fire idea is a particularly good one, but setting out rafts with messages is not bad. And having a signal mirror definitely can’t hurt.
Honestly, I’m losing my mind that Daisy might be pregnant.
Fuck, I can hardly look after the people who are already here. How can I keep a baby safe?
LEANDER
After Rex’s big freak out—I mean, ‘meeting’—we decided a trip to the plane was in order. We’d taken a lot from there already, but now we were thinking about new things to build, so another scavenging trip was in order.
Both Daisy and Keyara were determined to go on the expedition with me and Gray. Killian had said Gray could wear his shoes, while he’d stay behind to fish, tend the fire, and make food for when we returned.
Rex hadn’t said if he was coming or not. He’d just looked broodily into the middle-distance.
“How many bananas do you think, Daisy?” I could hear Key’s voice, high with excitement. She hadn’t been anywhere except the pool, so this was a big trip for her.
Daisy is amazing with Key; it just goes to show what an amazing mom she was going to make. I’d never really asked Daisy about her parents. Were they good to her?
