Richard Laymon: Island

“We ought to keep it going day and night till we’re picked up,” he said. He was packing tobacco into his briar pipe as he spoke. “Don’t need to get caught with a dead fire when a search plane comes along. Besides, we let it go out and we’ll wind up lighting new ones all the time. That’ll get a bit more difficult after my Bic runs out of juice. I’ve stopped using it to light my pipe, of course.” As he said that, he pulled a stick out of the fire and sucked its flame down onto the tobacco in his pipe. He puffed to get things stoked up. Then he explained that the men should take turns staying up to keep watch and feed the fire.

There were three of us, and he figured about nine hours till morning. That meant that we would each have to stand a three-hour shift. (Finally, I get to participate as one of the guys! Thanks a heap, skipper.) Then Kimberly asked why the women weren’t being included in the guard duty. “Do ovaries disqualify us?” she asked.

Which made me laugh. Which won me some points with Kimberly and Billie, but didn’t seem to be appreciated by the others.

There was a general discussion. It stayed friendly, and the decision was made that the women could be responsible for watch duty on the second night, if we’re still here by then. That ended the complaints.

Andrew was supposed to take first watch, men wake up Keith, who would do his three hours and then wake me up at about four in the morning to keep an eye on things for the rest of the night.

With that settled, we all turned in except Andrew, who remained by the fire.

The night was warm and nice. We each made up our beds with assorted blankets, clothing, and whatnot that we’d either brought with us when we came for the picnic, or that Keith and the skipper had retrieved from the water. (Everything was dry by then.) All of us stayed in the general area of the fire. Couples made their beds together. Not Connie and I, though. We helped each other build separate sleeping places—side by side, but with a space between us. Which was fine with me.

She gave me a goodnight peck on the mouth, then we retired to our rag piles.

There was method in her arrangement.

Billie’s bed was only about ten feet away. Once we were lying down, however, I couldn’t see her; Connie blocked my view.

I might’ve been able to see Kimberly in the other direction, but she and Keith had insisted that Thelma share their quarters. It was nice of them. Otherwise, Thelma would’ve had to spend the first night of her widowhood alone.

Kimberly, unfortunately, stretched herself out between Thelma and Keith. Which ruined any chance I had of watching her.

Thwarted on both sides, I shut my eyes and let my imagination take over.

The next thing I knew, someone was shaking me by the shoulder. I opened my eyes. It wasn’t Keith waking me up. And the sky wasn’t dark anymore.

At first, I didn’t recognize the guy squatting over me. It was Andrew, of course. The skipper. But he was wearing nothing except his khaki shorts. I’d hardly ever seen him when he didn’t have on a T-shirt, sunglasses and ballcap. He had a gray fur all over his chest, his eyes looked sort of pale and bare, and he was bald and shiny on the top of his head. He seemed older than usual, and not as tough.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“You tell me.” He didn’t sound angry. Concerned, though. “Why aren’t you up and standing watch?” he asked.

I had to think about that for a minute. Then I said, “Nobody woke me. Keith was supposed to, wasn’t he?”

“And he didn’t?”

“No. He was supposed to, though. Yeah. When he was ready for me to relieve him at four.”

“That was the plan.”

“If he didn’t wake me up, it’s not my fault. I mean, I haven’t got an alarm clock.”

I sat up to see what was going on with Keith. Thelma and Kimberly were sleeping side by side, but Keith wasn’t there.

I gave the whole area a quick scan, and didn’t see him anywhere.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Uh-oh,” I said.

“You don’t know?”

“Huh-uh. I fell asleep right away. You were over by the fire, and Keith was with Kimberly. That’s the last I saw of anybody till now.”

“I never took Keith as the sort to desert his post,” Andrew said.

“If he had a good reason.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know, a bad case of the trots?”

“He should’ve gotten you up three hours ago,” Andrew said, making a point of the three hours part.

A mighty long time to spend squatting in the jungle.

“Maybe he decided to let me sleep…” I looked over at where the fire used to be. Only a smokeless pile of ashes remained. Obviously, nobody had fed the thing for hours.

I suddenly got sort of a sickish feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“What’s the matter?” Connie asked, sounding groggy. With a yawn, she pushed herself up on one elbow. Her hair was a messy tangle, in spite of being almost as short as mine, and her T-shirt hung off her shoulder. She actually looked sort of cute that way. This was the first time I’d ever seen her wake up in the morning.

Andrew explained to her about Keith. “Did you notice anything last night?” he asked.

She yawned again and shook her head. Then she added, “I bet he went jogging or something. He’s such a fitness freak. Probably on the other side of the island by now.”

“Maybe,” Andrew said, but I knew he didn’t buy it. I’d noticed before how he sometimes agreed with his daughters and wife even when they were obviously wrong. It was just his way of keeping the peace.

Anyway, our discussions were getting nowhere fast.

So Andrew went over to Billie, bent down and shook her. She seemed to be quite a heavy sleeper. She moaned and rolled onto her side. She’d gone to sleep in her bikini, and wasn’t covered by anything eke. Looking between Andrew’s legs, I saw that her upper breast had gotten dislodged a little. About half the nipple showed. I kept watching, hoping her entire breast would fall out. But then Andrew turned around, so I had to look the other way quick.

“Honey, go on over and wake up your sisters, would you?”

Connie groaned like it was a chore, but she followed orders. While she was on her way to where Thelma and Kimberly were sleeping, I got to my feet. I checked on Billie. She was sitting up and rubbing her eyes. One of her elbows was in the way, so I couldn’t see much of her bikini top.

I turned my attention to the others. Connie nudged Thelma with her foot and said, “Guys, wake up.”

Thelma, flat on her back, blinked up at her and scowled.

Kimberly was covered to the shoulders by a blue blanket. (It wasn’t the good one that we’d brought with us to spread on the beach for our picnic. Andrew and Billie claimed that one.) Kimberly’s blanket had been retrieved from the inlet. A survivor of the boat explosion, it was missing a corner, had a rip down one side and a bunch of burn holes with dark, chaired edges. I could see her skin through some of the holes.

She didn’t move when Connie said, “Guys, wake up.” Then came, “Keith’s disappeared.”

Kimberly threw the blanket aside and sat up fast. Frowning, she swung her head from side to side as she got to her feet. She was still in her white bikini. She looked terrific. She also looked worried.

Andrew and Billie were already striding toward her. (Billie had straightened her bikini top so nothing showed that wasn’t supposed to.)

Kimberly said, “Dad, what’s going on? Where’s Keith?”

“We don’t know, honey. He was supposed to wake up Rupert at four, but he didn’t. From the look of things, he’s been gone a long time.”

Kimberly suddenly shouted “Keith!” toward the jungle. She got no answer, so she cupped her hands to the sides of her mouth and belted out, “KEITH!”