Any Port in a Storm: Chapter 25

Tony's Story

Following the trail Kea had brought me in on I duck into the thick vegetation and soldier on.  My plan was to follow this for a time then find a good place to leave the trail and disappear into the jungle.  Of course my plan didn't include Mara...yet there she was.

Had I have been healthy I could have easily lost her, especially with her vision being so poor, but hobbled as I was she was always able to stay close to me.  A few times I had turned and tried in various ways to get her to turn back but she stubbornly refused.

Muttering angrily to myself I am careless as I step over a fallen tree and end up falling flat on my chest.  “GUH!”  I grunt as the wind is knocked out of me.

In the blink of an eye Mara is at my side.  “Are you hurt Tony?  Let me carry your...”

I push her away.  “Damn it, get off of me!  No I'm not hurt.”  Struggling back to my feet I turn to deal with her once and for all.  “Mara.  You HAVE to go back.  It might already be too late, but maybe you can still get back before the others wake.  Just follow the trail.”

“No.”

I glare at her but she was unfazed.  “How often does Kea use this trail?”

“Um...almost everyday.”

“Good.”  I step forward and grab her by the shoulders.  Easily overpowering her I push her back against the nearest tree.

“What are you doing?”  She struggles.

“Tying you up.  Kea will find you soon.  Tell her I kidnapped you and tied you up here.  Put all the blame on me Mara.”

She is suddenly nervous and tugs against me.  “I'll get out.  You have no proper rope.”

“I tie this towel tight enough.”  I look her in her now frightened eyes.  “I know you can't see far.  I just need to slow you down enough to get away.”

“No!”  Then she truly starts struggling.  She was slippery but I was far too strong for her.  Taking both her hands I put them up over her head and pin her wrists together against the trunk as I ready my soiled old towel.

She stops fighting me and starts to tremble and beg.  “No!  No!  No Tony!  No please!  Please no!  Please!”  Her wide eyes showed pure abject terror.  The magnitude of her fear seemed totally out of line with what was happening.

“Settle down!”

“Please!  Oh god please!”  Tears began to flow and she whined as if she was in physical pain.

“Stop squirming.”

“PLEASE NO!”  She cried out.

“Hey, heyyy, calm down.”  I say in a soothing tone.  “Calm down Mara.  Kea will find you soon enough...”  It strikes me that Makea was quaranteed to her hut at the moment.  I assumed she would be let out today but I didn't know that for sure.  I shake the worry the from my mind.  The island seemed safe enough, I was quite confident there were no carnivores though I actually didn't know much about the insect and reptile life.  Perhaps there were poisonous...

I stop dead as I reached up to tie her wrists to the tree.  There, around her slender wrists...were thin scars.  Subtle and healed but unmistakable.  Scars from twine, scars from being bound too tightly for too long.  I could feel them beneath my palm.

I look back down into the frantic eyes of Marama.  “Who did this to you?”  I whisper, though I already knew the answer.  I let my grip on her wrists go.

Mara brings her arms back down and hides them beneath her dress as she cowers in front of me.  She is breathing hard and shaking like a leaf, her eyes staring at the ground though unfocused and distant.

I take a step away from her and look with pity on this achingly beautiful Polynesean-Celtic woman.  My fists clench at my sides.  Nobody deserved to be treated like Mara had, but her beauty somehow made it even more tragic.  Like a fragile snowdrop being ground beneath the hard sole of a combat boot Cormac had sought to destroy something precious and sublime.

In a low voice, one barely containing my rage, I say.  “You're coming with me Marama.”

She glances up, her blue eyes searching my face.

“I won't send you back there alone.”

She nods and whispers in a tiny voice.  “Thank you.”

I didn't know much about my uncertain future but I knew this, I would do every possible thing in my power to see that big Irish son of a bitch never laid a finger on this girl again.

I reach out and very gently lay my hand on her trembling shoulder.  “Hey, I'm going to need your help out here okay?  We need to help each other.”

She nods and begins to gather her emotions back under control.  “I will help you Tony.”

I give her a kind smile.  “I know you will.  Here.”  I pass her my bundle.  She takes it and clutches it to her chest.  “I'm sorry I frightened you.  I just wanted you to be safe.”  I step in and give her a brief respectful hug.

She takes in a deep breath and lets it out again, blowing much of her fear and nervous energy out with it.  She straightens up and I see an inner resilience come out in her.  She takes another deep breath and squares her shoulder, ready for the trek ahead of us.

“You are a very brave person Marama.”

She looks confused.  “No, I am weak and I am scared.  I will be a poor companion for you, but I will do my best.”

I chuckle lightly.  “Everyone is weak sometimes, and everyone gets scared.”

She shakes her head.  “Not Father.  Not Mother.”

I pat her arm.  “You are brave because of your fear Marama, not for the lack of it.”

She tilts her head as she ponders my words.

“Let's not talk about them.  Come on.  We need to put some distance behind us.”  I turn and peer out into the forest.  “This seems as good a place as any to break off the trail.  That damn fallen tree I tripped over will give us landmark if nothing else.”  

Putting my arm around Mara's shoulders I allow her to support some of my weight and the pair of us set out into dense underbrush.  We were quite the team.  A hobbled, half starved, and clueless city slicker and a nearly blind skinny waif of a woman, with only a small handful of possessions to our names.  Our prospects did not look great.  But I had survived the storm, I had survived the dinghy, I felt I would survive this too.  And, despite my protests, I was very happy not to be alone.

Ash's Story

I wake gradually.  For a time I believe I am home again.  Back in Michigan, in my own home, snuggled up to my loving husband in our grand king size bed.  Our spacious house...cold, empty and quiet.

The sounds were the first thing that began to draw me out into the real world again.  Glorious tropical birdsong joyously greeting the growing light of dawn.

The second beckoning awareness was a wonderfully rugged natural musk that was not my husband's.

The final sensory contrast was the feel of the tall and lean muscled warm body beside me.  A body with the luscious curves of a woman.

I let out a sad sigh as my reality came back to me, flooding out my dreamy images of home and comfort.  I slowly open my eyes to see the rough wooden walls of my prison.  Beside me the bare breasts of Huali rise and fall as she breathes deeply in her sleep.

As quietly and carefully as I can I sit up.  Rubbing my face I blink the bleariness from my eyes then turn my head to look out the window.  The sky is a majestic yellow-orange that I knew within the hour would be a pure azure blue, it looked like it was going to be a lovely day.  This place, this island, was so beautiful and so...perfect.  Truly an real life Eden.  It saddened me that it was marred by the Kane's ugly and twisted presence.  Looking down to the slumbering giant beside me I admire her striking features.  I prayed she wasn't too far gone.  I prayed that, if Tony and I couldn't be rescued, maybe we could at least bring some sanity to the life of the misguided Kane family...some of them anyway.