fLoOd--Part Thirty-Three

Jug Band Music

tHiRtY-tHrEe

 Wilkerson, sitting in the bottom of the boat in the center of the port side, had his legs folded in front of him and was turned to the left, trying to see in the bright moonlight what future the speeding craft carrying himself and his seven fellow travelers was about to burst into. There seemed little in front of the boat except for a vast sort of bright darkness, or possibly it was a dark brightness, that seemed to be engulfing the craft for as far as he could see, no matter in which direction he looked. They must be sailing off into infinity. He pictured in his mind the boat becoming a new constellation in the sky. It would consist of eight stars clustered in the vague shape of a ship. (No one would ever be able to really make out the pattern, except possibly some very old Greeks.) He wanted to name the constellation but, in trying to think what could be the Latin for ship, all he could imagine was "Boatus", which probably was not correct. Of course, Wilkerius had a nice sound to it. And then Wilkerson found that the boat was sailing on a gentle tide and drifting in toward the shore of a sandy beach. The sun was rising quickly and by its light he found that he had arrived in paradise. A banana landed at his feet and he looked around. The brick man had passed bananas to everyone and was now peeling his. Instead of a brick, he now had a bowl of liquid in his lap. He tossed his peel overboard and then dunked his banana in the liquid and took a large bite. White dripped down his chin and Wilkerson assumed he was eating cream with his banana. As Wilkerson peeled his banana, he found that the sun was becoming rather hot. Before he was half finished, he noticed that sweat was oozing from every part of exposed skin on the statue-man. He watched the man lose all his rigidity and grow limper and limper. His head fell forward and then his spine loosened as though he were doing a yoga exercise. Just as his head landed in his lap, gravity took over and he crumpled from the seat to the bottom of the boat and lay there like a heap of old clothes. Trying to get out of the way, Wilkerson backed into the urn man who jumped out of the boat.They were now nearly at the shore and the urn man plopped down in the wet sand and started coating himself with mud. He poured mud over his outstretched legs and feet and, closing his eyes, lifted mud over his head and let it drop in his hair. The Irishman had a bottle of wine and he was diluting it by cupping his hand and dribbling small amounts of seawater into it. He'd take a gulp of this mixture, then smack his lips and say, "Home-grown Irish wine!" The man at the bow of the boat had produced a washboard and was improvising some tropical rhythms, while the young man in his underwear was picking out single notes on a guitar. The man at the anvil was rubbing suntan lotion over his face and arms and, once he'd anointed all his exposed skin, he began covering his clothes with the greasy substance. Wilkerson finished his banana and was glad to find that he and his companions had arrived somewhere where they could each find something to do and just enjoy themselves. Then he saw a surfboard floating in the water not too far away. He jumped over the side of the boat, fully clothed, including shoes, and swam awkwardly over to it. He pushed himself onto it sideways and then maneuvered into the correct position. He lay on the board, soothed by the rolling of the waves beneath him. He drifted and dreamed of what life would be like now for the eight of them on this island. (He didn't know how, but he knew they'd arrived at a tropical island.) And then a cry rang through the air. "Sandwiches!" He looked up. The brick man was standing on the beach with his arms full of sandwiches and everyone was laying down whatever they'd been busy with and heading towards him. Wilkerson started paddling with his hands. The boat was beached on the sand and he wondered if they could use it to build some kind of shelter. But it was so beautiful here, possibly they wouldn't even need a shelter.