Crashed

7.

The chores were done. Ward had fished and had found a few large rock lobsters. Lucky had collected coconuts and bananas, and had found yellow fruits with hard nuts inside. The flesh was slightly acidic, and the nuts contained some kind of almonds. Ward would have paid good money for a dinner like that, in the past.
It wasn’t going to rain that day. They stayed outside for hours, enjoying they meal, keeping themselves busy with fiddling on their GPS system and satellite phone.
Even if they got them to work, they wouldn’t be able to test it. They needed power for that. Lucky chatted about plans on making a windmill to charge a battery. Ward barely listened. He was in no hurry to get off the island.

Fishing and gathering became a daily routine. Lucky worked on his little garden, trying to farm. When he was done with all that, he worked on his windmill. The pilot liked to be busy, while Ward loved to relax. Fishing required patience. They enjoyed their chores.

“I believe I can charge the battery when I connect this copped coil to these wires, and then onto this... And then...”

Ward looked up, smiling. He had spread out a large piece of canvas, and had disembowelled his laptop. He was slowly putting it back together again. It would probably never look like a modern laptop anymore, but perhaps it would work again, one day. He was thinking on a way to connect the satellite phone to get on the internet. It would probably fail. He didn’t care. It kept him busy without tiring him.

“Ouch! It works!” Lucky sucked his finger, grinning and scowling at the same time. “I just got an electric shock!”

Ward laughed. “It’s alive!” he joked. “Well done!” he added more sincerely. “Any idea how much you can get from it?”

“Very little, as I’m still alive. Who cares! We can charge the battery! Whohoo!” He jumped up, energised by his success. “Help me covering these connections safely, alright? We don’t want to put out fires or get shocked.”

Ward helped him, and also assisted him dragging a hopefully useful battery outside. “What do you want to do with electricity, love?”

“We can have some light now, can’t we? Won’t that be something? Oh man, I so hope this works... Imagine the possibilities! And maybe you can revive your computer too!”

“You could help me with that. You’re so much cleverer than I.”

“Once we get that thing running, we can search for connection to the internet...”

Ward almost dropped the heavy battery. “I know,” he said, quietly.

“What’s wrong?” Lucky looked worriedly at him. He pushed the battery in position, and tugged at the wires as he kept looking at Ward. “Oh...” He blinked as he suddenly understood. “I know, babe, I know. We don’t have to tell people where we are, if we don’t want to. We don’t have to leave if we decide to do tell them. You will have the choice, baby... I promise.”

“I will leave if you leave... I don’t want to stay if you won’t stay...” Ward rubbed Lucky’s upper arms as the man stood in front of him. “All I want is to be happy, Lucky. I want to be happy with you. Here, or back home, I don’t care.”

Lucky nodded, and bit his lip as he was thinking. “Ward, you do remember what your life was like before we crashed, right? You had no home. You were working, travelling, and you had no eye for me even when I was flying your jet all the time. My life was pretty much the same, only less wealthy. Here, I have everything. I don’t think I’ll run into the arms of people when they come to ‘rescue’ us. If you decide to leave, then...” He took a deep breath. “Then I don’t know if I want to go with you.”

Ward dropped his arms. “Then I’m not leaving,” he said. He walked to his partly-built laptop, and picked it up. “No internet, ever.” He made a run for the water, abruptly stopped, and hurled the machine into the surf.

“Ward!” Lucky cried out his name, running towards him. “Don’t be an idiot! You may be sorry later! We can’t stay here forever, can we?”

“Yes, we can.” Stretching his neck, Ward relaxed again. “And we can still work on the satellite phone. But I won’t have to look at my work, because I have no laptop anymore. Perfect.”

Lucky looked at the beach when Ward walked away. The waves had brought the machine back. It would probably be ruined now, but he picked it up anyway. He was smiling. Ward and he had the same sentiments about their little island. It couldn’t be better.

*

In the civilised world, people weren’t ready to pronounce their executive dead yet. Business wasn’t running as smoothly without him, and they were still hoping on a sign of life.
The rescue operation was still at full force, searching every inch of the route the jet had been flying. As there was no trace from the plane or the three people, they carefully shifted their search away from the route.
It had been terrible weather. The pilot could’ve followed another route to avoid the worst part of it.
Since they wouldn’t have to look for survivors in the water, they mapped all islands, big or small. There weren’t many of them, and most were either too small to land a plane, or too big to be uninhabited. They saved those for last. First, they would investigate the smaller, uninhabited grounds.

*

“I like the sound of your windmill. Whoosh... whoosh...”

“It makes you sleepy, doesn’t it?” Lucky was lying with his head on Ward’s stomach, like they were often relaxing. It was comfortable, in the shade. He yawned.

Ward chuckled softly. “Oh man, I’ve never been as happy as I am now. So nice here... So quiet, with only the sea, the animals, and your windmill.”

“It seems the wind is picking up...”

“Huh?” Ward looked at the gentle turning blades, and scowled. “I don’t feel anything...” The sound was getting louder though. Surprised, he propped up his elbows.

Lucky sat upright, and looked at the cloudless sky. “I hear a plane...”

“A plane?!” Ward scrambled upright, and stepped into the sun. “Fuck...” Normally, stranded people would make a fire or write ‘SOS’ in the sand. They would do anything to get noticed and rescued. But Ward looked at their jet, and wondered if he could disguise it.

“There it is!”Lucky pointed at a dot, shimmering in the sunlight. “Do you think they’ll see us?”

Ward didn’t reply. He looked at the growing dot, clenching his teeth. They were looking for them. Of course they would see them.
It was a water plane. It flew over the island, giving a bit of hope to Ward, but then it turned.
“They’ve seen us,” he concluded blandly. “Come, let’s put on some clothes.”

*

“Mr Avery! You’re alive!”

“Rudy...” Ward walked to the spokesman, trying to smile.

Lucky stayed behind, close to their crashed jet. He saw how Ward got hugged by two relieved men. They had found them. They would take Ward home with them. Ward would go away. Life would go back to normal... He would be a pilot again, and Ward would be Mr Avery; a hard-working businessman without a private life. He would lose a lover. He would probably never love a man again.
Lucky felt cold, even in the sun.