The Island

"I don't know, it... it looks old I guess. But someone must have built it."

"Right, which means at least one person knows where this damn island is."

Kate giggled with excitement and made for the door. In her mind, a range of possibilities churned and although she found the cabin's interior deserted, her hope dwindled only a little.

The floor was made of very roughly hewn planks and Kenny noted that it must have taken weeks to manufacture them as his mind struggled to make sense of how a person would even go about doing that. Even when he noticed two axes sitting against one wall, one large and heavy, the other smaller with a short handle, the construction of the cabin seemed to him an extraordinary achievement. If it had survived the storm of the previous night, then it was evidently sturdy enough to provide them with more than adequate shelter, certainly a far sight better than the rudimentary affair they'd set up just back from the beach the night before.

One corner contained what they took for a bed, though it was little more than a pile of brown and decaying palm leaves stacked together but it was otherwise devoid of any clues relating to its builder or any previous inhabitant.

Nevertheless, the twins were excited as they looked around.

"Can you believe this?" Kate observed. "This would be some kind of paradise if we weren't fucking marooned here!"

Kenny chuckled his agreement and the conversation turned briefly to speculation about who built and perhaps formally inhabited the cabin.

"Well," Kenny noted eventually, "whoever it was, I think it's pretty clear they're long gone. From the looks of things, there hasn't been anyone around here in years."

Their thoughts then turned to relocating their camp so they could have the benefit of the cabin's shelter as well as what they assumed was the island's only source of fresh water. Both noted that basing themselves away from the beach would make them less visible to any search planes, the clearing having a decent covering of palm canopy. All things considered though, they agreed the safety and security of the cabin and access to water was just too much to pass up.

They returned to the point they'd left the beach and continued on their circumnavigation of the island. The final corner was long and sweeping, taking them back to the bay where they'd made landfall, and their camp.

With a clear enough picture now of the shape of their roughly triangular island refuge, they made plans to pack up their supplies and find an interior route back to the cabin, rather than trekking all the way around the coast to find the trail on the island's far side again.

The island's interior revealed more plant and animal life than they'd seen on the coast and it was a simple enough matter to find the clearing again while still only early afternoon by their reckoning. They sat on the log benches and broke out some rations.

"OK," Kenny said, "so, basics. I guess we should try to light a fire?"

"Sure, good idea. Do we know how to do that?"

"Not really. But I've seen Cast Away, right?"

"Me too. I remember the part where he's dancing around the fire but I have no idea how he got it going!"

"Yeah... shit... well, fuck it. How hard can it be?"

"Right... I, uh, I might let you focus on the fire then. I'll see if I can gather up some fresh leaves to update the bed in there, the old one doesn't look too comfortable."

"Great, OK. Well... be careful I guess."

"I'll be fine Kenny, we didn't see anything dangerous all morning."

"I know..." Kenny said, sighing, "just... just holler if you need me, OK? Don't go too far."

So as Kate moved into the trees to gather fallen leaves for their bed, Kenny was glad of the distraction trying to figure out how to start a fire brought. In the first place, it allowed him to focus on something specific, to not have to worry about the whole shape of the calamity they found themselves in.

But more than that, it allowed him to avoid thinking about Kate's naked body. All morning they had been talking as they walked, speculating on their location, wondering how soon rescue might arrive, noting features of the island, but all morning, Kenny had found it almost impossible to look at his sister. Every time he did, all he could see was the image of her tight, hard body, her firm, round breasts and his mind would wander back to the feeling of being pressed against her the night before, the feeling of her skin against his, disastrous circumstances notwithstanding.

Kate's task was not nearly as focus intensive and, as a result, she couldn't stop her mind drifting back. Only twenty four hours earlier, the idea of being naked in front of Kenny, of him being naked in front of her, of sleeping together like that could have been something from one of her dreams. And with the frantic excitement of everything that had happened to them since, she was only beginning to process it.

She shuddered just to think about it. A year of training herself to stay away from him, scrupulously avoiding even the most innocuous touch. She understood the situation they were in was unique, and completely unpredictable, but it was nevertheless a jarring end to her plan.

And what now? The discovery of the cabin should make things easier, they wouldn't need to sleep like that again at least, but there was no getting away from the fact that she was isolated with her twin brother, who she'd dreamed and fantasized about for a year, which in turn had caused her to upend their lives completely by reconnecting with their father in an effort to get away from those feelings, feelings that she didn't want. And now there was no getting away from them, or from him.

But even if she put her feelings for Kenny aside, and she really wasn't able to do that, even if she did it just notionally, it was obviously best that they be rescued quickly. Even if their lives were totally normal. Even if she didn't want her brother to hold her down and make her his.

She thought about plane crashes and other disasters she'd heard about or read about or seen shows about on TV. When people were rescued, it always happened quickly, within hours or at least days. Kenny had made a gag about the movie Cast Away but Kate couldn't think of any real world example like that. People didn't get marooned on desert islands for years, not in the 21st century.

So, ultimately, she figured she'd only have to hold out a few days, maybe a week at most until they were rescued. And she had no doubt she could do that. It might not be easy, but she could manage.

She'd set the large armful of palm leaves she'd gathered on the ground and sat down heavily against the base of a tree, staring back towards the clearing for a moment before closing her eyes.

She hadn't really decided to do it but for the first time, her mind brought her back through the terrifying events of the crash and everything after. She couldn't really remember anything about the crash itself but her memories of their time on the raft, and of the storm made her shudder. And then she thought about how much better she'd felt when Kenny had held her, held her so tight, and how tightly she'd held on to him, like he was life itself and she felt a familiar warmth trickle through her body at the thought.

She shook her head and opened her eyes. No. I can't stay in those thoughts, in that place, she decided, not if I'm going to get through this.

She knew there was no way she could avoid him, it just wasn't possible. They needed each other to survive and, if she was honest with herself, she knew she needed him more than he needed her. So she made a plan. It wouldn't be any different than life had been in their apartment. It might even be easier, with so much work needing to be done to focus on. They needed to make the cabin fit for habitation, make sure of sources of food other than the ration bars and, most importantly, think of ways to make it easy for would-be rescuers to know they were on the island at all.

With all that to do, she decided finally, standing and gathering her palms and starting back towards the clearing, I won't even have time to think about... anything else.

Who are you kidding, she said internally, or at least some part of her did, as she entered the clearing. Kenny was standing shirtless in front of the cabin, smiling proudly at a small fire.

"Hey, look!" he called when he noticed her. "Fire!"

Kenny's smile was genuine. Making the fire was something he felt he should have been able to do relatively straightforwardly but feared he wouldn't. So when it lit on his first real try, there was definitely a feeling, combined with finding the clearing and the cabin and fresh water and all the other positives the island had shown them that day, that things were looking up.

"Everything OK?" he asked, noting the less than full throated enthusiasm on Kate's face.

"Wha... oh, yeah. Definitely. This is amazing, good job Ken," she said, catching herself and doing her best to force a smile. Kenny wasn't convinced but decided not to press the issue.

As it happened, as Kate had anticipated, the rest of that first day didn't allow much time for her to worry about her feelings. Setting up their new camp, organizing their supplies and making plans for rescue occupied all their time and thought and effort.

They figured the rations were enough to last them about a week so they quickly agreed that an additional source of food could wait, at least for a day or two if necessary. Without discussing it, both were of the opinion that they wouldn't be on the island long enough for it to matter anyway.

So they stowed what they had in the cabin. Kenny made a rudimentary broom from a stick and some palm fronds and gave it the once over while Kate removed the old 'bed', such as it was, and replaced it with two new ones, essentially two large mats made of palm leaves piled thickly, in opposite corners. Replacing the one bed with two was another of those things they didn't need to discuss.

In the late afternoon, they returned to the bay, as they had come to refer to that part of the island's coast where they had landed, and ensured the raft was well secured against any particularly aggressive tides or fresh storms, and then began construction of a sign.

They considered 'HELP' but went for 'SOS' on the basis that it had fewer letters and was therefore easier to make and the view that, really, it could say anything. All it had to do was get the message across to whatever pilot saw it that 'people are here'. It was made from the largest stones and rocks they could find near the edge of the island's interior. There weren't really that many rocks so they used bits of palm log they found laying around to fill in the gaps and placed the two signal mirrors that had been in the raft on two of the rocks. When they were done, they had a sign with letters nearly eight feet high.

They discussed setting up a signal fire next to the sign but agreed that to maintain one constantly would be difficult to manage and, in any case, it would be of most value at night. They'd have the fire in the cleaning but the palm canopy might obscure it, so the plan was that, each evening, one of them would come back to the bay and light a fresh fire, big enough so that it would last as much of the night as possible.

They stowed a couple of the packs labelled 'sea die marker' near the sign, so that if either of them happened to be tending the fire when they noticed a plane over head they wouldn't have to rush back to the clearing. And they made a plan that, if either of them left the clearing, for whatever reason, they would always keep one of the flares on them for the same reason, and so that they could signal each other if they got separated and needed help.

They lit the signal fire together that night, Kenny demonstrating the method he'd used for the fire in the clearing to Kate so she'd be able to do it herself in future and returned to the clearing. It was cool without being freezing, a clear sky filled with stars breaking through the canopy of palm leaves here and there. Kenny refueled the fire he'd lit earlier in the day and they set themselves against the two heavy logs that spread out from the cabin in a V-shape.

Kenny was already sitting when Kate made her way to the fire to sit and, as she automatically decided to sit against the log opposite the one where Kenny was, she noted that, actually, it had been a good day. She hadn't been distracted by him at all, had been totally focused on all the work they were doing. But now, as the day ended and she had nothing to think about, her mind went straight back to him. Fuck, she thought. They better fucking find us. Fast.

"I'm, ah... I'm pretty beat... think I'll turn in," she said after a brief interval. She wasn't really lying but the fact that she just didn't want to have to sit there looking at Kenny was as much a part of her decision as her tiredness.

"Sure... yeah... I'll... I guess I'll hit the hay in a while too."

"OK... well, night Kenny."

"G'night Kate."

Kenny watched his sister smile weakly at him before she turned and entered the cabin. All things considered, it had been a good day but Kenny couldn't help feeling down as he watched Kate go. The look on her face, the awkwardness of her manner, reminded him too much of what life had come to be like in their apartment.

He waited long enough to be satisfied that Kate would be asleep before he made his own way into the cabin for the night and, as he lowered himself to his palm leaf bed as quietly as possible, he found that despite all the good fortune the island had heralded, survival, food, water, shelter, all of it, despite everything his overriding feeling was dread.

That feeling remained the following morning, their interactions reminding both of them of the ugly, distant normality of the life they'd been trying to leave behind. It was as if the excitement, the rush of the beginning, of discovering the mysteries of the island, was just over.

As they sat quietly against the logs in front of the cabin breakfasting on ration bar and water, Kenny noticed Kate absently gazing toward the small waterfall on the other side of the clearing.

"It's pretty cool, huh?" he observed.

"Hmm? Oh, ah, yeah. Actually I was just thinking how much I'd love a shower."

Kate surprised herself a little by telling Kenny what she was thinking but the thought of standing under the cool cascading water, of finally feeling herself clean after everything that had happened, was too tempting.

"Shit, me too," Kenny agreed. "Tell you what, why don't I go for a walk, do some more exploring and you can have some privacy and then we can, like, swap over. What do you think?"

Kate agreed eagerly and Kenny told her he'd be back in an hour but even after he'd been gone from the clearing for five or ten minutes, Kate still felt reluctant to take off her clothes and move under the water. Other than that night of the storm, which had obviously been an emergency situation, she'd never taken her clothes off in such a public place before. But she laughed to herself at that thought as she considered that, in order to be a public place, it would need to have people.

When she had finally disrobed and waded through the shallow pool to the falling water, it felt just as good as she'd imagined. Despite the chilly temperature of the water, or maybe because of it, there was a palpable feeling of ease and relief as she allowed it to crash over her and she was still smiling when Kenny returned and she left the clearing to do some exploring of her own.

It was early afternoon when Kate returned. Kenny was long since dry from his own shower and they decided to begin the search for a new source of food, although the prevailing view was still that the ration bars would almost certainly last plenty long enough until they were rescued.

It wasn't too difficult to find and gather a decent amount of fallen coconuts and, with the smaller of the two axes they'd found in the cabin, it was a simple enough matter to break them open. Pleased with this development, they spent the rest of the day casually strolling around the remainder of the island's interior by way of exploration.

But Kenny felt a strange discomfort nagging at him all day. Alone in their apartment over the previous difficult year, it was easy to avoid each other. They had their own spaces, they could go out to work or college or to meet other people. Here, on the island, they were literally stuck together. But that hadn't narrowed the obvious chasm between them. If anything, as they explored the island that day, it felt like it was getting wider.

Kate lit the signal fire alone that night, happy for the excuse to be away from Kenny for a while once again. She took her time getting back to the cabin.

"Hey, where were you? Are you OK?" Kenny asked when she returned.

"I'm fine, I was lighting the fire, like I said."

"What took you so long?"

"What?"

"Why were you gone so long?"

"Jesus Kenny, I don't know. I guess I just walked around a little. Is that OK?"

"Yeah... yeah... of course... sorry... I..."

"Never mind," Kate said, shrugging her shoulders and turning away from the fire. "I'm going to bed."

"Yeah... sure, OK. Night Kate."

"Yeah."

Kenny felt his mood darken further.

And things were no better the following morning. Kenny felt it obvious that Kate would be happier if she was able to have time to herself so, when they decided to repeat the shower arrangement, he told her he'd be gone longer, maybe a few hours. He wanted to explore the hill a little more, maybe find some of the nests of the birds they'd seen around the island as another means of expanding their food supply.

And Kate found she was glad to be alone. The less time she had to spend in Kenny's company, she felt, the easier it would be not to think about him.

When he returned after a few hours of exploring, he had a dead bird with him. Its feathers were brownish and it was the size of a small chicken.

"It just let me walk right up to it," he explained. "I guess they've never met people before."

They sat together in front of the camp fire that night. The practicalities of preparing the bird to be eaten provided a welcome distraction for both of them. Kate engineered a kind of spit over the fire to cook it while Kenny plucked and gutted the bird as best he could with the knife from the raft. And although the greyish meat was a little oily, they both agreed it was tasty and a welcome change after the overly sweet ration bars.

"Three days," Kate observed absently after a period of silence.

"Hmm?"

"It's been three fucking days. Where the fuck are they?"

"Yeah... its... it'll be OK Kate. It's a big ocean to search. I'm sure it won't be much longer," Kenny said in an effort to reassure his sister.

And Kate found she needed reassurance. It wasn't that the island was unpleasant, far from it, and she didn't particularly miss the trappings of civilization, not really. But as the days passed, she found herself getting more and more tense, even grumpy. As she lay down on her bed that night, their third in the cabin, she thought about why.

Apart from having to be alone with Kenny, which was hard enough in itself, over the previous year her body had become accustomed to certain sensations that it had now been denied for longer than it was used to. Adding the busy few days before they'd left home, what with packing and saying goodbyes and so on, to the time since the crash, Kate hadn't had sex in more than a week. In normal circumstances, in the year after that night, she might have slept with two, three or sometimes four different guys in that length of time. Not to mention her usually prolific masturbation. So she feared that, the more time passed, the harder it would be for her to avoid doing something to give her body what she felt it was craving.