Shipwrecked

4-Brooklyn

By the time Ryann brings back Noa I am not even halfway done with skinning and gutting the panther.
Ryann practically skips out of the brush that surrounds the outskirts of our land we have cleared around our house. She is giddier than I've seen her in a long time.
Noa on the other hand is a different story. Her face is ashen and her eyes are sad, and I swear when she sees the panther, half its guts lying on the ground beside it, she dies inside.
She immediately looks away, trying not to be too obvious that it disgusts her, but I am no fool.
Ryann looks to me and smiles, "I'm gonna go inside and get my carving knife, I'll be out in a second."
I nod to her, returning my focus to the task at hand.
Noa paces around nervously trying not to look at the blood and gore of the panther I sit there skinning.
She doesn't do well with blood, and she hates it when I kill animals.
What are we gonna do though? We have nothing else to eat besides the small amounts of fruit and edible plants we find on the island. Animals are our only option for protein. We need them.
I hear Noa sigh loudly as she glances back at me.
I try to avert my eyes from her.
She bangs her fist against a large tree's trunk when she thinks I am not looking. I see the little bits of blood appearing on her pale skin.
She wipes it off on her jeans and starts climbing the tree swiftly. I hear her weep.
I sigh and get to my feet hurrying to talk to her before Ryann gets back out, but it's too late.
"I got it," Ry says eagerly, dragging the side of her blade gently against her shirt to clean it off. She looks around, pulling on her plastic gloves that match mine.
"Where'd Noa go?" she asks.
I look up at her eyes, midnight blue like a sapphire. She seems to be begging with all the mercy she can muster.
I decide to pity her. After all, I know how it feels to be pestered by Ry. She's just one of those people who can, and will, use all and everything at her disposal to make others miserable.
She doesn't mean to, but she does.
"She went down to the stream." I lie blankly to Ryann.
"Oh," she nods, not even stopping to think about Noa for a second longer. She sits down on the log stool by the panther and glances at me, still standing at the panther's tail like an idiot.
"Come on Brooklyn, we don't have all day here, let's get this baby cut."
I stamper "Oh...uh...yea..." kneeling next to Ry.
I hover over the panther asking Ryann for her knife. I cut off a huge chunk of the panther's warm meat, handing it to her. She takes it in her hands, squishing it, excitedly, and begins to chop it into small slivers.
I swear I hear Noa shudder up in the tree.

***

When we have every possible piece of meat off of the panther's body Ryann and I drag it's empty carcass far away from our home so we don't smell it decaying as it rots.
We get home and clean up our supplies, and I try to hide the fact that I am searching for something, someone, in the process.
"What are you looking for?" Ryan asks, noticing that my eyes keep wandering to the little window above the sink, where both of us stand with our hands in the basin of water we gathered to clean with.
"Oh, nothing," I say stepping away from the sink and drying my hands on the piece of fabric we call a dish towel.
Ryann grabs the bucket and I follow her down the stairs of the porch after she looks at me like I'm insane.
She breathes in the nice, cool air and spins around in circles in the clearing.
I keep searching the trees every few seconds to see if Noa is there, but I don't see her. Where could she have gone?
"I guess Noa is still at the stream." Ryann says as if she's reading my mind.
"Yea," I agree, hoping she's made her way there by now.
"Well, I guess we should go wash our hands and empty the basin," Ry says beginning to head for the stream. I nod and follow her turning take a glance into the trees one last time.
And there Noa sits, still in the branches, fast asleep.
"Shit," I say under my breath. Thank God Ry didn't hear it.
We are about to come to the hop of the hill, the point that has the greatest view of the majority of the stream. I don't have much time.
I silently grab a knife from my pocket and send it flying through the air. My aim isn't as great as I thought it was though. The blade only misses Noa by an inch. I cover my mouth and bite my tongue to keep from screaming.
She wakes with a jolt and almost falls out of the tree. I wave my arms frantically so she notices what is about to happen and she jumps from the branches, landing on her feet like a cat.
"Hey where are you two going?" she calls just as Ryann almost reaches the top of the hill and realizes she's not at the stream like she said she would be. Or I said she would be.
Ryann looks a little confused, "How'd you get there?"
"I went around the other side to get back." she says.
It's believable, not too convincing, but believable.
"Oh," Ryann says, not sounding so sure.
Noa and I nod in agreement.