Patient Blue

On the Island of Dead Whales, nine people, three adults and six children all completely naked apart from two wearing baseball caps, stood in a group, heads bowed around a shallow depression in the ground.

Trude stood with hands clasped in front of her swollen belly she was at full term now and could give birth at any time. Annie who was weeping quietly, had missed her last two periods and her breasts were feeling very tender, which she knew could only mean one thing. Her tears were being shed for both a tragic death and a new life created and growing inside her. Pete looked bereft, he felt deep sorrow and also guilt, not just for being responsible for Annie’s pregnancy, which was undoubtedly true, but for the death of Aaron who was now to be buried in the shallow depression marked by a plain drift wood cross that he had made earlier in the day.

That morning Aaron and he had taken one of their regular fishing expeditions along the shoreline, searching for shellfish and anything else edible or interesting. The previous night had been stormy and although it was now baking hot and the air very still, there was a considerable swell on the ocean and powerful white crested breakers pounded the beach.

Pete and Aaron had waded out into the surf and were close to some partly submerged rocks. Aaron, who had just turned nine, was big for his age and loved the sea which he treated as his playground. The others used to joke that he was part fish as he spent most of his day swimming and jumping waves and was always the last to leave the water. On this morning a wave larger than the others caught Aaron and knocked him off his feet, he cried out but just before Pete was able to reach him he was pulled under and submerged completely. Frantically Pete tried to find him, screaming his name and ducking his head under water to try to see him, but it was too late. The current had dragged the boy many yards offshore and by the time Pete was able to half run, half swim to him he was limp and lifeless. Pete dragged him back to shore and tried to revive him with the kiss of life and CPR which he had half learned at school but it was all to no avail, Aaron was dead.

Annie and the other children had witnessed the drowning from the entrance to the cave and reached them to try and help. All the children were hysterical crying and screaming and Annie tried desperately to revive him, but he remained limp, his colour grey, his lips blue. Aaron who had idolized Pete and whose greatest wish was to see a whale, preferably alive, though a beached corpse would do, was gone and that wish, in this life, would remain unfulfilled.

Pete lifted the stiffening body of Aaron, dressed in his favorite T shirt and shorts, and placed him gently in the shallow grave, then began covering him with sand and shingle. Annie asked him to stop as she couldn’t stand to see his uncovered face being buried like this with sand going into his eyes and mouth. She took a piece of fabric, part of an old towel rescued from the wreck of Jean Genie and placed it over his face. Pete then filled in the rest of the grave as quickly as possible. ’Shall I say some words, ’asked Pete?

‘I will, I knew him best, said Annie. I’ve known-knew Aaron all his life, from when I first saw him in hospital the day after he was born, alert and beautiful. For all of us that knew him we soon realized that he was a special boy, kind caring, intelligent and handsome. Attributes that would have meant his life would be blessed and happy. But now he’s gone and all the things that he could have become will never be. There will be no first love, no triumphs on the field of sport, no heroic moments, or children of his own. He only lived a short while but all that time I know he was happy. He loved this island, this Island of Dead Whales, he also loved all of you children and Trude, and he especially loved Pete. His death was an accident and no one is to blame for that, just a twist of fate and indifference of the god’s. Though he is no longer with us physically, he remains here in spirit watching out for us and still searching for his first whale. Rest in peace Aaron, we all loved you and will always remember you.’

Annie finished speaking and bowed her head with tears in her eyes. There was silence punctuated by sobs from all the children and also from Pete, who tried to disguise it without success. From Trude, there came a different sound, a sort of whimpering scream and she doubled over holding her belly, water ran down her legs and darkened the sand beneath her.

‘Uuggh, she’s wet herself,’ it was one of th eboys, who was pointing at Trude.

‘Hush child, please all go and play now but be very careful and stay out of the sea its dangerous and I don’t want you in there without supervision, or ending up like poor Aaron.’

‘The baby I think it’s coming,’ said Trude.

‘Can you make it to the cave?’

‘I’ll try, I’m scared’

Pete and Annie each held an arm and helped Trude up the steep hill to the cave some three hundred feet above them. It was a difficult journey, punctuated every fifty yards by Trude doubling over and groaning as a new contraction wracked her body.

‘This baby is coming soon,’ said Annie, ‘we need to get her comfortable as quickly as possible. As soon as we are back get some water boiled on the fire and I will need some scissors.’

‘Scissors?’

‘To cut the cord of course.’

‘Have you done this before?’

‘No but It’s hard wired into a woman, what to do, besides you better get used to assisting in a delivery, as you seem to have developed a habit of impregnating the islands female population. Just make sure you keep your dick away from my daughters, at least until they’re passed the age of consent, and that happens to be my consent not theirs. I’ve already caught them staring at it with something more than childish curiosity. I think you may have to start wearing shorts.’

‘Do I have to be there, for the birth I mean?’

‘Too fucking right you do mate. You were there for the shag, you’re definitely going to be there for the aftermath, and the afterbirth for that matter, which you can take away and bury later.’

‘Jesus.’

‘Jesus has sod all to do with it unless you’re trying to imply that this is all down to Immaculate Conception and fuck all to do with you?’

They settled Trude onto a soft bed of dried grass and bracken, covered with a sheet salvaged from the wreck before it had been smashed and swept away in a storm some months earlier. Jean Genie had in fact proved to be a treasure trove of useful items and a reminder of another world now seemingly lost forever. They had salvaged sheets and duvets, cushions, cutlery utensils cups, glasses, tinned food and bottled water. Some of the bottled water was now boiled and they waited for the main event.

Trude was quiet and looked at both Pete and Annie, then said, ‘I know you two have been doing it and I know Annie is pregnant but I don’t mind. We are trapped here and I think we may now never be rescued. Pete, though I like you a lot I don’t love you, so we can share you, like Mormons.Practice polygamy.’

Pete was taken aback but also relieved, he would have had to tell Trude the news at some stage, though he suspected Annie had already done that, as they had grown very close. He was though, rather crushed that Trude didn’t actually love him, but in the circumstances, being liked a lot by her would do, and the sharing polygamy part certainly had its appeal.

Annie said; ’This is all very new age and liberated Trude. I slept with Pete on two occasions, both times when I was feeling alone and vulnerable and missing John so much. As for the Mormon thing, that’s not quite the way it will work. Pete may be the man- boy, but it will be me and you who are in charge, we’ll call it girl power, the Island of Dead Whales Sisterhood. Trude, I would love you to think of me as your older sister and confidant in everything. Pete, we will think of you as our plaything and mood enhancer and you can certainly be useful as the hunter gatherer of our little ménage a trois. None of us from now on must keep any secrets from the others.

Trude is right however when she says that we may be here for a very long time I actually think forever. Something bad has happened to the world, things have broken down and I am seriously starting to wonder whether we may be some of the last human beings left alive. Procreation may now be the only way forward ,and at present there’s only one man and two hot chicks. Pete for a kid of eighteen, all of your Christmas’s, have come at once.′

’Noel, jingle bells and a ho ho ho to all that,’said Pete.

Trude, screamed and arched her back.

‘OK here we go, time to push.’

There were screams, there was shit, there was blood and then there were two healthy twin babies a boy and a girl, immediately named Adam and Eve. The first children born on the Island of Dead whales and the start of a new dynasty, born to the first King and queen of the island, the first of many that would follow.

Almost as if to celebrate the safe delivery of two healthy babies, three of the feral goats stood impassively at the cave entrance and calmly surveyed the scene. ‘Look at that said Pete, just like a bizarre mid Atlantic nativity scene, what were you saying about Immaculate Conception? All we need is three wise men and some shepherds.’ One of the goats bleated, myrrr, ‘and maybe some gold and frankincence to go with that.’

Instead they got a pack of large rats that must have numbered in the dozens, they squeaked and scampered past them and disappeared into the dark depths of the cave. Trude screamed, ‘watch out for my babies they might bite them’. Above the cave hundreds of sea birds wheeled and shrieked as if in panic.

‘What the hell is going on?’ Pete went to the cave entrance. ‘Annie come here and take a look.’ The hillside around the cave was covered with goats that had abandoned their grazing on the lower slopes and moved to higher ground. There were also numerous rabbits, now normally wary in the presence of humans and for good reason as they made up a large part of their staple diet, but they did not retreat, merely sat transfixed staring at the sea.

‘Something is not right,’ said Annie, look at the beach, its stretching for miles, the sea has withdrawn, look the kids are miles out beyond the normal low water line.′

James saw Pete and Annie at the cave entrance and waved.

‘Christ look at the horizon,’ Pete pointed, and in the far distance a shimmering white wall was approaching.

‘Children,’ screamed Annie, run come quickly run to the cave.

’At first the children looked confused, but then sensed something terrifying was approaching and they abandoned their game and began running, screaming in panic and trying to reach the sanctuary of the cave, outrun the dark and powerful deadly force that pursued them, running for their very lives.