Fire wasour most important resource. If it went out, there was no telling how long it would take to get it started again. Without it, we had no fresh water and no rice. Every member of the tribe realized this, so it was a smart move on Gene’s part to assign shifts throughout the night to keep it going.
I pulled a middle of the night shift with, of all people, Carl. He had barely spoken a word to me since the game began. I tried to make small talk with the man, but he didn’t have a lot to say. The long minutes of silence were excruciating. How did this man function in his everyday life?
A rustling in the bushes caught our attention.
Carl jerked forward; the look of fear on his face was palpable. I could almost see the little hairs standing up on the nape of his neck.
“What’s that?” he whispered, wide-eyed and afraid.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I offered back feebly. I was no hero, but certainly I wasn’t as freaked out as this big lug of a man seemed to be.
“If it’s a snake, I’m going to scream like a little girl. I’m just warning you.”
I laughed until I realized he was actually serious.
“You’re afraid of snakes?”
“That’s weird to you?” he asked, sounding taken aback by my question.
“Well, you just don’t look like the type of person who is afraid of anything.” He didn’t respond right away, seemingly annoyed by my reaction. In an attempt to ease the tension, I added, “And I read somewhere there are no snakes on the Cook Islands, so you can relax.”
“Really? That’s wonderful news.” He exhaled loudly, and then did the unthinkable: Carl smiled. At first I thought it was just a facial twitch caused by the stress of the situation, but when his lip turned up in the right corner and a row of teeth could be seen peeking out from below, it was unmistakable. “I’m afraid of rodents and spiders too,” he confessed.
He was making a joke.Wow. This was a major breakthrough. I laughed before commenting, “Well, damn, Carl, you are an actual human being.”
“What species did you think I was?”
“Honestly, I thought they made a whole new category just for you.”
He nodded.
“So I have to ask…is it just snakes, rodents, and spiders, or do you have issues with other creatures?”
“I pretty much run the gamut when it comes to things that scurry or slither.”
“Like how scared are we talking?”
“The type of scared where I stand on a chair if I see a mouse.”
I laughed at the mental picture of this giant of a man teetering on a chair four times too small for him.
“You’re married with kids, right?”
“Was. And I have one kid. A daughter.”
“Oh, never mind.”
“No, what? Why were you asking?”
“Did you make your wife kill the spiders when you were married?”
“I did. I’d be standing in a corner screaming for her to catch it and, at the same time, begging her not to kill it.” He shook his head as if remembering something distasteful. “It was just awful. She would ruthlessly smash out his little life like she was some callous killing machine. It really was the beginning of the end.”
“You divorced her over a spider?”
“No, that just pissed me off. We divorced because I told her I like men.”
I gaped at Carl, not sure if I’d heard him correctly. “Wait. Are you gay?”
