Chapter 17 | Adam
Time slid by. With every lazy, sunny day, Adam and Wade stayed busy. Resource gathering never slowed or stopped, although the intensity by which they needed to hunt and fish slowed to maintenance levels. As long as they kept up basic hunting and gathering every day on a routine basis, they never experienced a panicked rush to stave off starvation. It also left them with plenty of spare time during the day.
They took advantage of that time to explore more inland. The more they grew in confidence to gather, the wider the offering of edible fruits, berries, and nuts, which helped to vary their diet.
A few berries they discovered were quite bitter to taste. Not poisonous, but certainly not pleasant and left an aftertaste that made their lips feel like they were in a permanent pucker. Wade took great delight in mixing one or two in Adam’s portions. With the ‘sour mouth’ stuck on Adam’s face, Wade took advantage and kissed Adam every chance he could.
In fact, Wade’s sense of humor began to evolve. He’d rarely laughed when they first got there. Now, he was laughing more easily and with little prompting.
Much to Adam’s consternation, he was also quite the trickster.
He lost count of the number of worms he found on his side of the bed in the evenings. Did Wade enjoy wigging Adam out with them, or was this an offering for courtship? Wade certainly kept mum on the subject, but his easy smile and affectionate touches made any annoyance at having to put worms back in their dirt jar worth it.
Right after a storm was Adam’s favorite time for scavenging. For weeks on end, they never found anything that wasn’t indigenous to the island, but they both became quite adept at taking what they found and making it serve many functions. However, right after a torrential storm, something interesting would wash up on the shore. A bicycle. Wire coat hangers all twisted together in one tangled mass. A wig.
They had a very good laugh over that one, imaging a shark swimming around with this ash blonde curly-haired wig on its head. Wade put it over a coconut and set it in the corner of their cave, carving out a mouth and eyes. With the brown husk, it looked ridiculous and a little endearing.
Adam called her Madam Hairy Mary.
A cute, intact shell almost cut Adam’s foot during one walk. When he dug it out of the sand, he was struck by the opalescent pink inside the shell half. A beautiful gift that he gave to Wade.
“I thought it would look good on a necklace,” Adam said as he handed it to him. “It just needs a hole to thread through.”
“For me?” Wade looked stunned.
“Yes, for you. Sorry about that. They were all out of rings.”
Open-mouthed, Wade just stared.
“It's a token of my feelings for you.” Of my love for you. They both knew it was there without saying the words.
With glistening eyes, Wade focused on the shell. “It's too pretty to mar with a hole, but I'll treasure it always.”
The sincerity, the tone, the facial expression all made Adam's heart swell with emotion, and he almost cried.
With the passing of time, Wade was also eager and willing to learn things that Adam knew how to do. After gathering up the materials to make baskets, Adam showed Wade how to start the base and support. Eventually, he graduated to learning how to weave the straw into the baskets themselves.
Basket making took time and practice, but Adam believed that Wade’s lopsided and misshapen baskets were the most beautiful of all. The finished product functioned well enough, but Wade’s enthusiasm with the task of making them was contagious.
Perhaps too enthusiastic when Adam discovered they'd created more baskets than they needed for their day-to-day activities.
Wade’s brilliant observation about creating a loose basket weave allowed him to fashion a trap for crabs. The crabs easily took the bait of fish guts, and every morning, they awoke to a couple of trapped crabs.
Fishing itself wasn’t a task that Adam took to easily. A very patient teacher, Wade had a point when he said Adam needed to know how to fish. Digging for worms proved more entertaining for Adam than baiting the crude and rusted iron hook that came with Mr. Bones’ legacy. It seemed cruel to thread the poor squirming worm onto the hook. Adam had to make survival choices, so he learned out of necessity because they did need to eat.
Eventually, fishing wasn’t so bad for him. Even if he didn’t hold the pole, Adam would sit next to Wade while he fished, soaking up the sun and the man’s quiet presence.
The greatest change Adam noted through the weeks and months was how much Wade opened up. Wade was never shy in asking for intimate time with Adam. Although he seemed a little hesitant at first, as if he feared Adam would reject the advances. Or as if he feared Adam wouldn't like something Wade wanted to do.
He seemed to have gotten the message. Adam was all on board for every type of sexual contact between them and more.
Being alone on an island, they had no reason for inhibitions, and every opportunity to be adventurous. Wade confessed he was always on the lookout for good new locations for sex to take place. And Adam liked that Wade was thinking about sex, planning ahead, when they weren't actually doing it.
Their favorite location was beneath two trees which had twisted and twined together over time. Wade called it Two Lovers because it was reminiscent of the two of them. Adam wished for an artistic ability because it was one image he wanted to carry with him always.
As much as Adam knew about the plants in the tropical area where they were stranded, he was bound to have a mishap. Gathering leaves for tea, he waited too late one afternoon. It was growing dark. In a rush, he harvested a leaf he shouldn’t have and spent three days suffering from severe abdominal cramps, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Wade never left his side. He gathered the cool water to hold compresses to Adam’s forehead and sat with him through the hallucinations.
When the illness finally passed and Adam’s appetite returned, Wade hunted a snake for a celebratory dinner.
It was the best dinner Adam had ever tasted.
Wade had his moments of needing his time and space alone, which Adam respected. He had them, too. Familiarity with their surroundings gave them the courage to venture further from their camp. They made a pact that they would never walk farther than it would take to return before dark.
Every so often, when the air was heavy and humid with an approaching storm, Wade would thrash in his sleep. Startled awake with an elbow to the nose, Adam learned to ease Wade onto his side, then slide against him so that Wade spooned around him. With Adam’s back to Wade’s chest, arms and legs tangled, Wade settled down to sleep through the night.
In the morning, he would apologize for having kept Adam up all night, and Adam would tell him it was no bother. The embarrassed silence never lasted long, broken with a quiet thanks for being the rock Wade depended on.
As the weeks passed, Wade’s nightmares happened less frequently.
Wade was a broken man when he first came to the island. If Adam’s presence in his life had helped ease some of that, Adam considered it the biggest reason of all that they were there.