Page 260 (1/1)

One life had left thelazed with relief, was already holding their daughter Sara cut the cord, washed the little boy with a daave hi washed over him; hoished his father were here For weeks he had kept this feeling at bay Holding his son in his arer

Tears poured froirl Kate; the boy was Peter

Two months had passed Quickly the joy of the settlers’ arrival had been put aside as everyone turned to the concerns of anized, food gathered, fishing nets laid, vines harvested and trees felled for the construction of shelters The island sees were new Bananas Coconuts Huge tusked boars, nasty as hell and not to be messed with but which, when taken, provided bountiful le, less than a hundred yards fro waterfall, filled a rocky grotto ater so cold and fresh it ested that the first civic structure should be a school This seeanize their days, the children would run wild as ot to work When Caleb happened to hed "See over in uess we’ll just have to write so for the memories of their old life to recede That was, perhaps, thewas new: the food they ate, the air they breathed, the sound of the wind in the palm fronds, the rhythm of days It was as if a blade had fallen onto their lives, carving it into a time before and a time after Ghosts were alith them, the people they had lost Yet everywhere, on the beach and in the jungle, was always the sound of children

The mantle of leadership had naturally fallen to Lore At first she’d de a town? Yet the precedent had been set; that she’d been captain was hard to put aside in people’s minds, and she commanded the respect not only of the creho had served under her, but of the people she had brought safely to shore A vote was held; over her objections, which had come to seem only halfhearted, she was elected by acclaim Some discussion followed as to what her title should be; she opted for "anized a cabinet of sorts: Sara would be in charge of all medical matters; Jenny and Hollis would oversee the school; Rand and Caleb would supervise construction of all the residential structures; Jock, who’d turned out to be a fine shot with a boould organize the hunting parties; and so on

They had yet to investigate inally appeared It was decided that two scouting parties would set out, circling the mountain in opposite directions Rand led one party, Caleb the other They returned a week later, reporting that the island, rather than standing alone, was the southernmost of what appeared to be a chain Two h cliffs of the island’s northern side, with a third, perhaps, lurking in the far distance They had also found no traces of prior inhabitation That did not mean it wasn’t there; perhaps one day they would discover evidence that people had been here before But for now, the island’s unspoiled quality, its wildness and beneficence, spoke in tones of solitude

It was a hopeful tiun

--

Forwhat to do with her book The as complete, the words polished Of course, the story it told went only so far; the end was unknown to her But she had done all she could

The decision to bury it, or in some similar manner conceal it, had co supposed that eventually she would show it to other people Yet day by day the idea grew that these writings were not, in fact, for anyone still living but served a grander purpose She attributed this intuition to the saes in the first place, and to write the after Caleb’s return froreat calm Caleb and the children were still asleep Piathered her journal and shoes, and stepped outside

The first rays of daere crawling upward from the horizon Soon the settlement would awaken, but for now, Pi to you if you let it; the trick was learning to hear She stood for afor what the world was telling her this