The Castaways
“I felt them on my teeth, in my nose, in the back of my throat. So I took off my shirt and tied it like a mask round my mouth. And with my lantern held high, I went down.
The fruit squelched under my bare feet, bubbling pulp between my toes. It reminded me of the first day of my adventure, when I had become glued in the foul mud of the river Thames. Now, as then, I feared that I would sink so deeply I could never get out.
But I came to a sudden and solid stop only knee-deep in the breadfruit and... coconut shells. I kicked a clearing round my legs and found a set of iron hinges. In a few minutes more I uncovered a heavy clasp and a handle, and the edges of a trapdoor. I scooped away the coconuts, kicked aside the breadfruit, then knelt down and lifted the handle.
A cascade of swollen breadfruit went plopping through the trapdoor, into the darkness below me. The flies swarmed up—or down; I couldn’t tell. They merely blackened the lantern in their thousands. They turned the air to muddy water that swirled in eddies and ripples.MoreLess
The fruit squelched under my bare feet, bubbling pulp between my toes. It reminded me of the first day of my adventure, when I had become glued in the foul mud of the river Thames. Now, as then, I feared that I would sink so deeply I could never get out.
But I came to a sudden and solid stop only knee-deep in the breadfruit and... coconut shells. I kicked a clearing round my legs and found a set of iron hinges. In a few minutes more I uncovered a heavy clasp and a handle, and the edges of a trapdoor. I scooped away the coconuts, kicked aside the breadfruit, then knelt down and lifted the handle.
A cascade of swollen breadfruit went plopping through the trapdoor, into the darkness below me. The flies swarmed up—or down; I couldn’t tell. They merely blackened the lantern in their thousands. They turned the air to muddy water that swirled in eddies and ripples.MoreLess
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