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all?”
    “It’s better than nothing, kiddo.” He gave bowls to Ailsa and Lou, before continuing to speak. “The only chance we have of being rescued is to get to the other side of Agrihan. I looked at the map and chart last night. There is an abandoned air force base on the far side of the island. There might be a radio or something there we could use to call for help.”
    Lou snorted. “Jim. Ailsa’s been here for six years. Surely she’d have found it?”
    Ailsa shook her head. “First I’ve heard of it, but it‘s a big island. As I said earlier, the tribe never goes more than one day’s journey from the village. All the crops are grown locally. The hunters go out in search of meat occasionally, but the women never accompany them.”
    “What sort of animals?” Staci asked, looking nervously over her shoulder.
    “Wild boar, rabbits mainly. They set traps for them. Nasty metal ones, which they hide. We lost six villagers to them last year, but they still keep using them.”
    Lou suddenly realized that her leg no longer hurt. It ached, but it didn’t hurt anymore. “You were right about that green stuff, Ailsa.”
    “It is working?”
    “Fantastic. Heaps better than pain reliever. I can’t feel a thing. Does it work for migraine?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t get headaches at all.”
    “Lucky you.” Lou tucked the bottle into her bag. Hopefully it’d ward off any migraines she might get. She hadn’t had one in a while, which wasn’t a good sign. She would go weeks, and then have several cluster headaches which always left her drained.
    They spent the afternoon swimming in the river, as Staci said they could wash their clothes at the same time if they wore them in the water.
    Lou watched enviously from the bank as Deefer and the others splashed in the river.
    Ailsa glanced over at Lou. “Want a hand into the water? You shouldn’t have to miss out.”
    Lou looked across at Jim and then back at Ailsa. “What about my leg? If it’s infected shouldn’t I keep it dry?”
    “There are ways around that problem.” Jim mimed sawing his leg just above the knee.
    Lou poked her tongue out at him. “It’d be nice if it were possible, preferably without doing that. I don’t want to be a pirate…” She laughed. “Hey, I just thought, Captain Kirk could also be “Arrrr, Jim Lad” and find himself a parrot and an eye patch and then he’d be right at home on our desert island in the sun.”
    The others squealed with laughter.
    Jim stuck his hands on his hips and looked daggers at her.
    Ailsa elbowed him. “Jim, can you give me a hand?”
    Together they headed back over to Lou.
    Staci took Lou’s crutches.
    Jim lifted her in his arms. “You weigh a ton,” he joked. He waded into the river.
    Ailsa held Lou’s injured leg above the water.
    Jim gently lowered Lou below the surface.
    The water was wonderfully cool. Lou didn’t want to get out.
    But Jim carried her out of the water and into the sunlight to dry.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    Jim grinned. “You’re welcome. At least you won’t smell now.”
    Lou rolled her eyes. “And I thought you were my friend.”
    “Oh, I am,” he said seriously. “That’s why I hadn’t told you before.” He set her down on the river bank. “Now if you don’t mind, I have a sister I need to drown.”

6
    Lou watched the others play, her clothes steaming in the hot sunlight.
    As they all climbed out of the water to join her, the ground shook again.
    Jim frowned. “How often does this happen, Ailsa?”
    “I’ve only known it to happen once before. Nothing came of it, though.”
    “Maybe that was your disaster, Lou,” Staci said thoughtfully.
    “My what?” Lou replied, puzzled.
    “You know, the one that wiped out all those people.”
    “Oh, the pictographs in the temple? It could be. Although that said it was some kind of divine retribution. You can hardly call a volcano or earthquake that. They are an act of nature. Not an act of God. Not that I