CHAPTER 26 – DINNER

When the Spanish was inside the canoe, Friday jumped out of the canoe and he pushed it along the beach.

We soon reached the place where I saved Friday. Friday helped our new guests out of the canoe. But they weren’t able to walk. We had to carry our guests to our home.

We had another problem when we reached our house. Friday’s father and the Spanish couldn’t go over the fence. I thought about the solution. I wanted to pull them over the fence. But then I realized that the cannibals were already gone. We could stay outside the fence.

We made a tent for our guests outside the fence. We prepared soft beds for them too.

When we finished this, I started cooking dinner. Friday brought some fish and we cooked the fish quickly. We had dinner together in the tent. Friday translated for me because the Spanish could speak Friday’s language.

I asked Friday to go back to the beach after the dinner. He brought back the weapons which we left in a hurry. I also asked him to bury the bodies of the killed cannibals the next day. He did as I said.

I spoke with Friday’s father the next morning. I wanted to know what he thought about the cannibals. I asked, “Will they return? Will they attack us?”

He said, “They will probably never attack us. The guns created a great shock. They couldn’t understand how we won. I heard them shout that you and Friday were spirits sent from heaven.”

I still worried that the cannibals could return. But it never happened.

When our guests were strong enough, I began to think about the journey by sea again. I asked the Spanish about his arrival on these islands. He said that he was on a ship which went to Havana. There were sixteen Europeans on Friday’s island. They were Spanish and Portuguese. He told me that the storm broke the ship near my island. They saved themselves in a boat. Now they lived with Friday’ people.

I asked the Spanish if they tried to make another sea journey. Of course, they wanted to go home, but they had no tools to build a ship. I showed the Spanish the tools which I had from the ship. He said that with my tools it was possible to build a ship.

I thought that the Spanish and Friday’s father could return to their island. They could tell other Europeans about the possibility to build a ship. Together we could go to Brazil or Havana or maybe Europe.

However, the Spanish wanted something else. He said, “It will be better if we wait for half a year. There isn’t enough food for sixteen other men on the island. We won’t have enough food to eat when we build the ship.” I agreed with him.

He and Friday’s father helped us expand the fences and fields.

We caught more goats. We increased the number of goats to 50 animals. We collected a lot of fruit. Then we dried the fruit.

We also started preparing the materials for the ship. We chose a few trees. I showed the others how to cut the trees. Then we formed them into long and thin pieces.

In half a year, we had a lot of food. We had a lot of corn. We needed more baskets and pots for the corn. We saw that the Spanish was very good at making baskets. He had a great talent. His baskets were excellent. He also used a special technique to make baskets. The technique was fast and effective. He made the baskets three times faster than me. I asked him to teach me his skill. I wasn’t as fast as him. But I was faster than before.