Eroda Sunshine

Fed up

Any more of this kind of talk would be borrowing trouble, mused Louis.

"We need more coconut," Louis said for lack of anything else to say, and before Harry could pursue the subject further.

"Oh no! No, you don't!" Harry retorted.

Louis slipped him a surprised glance. Harry wasn't the type to give orders.

"What do you mean?" Louis asked.

"I don't want to watch you nearly kill yourself again!" Harry protested.

"But I didn't did I?"

"No, but it scared the shit outta me!"

So now Harry was cussing. I've been a really bad influence, thought Louis.

"I have to do it. We need a variety of vitamins and minerals in our diet. Coconut has a lot of good nutrition. It has fiber, and it boosts your immunity."

"But we won't die without it, yeah?"

"Probably not. There are bananas and sweet potatoes too. Sweet potatoes have a lot of good stuff in them."

"Really? Why haven't we been eatin' them then?"

Louis cleared his throat. "They're a little further away than the other things we've been eatin.' Takes a while to get there and then get back. Kinda a pain in the ass."

"I think we should go find 'em, and along with berries and pineapple, we shouldn't need coconut too. Am I right?"

Louis shrugged. "I guess not. Banana trees are also shorter than coconut trees. Still, there don't seem to be any dwarf varieties on this island, at least not that I found. The ones that grow here get twenty to thirty feet tall. But coconut trees get sixty to eighty feet tall."

Harry looked distressed. "You could fall outta banana trees too. I was hopin' they'd be shorter. I really, really love bananas."

"Right. Then let's give up coconuts and go for bananas. At least there would be less height to fall from."

Äs if that makes me feel any better. You remember how you said you didn't want to lose me?"

Louis nodded uncomfortably, trying with all his might not to show how awkward this made him feel.

"Well, I don't wanna lose you just as much as you don't wanna lose me. But we've already been over that. Now where are those trees?" Yes, they'd said these words before, but they seemed so much more significant right now, for some reason. Harry just carried on as if he hadn't just proclaimed how important Louis was to him. Louis shook his head. Trying to figure Harry out was a losing battle.

Ïts too late today, but maybe tomorrow I can take you to where they are."

Harry nodded eagerly without even asking exactly how far it was or how long it would take. Louis realized then that Harry had a major addiction to bananas. Either that, or he couldn't stand the thought of Louis falling the greater distance from a coconut tree. Damned if he knew which it really was though.

"Why didn't the hurricane take the hut and us out?" asked Harry.

Louis ran the side of his hand along his beard-roughened jawline.

"I've asked meself the same question. There's sommat weird about this island."

"I know. Catchin' fish with our bare hands can't be normal," Harry mused.

"I've also avoided disaster the entire time I've been here. It's as if . . . oh, never mind."

"Please don't keep doin' that," Harry implored. "You start to tell me sommat, and then you . . . disengage. Like you don't think I can take it."