The Last of the Gouda

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Having no idea of the time of day, but a great deal of anxiety at the thought of being caught out after dark in this strange and dangerous land, the children decided to make camp on the small sandy beach. It wasn’t much bigger than the overturned mushroom boat, but they ventured into the woods and found sturdy fallen branches and propped up the riverside edge of the boat, making it into a lean-to shelter. Then they returned to the woods for firewood and soon had a cheery blaze between them and the water. Feeling thus secured from threats by land or sea, the twins shared out the last of the gouda.

They took turns washing the worst of the dried mud off themselves and drying by the fire. Another clump of dead vines spun past them and the twins plunged in after it (to Claire’s horror), dragging it back to shore. Working together they tied it into a fishing net, hoping to catch something while they slept. Their emergency tin of cheeses was not at all enough for six of them.

“Is it getting darker, or is it just the fire making it look darker?” Mirabelle asked.

Adolphus climbed the bank behind them to reconnoiter. “It’s getting dark all right.” He jumped back down, spraying sand on his exasperated sisters. “But there was never any sunset! This is a weird place. Do you think it’s Fiji or something?”

“Father’s been to Fiji,” Claire said. “He would have mentioned if there was no sun.”

“Some other remote Pacific island, then. With a volcano belching creepy swirly purple clouds.”

“No sun in the center of the earth,” Gerhardt mumbled. He was nearly asleep, lying next to Bettina, who already was.

The twins finished their net and tied rocks to the bottom for weights and wood to the top for floats. Then all four waded into the water and placed the net, then settled back by the fire to dry.

“I hope that works,” Adolphus said, “I’m already hungry.”

“I don’t know what else we’ll find to eat,” Claire said. “We don’t recognize any plants here – how will we know what’s edible?”

“The same way anyone does. When you go to a restaurant in a new country, you order what the locals order.” Mirabelle said.

“That’s fine if we could find a restaurant! We’re in the wilderness!” Adolphus said.

“We can still watch what other animals eat,” she replied.

“But we haven’t seen any animals yet,” Annabelle put in. “Only heard them. We’ll have to set a watch tomorrow, be quieter.”

“We can’t stay here, it’s too crowded. If I stretch out my feet will be in the river.”

Claire, who was nearly a head taller than her brother, ignored this. “We can’t get too far away from water, though. One may survive longer with no food than with no water.”

Mirabelle yawned, and they could not help but follow her example.

“I’ll take first watch,” Adolphus said.

Annabelle smiled. “You’ve always wanted to say that.”

“True. I always thought it would be more fun, though.”

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This story began with On Grandmothers and continues weekly. The last episode was Hand over Hand, the next episode is An Unusual Breakfast.