An Island Unto Himself, The Novel (11) "Stay with us a few days, Sister. I have not seen you for many days. The boys can play together and we can visit." Before Tootawni could answer, Stu stepped out from behind a tree next to the trail. "Hi," he said. Yobo, Tawnawki and Tootawni all screamed in unison! Yobo slashed out with his little knife. Tawnawki covered his eyes with ten pudgy fingers and Tootawni barked orders! "Run children!" she yelled to the boys. "Run Tawndalayia!" Yobo wielded his knife making jabbing motions at Stu. "Yobo will save us!" he yelled with his most commanding voice. "I will cut out his guts!" "No, wait!" Tawni beseeched her family. She stepped between them and Stu. "This is Stu Stu! He will not hurt you! Yobo, put your knife away." "Yeah," Stu said looking over Tawni�s shoulder at her overzealous son.,"I�m kind of attached to my guts, if it�s all the same to you." "What is a Stu Stu?" Tootawni inquired of her sister. "He is a friend," Tawni answered. "He is a man!" exclaimed Tootawni. "A man on Nooki Nooki! Tawndalayia, what have you done? You know the way, men are forbidden!" Tawni tried to defend her actions. "He is not like a real man... He is a friend, like one of the women." Stu made a sound like a balloon being stuck with a pin, "Pop! Sssssssss". "What is that?" Tootawni asked. "My ego deflating," Stu said. He smiled and extended his open hand to Tawni�s sister. "Hi, I�m Stu," he said. Tootawni was skeptical and kept her distance refusing Stu�s handshake. Stu stood there with his hand out. Tawni tried to help ease the tension. "Stu Stu," she said, "this is my sister, Tootawni". Stu poured on the charm, "Sisters? Of course, I see the resemblance. Amazing that one family could produce so much beauty". Tootawni�s icy demeanor melted as she blushed red. She accepted Stu�s outstretched hand. "Pleased to meet you, Too... Toot... Two - ton - ee," Stu stuttered, struggling with her name. Everyone laughed at Stu�s mispronuciation. Everyone that is, except Yobo. He remained stone faced. Curiosity overcame fear and Tawnawki mustered enough youthful courage to tug on Stu�s shirt tail. Stu looked down to see the plump, little boy smiling up at him. Tawni introduced him. "This is my nephew, Tawnawki," she said. "Pleased to meet you Tawn... Ton... How �bout if I just call you Little Ton," Stu said. Tawnawki grinned even wider showing his approval. Stu offered his hand to the little boy. "Put �er there, Little Ton." Tawnawki grasped his hand and Stu feigned pain. "Ouch! That�s quite a grip you�ve got there Little Ton," Stu said. Tawnawki laughed. Everyone seemed to be warming up to Stu except Yobo. Stu pretended to pry Tawnawki�s grip from his hand and then extended it to Yobo. "This strapping young man must be Yobo," Stu said. "Your mother has told me..." Stu�s buttery greeting was rudely interrupted when Yobo stabbed his upturned palm with the tiny knife! Stu jerked his hand back instinctively. "Do not touch me!" Yobo said and he ran off in the direction of Tawni�s house. Tawni was shocked and embarrassed. "Yobo! You apologize!" she demanded. "Yobo, come back!" Her pleas went unanswered as Yobo vanished into the jungle. Tawni turned her attention to Stu�s hand. It wasn�t much of a wound but, there was a dot of blood from the knife prick. "Your hand, I do not know what to say. Yobo has never done anything like this before. He is a good boy," Tawni said. "It�s okay," Stu assured her. "It�s just a scratch. I guess I just take a little getting used to. He�ll warm up to me... It�s okay. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � CHAPTER 25 � As promised, Yobo and Little Ton received their overdue bath. They splashed and played loudly in a wooden tub in front of Tawni�s house. When they could manage to hold them still long enough, their mothers gave them a thorough scrubbing, much to the boys� dismay. Stu reclined on the porch, slunk back in a rattan lounge chair. He chewed on a piece of straw, a poor substitute for his depleted cigarettes. Stu didn�t realize how strong his craving was until he looked at the end of the straw. It was thoroughly mangled from the grinding of his teeth. He tossed the straw aside and pulled the brim of Tiffy�s floppy hat down over his brow. He propped his feet on the banister and crossed his legs at the ankle. Squawker was perched on the banister too, eating seeds. "I don�t think the kid likes me, Squawker," Stu confided. Squawker couldn�t resist the opportunity to persecute Stu. "Awk, smart kid," he said. Stu was getting used to Squawker�s jabs and he ignored this one. "I guess he feels like I�m a threat to his father or something." "Awk, Zuell�s a jerk." "Really?" "King jerk." Stu was pleasantly surprised. "What makes you say that?" "Awk, player, self centered. Awk, mean." "You don�t say. Anything else?" "Pulls my tailfeathers, awk." "What?! Why, I oughta kick his ass." "Awk, he�d kill you." The two, young mothers gave up trying to cleanse their offspring as their horseplay and splashing reached a frothy frenzy. Tawni and Tootawni retreated to the sanctuary of the front porch to get clear of their line of fire. "Look at them play," Tawni said. "I didn�t realize how much I missed the noise they make." Tootawni smiled in contented agreement. Stu sat upright in his rattan recliner. "So what�s up with this living arrangement?" he asked out of the blue. "Arrangement?" Tawni said. Stu elaborated, "You live here on this island, right? You and the other women and the children... and the men live on their island." "Of course," Tawni said. "Oh, of course," Stu said sarcastically. "It is the way," Tawni said. "Oh, well, that explains everything!" Stu was mocking her now. "I don�t get it," Stu said. "It has always been the way," Tawni explained. "Well, it�s a pretty wacky way if you ask me." "You know a better way?" "You bet your sweet mango, I know a better way." "How is the way in your world, Stu Stu?" "I�ll tell you how the way is. A man and a woman get married. They move in together. They raise a family and they all live in the same hut... I mean house!" "On the same island?" Tawni�s sister asked in amazement. "All the time... together?" Tawni asked herself. "Of course all the time," Stu said with pride. "Forever?" Tawni asked. "Sure, till death them do part." "And this works?" Tawni asked. "Sure, it�s a perfect system." "Always?" Tawni was insistent. "Yeah always... well, except for divorces". This was a new word to Tawni. She had no concept of divorce. "Divorce?" she asked. "You know, when a man and wife split up." "How often does this divorce happen?" Stu was not comfortable with the chink Tawni had found in the armor of his way. He struggled to defend his platform. "I don�t know, about a third of the time I guess... maybe half... or more," Stu�s voice trailed off. "Our way is better, no divorces," Tawni announced. "How did I know you were going to say that? No divorces, never?" Tawni and Tootawni shook their heads no in unison. "Not so much as a separation?" Stu asked hopefully. "Why would we?" Tawni asked. "We are already separated by miles of sea. We marry for life, one man, one woman. Our way is better." Stu felt outfoxed, defeated. Unfortunately, he was a sore loser. In a last ditch effort to prove his point, he threw a low blow. "Well, I guess someone forgot to tell ole Zuell the rules then. That wasn�t a seashell he picked up on the beach you know. I�d say the old boy�s double dippin� in the land of Nooki Nooki." Tawni abruptly slapped Stu hard on his face! Before he had recovered from the shock, Tawni ran inside crying. Stu stood up and called after her. "Tawni... I�m sorry, I didn�t mean it." Yobo lept from the tub and mounted the porch to confront Stu. "You made Mama cry!" Yobo yelled. "When my father returns he will kill you!" Yobo ran inside to console his crying mother. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � CHAPTER 26 � Stu was asleep on the beach. After the scene back at Tawni�s, he had spent the rest of the morning walking the beach, barefoot... looking for shells... thinking. He had needed to get away from the others to sort things out. But, he couldn�t get the mental picture of Tawni crying out of his head. He hated to see a woman cry, especially one as sweet as Tawni... especially when he had caused it. He found little solace in his beachcombing so, he had kicked back on the sun warmed sand to seek the consolation of a nap. He was lying on his back with his bare feet crossed at the ankles. His head rested on a dry sponge that had washed up from some distant reef. Tiffy�s floppy hat was pulled over his face. His hands were folded, resting on his stomach. They rose and fell with his steady, shallow breathing. The last thing Stu could have imagined as he drifted off was that two little children would come upon him as he slept. Especially two children that were not native islanders. They were twins, a boy and a girl, red headed with green eyes and freckled pale skin. They wore bathing suits and their exposed, fragile, white skin was already growing pink from the sun. They each wore a mischievous expression under the sun block that was slathered across their faces. The little girl carried a bucket, a toy one and the little boy carried a crab, a real one. The little boy pressed a finger to his lips motioning for his twin sister to keep quiet. Then he grinned an evil grin. The pair of red headed hellions moved around Stu�s still body to his feet and squatted down. The little boy held the crab up to one of Stu�s bare, big toes, encouraging the crustacean to pinch it. The crab didn�t cooperate so, the boy brushed the crabs pincher right up against Stu�s unprotected appendage. Still, the crab remained docile. Getting no response, the boy tried harder. He poked the crab�s pincher against Stu�s toe. The crab finally started to get irritated. He opened his pincher in anger but still didn�t strike. The twins were getting impatient so, the boy poked the crab harder against Stu�s toe. This time, the crab�s pincher and Stu�s toe both flinched and Stu curled his toes in his sleep. The twins snickered and waited for the toes to unfurl. The crab grew madder and madder. He was waving all his legs and both pinchers in the air, frantically trying to claw free. It wasn�t going to take much more prodding to get him to strike. Stu relaxed. His toes straightened. The boy poked one with the crab and the crab clamped down hard! Stu jumped upright, rudely awakened from his sleep by the sudden, agonizing pain in his big toe! "Ow!" he screamed as he came face to face with the red headed devils hunkered at his feet. The only thing that separated Stu from his persecutors was the crab dangling from his foot which was sticking up in the air between them. The boy and girl also screamed! Then the three of them broke eye contact and looked to Stu�s foot propped up in the air between them. The crab was locked on tight to his big toe. The children�s eyes grew wide in disbelief at what they had just done. Then they looked at each other and ran away shrieking and laughing at their mischievous deed. Stu gingerly pried the clamped crab from his toe, trying to get free as quickly as possible without trading a finger for the toe. "Ow, ow, ow," he whimpered as the mad crab finally turned him loose and made a dash for the surf. Then Stu jumped to his feet and hobbled after the two little brats that had assaulted him. "Wait a minute, come back here!" he demanded. The fleeing antagonists didn�t slow down. They disappeared over a dune and Stu accelerated his limping pursuit. "Where did you come..." Stu started to shout but, his question was interrupted by the unexpected answer as he topped the sandy rise. "...from?" he said, completing his question after already learning the answer. About two hundred yards on the other side of the rise, there were dozens of people on the beach and in the surf. They were enjoying various activities; sipping cool drinks, swimming, floating on inflated, canvas rafts and riding on paddle boats. A gleaming, white cruise ship was anchored off shore! � � � � � � � � � � � �
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