Island

"They were made to hold gorillas," Alice explained.

Monkey Business

"Gorillas?" I asked.

"This used to be a gorilla zoo," Erin said.

"Before we moved here," her sister added.

"Yeah, a long time before we moved here. We've only been on the island a couple of years."

"It'll be two years in June," Alice said.

"The gorillas were all dead before we ever got here. Long dead. Like before we were even born. This guy massacred them all. How do you like that? The same guy that brought them here."

"To save them," Alice added.

"Yeah," Erin said. "There was some sort of revolution going on some place in Africa. Like back in the sixties? And this guy was afraid all the gorillas might get killed off."

"He was a naturalist," Alice explained.

"You know, like that Gorillas in the Mist woman. Sigourney Weaver?"

"Dian Fossey," Alice said.

"Yeah," Erin said, "like that."

"He lived right here in the big house when he wasn't running around places like Africa."

"So anyway," Erin said, "he captured like a dozen of these gorillas and shipped them over here to this island. He had the cages built especially for them. Made himself a nice little private zoo."

"It wasn't really a zoo," Alice pointed out.

"Not if you wanta get technical," Erin said. "It wasn't like a public zoo. He kept the apes for himself, like pets. Then one day he slaughtered them all."

"Killed them?" I asked. "Why'd he do that?"

"Maybe he got tired of them," Alice suggested.

"Or they done him wrong," Erin said. Again, I pictured her smiling.

"Nobody knows why," Alice said.

Then Erin went on. "He must've gone nuts, or something. He chopped them all up in their cages with a machete, and then he shot himself in the head. Anyway, that's how come the cages are here."

"We weren't permitted to play in them," Alice said.

"Now we gotta live in them," Erin said.

"Who else is here?" I asked.

"In the cages, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"Connie and her mother, and Kimberly."

All of them!

I started to cry. I tried to be quiet about it, but couldn't help letting out a few little noises. Erin and Alice didn't say anything. It was like they were both sitting in their cages, listening to me.

Then something rubbed the top of my head.

I flinched.

"It's just me," Erin whispered.

Her hand gently stroked my hair, then eased down along my cheek. Petting me.

I'd started crying out of relief at the news my women were here and alive. With Erin caressing my face, though, I started crying for her, for what had been done to her.

And for myself because I'd allowed it to happen.

I'd enjoyed watching.

"It's okay," she said softly. "They're fine."

"Are not," Alice said.

"They're as fine as we are."

"You call that 'fine'?"

In a softer voice, Erin said to me, "They're really gonna be shocked. They thought you were dead, for sure. You fell off a cliff or something?"

I nodded. I tried to stop crying.

"That was after Thelma got him in the head," Alice reminded her.

"Yeah," Erin said. "Anyway, they were awfully upset about you getting killed. They thought you were the greatest."

"Me?"

"Yeah. They're gonna go nuts when they see you."

"They're in . . . some of the . . . other cages?" Even though I was getting better, I could only talk between sobs.

"Connie's in the one next to mine," Alice said. "Then's Kimberly. Billie's cage is on the other side of Kimberly's. And then the rest of 'em are empty."

I said, "Maybe I'd better . . . go over now, and . . ."

"No." Erin's hand dropped to my shoulder and squeezed it. "Don't go yet. Please? They're probably all asleep, anyway. Can't you just stay here and talk to us for a little while more? Please?"

I didn't much want to go over and see my women, anyway, until I'd completely finished the crying. Besides, I wanted to find out a lot more about what had been going on. I said, "Okay. I won't go yet."

"Thanks," Erin said.

"How long . . . when did they get here?"

"Connie and the others? About a week ago."

"This is their seventh night," Alice said.

"What about you two?" I asked.

"It's night twenty-four," Alice said.

I gasped, "What!"

"Yeah," Erin said. "Twenty-four."

"My God!"

"Wesley put us in the day he got here."

"The first time he came," Alice pointed out.

"He knew about the cages," Erin said.

"He'd read about them."

"Yeah. An article in some old National Geographic magazine, or something, and he wondered if they were still here, and could he see them."

"He said maybe he'd buy them if they were in good enough shape."

Erin's hand glided down my arm. She found my hand, and took hold of it. Then she continued with the story. "Anyhow, Alice and I were off swimming, so we weren't around when he came along. Mom and Dad had to fill us in. I guess they were showing him the cages, and all of a sudden he grabbed Mom and put a razor to her throat. So then Dad was afraid to do anything, 'cause he didn't want Mom to get her throat slashed. Wesley made them both get in cages, and locked them in. Then Alice and I got back home and he put us in cages, too."

"We could've gotten away," Alice said.

"Yeah. It would've been a cinch. There was only Wesley. He didn't have a gun or anything, either. But he said he'd kill Mom and Dad if we didn't do everything he told us."

"And he told us to get in the cages."

"So then he ended up killing them, anyhow -- only not right away."

"Maybe not Mom." Alice sounded a little offended.

"If he didn't kill her, where is she?"

I figured I knew where she was, but I kept my mouth shut.

"I don't know," Alice muttered.

For my benefit, Erin explained, "He kept Mom in one of the cages just like the rest of us. Dad, too, but they took him away a long time ago. With Mom, she was here the whole time till she got away."

"When was that?" I asked.

"A few nights ago."

"Four," Alice said. "Counting tonight."

Four. That would've been the night I hiked upstream, searched our battlefield, and found the woman at the bottom of the lagoon.

"Yeah," Erin said. "They were bringing Mom back to her cage after . . . it was her night for going to the house. She hadn't ever tried anything before. Because of us, you know? What Wesley said he'd do to us if she ever tried to escape. But she figured we didn't stand any chance unless she made a getaway. Then she could sneak back, you know? And save us. So she waited till they were trying to put her back inside her cage, and then she shoved free and made a run for it. They both went chasing after her, though. And they got her."

"Maybe they did, and maybe they didn't," Alice said.

"They got her."

"Just because they said so . . ."

"Come on, Alice. You think they would've been acting like that if they hadn't caught Mom? You know darn well."

Alice went silent.

I thought about asking more questions. What time had their mother made her break? Were they familiar with the lagoon? How far was the lagoon from here?

But I didn't have to ask.

The dead woman I'd found in the water had to be their mother. Who else could it be?

And Matt, I'd already figured out, was their father.

Wesley had made orphans out of these kids.

One of his many crimes, and one of his worst.

"Anyhow," Erin said, "back to what I was saying. The day Wesley got here? We all ended up in cages. Then he hung around for a couple of days. He never did anything to Dad, but he like . . . took turns . . . fooled around with the rest of us."

"He likes to hurt people," Alice muttered.

"He'd take us out of our cages. Just one at a time. And make us do stuff."

"Awful stuff," Alice added.

"And if we didn't do everything just right, he'd make someone else pay for it. Like he wanted me to . . . do something to him. I wouldn't. So then he put me back in my cage and took Mom out. He whipped her right in front of us, then made her do it to him. 'Cause I'd said I wouldn't."