"I love to hear of it."
"I lived with them ... for how long? I really have no idea. I became almost one of them."
"Did you not want to come home ... back to your family?"
"Oddly enough I did not think of them. I seemed to be in a different world. I had forgotten my ambition to sail the seas and discover new worlds. I was contented to live their life. I fished with them; with their help I built a house for myself. I lived as they lived; and I was aware of a great contentment. It is difficult to explain. I think it had something to do with the inborn goodness of these people. I would not have believed there could be such a place in the world."
"Why did you leave it? How did you leave it?"
"At times I think there is something mystic about my experience. That is why I am reluctant to talk of it. They lived on fish and as I told you, it abounded in the seas. We spent a great deal of the days in the boats. They were primitive craft... rather like canoes. I remember the day well. The canoes held two people and we used to fish in twos. I often went with one of them whose name sounded like Wamgum. He and I were special friends. He had taught me a few words of his language and I was able to make myself understood now and then. I taught him some of my words too.
"Well Wamgum and I went out. The sun was high in the sky, blazing down on us. We had a covering of straw on our heads for protection. We did not start to fish immediately. We just paddled along and after a while allowed ourselves to drift. I remember looking back at the island, lush, green and beautiful. I sang a song of my country which always delighted them. Wamgum closed his eyes as he listened. I dozed too.
"When I awoke heavy clouds obscured the sun. It was almost dark. I awoke Wamgum in some alarm. He looked about him in dismay. The island was no longer visible. A gust of wind suddenly shook the canoe.
"Storms spring up suddenly in tropical seas. The rain started to teem down, the wind to roar. It was happening again—and this time I was in a frail canoe. We could not fight against the elements. We were overboard, clinging to the canoe. Suddenly Wamgum was no longer there. A great wave seized the canoe and broke it in half flinging it high into the air. I found myself clinging to a piece of wood. It was as it had been before. Death was close to me. I thought, This must be the end. I clung to the wood. I was able to hoist myself onto it so that I was above the water. I hung on. I was tossed and shaken and it seemed like a miracle that I was able to keep my hold on the wood.
"It could not happen again, I thought, unless I was being saved for some special purpose. This time it must be the end.
"I do not know how long I clung there. It was all happening again ... the numbness ... the consciousness slipping away ... the waiting for the sea to swallow me. I lost count of time. I did not know whether it was day or night. I could only cling to my spar and wonder whether the next gigantic wave would carry me off.
"The wind dropped suddenly. The sea was still rough but my broken piece of wood was riding the waves. The sky was bright; the sun so pitiless that I almost wished for the storm. I floated on these calm seas limp, exhausted for ... I did not know how long.
"I was picked up by a passing ship but by that time I was not sure where I was or even who I was. I remember lying in the darkness of that ship, cool drinks passing my lips. I was delirious, I think. I talked of the island.
"Gradually I began to emerge from that state. The ship's doctor came to me. He said they were bound for Rotterdam and he told me that I had come through my ordeal miraculously. Rarely could anyone have come so near to death and escaped. I was suffering from acute sunstroke, starvation and exhaustion. But I was young and strong and before the journey was completed I had completely recovered."
"What an extraordinary adventure. Suppose it hadn't happened the way it did, you would not be here now."
I looked so forlorn that he laughed. "You would never have known me so you would not have grieved for me."
"I shall never let you go on voyages without me."
"We'll go together."
"Do you still want to go, after all that happened?"
"I must go. It is my life... I feel I must go and discover new lands. Besides, I have to go back to the island."
"Could you find it?"
"It won't be easy. I talked of it to the sailors. They thought I was delirious. An island where the savages are gentle, where love and amity reign, where the fish and fruit abound to supply all their needs; where one picks up gold and uses it for cooking pots. I was indeed in delirium. And do you know, Ann Alice, there were times when I believed I might have been, that I might have imagined the whole thing. You see, I had been shipwrecked. There was no doubt of that. I was picked up by the ship and brought home. Did I live in that fantasy world when I was half-conscious in my raft? Did it exist outside my imagination?"
"But you wouldn't have been all that time on the raft?"
"The time was short. I couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks on the island. It seemed a very long time... looking back. Sunrise merging into sunset. The days seemed long. I can't be sure. Sometimes I think they are right. That is why I must go back to find that island."
"I shall come with you."
"Oh, Ann Alice, I knew you would feel as I do. I knew it the moment we met... that first day. I have made a map. I want to show you. I have placed the island where I believe it to be. I know where we had sailed. I can roughly estimate where we were when the storm struck us ... so I can't be far wrong."
"Oh yes, please show me the map."
"I will."
He put his arm round me and held me against him. Then he took my face in his hands and kissed me. We stayed thus for some minutes, our arms entwined.
Then vaguely in the distance I heard the sound of footsteps, but I wanted nothing more than to stay close to Magnus.
A voice broke in on the stillness. "I don't understand you. Why don't you do it? It's easy enough. What's happened to you? You've changed. Fallen in love with the easy life, eh? Edging out of the bargain."
It was the voice of Desmond Featherstone. It sounded harsh and angry. I had never heard that tone before. I wondered to whom he was talking. To whom could he be speaking? Only my stepmother. Surely not. I could not imagine anyone's daring to talk to her like that.
"What is it?" asked Magnus.
"I thought someone was coming. Listen."
The footsteps were dying away.
"They evidently changed their minds," said Magnus. "They have left us with this beautiful garden to ourselves."
"I think we ought to go back. I shall be missed." I sighed with reluctance. "I should like to stay here forever."
We kissed again.
"We will make plans," said Magnus. "Tomorrow I will show you the map of the island."
We went back to the house together.
So here I sit in my bedroom with my journal before me. I am so glad I started to write it. I want to capture every moment of this night and hold it forever. It is the happiest night of my life.
While I am thinking of it, though, every now and then I hear Desmond Featherstone's voice intruding. It spoils the perfection of the night. I wonder what he meant. It is there puzzling me, forcing its way into my happiness... bringing a faintly unpleasant whiff into perfection.