The Shining

Population 13

Last night we had an unexpected visitor.  It wouldn't seem weird to have a lost traveler turn up in the middle of the night, except WE LIVE ON AN ISLAND!!!

The night was hot and steamy. There was a storm approaching and lightning hanging in the distance.  I was the only one awake with the light on reading at 9:30pm when the stranger came along the homestead veranda yelling "hello, anyone there."  There are three other blokes sleeping in the homestead at the moment, including the owner of the island and two burly laborers who are here to pull down a shed.  They didn't stir.  Finally the stranger went to the only light he could see and was banging on my door!!!  I finally got myself up.  This rough looking blighter said he was "camping at 'the block' and was getting eaten by mosquitoes."  I thought it a likely story.  He had probably knocked off all the blokes before he came knocking on my door.  Maybe now there was just me and the two young German backpackers to run through the empty guesthouse, barricading doors and improvising weapons out of fish hooks.

I told him I was just the teacher and would take him to the owner's house around the back.  The moon was almost full as I took him, clad only in my pajamas, through the evening gloom to the house.  The light was still on.  I pointed and said "Just knock and they'll sort you out."  I slunk back into bed and huddled under my mosquito net with fear.

Somehow it seems we all survived the night without incident. I sure had some weird nightmares afterward.  You have to be a pretty intrepid soul to come camping on this island.  There are no facilities except for the Homestead which is the only inhabited structure on the huge island.  The abundance of rain this season has brought the mosquitoes out in force.  They come in clouds and bit through clothes.  Add a hot and steamy night to the mix you can bet the poor chaps had to be pretty miserable to be desperate enough to trek through the night to get to the homestead.  Now I feel sorry for them.  I shouldn’t have presumed they were axe murderers.  We gave them a lift off the island the next day.  The island had kicked their intrepid asses.