"Boy, Girl, Man, Woman" (closed)

[PennySaver]

"Boy, Girl, Man, Woman"

Closed​

Clara was enjoying playing in the surf, as she had nearly every day of her 14 years on the island, when she looked down the sand and saw a sight that was both terrifying and exciting: a motor boat beached high on the sand and a person jumping out of it ... looking directly her way.

She froze in shock and fear. It had been over 5 years since the now 19 year old had seen another People and twice that since she'd seen a male of the species. She'd thought she would never see another People again. She'd missed People, and yet she was now trembling deep to her core at the thought of having an unknown People in Paradise.

Momma had been the last People living in Paradise with Clara. She'd died after being sick for a long time. Before her had died Kendall, Sarah, The Imp, Daddy, Mister Evans, The Toad, and so many others. Clara was the last of the survivors of the SS Freedom, a 69 foot sailing vessel that had been taking a group of 16 to a small island on which they'd planned to establish a new community where they would live a simple but happy life.

Instead, the Freedom had been caught in a cyclone that had pushed it hundreds of miles off course. Disabled, adrift, and without communications for 9 days, the boat was finally pushed onto the hull-ripping rocks of the tiny island that Hanna had always known as Paradise.

Life had been hard in the beginning. Some didn't want to believe rescue wasn't imminent and refused to consider and contemplate that this was where they would live out their lives. But with Daddy as leader -- dictator would be a better word if Clara knew it -- they'd settled on the distribution of resources, assignment of labor, the making and enforcing of Laws, and other important topics.

The group had survived and at times even thrived on the little aisle that could easily fit within the playing area of a professional football stadium. They'd been able to grow many of the plant species seeds they'd brought with them; space had been very limited and ingenious ways of growing upwards not outward had had to be devised. They had chickens, ducks, and goats, too. There weren't enough trees to build daily fires, so most of the animal meat had been cut thin and dried under the sun. There had been pigs when Clara was a little girl but -- unknown to her -- they had been slaughtered because they simply did too much damage to the fragile habitat upon which the humans, other animals, and plant life depended. And they fished, harvested shell fish, and collected bird eggs, too.

Although there had been men and boys, Clara hadn't seen a male since she was 9 years old. And now one was walking directly at her in clothing that was so unfamiliar to her. He stopped some twenty feet or so from Clara, and she simply studied him for a long moment as he seemed to be studying her as well.

She finally asked the first question that came to her mind. "Are you a boy?"