CHAPTER 22 – FRIDAY

I prepared two guns and I waited behind the tree. The prisoner ran directly to my tree. But he didn’t see me. I didn’t move.

Then he ran around me. I was still hidden behind the tree.

When the first cannibal ran close to me, I jumped from behind the tree. He was shocked. I shot him. The second cannibal saw this. He tried to shoot an arrow at me. I had to shoot him too.

The prisoner stopped when he heard the shots and he turned. He was scared.

I smiled at him. I showed him that it was OK to come closer. He came to me. He went down to his knees. He put his head on the ground. Then he took my foot. He put my foot on his head. I showed him to stand up.

He stood up. He looked at the dead cannibals. He went to their bodies. He looked at the holes in their bodies. He probably couldn’t understand what happened to the cannibals. It was unbelievable to him.

He took the arrows from the dead men. We took the bodies of the cannibals. We hid the bodies in the forest near. Then we went into the deeper forest.

I took the man to my cave. The cave was my secret. Nobody could find us there. I gave him bread, meat and some water. He was so tired that he fell asleep almost immediately.

I had an opportunity to look at him. I saw that he was young, slim but very strong. I thought that he was about 25 years old. He had long black hair, dark skin and a pleasant face.

I let him sleep and I went outside. I stayed near the cave and I watched for the cannibals. But they didn’t look for us.

Three hours later, the man came out of the cave. He showed me how happy he was that he was alive and safe.

I started speaking to him. I named him Friday. It was Friday when I saved his life. I told him my name and I taught him “yes” and “no”.

We stayed in the cave that night. The next day, we went on top of the hill. I saw through my telescope that the canoes were gone. We were alone on the island.

We went carefully to the beach. First we went to the place where we hid the bodies of the dead cannibals.

When we found the bodies, Friday wanted to eat the cannibals. I was angry. I showed to Friday that it wasn’t good to eat them. Here I understood that Friday was also a cannibal.

We buried the cannibals. Then we walked to the beach. What we saw was horrible. There were human bones all around. The sand was red with blood.

I asked Friday to collect all the body parts. I prepared a big fire. I decided to burn the body parts in the fire.

We went to my house. I made a little tent for Friday between the two fences which were around my house.

I took all his weapons away. I wanted to feel safe. After a while, I realized that I didn’t have to do it. Friday was a very good and honest man. He was like a child to me. I was like a father to him. In many situations later he showed me that he was willing to give his life for me.

I was very happy to have Friday on the island. I began teaching him everything what he needed to know about life like a European.

First I taught him some new words. I started with hi, hello, bye, thank you. It wasn’t easy at the beginning. But I was patient because I was happy that I could speak to somebody.

WORDS FROM CHAPTER 22