CHAPTER 19 – CANNIBALS

When I approached the footprint, I saw that the footprint was much bigger than the size of my foot. It was impossible that the footprint was mine.

I got scared again. That night I considered letting all my animals into the wild, destroying my fields and my summer house so that no mark of human habitation was left on the island. I was so afraid I couldn’t fall asleep the whole night. In the morning I finally fell asleep for a short time.

When I woke up my head was clear. Now it didn’t seem that strange that people lived on the islands around. Maybe they came to my island time to time or now the wind carried them this way for the first time. I remembered that for the fifteen years I lived on the island I didn’t meet any human being or discovered any signs of a settlement here. This calmed me down.

Still, I wanted to be safe. I made another wall around my house and left holes through which I could easily fire several guns if attacked. Now I had such a strongly protected house surrounded with walls and thick trees that no one could come near me.

I was also worried about my goats. I divided the animals and built a smaller fence in another part of the island. It took me lots of time and effort, but in the end my animals were safe from any unexpected attack.

It was the sixteenth year of my life on the island when something very sad happened. My dog died. I was crying for three days. It was my worst day on the island. I went to my goats and I told them how sad I was. They didn’t understand my words but I felt they understood me. They felt my emotions. They were unusually calm and quiet.

It was now two years after the footprint on the beach. One day as I was walking towards the beach, I thought I saw a canoe in the distance. I couldn’t be sure, so I just continued my walk. It was then that I came across something terrifying. The whole beach was covered with human remains. Skulls, hands and feet were all over the place and there was a black circle after a fire.

I was angry and scared at the same time. “They were here again,” I thought.

I was sick and threw up at the horrible sight. I went back to my house and again I considered what to do. I decided to give up going out at sea with my canoe because the cannibals could capture me. I also stopped firing guns because I feared being discovered by the sound. Every time I went out of my house I carried guns to protect myself in the case of a sudden attack.

Soon I started thinking how I could kill some of the cannibals and save their victims if I could. If that wasn’t possible, at least I could frighten them so they would never come here again.  I began looking at that side of the island where I first saw the human footprint. I wanted to find a hiding place for myself and prepare it for the attack.

Then I changed my mind and thought it was unreasonable to fight them because they didn’t do any harm to me.

WORDS FROM CHAPTER 19