Title: Engineer stranded on an island.
 
 The engineer was enjoying a relaxing cruise in the Caribbean when a hurricane
 came up suddenly and his ship sank.  He awoke to find himself washed up on
 the beach of an apparently uninhabited island.  For the next four months he
 subsisted on bananas and coconut juice while he waited to be rescued.
 
 One day, as he was gazing forlornly out to sea, a small boat came around the
 island, paddled by the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  She was tall,
 tanned, and her lustrous hair floated on the gentle sea breeze.   He called
 out and waved, and she beached the boat.
 
 In disbelief, he asked, "Where did you come from?  How did you get here"?
 
 She said, "I rowed from the other side of the island.  I was washed up on
 this island when my cruise ship sank four months ago."
 
 "Amazing", he said.  "I didn't know that anyone else had survived.  How many
 of you are there?  You were really lucky to have that rowboat wash up with
 you."
 
 "It's only me", she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash up - nothing else
 did."
 
 "Well then", said the man, "how did you get the rowboat?"
 
 "I made the rowboat out of raw materials that I found on the island," replied
 the woman.  "The oars were whittled from gum tree branches,  I wove the
 bottom from palm branches, and the sides and stern came from a eucalyptus
 tree."
 
 "But, but.....," stuttered the man, "where did you get the tools and
 hardware?"
 
 "That was no problem," replied the woman.  "On the south side of this island
 is an exposed stratum of alluvial rock.  I found that it yielded forgeable
 ductile iron when I fired it in my kiln, and I was able to make simple tools.
  But never mind that," she said,  "where do you live?"
 
 The engineer confessed that he had been sleeping on the beach.  "Well, let's
 row over to my place", she said.   So they got into the boat and rowed over
 to her side of island.
  
 She tied up the rowboat to a sturdy wharf with a beautifully woven hemp rope.
  They walked up a stone walkway and around a palm tree to an exquisite little
 bungalow painted in blue and white.
 
 "It's not much," she said, "but I call it home.  Sit down, please.  Would you
 like a drink?"
 
 "No thanks," said  the man, "I'll puke if I have to drink any more coconut
 juice."
 
 "It won't be coconut juice, the woman replied. "I have a still; how about a
 Pina Colada?" Amazed, the man accepted, and they sat down on her comfortable
 rattan couch to talk.
 
 After a while the woman asked, "Tell me, have you always had a beard?"
 
 "No", the man replied, "I was clean shaven all my life, even on the cruise
 ship".
 
 "Well if you'd like to shave, there's a razor upstairs in the bathroom
 cabinet."  The engineer, no longer questioning anything, went upstairs and
 found a razor crafted from a bone handle and two shells honed to a fine edge.
  He shaved, showered and went back downstairs..
 
 "You look great," said the woman, "I think I'll go slip into something more
 comfortable."
 
 The man happily sipped on his Pina Colada, and soon the woman returned
 wearing strategically positioned fig leaves and smelling faintly of gardenia.
 
 "Tell me," she said, "We have both been out here for a long time without
 companionship.  You must know what I mean.  Haven't you been lonely?  Isn't
 there anything that you really miss?  A basic human need?  Something that it
 would be really nice to have right now?"
 
 The engineer's eyes brightened and his nostrils flared.  "There certainly
 is," he said excitedly, moving closer and fixing her with an intense gaze.
  "Do you mean to tell me that you have an Internet connection here too?"
 
 

Wil Stark, wstark04 (at) pobox _dot_com

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