A disappearing act

Fredric did not think much of it and closed his eyes to rest, his lack of energy hitting hard from the days unusually high action. The fact that the sleeping bag was a thin summer version in a flexible nylon fabric but soft lining would have made it cold, if not for the blanket on top.

After a short while watching him, Madeline started to undress down to nothing, putting her clothes out on the tent floor to dry and tried to lay next to him on the hard camping bedding.

Failing to find a spot without disturbing and not sliding off to the cold tent floor, she cradled him and laid him to rest on top of her with the blanket covering them both, Fredric who had yet to fully manage to sleep did his best to pretend undisturbed.

But as the result turned out to be them cuddling he mentioned nothing, resting his head on her generous bosom as Madeline hugged him close for warmth.

Fredric quickly drifted off in the comfort into a deep dreamless sleep, some time during the early morning Madeline had left him on the bedding without him noticing. As he woke expecting to see Madeline where he left her, he groggily looked to find her on the island only to find the boat gone. The day was brewing to be a sunny one as he looked out on the sun rising out of the waters, now feeling eerily alone in the encroaching autumn silence.

She would be gone a day tops, he convinced himself. Surely it would be quicker to the mainland without a storm, shopping incognito might be more difficult, but he trusted her to be careful and then back again before night.

He spend the day continuing to set up the camp, fixing the camping fire he found not far from the tent, collecting wood and organizing their equipment in the tent annex. The day past quickly with those chores and his mind preoccupied. It was not until late that evening that he thought to take a break as his hunger groaned.

Fredric tried his best to subdue it with what he had, which was mostly tea and a half eaten power-bar from their trek. It did help to quiet most of it down but he figured he had to try some fishing tomorrow to get breakfast.

They had brought a crank powered radio, Fredric had it in case of power outages, he thought it was a reliable way to always have a flashlight as it had one built in. He gave the crank a good spin for a couple of minutes to make sure the battery was filled with something and put it on. He tuned to a station he never listened to before, but it had music he didn’t hate and a clear signal when he was looking through the frequencies.

It did help the silence that came back again when the night was making his worry company. He sat up late waiting for her but eventually figured he would do so in the warmth of the sleeping bag under the blanket. After some time he fell asleep and the radio soon enough died out from lack of charge.