The sun is setting by the time Karlie finishes gathering dinner. I'm sitting on the front steps of her hut, my eyes fixed on the horizon where the sun and the sea meet in an explosion of pastel colors. I hear the light sound of footsteps in the sand and turn to see Karlie returning from the rocky shores of the beach. In her hands is a rope net full of of small sand colored clams, and she's wearing a small satisfied smile as she strides up to me with her long legs.
"I hope you like seafood," she says.
Despite my growing hunger, I eye the clams skeptically. I do eat seafood, but I'm instinctively wary of anything that came directly from nature and not a five star restaurant. I mean, how do I know the meat is sanitary?
Noticing my hesitance, Karlie rolls her eyes and waves me off. "Don't worry princess, boiling these things will kill any germs that your pretty little mind of yours dream up."
I'm immediately defensive. "My 'pretty little mind' is a Harvard graduate," I retort sharply.
Karlie stops in her tracks, an eyebrow arched toward me in curiosity. Nodding in acknowledgment, she simply says "Dinner will be ready soon."
And with that, she walks a few meters to where a fire pit is set up with flames already rising up from when she lit it before.
* * *
True to her word, Karlie has dinner all fixed up in less than fifteen minutes. She calls me to the fire pit, where the clams are sitting in a pan sizzling over the fire and Karlie is close by with two mangos in her hand.
I tilt my head at the frying pan, a seemingly normal item in this world of home made appliances.
"Where did the pan come from?" I ask Karlie.
She tosses me a mango, and I catch it in midair. "It washed up after the crash," she sates.
"Crash?" I question.
She glares at me coldly, an expression I wouldn't expect from her usual innocent nature. "Why else would you expect me to be here?"
I nod my head submissively. "Right."
Karlie takes a deep breath while taking the clams off heat and onto the sand. She tips it sideways to drain the water out.
"Here," she says. "All you have to do is pry the shell off, okay? And eat your fruit."
Karlie and I squat down to settle in the sand. She pulls a jagged knife out of her waistband and starts using it to cut slivers out of her mango, popping them into her mouth one by one.
I get started on the clams, opening them and eating the soft meat inside like Karlie said to. I admit, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Very... ocean-y.
We eat in silence for a little while before Karlie speaks up.
"So how exactly did you get here?" she asks, peering at me from her mango.
I blush, avoiding her gaze. My arrival here was not very noble or graceful at all. "That beach floatie you saw?"
Karlie nods her head slowly. "Yeah?"
"I feel asleep on it." I mumble.
"For real?" she exclaims.
I nod shyly.
She stares at me blankly, taking time to process my response. "Of course you did." she mutters.
I scowl at her and she laughs lightly. "So anyone gonna miss you back home?"
