Oliver Benjamin
“Tree, have you ever had a family?”
He looked wistful. “Oh, yeah,” he replied.
“Kids?”
“Yeah, one. She should be twelve by now. Haven’t seen her in six
years.”
“You miss her a lot?”
He bit his lip and replied: “If there was one thing I could have in
the world besides all this, it would be to be able to see my daughter
again. That will probably never happen, though. All I’ve got left are
my life and this ugly creature to my left. Someday they may take Sid
away from me, but they’ll never take this life. This is entirely under
my jurisdiction.” He smiled, “I will probably die here.”
“Maybe this would be a good place for me to straighten myself
out. This side of the island is huge—you’d never see me, unless you
wanted to. Maybe a little solitude is what I need to clear my head
after all.”
“No Jake. You can’t live here.”
“I understand,” I sighed, “You want it for yourself.”
“No. It’s not that. It’s just that no one can show you your path.
You have to stumble onto it yourself. And it will normally show itself
to you in the most unlikely of places.”
“This is a pretty unlikely place,” I said.
“But it’s my unlikely place. I found it by accident. You have to
find yours by accident too.”
“Accidents are how people get hurt,” I said.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he replied.
“Anyway, enough of that—let’s ride the wild surf!”
“Tree, there’s no wild surf anywhere around here. I haven’t seen
a wave in weeks.”
“Exactly! That means we have to lie in the water and wait for
some to show up! Hop to it grasshopper!” He jumped up and ran
frantically down to the water, letting one foot pound the shore to
send his body arching up into the air, only to come down in a
spectacular back-flop in the shallow water. His figure remained
motionless in the sea, arms and legs outstretched like some sort of
giant alien starfish that had plummeted to earth. I sat peacefully on
the sand and tried to figure out how to play the harmonica.
Somewhere, off in the distance, a monkey farted.
“Ahh,” I said to myself, “All things considered, this wouldn’t be
a bad place to die.”
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