PULAU MATI by John L. Evans Page B

Dayah, Paolo, gather some bottles of water and dry blankets and follow us.”
    Lleyton awoke and cried out in pain as they lifted him but when they laid him in the shade he thanked them.  When Lleyton was comfortable, they went down to the beach to where Malik and a young man were lying.
    When they approached , the younger man sat up and gazed at them with foggy eyes.  He was wearing a sleeveless undershirt, dark trousers and no shoes.  He had strong looking shoulders and knotty hands that belonged to a laborer.  “Weh were own ahn etlawn, ri’?” he asked.
    Anna squinted and Melanie’s eye brows came up in puzzlement.  Paolo laughed but it had the sound of a sneer.  Gray laughed and said to the young man, “Yer sown loike me ownkle.  Air yer uh Meck?”
    A smile broke out on the young man’s face.  “Bless yer, though yer be thrashed ef yer said that en Kerry.”
    “What the hell are you two saying?” Lex asked Gray.
    “He is speaking south county Irish English but I think he is befuddled and a little Gaelic is coming through.  He asked if we were on an airplane, right.  Etlawn is Gaelic for airplane.  I said he sounded like my uncle and I asked if he was a Mick.  Then he said bless you, though you would be thrashed if you said that in Kerry.”
    The young Irishman’s eyes rolled up and Gray and Melanie caught him and let him down to his knees on the sand.  In addition to scrapes and lumps on his arms and face, the thick brown hair on the right side of his head was plastered with congealed blood covering a lump the size and shape of a fried egg.
    When the color came back to the young man’s face he said, “M e aid hurts fayrce.”
    “It should,” Gray said.  “You ’ve taken a fierce blow to the noggin.  Can we get you anything?”
    “ Aw just need ter lie doewn.”
    Gray started to ease the young man to the beach but Melanie said, “He should not lie down.  Not with a head injury like that.  We should get him up to shade.”
    Anna and Lex helped him get to his feet and walked him up to ward the big tree.
    Gray turned his attention to Malik.  The man was unconscious but breathing, although very shallowly.  Gray asked Melanie, “Have you checked him for broken bones?”
    She shook her head.  “No, we only dragged him out of the surf and checked for obstructions in his throat.”
    Grey felt along the man’s limbs and found nothing.  The man had some minor scrapes but nothing that could account for his condition.  Gray felt through the man’s hair but could find no lumps.  They removed his suit jacket and Gray unbuttoned Malik’s shirt and pulled up his undershirt.  The man’s right side was turning black and ridges showed through his skin where his right rib cage had caved in.  Gray did not think he needed to make any comment about how badly the man was injured.  When Anna and Lex returned they carried Malik up to the shade in the same manner as they had Lleyton.
    T he young Irishman was sitting up, his back against the tree and Lex asked his name.
    “ Kaygun MuckGrey,” was his reply.
    Gray verified the spelling with the young Irishman before he said to the others, “ If you saw his name spelled it would look like Keegan MacGraith.”
    That did not bring so much as a chuckle.   The ambulatory survivors seemed to be tiring from their injuries and lack of food, as was Gray, but they all looked like they were waiting for him to go on, even Paolo.  “Okay, guys, I won’t think of everything so speak up as we go along.”
    The others murmured or nodded agreement.  “The first priority is gathering bottles of water.  I saw a number floating in the debris.  It’s possible a tide might carry it all away and leave us without fresh water for the short term.  I don’t know much about how the ocean behaves.”  He glanced around for comment but only got a couple of agreeing nods.  “There may be a lot of water in a cabinet in the front section but the visibility down