
A rather inhibited engineer finally splurged on a luxury cruise to
the Caribbean. It was the "craziest" thing he had ever done in his
life. Just as he was beginning to enjoy himself, a hurricane roared
upon the huge ship, capsizing it like a child"s toy. Somehow the
engineer, desperately hanging on to a life preserver, managed to wash
ashore on a secluded island.
Outside of beautiful scenery, a spring-fed pool, bananas and
coconuts, there was little else. He lost all hope and for hours on
end, sat under same palm tree. One day, after several months had
passed, a gorgeous woman in a small rowboat appeared.
"I"m from the other side of the island," she said. "Were you on the
cruise ship, too?"
"Yes, I was, " he answered. "But where did you get that rowboat?"
"Well, I whittled the oars from gum tree branches, wove the
reinforced gunnel from palm branches, and made the keel and stern
from a Eucalyptus tree."
"But, what did you use for tools?" asked the man.
"There was a very unusual strata of alluvial rock exposed on the
south side of the island. I discovered that if I fired it to a
certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into forgeable ductile
iron. Anyhow, that"s how I got the tools. But, enough of that," she
said. "Where have you been living all this time? I don"t see any
shelter."
"To be honest, I"ve just been sleeping on the beach," he said.
"Would you like to come to my place?" the woman asked. The engineer
nodded dumbly.
She expertly rowed them around to her side of the island, and tied up
the boat with a handsome strand of hand-woven hemp topped with a neat
back splice. They walked up a winding stone walk she had laid and
around a Palm tree. There stood an exquisite bungalow painted in blue
and white.
"It"s not much, but I call it home." Inside, she said, "Sit down
please; would you like to have a drink?"
"No, thanks," said the man. "One more coconut juice and I"ll throw
up!"
"It won"t be coconut juice," the woman replied. "I have a crude
still out back, so we can have authentic Pina Coladas."
Trying to hide his amazement, the man accepted the drink, and they
sat down on her couch to talk. After they had exchanged stories, the
woman asked, "Tell me, have you always had a beard?"
"No," the man replied, "I was clean shaven all of my life until I
ended up on this island."
"Well if you"d like to shave, there"s a razor upstairs in the
bathroom cabinet."
The man, no longer questioning anything, went upstairs to the
bathroom and shaved with an intricate bone-and-shell device honed
razor sharp. Next he showered-not even attempting to fathom a guess
as to how she managed to get warm water into the bathroom-and went
back downstairs. He couldn"t help but admire the masterfully carved
banister as he walked.
"You look great," said the woman. "I think I"ll go up and slip into
something more comfortable."
As she did, the man continued to sip his Pina Colada. After a short
time, the woman, smelling faintly of gardenias, returned wearing a
revealing gown fashioned out of pounded palm fronds.
"Tell me," she asked, "we"ve both been out here for a very long time
with no companionship. You know what I mean. Have you been
lonely...is there anything that you really, really miss? Something
that all men and woman need? Something that would be really nice to
have right now!"
"Yes there is!" the man replied, shucking off his shyness. "There is
something I"ve wanted to do for so long. But on this island all
alone, it was just...well, it was impossible."
"Well, it"s not impossible, any more," the woman said.
The man, practically panting in excitement, said breathlessly: "You
mean you actually figured out some way we can check our e-mail here?"