(This is dedicated to my own gorgeous Princess.)
The story so far:-
He had been a corporate executive for many years, but the time came for our hero to retire. Now a widower, he decided that it would be a great opportunity to take a well-earned vacation. He booked himself on a Caribbean cruise and proceeded to have the time of his life. That is until one night, as he slept peacefully - the ship sank.
Somehow, he was never able to explain how, he managed to wash up onto an island. After exploring as far as he thought a man reasonably could, he concluded that it was deserted; there were no other people, no supplies, nothing - only bananas and coconuts.
His cell phone didn't pick up a signal and the battery soon ran down anyway, so he could no longer even use it to play games. He missed contact with his friends so much - more than he would ever have dreamed possible.
A couple of times a day, he would climb a fairly high rock to look for any passing ships, but he never spotted any. One thing he'd found in his pocket was a book of matches off the ship. Having 'wasted' one to determine that - amazingly - they still worked, he wrapped them in leaves and hid them away, safely. He built a big bonfire on the top of a little rise, intending to use it as a signal fire if ever a ship came in sight.
After about four long and lonely months, he is going crazy with boredom. Lying on the beach one day, he thinks he may be going mad and his eyes are deceiving him when he notices movement out on the water. Sitting up, he stares in disbelief as the most gorgeous woman he has ever seen rows up to the shore. He runs down to the shore to meet her and asks, "Where did you come from? How did you get here?"
She replies, "I just rowed round from the other side of the island. I landed there several weeks ago when my cruise ship sank. I thought it was about time I explored the rest of the island to see if there were anything else of interest around."
"You cannot tell how pleased I am to see you!" he tells her. "And you were really so lucky to have a row boat wash up with you."
"Oh, this thing?" explains the woman. "I made the boat out of various things I found on the island. The oars were carved from branches of what I think is a gum tree. I wove together palm branches to shape the bottom, and the sides and stern came from the bark of a Eucalyptus tree. I noticed that the resin from a tree I didn't recognize baked hard when exposed to the sun. That provided for excellent waterproofing and sealing of the joints."
"But, where did you get the tools?" he queries. "It's pretty obvious to me that even a simple boat such as this would need some."
"Oh, that turned out to be no problem, at all," replied the woman. "On another part of the island, a very unusual layer of alluvial rock comes to the surface. I found that if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into ductile iron. I made my tools from that and used those tools to make the necessary hardware I required. Once I had those, the rest was pretty easy."
The guy is plainly stunned.
The woman gives a little smile. "Let's row over to my place," she says.
