Lost: the Remains - chapter 12 - "Castor and Apollo"

Lost: THE REMAINS
Napoleon Park
Chapter Twelve
“Castor and Apollo”
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While the 815 Survivor's self appointed tribal leaders were busy with their adventures and exploits and excursions and safaris and treks, the rest of the group was not always sitting on a log waiting for orders. Some were loners or anti social or, in the case of Neil "Frogurt," just plain creeps. But others were making connections and forming alliances and developing a rather tight knit little community. They pitched in and built Chef Raezynski his kitchen, they took care of Jenny, they looked after each other. Genna the archer and George the trapper delivered meat and fowl. Genna kept busy with her knitting in the evening, making everything from George's nets to sweaters and caps to bags for hauling to blankets.

This required a steady supply of material. That's what Peter Castor provided. There wasn't much call on the island for supermarket managing, but somehow he had learned to take vines and reeds and immature bamboo and stalks and roots and strip them and shred them and beat them with rocks and make everything from sturdy rope to a fairly soft but strong stringy yarn. He took the fibrous plants and reeds and vines they grew in abundance and converted them to ropes, twine and yarns. He even twisted fine veiny fibers into braided threads, which were in high demand for repairing rips in clothing and tents. There was enough demand for his output that he had several volunteers fetching him bamboo and reeds and pounding rocks and so on. He even made the rough twine that Genna knitted into the sheet he used to make his tent.

Their tent. Peter Castor and Apollo Benz shared a tent. They weren't outrageous or in your face. They weren't quiet or discreet or "in the closet". They weren't the island's gay couple. They were just two guys in a tent and whatever went on here at night was their own darn business.

Genna took their rope and crocheted nets, George took the nets and set traps, Marcus or the Chef butchered and cleaned the animals and Chef Raezynski cooked and served the food that kept a couple dozen people who weren't hunters or trappers or would be survivalists from starving to death or poisoning themselves. The Chef gave nutrition lessons to warn people of what they might find in the wild that might look tempting but wasn't safe to eat, and Dr. Ranjimurtha gave lessons on which edible nuts or seeds or roots might need boiling or grinding or mashing to avoid damaging ones teeth. It was an inter-connected and inter-dependent society. It wasn't much and didn't have anything to do with going on hikes or carrying guns or pushing buttons or finding Others to be afraid of. It was just a sane and sensible way of trying to stay alive.

Of course people talk and gossip. Even in a shrinking society of 48. For example, Scott and Steve were close friends. Other than the Korean married couple, they were the only established relationship in the group - at least until Rose was reunited with Bernard. Scott and Steve were already old friends and so on the island they were constant companions of almost mythic proportions - rarely seen apart. Which, from what I hear, led some people to confuse the two. In spite of some peoples presumptions, they were not a "couple" - sometimes good friends really are "just good friends".

Peter and Apollo were among those that assumed S & S were mates, and not in the Australian slang for buddy or pirate talk "Aye, Matey" sense of the term. After the Other Man Ethan Rom murdered Scott, they reached out and befriended Steve and made an effort to include him in their work activities. They had no interest in involving him in their private lives - no three-ways or mini-orgies for them, thank you. They helped Steve through his period of mourning, despondence and loss of his best and only friend, for which he was grateful. But when Steve finally realized the nature of Peter and Apollo's special relationship and the fact that they assumed he was "one of them" it couldn't help but make him uncomfortable. He had to do something to shake off the rumors that were beginning to flurry around him and so he approached any woman sitting or eating alone or among other women at the communal meals.

Tracy was a married woman with children back in San Diego, but on the island she was alone, lonely and cold at night sleeping in her parachute nylon pup tent and wrapped in a tattered airline blanket. Steve had a better, larger tent with room for two, a wool blanket and body warmth to share. What went on between them in there at night was their own business and they didn't discuss it. But they were often seen together after that, with Tracy replacing Scott in the "Steve and..." equation. At least no one ever mistook them for one another, though one of the gossips began referring to the couple as "Stacy".