Lost: The Remains - chapter nine - "The Archer"

Lost: THE REMAINS
Napoleon Park
Chapter Nine
“The Archer”
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It seems that Charlie the rock star and Chick the bongo player weren't the only musicians on the flight. Apparently the owner died but there was a Fender Jazzmaster bass in the salvaged luggage. It was broken and there's not much to do with a bass with a broken neck except to put it in the fire, but someone saved the strings before it was burnt.

That person was Genna Cotton, the 2nd grade teacher. People thought of her as the knitter. Whenever anyone saw her sitting on the beach she was knitting, and when she ran out of yarn she began using the twine that Pete Castor made from beaten, twisted vines. Funny how in fiction often a person will have one basic characteristic or trait. Genna was the teacher who knitted, the end. But in fact there were times when people didn't see her, and then she was in the jungle, hunting.

First she got the bass strings. Then over the next few days, as we were collecting wood for what we hoped might be a signal fire she would examine certain branches for strength and flexibility.

Then she approached John Locke and asked if he had any broken knives. He opened up that briefcase full of knives he had and gave her a couple of his least favorite ones and she started whittling. By day she knit. She'd made Jenny's bikini, and later made her a dress. She also used some of Pete's rougher, sturdier twine to make some nets. Then, in the evening, as dusk grew dark, and around the campfires, she would whittle, scraping and smoothing long branches and short ones.

She had four bass strings, so she made four bows, and at least a hundred arrows, and, using the knife blades, a couple of spears. She used metal shards from the wreckage for some of her arrowheads. She also made a few from stone, and a few using pen points from dried out pens.

So she was the teacher who knit and whittled and, eventually, hunted and brought back a number of small mammals and birds for the kitchen.

It turned out that hunting was a common interest she shared with George Benton, the construction worker. He spent most of his time building our little settlement or helping people make sturdier tent frames, but he also spent some time in the jungle contributing to the communal cook-pot. Only his specialty was trapping. He had a bit a rope that Pete made from vines and he made loop snares. He made a rabbit trap from one of Chick's wicker baskets. And he was the person that Genna "knit" a net for. There were a few good nets on the plane, and cargo webbing, but the Korean fisherman, Jin, got first crack at those.

He trapped rabbits and marmosets and a few things we really weren't sure what they were. I think he got a platypus once. Spider monkey is dry and stringy and doesn't taste like chicken, at least the way Chef Raezynski cooked it, and it's not something I'd ever want to eat again.

Locke was pretty gung ho about bringing home the boar at first, but once he moved into that hole in the ground he sort of dried up as a source of food, and Genna the archer and George the trapper and the fishermen took up a lot of that slack in the days before we discovered the Dharma food drops.

Genna Cotton was about 5'11', a bit stocky but strong looking, and a friendly woman that people were often willing to confide in. If she approached 2nd grade with the businesslike attitude she tackled knitting and hunting with, I'm sure she was an excellent teacher.

George went hunting with her a few times - she had made four bows and plenty of arrows - but it seemed to bruise his male ego that she was so much better at it than she was. After that he stuck to his trapping, but they did seem to have a friendly competition to see who could bring back the most game - a competition the rest of us benefited greatly from.

She was a handsome white woman from Missouri who was happily married with a husband back home and a teenaged daughter.
George was a large, strong, decent looking divorced black man from Detroit who actually had his own 12' x 16' shack with a rough cement foundation and solid wooden walls and a dry roof. He had a straw mattress and she had a knit blanket. They had a mutual interest in catching and eating game.
George and Jenna first met one another when Dr. Ranjimurtha asked for their assistance and they helped to save Fay's life.

And though they tried to be discrete, judging from the sounds that came from their cabin late at night, they had an active and very passionate love life.