The Island of Last Truth by Flavia Company, Laura McGloughlin Read Free Book Online Page A

movies, haven’t you?” Nelson looks scornfully at the hut built by Prendel. “Do you really think we’d get anywhere with a raft? Do you really think we wouldn’t be shipwrecked less than ten meters from here? You seriously think there’s a chance of getting out of this prison other than with a real boat?”
    â€œDo you have a better plan? Eh?”
    Souza has started to walk straight towards the woods and Prendel follows him, shouting.
    â€œEh? Do you have a better plan? Do you?”
    Souza stops, comes back, looks Prendel in the eye and says: “I’m only going to say this once. Yes, I have a plan and I will explain it to you when it suits me. I’m in charge here and that’s how it will be as long as I’m alive and I plan to stay alive for all the time it takes to get out of this hole, understand?”
    Prendel thinks it strange that Nelson has said the island is a hole. A well, yes. This means that Nelson is just as desperate as him. Prendel would attack him but he knows he is bound to lose. He realizes that he will have to come up with a plan for himself alone; first to steal Nelson’s authority, then to leave the island. Looking resigned, he asks: “OK. And how do you work out the time it will take them to forget you, your friends?”
    â€œThey’re not my friends. And I’ll know, for sure.”
    Dr. Prendel says nothing else. He observes Souza from behind; would this be a good moment to attack him? No, no, it must be well thought-out. He cannot act on impulse. He will only have one chance. And if he fails, Souza will have realized that Mathew is not prepared to obey and will not hesitate to do away with him. He sees Souza go towards the trail they have forged in the vegetation of the forest. He follows him for a moment or two. He studies his speed. Despite the limp, Nelson walks quickly, he is agile. He is wearing his shirtsleeves rolled up, the knife open in his hand and a revolver on his belt. This man saved him only to bury him alive. Incomprehensible. Maybe he’s crazy. And he might make Mathew crazy too. What conditions are necessary for a sane man to go out of his mind?
    Prendel approaches the shore. He wets his feet, hands, splashes his face. He looks towards the horizon and thinks it’s really true that for a sailor, the feeling of having arrived isn’t always tied to the fact of touching land.

PART TWO

1.
    Mathew didn’t tell me his story until we’d almost arrived at the end of our own. Seven years gave me time to see him looking lost again and again, and every one of those times I’d been on the verge of asking him to confide in me even a little of his suf­fering. I longed to know the details of what happened, I wanted to comfort him about it all, whatever it might be, but I knew it was a touchy subject and I sensed there were some experiences that he in no way wanted to relive.
    Prendel wasn’t happy at my side. He wasn’t a happy man, although he was master of his time, his decisions, his life. There was nothing that he couldn’t allow himself and what’s more, he was very generous. I never had a desire that he didn’t try to fulfill. When he gave presents, however, he appeared to be paying a debt. He seemed absent. Perhaps it was true that his father’s death had deeply disturbed him. Although he never spoke of him. He didn’t have a single photograph of him, it was as if the old man had never existed. In fact, it was as if nothing from his life before the shipwreck had existed. He didn’t mix with anyone, fled from people, wanted to be alone. With me or alone. He liked to travel. And sail, of course. He’d bought a boat and named it
Lisbon.
When he told me his story I understood why.
    He hadn’t wanted to go back to giving classes. He said he didn’t need the money and, besides, he had nothing to teach, that, on the contrary, he just needed to learn. He