Alexandra sat in the sand stripping the bark of the branch. She had kept the twigs she had taken off; you never know what you might be able to use them for.

“Do you think the branch is strong enough for fishing?”

Kami asked her. When Oliver had taken off the bandages, he had put them in the cooking pot. The cooking pot, as small as it was, was filled to the brim now. One of the pots was filled with the berries, the other one was filled with boiled out bandages and one was still empty. Kami had taken the empty pot and had sat down next to Alex; who had been too embarrassed to say anything to anyone.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what else to use it for.”

Kami looked at the branch. It had to be at least 6 feet long, if not more.

“Can’t we use it to hang the cooking pots over the fire? I don’t think letting them stay on the stone is such a good idea. We can build something to hang them over the fire. You know, like the things they had in old fireplaces.”

Alexandra looked at Kami and smiled.

“Good idea! If we had a kettle, we could totally be three witches hahaha.”

The new idea seemed to have lifted Alexandra’s spirits. Alex looked at the branch and slipped the last cooking pot over it. Kami took the other end and they moved away from each other. The branch seemed strong enough to carry the weight.

“How do we make sure the branch doesn’t burn?”

Jamie asked, as he watched the two girls smiling brilliantly. Kami looked at him and smiled.

“We just keep the fire down. We dig a hole to put the fire in, so it won’t get out of hand too much and then we can make a contraption to put the cooking pot over the fire.”

Jamie smiled back at her and looked at Oliver.

“How’s about you and me think of something smart to build?”

Oliver smiled back at him and grabbed pen and paper from a backpack.

“I can totally think of things to make. We just need bamboo for it.”

Alexandra shook her head.

“No, no bamboo! If bamboo catches fire, it could explode. I don’t want that to happen with us in proximity.”

Oliver made a little O with his mouth and looked at Jamie. Jamie shrugged.

“I didn’t know either. I think we’re pretty fortunate to have these girls here. Alex, how do you know these things?”

Alexandra smiled and scratched her head.

“Unlike some people, I always imagined being stranded on an island, so I researched it. I read a survival guide once and I only remembered certain things. Like with bamboo. You can eat the young shoots, it can give you water, but when you use it as fuel for a fire, toxic fumes will rise and it will explode at one point. Let’s just keep the bamboo for a house and furniture.”

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