Harmony

She awoke, feeling drowsy and disoriented. As she opened her eyes, there was momentary confusion as to where she was, followed by a view of the interior of a small passenger aircraft. It was a slightly cramped cabin, but it was reasonably luxurious and well-appointed in a mix of browns, whites and greys. Her seat was made of soft leather and was quite comfortable. The aircraft wasn’t flying and was instead on the ground. Silence surrounded her. She glanced around. There were five other people in the cabin, and six empty seats. The other passengers were all asleep in their seats. She couldn’t see any blood or twisted body positions. They seemed okay at first glance. Still, she should help them.

She undid her seat belt and stood up. As she gained her feet, she staggered a little. She was wearing a pair of hiking boots which should have given her stability, but she was still having problems balancing. She looked down at her boots for a moment, seeing the pink dress she was also wearing. Why would she ever choose such a combination? She had no recollection of owning the boots or the dress. Come to think of it, she had very little recollection of anything.

That was a concern to her. Quite a major concern. It might explain her spatial confusion and inability to balance properly. Maybe she hit her head. She felt various areas around her skull but couldn’t detect any sore spots. She didn’t have a headache and other than the disorientation, she was feeling healthy and even well-rested. How long had she been asleep? There was no way of knowing.

She needed to establish her identity, to ground herself. It would help her decide what to do next, if she knew how she’d gotten here and where she lived. She tried to summarise what she knew. Her name was Le. That was good at least, knowing her name with certainty. She knew she was of Vietnamese origin. Saigon came to her as a city she knew a lot about, once she put her mind to it. Then another place came to her: Melbourne, Australia. It even felt good to think of that city and she also knew it well. Maybe she lived there at some stage, for a good length of time? She was not in Melbourne now, though. When she thought of Vietnam there was much importance attached to it, and it was definitely her country of birth, yet something bad had happened there. Maybe it was the war. She knew about the war, in general terms. Whatever had happened, she must have left because of the war. That thought processed, she was not keen on indulging it further.

Sadly, she couldn’t remember any parents or brothers or sisters, or any friends. It bothered her more than a little that she couldn’t recall any close personal relationships at all. She also couldn’t remember the house she lived in, either now or during childhood. When she thought about it, she was reasonably sure she was a musician. She just had no memory of any specific place where she might have played or practised. The piano was her instrument of choice? Yes, she could picture a piano quite easily, with her own hands playing it. The locations in which she might have played would not come to her, no matter how hard she tried to remember them.

She was beginning to get a sense of her body, without seeing herself in a mirror. She was not very tall. Her hair was dark and long. She glanced down again at the long pink dress that reached almost to her ankles. It was a strange combination with the boots, but it material was soft and flexible, and the heavier shade of pink was quite luminous and pretty. The elasticity of the dress was such that it permitted easy movement when she walked, as she was now doing, towards the door at the front of the aircraft.

She stopped, remembering something. She was supposed to be checking on her fellow passengers and making sure they were alright. She turned around, after momentarily pausing to wonder why there was no-one in the pilot or co-pilot seats in the aircraft. They must have gone for help, but something wasn’t right with that either. There wasn’t even a note left behind or any physical sign that anyone had used the cockpit, which was quite puzzling.

Nonetheless, after turning around she now had a clearer view of the interior and could assess her situation more readily. The aircraft had initially appeared intact, however towards the back there was a significant crack in the fuselage. Sunlight was penetrating through into the cabin. There was no way this aircraft would fly again without major repairs. In any case, it was facing upwards on a sloping section of a mountainside. Not the ideal place to park an aircraft. Especially a broken one. She couldn’t see too much more from where she was. It was reasonably clear this was a crash landing. She had survived it, and hopefully so had the others.

She switched her gaze back towards her fellow passengers. Did she know any of them? She got a vague sense of importance about the group of six that she was in, but no recognition of faces or names. If she previously knew them, she’d forgotten them.

She still needed to make sure they were okay. Everyone was still in their seats with their seat belts on. From even a casual glance, they were simply asleep; not dead or injured. They were all breathing normally as far as she could tell. Two women and three men, besides her. It must have been a gentle crash landing. She needed to assess everyone for any injuries anyway, despite initial appearances. If they were all okay and only sleeping, maybe they could help her remember who she was once they woke up. They might be her friends and she’d forgotten that due to her memory loss. They might know where a passenger list was, or where the aircraft had taken off from. All of this would help.

Le moved quickly from checking the woman opposite her, on the left side of the aircraft, to the two men behind her. They were all apparently unhurt. She then checked the man and woman behind her on the right side, and they seemed fine as well. They were simply asleep in their seats. So far, so good. Now to ask for their help in solving her memory problem.

She chose to try to wake the man behind her, in the second seat on the right. She sensed he would be a nice person, although she didn’t know why she thought this. It was without any basis in logic, but it felt like a correct assessment. He was slumped a little awkwardly in his seat. She was uncomfortable with trying to wake him, but she needed help. She shook him gently.

“Mister?” she said, in English.

He fidgeted a bit. She was hopeful.

“Mister?” A little louder this time, more imploring. “Please help. I maybe hit my head. I not remember anything.” She knew her English was a work in progress, but she hoped he could understand her, if he even spoke English, that was.

There was movement elsewhere in the cabin. Others were waking up. She turned around and they were all moving. No-one seemed to be hurt at first glance, so now she wanted to find out if they could help her with her memory and also hopefully tell her what happened before the crash landing.

“Sorry for anyone wake up. I lose my memory. I not know where I am.”

“You too?” the man who she had originally tried to wake was speaking. She turned back to him. He had a kind face that also conveyed strength. His dark hair was cut short, especially on the back and the sides. His eyes were dark, almost black. He looked Middle Eastern. His accent was typical of an Arabic country, but she had absolutely no idea where. His clothes were all black.

Then his words hit home. You too? What did that mean? He hit his head as well? What was going on? Before she could voice these thoughts, someone else spoke.

“Me as well. I don’t know where I am.” The voice of a young Indian woman opposite the seat Le had been sitting in. Le glanced at her quickly. She had long dark brown curls and Le would have tried to appraise her more, but there was another voice grabbing her attention.

“I was hoping someone could help. Please?” Le turned to the man who said it. He was in the middle seat on the left-hand side of the aircraft. He was dark skinned, with his head almost completely shaved. He looked and sounded to her like he was from some part of Africa, but she had no idea where. She knew next to nothing about Africa. He was slowly turning around from the seat in front of the man she had first spoken to. The other man and the other woman were also speaking, but Le couldn’t clearly hear their words, as all of them were speaking at once. She picked up enough to know what the principal problem was: they were all afflicted with memory loss.

For Le, this was difficult to deal with. She’d woken in some sort of crashed aircraft, had amnesia and a possible head injury, and everyone else in the aircraft did too? The rush of possibilities and implications closed in on her. She wanted to say something, to respond to each of them, but she couldn’t decide who to speak to first. She was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Then a wave of calmness hit her. It seemed to strike everyone else too, because suddenly the whole aircraft was in silence. The agitated looks and fidgeting stopped at once: from everyone. It was quite curious, but no-one remarked on it.

“Look,” said the man in the seat behind where she’d been sitting; the one with the short dark hair who she’d tried to wake first. “We in aircraft crash. Everyone okay I think; not hurt. If anyone in pain, speak up right away and tell us.”

Le was much relieved, not just at the wave of unusual but pleasant thoughts that had hit her, but that this man was calmly taking control of things. His decisiveness and presence was immediately apparent by the way he spoke. Aside from those strange calming thoughts that had arrived like a cool breeze on a hot day, his gently assertive behaviour was also helping to quieten her prior anxiety.

There was a slight pause, and then he spoke again. “No-one is hurt?”

Some shook their heads, others said “no.”

“Can everyone speak English?”

Nods this time.

“Then next we say hello, one at a time, and tell what we know.”

Le liked his mix of kindness and strength. Her first impression about him was right. He spoke good English, skipping words here and there, like she did. His accent was distinctively European. Now she was thinking he might be Russian. He turned to her. “You first awake. Please tell us name and what you remember?”

She gave him an appreciative look for his strength and calmness in coordinating their problem solving. He simply nodded briefly in response, waiting for her to speak.

“My name is Le. I think I musician. I play piano, but I not remember where I learn it. I am from Vietnam and this not Vietnam, so I not know how I get here. I not live in Vietnam maybe: I live in Australia, where I learn English. We all from different country, it sound like.”

The man taking charge responded to her. “Yes, we from different places. We tell where we from, that help us.” He nodded back towards Le.

Le continued. “I lose memory too. I not have pain in my head, so I not know how it gone. Why I am in this aircraft, I not know. No pilot or co-pilot here! Aircraft broken too, not fly anymore. I see big crack over there.” She pointed behind her, where no-one seemed to have looked before. The others followed her gaze for a moment, but no-one seemed surprised at all that the aircraft was damaged. Regardless of the fuselage crack, it was hard to see how they could fly it out of this location, even with a fully intact aircraft. They needed a runway, not the side of a mountain. Then there was the fact that there was no pilot anywhere in sight.

“Thank you, Le. Yes I see big crack there.” The helpful man turned back around to the front after looking where Le had pointed and was still facilitating the introductions. He turned to the woman behind him, in the last seat on the right, and nodded at her. Le studied her before she started speaking. She was of African appearance, like the other man, with long straight hair tied up in a pony-tail. She had a pair of brown pants on and a white shirt with an attractive floral design on it. On first impressions she looked quite reserved and cautious, even a bit shaken by finding herself in this situation.

“My name is Bia. I believe I live in Havana, Cuba. I like the beach. I work in government I think – in Havana. I know English pretty well. I think I needed to be fluent because of my job. I am like Le. I do not remember anything about family or my home. I’m sad at that because I think they’d be good memories.” She bowed her head for a moment. “I hope we can all figure this out.” Le was impressed with Bia. She appeared to be at once dignified and gentle, while at the same time suppressing some discomfort at her situation. Had she fully felt the wave of calm feelings that had hit everyone in the aircraft a few minutes ago?

Nonetheless, the first man smiled for the first time and said: “Thanks Bia. I hope we can too.” He then turned to the Indian woman with the beautiful long curly hair who had been sitting in the seat opposite Le.

The woman still looked distressed, more so than the others. Nonetheless, Le could feel the situation easing as they each shared a bit about themselves. “My name is Prina,” she said. “I am from Patna, in India. I am almost sure I studied sociology and language at Patna University. I know the campus really well. I know about making clothes, too, I think. Designing them. Yes, I have lost my memory too. I can’t remember anything else. It is sad to have that happen. I am okay. I have no pain. I will try to help you all if I can.” Le was immediately struck by her calmness and unaffected presence. Le was still more than a bit bothered by her own situation, but Prina appeared to be coping well, ready to take on whatever was thrown at her. She also came across as kind and thoughtful in the way she spoke, along with a good dose of humility.

“Thanks, Prina.” The first man, whose name Le was still dying to know, was now visibly relaxing and seemingly relishing the growing ease amongst the group. The man nodded at the other African-looking man, who began to speak, brushing his right hand over his close-shaven head as he did so.

“I am Tau. I am from Botswana. I know Gabarone – the capital – quite well, but I think I am from Francistown. I don’t expect you all may know much about my country.”

Le didn’t know anything at all about it. She could only roughly guess at where it was. She appreciated Tau’s thoughtfulness in empathising with them.

“Botswana is in the southern part of Africa. It is northeast of South Africa and west of Rhodesia. We recently got independence from Britain after almost one hundred years, so English is our national language. It is a hot and dry country, and most of the country is the Kalahari Desert. I don’t remember much else beyond the facts of my country, but I know I work in a restaurant. I have a deep love of food once I put my mind to it. I like making people happy with food, I think.” Le resonated with the simple, intelligent humility of this man. She’d liked everyone so far and was expecting that to continue.

“I am Rivo,” said the next man, who had been sitting opposite her on the right of the aircraft. Le looked at him for the first time. He had a European appearance about him, or maybe he was American or something. He would say soon enough, as they were all following the same procedure. He had longish, flowing blonde hair and was wearing flared denim-looking jeans and an aqua and light blue coloured shirt, with white buttons. Somehow the term ‘rock star’ came to her, but his personality and bearing didn’t suggest he was necessarily a rock star; he just looked like one.

“I am Italian. But I speak English okay. I come from Florence. I do some work with animals. Lots of work saving and helping animals. I like walking in the mountains. Walking and seeing nice scenes. I have lost most of my memory too. I remember my work, but I do not know of my family. It bothers me. But what can I do? Why I am on the airplane with people I don’t know? Maybe I know you, maybe I don’t, but I don’t remember. I am sorry to not make sense. I will help you all too. Gratzi -” he spoke directly to the dark-haired Russian-sounding man “- I do not know your name – for taking control of this.” Rivo waved his hand around, indicating everyone, but also the crashed aircraft.

The dark-haired, Russian-sounding man was deep in thought for a moment. It was as if he’d been entirely other-focussed, and then had to uncharacteristically think of himself for a moment. “You are welcome, Rivo. My name is Rais. I remember some things. I am from Soviet Union. Not Russia. I am from Azerbaijan. I know a lot about Baku, the capital. It is on the Caspian Sea. I like being active, I think, and travelling a lot. I work in military, but I don’t like it. Soviet Air Forces; I know aircraft and flying. Not pilot; engineer. I thank you all for work with me. We stay together; we can get out of this.”

“Yes,” responded Le, glad to finally know his name. “We can. Thank you, Rais for help us talk and learn each other.” She briefly and gently put her hand on his shoulder, as if this might be her only chance to do it because he was sitting down. He looked as if he’d be tall when he stood up.

Bia was the next to speak. “Yeah, thank you Rais. I‘m more at ease now. I don’t like having no memory. I think I’m going to have trouble remembering names for a while. Please forgive me if I have to ask your name.”

Tau responded next, with a voice that conveyed a serious side, albeit tinged with kindness and warmth. “It’s okay… Bia. We will learn. It won’t take long. Let us use our names when we address each other, until we learn.”

“That sound good… Tau.” Le studied him for a moment, intrigued by his uncomplicated manner, coupled with a deep, questioning intelligence lurking beneath the surface.

“Should we all get out of the aircraft?” Rivo’s voice conveyed keenness to explore the immediate environment. He was the man who liked to walk in the mountains. He would have a plan to get them to safety. Or at least get them out of a crashed and now mostly useless aircraft. Le couldn’t agree more; it was time to get out of here.

“Sure, Rivo, let us go outside.” Rais undid his seat belt and stood up. Le looked up at him. He was tall. She turned to see what the others were doing. Rivo had already stood up and was moving towards the front of the aircraft, specifically one of the windows on the left-hand side. He was tall, too. The window he was going towards had the words “emergency exit” on it. He loosened and removed it with a little bit of effort. It opened onto the left-hand wing, which was tilted downwards slightly because of the angle of the mountainside the aircraft was resting on.

“It is okay,” he said. “I will go first. It will be a small drop down to the ground.” He turned around to Prina, who was behind him. “You follow me, Prina?”

“Yes. I will try.”

“Don’t worry, I will climb down to the ground and be there to help.”

Le heard Tau’s deep tones behind her. “Hey! Rivo?”

“Yes?”

“Is it safer for us to walk along the wing? The wing tip is touching the ground over there.”

Rivo responded without turning around. “It’s good. It’s good. We go to the wing tip.”

Rivo turn to Prina. “You wait; I will test the wing? Then you can walk after me. I fall; hurt myself, you stay here.” He grinned at her.

“Oh, don’t be silly. You will be fine.” Prina’s tone was one of amusement. Le enjoyed listening to her talk. Her voice was soft and light, and she pronounced the ‘w’ in ‘will’ almost as if it was a ‘v’.

Rivo walked out to the wing. Rais called out from behind Le.

“How does it look, Rivo?”

“Fine! I think we make it easy.”

They all exited the aircraft and walked along the wing. It was actually quite stable and secure and Le did not feel as if she might fall off and hurt herself. She was grateful Rivo had tested it first, though.

“My boot so nice! I can do anything with them!” Le was walking behind Bia, her naturally outgoing personality beginning to surface. “You have same type of boot, Bia?”

“Oh yes I do! They really are nice!” Bia appeared to be relieved to be out of the aircraft and into the sunshine. Le felt the same way. The sun was nice and warm; not harsh at all. She watched Bia approaching the end of the wing, noticing with amusement how she swayed her hips slightly before unnecessarily jumping high onto the grass. She smiled brilliantly back at Le, in much better spirits, clearly.

“Look at you! Out in sun and smiling!” Le was exuberant too.

“Oh yeah my girl! You know it. It’s all gonna be good from here.”

On the grass in front of the left-hand wing, they all gathered in a group to survey the aircraft crash site and the surrounding mountainside.

Rivo was the first to speak. “Rais, you say you know aircraft. What you think happen here?”

Le and the others turned to Rais. He was clearly already trying to analyse the scene and had started walking around to the rear section of the fuselage. The rest of the group walked with him as he talked.

“Well,” he said, “Back of aircraft; fuselage is cracked. Big crack. Not fly again. And here, look.” He was pointing behind the aircraft and walking in that direction. “Marks in the grass, long way back. Crash land but wheels down. Maybe plane run out of petrol and try to glide land. Good landing but wish I could talk to pilot.”

“Yeah, where are they?” Bia was making a statement rather than asking a question. Le certainly had no idea. Glancing around, she couldn’t see anyone else, or any sign someone else had been here. It was just the six of them. Most curious. Rais seemed like he wanted to talk some more, so they all waited, but he said nothing. Then, as Le was about to ask what he do next, he spoke again.

“I do not know how, but I was in aircraft crash. I no remember where or how. My memory not all there.” Rais was puzzled.

“In this aircraft, Rais?” asked Tau.

“No. Not this aircraft. Different one. I try to think of it more.” Rais was silent at this point. For the first time Le felt as if he lacked surety. It worried her. She’d already placed her faith in him and here he was, not knowing what to do next.

“So, what do we do now that we know this thing can’t fly out of here?” Tau was speaking behind Le. His question was directed at Rais, specifically.

“Not sure. Maybe we go back in aircraft to take things out. Water, food, clothes. We check if there is safe place to walk to. There is no fuel leak, so no chance of fire. Safe to go back in.” Rais was regaining purpose in his voice.

“Sounds like a plan.” Rivo was already heading back to the left wing to get back into the aircraft.

Prina’s spoke with concern in her voice. “Be careful Rivo?”

“Do not worry young lady, I break a leg, I still have another good one.” He grinned as he stepped back onto the left wing.

Prina briefly displayed delight in her facial expression at hearing Rivo make a joke, her glance lingering on him as she did so. She then self-consciously changed her expression back to a neutral one, so as not to give away her immediate attraction to him. It was too late, Le had spotted it, and felt joy for her. Her first impression of Rivo was of a kind, humorous, hard-working man. It was easy to like him; she could understand why Prina did.

Le gave Prina a conspiratorial glance, and was returned with a brief look of shock, quickly followed by an appreciative expression which conveyed she understood Le would keep it quiet, meant no harm, and was happy for her. It was notable to Le that detecting subtleties of communication was already easy between all of them. She tried to recall if this was how things always were, but she sadly could not remember what her previous communications with others were like.

“We help them, Prina?” Le’s tone was soft and friendly.

Prina’s was even warmer in response. “Yes, let’s do that. Thank you Le…” She paused as if she was giving too much away. “… for being so nice.”

“Aw, you welcome! You so beautiful, it easy say nice thing to you!” Le’s vibrancy of speak and word choice was a surprise even to herself.

Prina also seemed to reply without filtering. “Thank you! You’re a pretty lady too!”

They both paused for a moment, as if caught in the same reaction. They were total strangers, yet communication was so nice and so easy, so soon. Their conversation however had distracted them, and they were drifting behind the rest of the group up ahead. Le glanced back at Prina. They both hurried to catch up and get back into the aircraft.

When they got back inside, Le saw the rest of her companions at the rear of the cabin looking through the storage compartments. Tau was describing what Rivo was passing out to him.

“Another backpack… some water… a box of something…” – a conveyance line was forming, which Le and Prina joined.

Prina was last in the line and she called out: “What should I do with these things?”

Rivo called back, clearly the one in charge of this little operation: “Put it anywhere for now. We will sort it out when we finish. Gratzi, young lady.”

There was quite a good deal of equipment once it was eventually extracted from the back of the aircraft. There were boxes of vegetables and spices, some cooking equipment, eight backpacks, water containers, raincoats, extra clothing, and other sundry camping items including a light tarpaulin shelter and some rope. There was also a rough map of what might be their local area.

It was all intact except for six white cylindrical bottles. All of the bottles were either fractured or broken and had nothing in them. The bottles also had some unusual writing on them. Symbols to be precise. It may be writing, or it may not be. No writing she knew, however. No-one else recognised it either.

Rais said that the fracturing of the bottles had presumably occurred in the crash landing. There was no residue of any liquid in them, so it was difficult to guess what their purpose was. Nonetheless, they carried everything out of the aircraft and laid it on the grass in front of the left wing. At Rais’ urging, they had also detached all of the seat cushions, to use for sleeping on, he said. They left those in the aircraft.

Rais had taken charge once again. It was almost logical by now. He obviously knew what he was doing and preferred to lead. Even for all of Rivo’s proactivity, he too seemed happy to let Rais make decisions. Le for her part was happy to go along with whatever he had in mind. She happened to be sitting next to Bia while they sat in a circle on the mountainside grass around the equipment and boxes. A cool breeze had sprung up from the lower part of the valley. The scene was refreshing and peaceful. Nonetheless, they had a job to do: planning their immediate survival and getting to safety.

There was an expression on Bia’s face that Le couldn’t read. “What you think us here, Bia?”

Bia turned to face Le, her dark eyes flashing and a childlike look of excitement on her face. “Oh, you know, my girl, I love this. We’re going to camp out. It’ll be so much fun!”

“You think? I not so sure.”

“Oh, it’ll be great, you know! Where else can we go? It’s late already, the sun is setting.” It was already almost on the horizon.

“You probably right. We ask the boys what we do next.” Le tuned back in to the group as a whole. “Guys – sorry – I not listen to everything. What do we do from here?” she said.

They all stopped their discussion immediately and turned to face the three girls.

“Oh sorry, Le… and Bia and Prina.” Rivo was the first to register his contrition at not including them in their discussions. They all showed it in their faces though. They were such nice guys.

“It is okay – we trust you with plan. You have plan yes?”

“Well,” Tau spoke instead of Rais, surprising Le a little. “I’m hungry. I want to eat. I’m guessing you guys are too. I am going to cook everyone a meal.”

“…and while he do that,” Rais continued, “Rivo and I go back in aircraft and take out seats. We have tools. We sleep overnight in aircraft. Not much comfortable, but warmer than outside.”

“Awww!” Bia put on some mock disappointment. “But I wanted to sleep outside. Under the stars!”

Rais gave her a sympathetic look. “Too cold, young lady. Too cold. Even if we make fire. Which will be your job. Can you ladies collect firewood? Lots of trees and fallen wood around.”

“Oh, yes, that will be fun!” Le liked the idea. “An open fire.”

Tau again. “I will start preparing dinner, but I could use some help.”

“I can do that! I would love to help you cook!” Prina’s eagerness to perform a role in their preparations to make camp was obvious. They all went to their tasks. Le loved the cooperation amongst the group. No arguments, no dissatisfaction. Straight to it, for the good of everyone.

Le and Bia walked together. It was her opportunity to get to know her better. “So… Cuba? I not know anything your country. What you remember?”

“A reasonable amount.” Bia reflected silently for a moment. “I know we have a great leader. He is a very good man. The west does not like him, but he has been great for us Cubans. I am an African Cuban and we are in the minority, but he makes us feel like we belong as much as anyone. We feel valued. So yes, Fidel Castro is a great leader.”

“Why he so nice? Why west not like him?”

“I’m really not sure why the west don’t like him. In my knowledge, not my memories, y’know, he’s great. Cuba is doing really well. Good medicine, stable economy, all that. Everyone has a part to play. We are happy. If only I could remember what my part is.”

“Yes, I hear you.”

“But enough about me. What about your country, Le?”

“Well…” she thought for a moment, still unsure of herself. “I remember Vietnam and I remember Australia…”

“Remember?” Bia was surprised at Le’s words.

“Well, maybe wrong word. I know Vietnam but I know Melbourne too. When I think Melbourne I think good, Saigon, not good. War, you know.”

“Yes, the Vietnam war. Must have been hard for you?” Bia’s tone was uncertain.

“I not know. It a good thing I not remember. Maybe I not want to.” She reflected some more. “I like Australia; I think it good to me. When I think Australia, I think safe, I think okay for career, for happy life. You understand my word? My English not great.”

“I get you. No problemo. I am still getting my English right. I had to learn to speak it properly, working in government like I did. But yeah, Australia has no wars as far as I know. I don’t know much else though. It’s a long way from Cuba.”

“Yes, long way. You carry this?” Le had a good-sized log in her sights and was planning to hand the smaller kindling she’d been carrying over to Bia.

“Oh, sure!” Bia was so cooperative and helpful in her tone and demeanour. Le could not help but be grateful for each moment she spent walking or talking with her. Her presence was now comforting and gentle. There was nothing remotely aggressive or overbearing about her. Bia was clearly enjoying herself now and it was bringing out her true character. Le was glad her initial distress had faded.

They headed back to the aircraft. Tau kindly asked them to make a few more trips, to ensure they had enough wood to last for several hours. By the time they were done, Rivo and Rais had returned from the aircraft, proudly claiming they had six beds made and ready to go, using the seat cushions and some blankets and sleeping bags they had found in the aircraft’s stash. The dismantled seats were now out the front of the aircraft. The whole site was a bit of a mess, but Le thought their immediate comfort was more important for the time being.

Tau had found quite a bit of fresh produce in the aircraft’s cargo haul. He was preparing a vegetarian curry over the fire he and Prina had set up. The supplies even yielded a cooking pot, a paring knife and some plates and cutlery. Le guessed this flight must have been headed to some sort of camping expedition. She glanced around the campsite. Rivo and Rais were walking off in the opposite direction to where she and Bia had been collecting wood. They were heading for a small stream she hadn’t previously been aware of.

She made steps to follow them, leaving Bia in conversation with Tau and Prina at the fire. “Hey boys, wait for me!” She ran to catch up. Both men turned and gave her their full attention, their looks clearly valuing her sudden presence. What nice guys they were!

“How you go with wood?” Rais’ abbreviated phrases were still quite charming.

“Good! We have lot wood for fire. We no have axe, so I not know how we cut.”

“There are ways around that. Gratzi for getting the wood.” Rivo’s voice conveyed certainty based on prior experience. Le liked his confidence and work ethic. It made her feel safe – he would take care of what was needed, and he was happy to do so.

“What you boys do now?”

“We get more water.” Rais was kneeling at the edge the stream, container in hand.

“Oh.” She took a good look around. “I not see river before. Hey, it go down the… valley!”

“Yes. We will follow. Take us to village.” From his tone, Rais was calm and quietly confident this solution would bear fruit for them all.

“Village?” Le felt like she out of the loop and missing something.

“Yes, we look at the map and there is village down the valley. Long way; too far to go tonight. We all go tomorrow and get help.” Rais’ words were exciting to her. She had previously had in the back of her mind more than a few worries about how the heck they were supposed to get help way out here, a long way from civilisation.

“We pack as much as we can carry tonight and leave tomorrow early. Can you carry this, Le?” Rivo handed her a plastic gallon-sized container full of water.

“Yes I carry. I not see map. What does village look like?”

“Small we think,” Rivo replied, “It is only some small squares on the map, but it is a village. Let us talk more when we get back to fireplace, so everyone can hear our plan.”

“Okay!” Le was excited at what the next day would hold. She thought for a moment: a village, down the mountain somewhere. Who would they find there? Would anyone know why they all had amnesia? There was hope, then. Having no memory was by far the least fun thing about her existence right now.