[OPS] The Secret Island Hideout

       [ OBJECTIVE ]        R&R

       0001         An eleven hour flight then a two hour taxi then a bus ride that took half of forever and now on a boat ride that’s already taken forever and a half. I see no other vessels or land while going deeper into the ocean while fighting through the tides with an old Honda Civic motor powering the boat. Just like I remember.

       0002         We hit a nameless village island and disembark. My guy refuels while I go shop / trade for supplies. I hope these good people remember me, it’s been years and strangers never come here.

       0003         Some kids who look familiar but all grown up recognizes me and greets me with a kind of kindness and friendliness you don’t see enough of now a days. They take me into the village square.

       0004         Jan, one of the only English speakers on the island tells me his friends are preparing my supplies so we can eat an early lunch while I wait. I’m not sure if we’re actually in Mexico but that is the nearest country and the food fits. A simple chicken and rice and beans made to elegant perfection. We catch up and invites me to a wedding (or their equivalent of it) tomorrow night.

       0005         All packed up on my guy’s boat and fully supplied, I give Jan and his people a case of AA batteries, a few rolls of duct tape, a couple of Gator Machetes, a half dozen bottles of Jack Daniel’s, a crate of Doritos chips and an official Brazuca soccer ball as a gift.

       0006         Not too far from the main village island but after many twists and turns through the archipelagos, I finally see my bungalow perched on that tiny bit of land.

       0007         After unloading all the gear, I pay my guy $400 in US currency and sets off. He’ll be back in 2 days with Kristanna, my uh partner(?). Until then it’s just me and my little island, well me and those wonderful islanders a half hour away, that is.

       0008         I took “possession” of this island and bungalow early in my career but with the natives’ blessing so it has become my sanctuary, safe house, hideout or in this case my vacation home. It’s an incredible pain to get to and if it wasn’t for the tropical weather, the North Pole would be easier to reach.

       0009         Jan and his people kept their word, my bungalow is in great shape. They kept it up after all these years, even the old school solar panels look functional… Time to charge my equipment. Being on a private tropical island without music is a sin.

       0010         I almost forgot, Jan’s girlfriend gave me a large hollowed out coconut with a drink inside. She told me it will make me stronger and flightier – I think something got lost in translation. It tastes like bananas and coconuts but with a potent aftertaste of something like monkey fart. But the freshy sweetness makes it worth it and it’s great with Doritos.

       0011         I don’t feel stronger but I do feel flightier, in fact, I know this exact feeling and now realize what that monkey fart taste actually was, psilocybin mushroom. That bitch dosed me with magic mushrooms, but by “bitch” I mean fantastically wonderful lady that I must thank later… This should be an interesting day. Time for tunes.

       0012         You know you’re tripping when music becomes more than audible, it becomes physical and visual. However, of all the magnificent and exotic beauty of where I am in this hidden corner of the world, the solar panels is what is most mesmerizing. Because my brain is thinking the sun is being translated into music by the panels then filtered through the wires and finally sprayed out like a lawn sprinkler from the speakers.

       0013         Lounging on my hammock, everything is perfect, serene even. Well except one thing, my watch keeps getting snagged in the hammock and then I realize that time doesn’t exist right now, not even “island time”. So I toss my watch down to the sand and hits a rock. The rock starts crawling away like a crab. Knowing I can’t trust my eyes right now, my brain decides that I can trust my iPhone camera so I take a photo of the moving rock. I look at the photo and realize it was just a crab.

       0014         That triggered the “hunter” in me so I grab my Exilis Knife and head deeper into my island for game.

       0015         I can walk the edge of my entire island in 20 minutes (slowed by some rocky sections), but now I might as well be back in the Amazon. The music starts to fade as the sounds of nature take over; leaves rustling, bugs crackling, wind breezing and the water waving. It’s suddenly so peaceful that my urge to kill evaporates as quickly as it formed… I sit.

       0016         ^#$^%$*$%&@##&%^!.

       0017         Then I feel a thought slipping through, like an invader forcing itself with no defense… Then I lose it and become a mere mortal again. My brain was curious as to what time it was, as we humans do. Ironically, my watch might as well have been a million miles away and iPhone in another dimension. I get up and move.

       0018         I reach the opposite end of my tiny island but what seems like an epic journey and rest on the warm beach. The flaming sun about to set, douses the sky alive in impossible purples, blues and reds like an organic Aurora Borealis. Entranced in this fleeting spectacle, I feel a slither of sadness that I’m not a poet or an artist to better understand this wonder.

       0019         The fireball gone and the sky a vicious violet, I lay on my back and watch our galaxy actuate.

……