The gunpowder is important for me. On the island, gunpowder is more useful than money or gold.

There is something else what I need very much. I need shoes. I find two pairs of shoes on board the ship. I take them with me. I put all my new things in the cave.

I make five trips to the ship. I take everything useful for me. Then I hide the canoe. Everything goes back to normal.

Time goes quickly. I often think about the men from the ship and the cannibals on the beach.

One night in March I have an interesting dream. In the dream, I see 2 canoes with cannibals who come to the beach. One of their prisoners runs away. He comes to my house. I save him. Then he becomes my friend. He helps me go through the dangerous waters around the island.

I wake up, but the dream stays in my mind. I believe that if somebody helps me, it’s possible to get away from the island. Maybe I can save one of the prisoners of the cannibals.

I decide to watch the beach more. I go every day around the beach for the next two years. I hope to see the canoes.

My wish becomes reality one afternoon. I see 5 canoes with more than thirty men on the beach. I can’t attack so many men. I have to wait. I watch them with my telescope.

The visitors make a fire. They dance around the fire. I also see two other men. They are tied.

They are prisoners.

After some time, the cannibals take one tied men to the fire. They kill the man. The cannibals paint their bodies with his blood. It’s like a theatre. But this isn’t a theatre. It’s real. It’s horrible. But I can do nothing. There are too many cannibals.

The second man is waiting on the side. When the cannibals don’t look, the second man jumps up. And he starts to run away. He is running in my direction. I run to the beach and I hide behind a tree.

I see that only two cannibals run after him. This is the right moment to save the prisoner.

The man runs fast but the cannibals are faster. They are closer and closer to him.

I prepare two guns and I’m waiting behind the tree.

CHAPTER 22 – FRIDAY

The prisoner is running directly to my tree. But he doesn’t see me. I don’t move.

Then he runs around me. I’m stil behind the tree.

When the first cannibal runs close to me, I jump from behind the tree. He is shocked. I shoot him. The second cannibal sees this. He tries to shoot an arrow at me. I have to shoot him too.

The prisoner stops when he hears the gun. He turns. He is scared.

I smile at him. I show him that it’s OK to come closer. He comes to me. He goes down to his knees. He puts his head on the ground. Then he takes my foot. He puts my foot on his head. I show him that he can stand up.

He stands up. He looks at the dead cannibals. He goes to their bodies. He looks at the holes in their bodies. He probably can’t understand why the canniblas are dead. It’s unbelievable for him.

He takes the arrows from the dead men. We take the bodies of the cannibals. We hide the bodies in the forest near. Then we go to the deeper forest.

I take the man to my cave. The cave is my secret. Nobody can find us there. I give him bread, meat and some water. He is very tired. He sleeps immediately.

I have an opportunity to look at him. I see that he is young, slim but very strong. I think that he is about 25 years old. He has long black hair, dark skin and a pleasant face.

I let him sleep and I go outside. I sit near the cave. And I watch the space around the cave. Some canniblas can come and look for us. But they don’t come.

Three hours later, the man comes out of the cave. He shows me how happy he is that he is alive and safe.

I speak to him. I give him a name. His name is Friday because it’s Friday today. I tel him my name and I teach him “yes” and “no”.

We stay in the cave at night. The next day, we go on top of the hill. I see through my telescope that the canoes are gone. We are alone on the island.

We go carefully to the beach. First, we go to the place with the bodies of the dead cannibals.

When we find them, Friday wants to eat them. I’m angry. I show to Friday that it’s not good to eat them. Here I understand that Friday is also a cannibal.

We bury the cannibals. Then we walk to the beach. What we see is horrible. There are human bones on the sand. The sand is red with blood.

We collect all the body parts. We prepare a big fire. I want to burn the body parts in the fire.

We go to my house. I make a little tent for Friday. The tent is between the two fences which are around my house.

I’m a little scared. I don’t know if Friday can hurt me.

After some time, I see that I don’t have to be scared. Friday is a very good man. He is like a son.

And I’m like a father for him. In many situations later, he shows me that he wants to give his life for me.

I’m very happy that I have Friday on the island. I begin to teach him. I teach him what he needs to know about life like a European.

First, I teach him some new words. I start with hi, helo, bye, thank you. It isn’t easy at the beginning. But I’m patient. I’m happy that I can speak to somebody.

CHAPTER 23 – CONVERSATION

I’m happy that Friday is on the island. I want to show him what I eat. I shoot a young goat.

Friday is scared of the gun. He doesn’t understand how such a smal thing can kil a goat. He doesn’t want to touch the gun.

We make a soup. When I cook the soup, Friday goes to the forest and he brings some herb. He puts the herb in the soup. The herb is similar to pepper.

The soup smells fantastic. The soup tastes fantastic too.

The next day, we cook goat meat with sauce. Again, Friday brings some herbs and also plants.

The herbs make the sauce taste great. We make a nice salad from the plants.

I teach Friday how to prepare corn and bake bread. Soon, he can bake very good bread.

Then, we make my field bigger because we want to have more corn.

In all activities, Friday helps me a lot. He can also catch fish very well. Our cooperation is simply great. We are a good team.