Graham brought me to see the photovoltaic panels that provide the
research station with power, and the tanks for collecting rain to supply it
with water. The tanks were mounted on a platform, and from it we could
look over the tops of the island’s trees. According to my very rough
calculations, these numbered around five hundred. They seemed to be
growing directly out of the rubble, like flagpoles. Just beyond the edge of
the platform, Graham pointed out a bridled tern that was pecking at a
black noddy chick. Soon, the chick was dead. “She won’t eat him,” he
predicted, and he was right. The bridled tern walked away from the chick,
who shortly thereafter was consumed by a gull. Graham was
philosophical about the episode, versions of which he had obviously seen
many times; it would keep the island’s bird population from outstripping
its resources.
That night was the first night of Hanukkah. For the holiday, someone
had crafted a menorah out of a tree branch and strapped two candles onto
it with duct tape. Lighted out on the beach, the makeshift menorah sent
shadows skittering across the rubble. Dinner that evening was kangaroo
meat, which I found surprisingly tasty, but which, the Israelis noted, was
distinctly not kosher.
Later, I set out for DK-13 with a postdoc named Kenny Schneider. By
this point, the tides had crept forward by more than two hours, so
Schneider and I were scheduled to arrive at the site a few minutes before
midnight. Schneider had made the journey before but still hadn’t quite
mastered the workings of the GPS unit. About halfway there, we found
that we had wandered off the prescribed route. The water was soon up to
our chests. This made walking that much slower and more difficult, and
the tide was now coming in. A variety of anxious thoughts ran through
my mind. Would we be able to swim back to the station? Would we even
be able to figure out the right direction to swim in? Would we finally settle
the Fiji question?
Long after we were supposed to, Schneider and I spotted the yellow
buoy of DK-13. We filled the sampling bottles and headed back. I was
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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