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It had been almost three months on the island. Almost two months since Rachel lost her hand. Almost one since the last of them had given up hope.
They had held out as long as they could, Shelby insisting that low morale would be their downfall, but it was hard. There hadn’t been a day without tears for two full months now, and they were all feeling the effects of the malnutrition and sun damage. It was exhausting. Some of them still tried to make the others believe, but none of their hearts were really in it. Though they now had a consistent supply of food and water, they were fresh out of hope.
That was probably what spurred on this night’s group activity. Campfire activities were something Shelby had put into place a few weeks ago, when things had started to get really bad. So far, they had played a total of 47 Uno games (Fatin had the most wins at eleven; followed by Toni with eight; Shelby with seven; a three way tie at six between Rachel, Dot, and Nora; Martha with one win and Leah with zero), nine rounds of various party games, and two nights worth of branch sword fighting. Tonight's activity was suggested, to everyone’s surprise, by Rachel. Initially, Rachel had fought against campfire activity nights, and had refused to participate in the first eight rounds of Uno, only joining when Toni looked to be on path to become the true Uno victor. Rachel, who according to Nora loved movie nights back home, had suggested a game she learned at a diving competition one year.
The game was simple. Describe a movie as badly as you can, and whoever correctly guesses the movie wins a point. The person with the most points at the end of fifteen rounds gets to pick the movie the rest of the group has to watch. Obviously, the last rule was useless, but they agreed that whoever won the game got to swap chores with whoever they wanted to the next day. Since Rachel was the one to suggest the game, she was the one to go first.
“Ok, so the plot is- shut the fuck up Toni- the plot is that a hundred year old traditional ceremony about children killing eachother is upended by two teens and some blueberries.” Rachel barely got through the sentence without laughing, and her explanation was way too obvious, but it was one of the first smiles they’d seen her crack in weeks, and none of them were going to spoil it.
Fatin was the first to speak. “Hunger Games. Obviously. Now how does this work, do I go next?” Rachel nodded, a smile still dancing on her face, and Fatin seemed to think for a moment before deciding on something. “Alright. Ok, so, in this movie there are a bunch of people trying to get to America on a ship with a really rich lady and a stowaway who fall in love because they stop each other from committing suicide.” Toni blurts out the answer before Fatin even had a chance to take a breath.
“Titanic!” Everyone turns to her, surprised at the speed with which Toni answered. “What? It’s a good movie!” Shelby was the only to giggle, none of the rest of them daring to. “My movie is about a guy who goes to a planet to try and colonize it but ends up being thwarted because white men are evil and alien sex is good.” The group sat in silence before Nora raised her hand.
“You don’t have to raise your hand Nor, just go.” Rachel said it not unkindly, but in an almost reassuring way, and Nora gave her a small, grateful smile.
“Is it Atlantis?” Toni shook her head no. “Avatar?”
“Correct!” Toni said, drawing out the ‘r’. “Your go Nora.”
“Alright. Umm, this movie is about an angry old man who commits property damage with a Boy Scout and a dog, and they end up sword fighting another angry old man.” At this, Leah raised her hand. “Yes, Leah.” The rest of the girls stifled giggles.
“Is it Up?” Leah’s smile lit up the camp when Nora nodded her head. Out of all of them, she and Rachel had been the most downtrodden, their smiles rare and tired, so seeing some of the fear lift from her eyes when she guessed Nora’s movie correctly was a gift for all of them. It didn’t last long, but it raised the mood almost tangibly. “Ok, my turn. This movie follows a failing nun as she nannies a bunch of kids with a strict dad in the beginning of World War Two.”
“The Sound of Music!” Shelby shouted it out a bit loudly and flushed in the light of the fire, but Leah nodded her head and Shelby seemed to relax some. “Sorry y’all, it’s my mama’s favorite movie. I’ve probably watched that movie more times than Dot here has watched Survivor.”
“Hey, you fuckers are grateful for my survivor knowledge. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.” Fatin laughed and whispered something in Dot's ear which had Dot getting very quiet very quickly, and Fatin spoke for her when she told Shelby to continue.
“Alrighty, I don’t watch movies all too often, so let's see if y’all know what I’m talking about. In this movie, a bald man single-handedly defeats a bunch of German thieves around Christmas time.” Everyone took a moment to think at that one, but Dot, who had seemingly snapped out of her Fatin-induced-stupor, was the first to answer.
“Die Hard.”
“Fuck yeah Dottie! Alright, your go. And no, I think it’s against the rules to pick a TV show.” At Rachel’s nodded affirmation, Dot groaned.
“Fine, uhm, a big green guy falls in love with a red head with secrets and learns that he’s not a monster after all.”
“The Incredible Hulk!”
“Shrek.”
Toni and Martha shout their answers out at the same time, and Dot has to wait for their shoving match to end before she can say who was right. Ultimately, Martha won that round, leaving her to be the last one to go, making whoever guessed her movie correctly to be the winner. (“Why can’t I be the winner?” Rachel groaned. It had been decided when these game nights started that the person who picked the game couldn’t be the winner, because then everyone would only pick games they could win, defeating the fun of game night, but some of the girls, namely Dot and Rachel, were not on board with that stipulation.)
Cheers sounded from around the campfire when Martha cleared her throat, starting the last round. “My movie also has an alien, and it has a bald guy, and ships in the ocean. It also has two orphans, mosquitoes as an endangered species, and fish that likes peanut butter sandwiches.” This movie takes everyone a moment, but ultimately it’s Fatin who wins, tipped off by the mosquitoes and the peanut butter sandwiches.
“Lilo and Stitch! Man, my brothers fucking love that movie.” At the mention of Fatin’s brothers, everyone sobered a bit. Leah leaned into Fatin, not quite hugging her, but allowing Fatin to close her eyes and remember her brothers for a moment. Though they all knew that Fatin didn’t have the best family life, her brothers were a sensitive spot for her. A moment of silence later, and Fatin let out a wet laugh, startling Martha. “I guess ohana wasn’t applicable for my family.”
Most of the girls hummed slightly, knowing that their silent support was enough for Fatin, but Shelby’s quiet voice permeated the silent night air.
“Ohana?” She asked. “What does that mean?”
Dot looked at Shelby like she had lost her mind. “You haven’t seen Lilo and Stitch?”
Shelby looked at the ground, suddenly fascinated by the grains of sand clinging to her legs. “No, my daddy didn’t let us watch anything un-godly. Aliens were out of the question, and most magic was too.” Martha looked horrified at that, and quickly launched into a very long winded explanation of the plot of Lilo and Stitch, going far more in depth than anyone expected. After almost 20 minutes of explanation, Martha was finally bringing her speech to a close.
“... and then Stitch repeats the line from the beginning of his time with Lilo! He says ‘Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.’” Martha’s tone was excited, but when she looked around, no one else in the circle was matching her energy. All of them seemed lost in thought, and both Fatin and Toni were pretending not to cry. Only Nora seemed unaffected, her face the same neutral calm it usually was. She was the one to say what they were all thinking.
“We were left behind. We were forgotten. Are they still our family if they’ve left us out here?”
No one speaks, holding back either tears or rage. After a few moments, Dot clears her throat.
“We have to be each other’s family now, I think. We wont forget each other. And you bet your asses that I’m not leaving any of you behind if- when- we get rescued. We have to be each other’s ohana.” They all let the words sink in for a moment. At this point, no one was sitting alone anymore, Martha and Shelby huddled on either side of Toni, Dot and Leah in the same formation around Fatin. Even Rachel and Nora were squeezing each other’s hand tightly, their underlying resentment towards the other momentarily forgotten.
They were alone. Alone on an island, and they may never see their families again. But they knew that ohana wasn’t blood. Ohana was who they chose, and together, on that island, they chose each other.