An ambitious software engineer finally decided to take
>>a vacation. He booked himself on a Caribbean cruise
>>and proceeded to have the time of his life. At least for a while.
>>A hurricane came up unexpectedly. The ship went down
>>and was lost instantly. The man found himself swept up
>>on the shores of an island with no other people, no supplies,
>>nothing.
>>Only
>>bananas and coconuts.
>>Used to five-star hotels, this guy had no idea what to do. So, for
>>the
>>next
>>four months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice, longed for his old
>>life,
>>and fixed his
>>gaze on the sea, hoping to spot a rescue ship.
>>
>>One day, as he was lying on the beach, he spotted
>>movement out of the corner of his eye. It was a
>>rowboat, and in it was the most gorgeous woman he had
>>ever seen. She rowed up to him.
>>
>>In disbelief, he asked her: "Where did you come from,
>>and how did you get here?"
>>
>>"I rowed from the other side of the island," she said.
>>"I landed here when my cruise ship sank."
>>
>>"Amazing," the software engineer said, "I didn't know
>>anyone else had survived. How many of you are there?
>>You were really lucky to have a rowboat wash up with
>>you."
>>"It's only me," she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash
>>up: nothing did."
>>He was confused, "Then how did you get the rowboat?"
>>"Oh, simple," replied the woman. "I made it out of raw
>>material that I found on the island. The oars were
>>whittled from gum-tree branches, I wove the bottom from palm
>>branches,
>>and
>>the sides and stern came from a eucalyptus tree."
>>"But, but, that's impossible," stuttered the man. "You
>>had no tools or hardware - how did you manage?"
>>
>>"Oh, that was no problem," the woman said. "On the
>>south side of the island, there is a very unusual strata of exposed
>>alluvial rock. I found that if I fired it to a certain temperature,
>>it
>>melted into forgeable ductile iron. I used that to make tools, and
>>used
>>the
>>tools to make the hardware. But enough of that. Where do you live?"
>>Sheepishly, the man confessed that he had been sleeping on the
>>beach the
>>whole time.
>>"Well, let's row over to my place then," she said.
>>After a few minutes of rowing, she docked the boat at
>>a small wharf. As the man looked onto shore, he nearly
>>fell out of the boat. Before him was a stone walk leading to an
>>exquisite
>>bungalow painted in blue and white.
>>While the woman tied up the rowboat with an expertly
>>woven hemp rope, the man could only stare ahead,
>>dumbstruck.
>>As they walked into the house, she said casually,
>>"It's not much, but I call it home. Sit down, please.
>>Would you like to have a drink?"
>>
>>"No, no, thank you," he said, still dazed. "I couldn't
>>drink another drop of coconut juice."
>>"It's not coconut juice," the woman replied. "I have
>>made a still - How about a Pinacolada?"
>>Trying to hide his continued amazement, the software
>>engineer accepted, and they sat down on her couch to
>>talk.
>>After they had exchanged their stories, the woman
>>announced, "I'm going to slip into something more
>>comfortable. Would you like to have a shower and a shave? There is
>>a razor
>>upstairs in the cabinet in the bathroom."
>>No longer questioning anything, the man went into the
>>bathroom. There in the cabinet was a razor made from a
>>bone handle. Two shells honed to a hollow-ground edge
>>were fastened to its tip, inside a swivel mechanism.
>>"This woman is absolutely amazing," he mused. "What
>>next?"
>>When he returned, the woman greeted him. She beckoned for him to
>>sit down
>>next to her. "Tell me," she began suggestively, slithering closer
>>to him,
>>brushing her
>>leg against his, "We've both been out here for a very
>>long time. You've been lonely. There's something I'm
>>sure you really feel like doing right now, something
>>you've been longing to do for all of these months."
>>She stared into his eyes. He couldn't believe what he
>>was hearing - this was like all of his dreams coming
>>true in one day.
>>"You mean...," he replied, "I can check my e-mail from
>>here?"