The Island of Last Truth Read Online Free PDF

island?” Prendel, despite his weak­ness, realizes he’s asked a stupid question.
    â€œCompletely,” Souza informs him. “We’ve been shipwrecked on a minuscule, deserted island.
    â€œWe have?” With an effort Prendel swallows a last bit of fish.
    â€œI haven’t been here much longer than you,” Nelson informs him.
    Prendel sees that the man is wearing a bandage on his ankle.
    â€œYou’re injured,” he states more than asks.
    â€œYes, from a gunshot.”
    The image of the man falling over the side of the pirate ship appears instantly in Prendel’s head. He swallows. His life has been saved only to lose it again. It couldn’t be any other way, he thinks. Life, sooner or later, is lost. “A gunshot?”
    â€œYour shot, yes.” He looks the pirate in the eyes. Prendel thinks he has a frank gaze. Too frank for his taste.
    â€œI thought I’d killed you,” clarifies Prendel, while he feels overwhelmed by a strange relief, and thinks how reversible everything in life is, even the most extreme things. He was convinced he’d killed a man and was on the verge of dying. Instead, neither the one nor the other. For that reason hope is the last thing one loses, he thinks; life has so much more imagination than human beings, is never, even in the face of the most conclusive proof, predictable or definitive.
    â€œNo, as you can see.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you raise the alarm? Why didn’t you go back to your friends’ boat?”
    â€œThey’re not my friends,” Souza clarifies, laconically. Then he sees Prendel looking at the revolver he is wearing inside his trousers, fastened to his belt.
    â€œYou’ve got nothing to be afraid of. Things have changed now.”
    Prendel thinks that indeed things have changed and men are who they are depending on who is around them.
    â€œYou mean we’re not enemies.” Prendel clearly sees that the other man holds considerable power. The other man is himself plus his gun. Might is a sad but infallible way of constituting a majority.
    â€œHere we’re nothing but survivors.” Souza, who was standing, squats down opposite him and stirs the branches; the fire revives. Prendel takes advantage of the light and looks at his surroundings. The outline of a low mountain is drawn against the full moon.
    â€œHow do you know there’s no one else on the island?”
    â€œWhen day breaks you’ll see why. It’s barely six or seven square kilometres. We’re lucky there’s water, plants, trees, fish. Enough to survive a good while, I think.”
    â€œWhy did you save me?” Dr. Prendel, who has saved so many lives, doesn’t understand why a man has saved his.
    â€œYou don’t kill a man who may be useful to you.” Souza stares at Prendel.
    â€œBut you know that he who saves another man’s life makes himself responsible for him until the end of his days . . . ”
    Nelson Souza interrupts him.
    â€œIf I’d known that, I’d have left you to die. Anyway, who knows if we’ll manage to get out of here some day.”
    â€œWell,, maybe some boat, sooner or later . . . ”
    â€œNo sooner or later, no boat, no nothing. This island is a long way from all the commercial routes. In fact, it’s a miracle our boat was so close . . . but that’s another story. We’re scarcely a few hours’ swim from the place of attack. You were swimming in circles for sure. And I . . . well, you get here faster when you know where you’re going.”
    â€œHow did you know where . . . ?” Prendel begins to ask, but Souza interrupts him once more.
    â€œThe thing is no oil tankers or merchant ships or yachts pass anywhere near here. Where were you going? To São Tomé? You should have been sailing closer to the coast, but I imagine you wanted to avoid the traffic of the big ships or wanted to take advantage of the wind.