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 still 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 tell 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, hello, 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 small thing can kill 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.

I want to teach Friday English. I want to teach him fast. I want to be a good teacher. I take my role very seriously. I think about the best method how to teach Friday English. When I speak fast, Friday doesn’t understand. So I try to speak slowly. I also speak only in the present. And I use simple words. I also say only short sentences. Now, Friday understands more. We speak about many topics. When Friday doesn’t understand something, I point at it. Or I explain the word to him. If it doesn’t help, I make a picture in the sand.

Soon, Friday starts to understand many sentences in the present. He also starts to use some words. His pronunciation is very bad at the beginning. But it isn’t important for me. I understand him. And I’m very happy that somebody speaks to me. Friday is a good student. He is clever. He improves quickly. Soon, he can say some words like an Englishman. Of course not all words, but the words which he says correctly make me very happy.

I see that Friday very often repeats aloud what I say. I think that it also helps him to learn so fast. I think, “Learning a language is quite easy. You only need to copy what you hear and if you don’t understand something, you need a picture. Then, you need a lot of practice. This is the best system. ” Friday’s progress is fast. He is able to talk more and more every day. In a couple of months, we can have a nice conversation.