Kenneth is having some thoughts and finding penguins
Who: Kenneth Where: The island When: Day 23 What: Running and thinking
Kenneth was running along the beach, feet pounding as the warm sun beat down on him. It felt good to run like this, no pack, no guns, just his knife. He’d left the guns with Bazzer. Well, he’d left them hidden, but Bazzer knew where they were and would make sure no one went near them. Kenneth needed to clear his head and work out everything that had happened the night before. He’d kissed someone for the first time in a long time and for the first time in his life, he’d kissed another man. That he hadn’t immediately fled the lean-to in a panic was fairly impressive, that he was contemplating an actual relationship with another man was downright phenomenal.
There were not many challenges in the world that Kenneth would shrink away from, but this was definitely one of them. Even now, there were continuous soft voices in his head telling him he was going to get caught, someone would find out and then his career, everything in his life that he’d worked for, the only people in his life that he cared about…all of it would be over.
Sweat beaded his forehead and ran down his face. At least he’d had the forethought to leave his shirt behind, he wasn’t going to have time to wash and dry that when he got back. He’d lost a few pounds, mostly of muscle, but it hadn’t gotten too troublesome yet, but he could tell that the lack of food was slowly wearing him down because he just didn’t have the energy for a run he usually would.
Not that any of that was helping him figure out how to deal with what was happening between him and a man young enough to be his son. At least Bazzer was older than Kelly would have been had she lived, thank God for small favors. There was still the issue that Bazzer was male and Kenneth wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to overcome 30 years of conditioning and be comfortable with that and Bazzer deserved better. He deserved someone that could unreservedly be with him, not someone that would always be looking over his shoulder for spies. And that was even before trying to factor in three failed marriages.
Kenneth rounded the end of the island and paused, noticing some vibrantly purple penguins on the opposite shore. Well, they looked like penguins, sort of, but with tufts like a puffin, a hooked beak more like an eagle and clawed instead of webbed feet. Their wings bent like a cormorants instead of being flipper like. Oh, and they were the size of a large child. They were by far the strangest looking bird Kenneth had ever seen and they were creating quite a ruckus. It seemed like perhaps it was mating season based on the way the males were all making the same motions.
He paused long enough to note the location and wipe his face before he continued on. By the time he returned to camp, he was tired and sweaty, elated by the discovery of another protein source and no closer to figuring out how to seal with the situation with Bazzer than he had been before. What he had figured out was that he didn’t want to give up on it yet, the rest? It was just going to be slow going.