The naked man grabs Luisa and they start yelling at each other. I turn awkwardly to the naked woman. Sillitta, Luisa had called her. This is all getting too wierd for me. "Why does she call you slaves?", i ask. She gives me a calm, kind smile, the sort you would give to a child who asks why the grass is green. "Because we are", she replies gently.

I'm about to ask more when the tallest woman i've ever seen descends the hill. She may look like an amazon, but she gushes at me like a wealthy socialite, all effusive hellos and hugs. She introduces herself as Margay and as suddenly as she appeared she is gone, striding towards the jetty.

We continue up the hill, Sillitta and i walking in front, the man (nobody has bothered to tell me his name and i don't like to interrupt his argument with Luisa to ask it) carrying my bag and continuing to converse with Luisa behind us. Their talk seems to have calmed down now.

I keep trying to ask Sillitta questions, but i am getting nowhere. I ask her why she and the man are naked. "Because we are slaves", she answers.
"But what does that mean?", i ask,
"That we serve", she replies
"So you're servants?"
"No, we're slaves".

I turn around to ask Luisa what she means. Luisa seems to be the only sane person on the whole damn island.

"What does all this talk about slavery mean? And where are the lawyers to take our depositions and deal with this whole inheritance claim?"

She gives me that same strange cryptic glance, passing through the emotions and ending once again on pity before answering me in her strangely unplaceable accent