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Dear Tony
After the stunning turn of events I described in
my last missive I realised there was more to this whole game than meets the eye.
There are too many seemingly disconnected fragments of strange and unusual behaviour for me to blindly believe this is all purely a reality show in which I am the only one on the outside looking in, so to speak.
After discovering the Good Doctor and Jude engaging in some sort of primeval ritual at a sacrificial altar deep in the jungle of Black Pearl Island two nights ago, I am of the opinion that something is going on here that is beyond the confines of the game.
Allow me to illustrate some interesting facts:
1. The Good Doctor is a member of the Rana tribe, yet he was on our island two nights ago. How did he get here, and more importantly why?
2. The Good Doctor is in an alliance of three, along with the Hippy Girl and The Chairperson, who daily grows more and more mad with power. The Rana tribe simply handed Jacinda all their power - could this be a coincidence?
3. "Happy" Ncumisa was voted off the island this week by the Triumvirate, who somehow corrupted Lezel The Long, leaving The Fat Guy by himself.
Can it be coincidence that Happy never seemed anything other than, well, happy? Her rosy, plump cheeks never dimpled and the twinkle in her eye never went out, which is in stark contrast to the haggard, deep lines that have started etching on the Good Doctor's face.
4. Jude is gone but she's not forgotten. I walked out of our shelter this morning and I saw drag marks in the sand - I heard nothing untoward last night, but I'd recognise those drag marks anywhere. How does she fit in? Is she really gone?
No need to try and answer that, my friend - it was merely a rhetorical musing, the likes of which plague my mind and distract me from my tunnel-vision goal: to retrieve the treasure I stole from Juan Alonso de Arroyo.
On our tribe nothing much seems untoward - Nico spluttered and muttered about being stabbed in the back, which was like saying there are fish in the sea. Yes, there are. Yes, you were. Your point?
So I decided this week to try and link up some of those dots, and thought the best thing to do would be to spy on Rana and try to learn more about the Good Doctor and the Triumvirate of Evil.
I rowed over to the Rana island and eased into position on the edge of the jungle, from where I could view their camp and their comings and goings.
It was interesting - very interesting. I knew they had elected Jacinda as chairperson, but I wasn't prepared for just how boldly they have ceded all power to her.
When they wake up they all gather around The Chairperson to wash her feet. Then they run off into the jungle to find mango treats and run back, prostrating themselves on the ground before her, kissing her feet and offering - with bowed heads - the fruits of their labour.
She assigns each one tasks and they obediently go off to fulfil them, while she sits back at camp with The Fat Guy fanning her with a palm frond, keeping the sun out of her eyes and dropping the occasional delicate morsel into her demanding craw.
And they love it! I swear if she had a cat o' nine tails they'd plead for a whipping each day - anything to make her feel happy, secure in her own power and content and satisfied as a baby drifting off to sleep with a tummy full of warm milk.
Yet even so she still favours some over others, not least of whom the Good Doctor, who looks more gaunt with each passing day. On the day I was spying on them he woke up and muttered something about feeling "a little rough around the edges" - hah!
I'll bet. Performing Machiavellian medical procedures deep in the jungle of Black Pearl Island on a moonless night is bound to leave you feeling "a little rough around the edges".
From what I can gather the Hippy Girl is merely being humoured by The Chairperson - Jacinda is keeping Danielle around for some sort of expediency, although what they may be just yet I haven't figured out.
But the Hippy is making a big mistake in thinking she's an integral part of the Triumvirate of Evil - she's merely a pawn in a far more sinister game.
As you know - the Good Doctor is far from good, so I believe his supplicant behaviour around Jacinda is a smokescreen, or perhaps even an act of camouflage.
During my visit to the Rana island one thing of significance happened.
While The Chairperson was being fanned and fed and the others were off slaving in the sun under her harsh and unforgiving gaze, I saw Happy go sit on a rock, ostensibly for a rest.
But she appeared to be writing something in the sand with a stick, on the other side of the rock, away from view of the camp.
She spent a few minutes there before going back to work, and I sidled around the edge of the jungle and crept up to the rock, being careful to keep it between me and the tribe.
Just as I got to the rock a wave rolled up on shore and right over the writing, erasing the message that had been written.
But not before I'd caught a glimpse of three chilling words: Doctor, Jude and ... Sanele!
My head reeling I staggered backwards and headed back into the jungle. What was going on?? Why was Happy writing those words in the sand? Why was Sanele's name linked to the names of the two participants in the Midnight Surgery?
And then it struck me - Sanele's arm! He's been carrying it in a sling for a few days now, hiding it from sight beneath his vest. He told us he hurt in in an earlier challenge, but in light of this new information I had cause to wonder.
And wonder I did. As I headed back to my own island I kept thinking about the Midnight Surgery and remembering the way the Good Doctor plunged his hot metal poker into Jude's arm. I remembered that it looked as though he had inserted something into Jude's arm, and with all these images of arms I knew Happy must have been on to something.
But how could she have known about Jude and the Good Doctor? And what could she possibly have known about Sanele and his arm? And why was she trying to draw dots in exactly the same manner as me?
A day later she was gone, kicked out of her tribe on some trumped-up excuse about relationships. Naturally I was there, hiding, watching the Tribal Council - I watched carefully as Mark snuffed out Happy's torch, and as he did so I glanced over at The Chairperson and The Good Doctor, who shared a sly glance which nobody else saw.
It was the briefest of glances at one another, but their eyes connected and I saw tacit understanding and approval pass flittingly between them.
Two simple tribe mates happy they were still in the game? Not quite, old friend - there was no happiness in that glance. Just a chilling premonition, which ran down my spine and shivered me timbers as Happy turned and walked away.
The power has been established and I'm not convinced it's in the right hands. And the more I search for answers the more I find questions.
I went back to camp that night and watched Sanele sitting on a rock, silhouetted against the fire as the wind whipped sparks off the top of it, creating a shower of fireworks.
His arm was still buried deep inside his vest and I saw him gently rubbing it occasionally, almost absentmindedly.
I lay down, keeping him in sight, and the last image I saw before drifting off to sleep was Sanele sitting there framed by the fire, staring into the darkness.
"Now there's a metaphor!" mused I, before dreamland claimed me.