Beginnings - Tropical Concoction

The ocean breezes were light and cool. They passed over the top of the rippled surf, picking up moisture off the water and raced to the shore before losing themselves among the palm leaves. Thomas dozed in the warmth of the day, the breezes tickling his toes, blowing softly through the open mesh of the hammock. He rocked slowly. His weight caused the two young palms, to which the hammock was attached, to strain and bend inward toward themselves.

Tiger Island was a mere speck in the vastness of the southern Pacific ocean. It measured approximately 1.3 miles from northern to southern tip and about half as wide. Towering cliffs rose from the crashing surf surrounding the island on all sides. The shear face of the rock wall which guarded the island was weathered and cragged but solid except for a single small naturally eroded archway along the waterline approaching the southwestern corner. The arch way rose in the center to twelve feet from the ocean surface and extended approximately twenty feet across.
Through the arch way, the perforation led inward like a cave into the rock face, drawing thirty feet into the cliff until opening, like a dream, into a tranquil protected lagoon of pale blue.

Thomas extended an arm lazily toward the water and dropped the banana peel, which fell with a soft thud onto a growing pile in the sand. As if in response to the discarded peel, the thin black twoway radio tucked under his thigh, began squawking like a nervous cockatoo. He pulled it to his lips and pressed the respond button, silencing the noise.
“Yah….”
“Are you in the tower, 21?”
Thomas sputtered into the box as he struggled to sit up, “Yes sir.. I mean, almost sir..well, I mean, I am on my way back sir. I had to get the binoculars sir, from the landing pad.
You are not at your post, 21?
Trying to expel himself from the hammock, his foot caught in the mesh, flipping the hammock upside down, throwing Thomas headfirst into the sand. He rolled over slowly onto an elbow, brushing sand from off his head and face. Still clutching the radio, he yelled, “I will be right there sir. I am practically to the top now sir…..Sir?”
“Yes, 21. I can hear your excuses. We will be arriving in ten minutes. Deactivate the security system and prepare for our arrival!”
“Yes Sir!”, Thomas jumped to his feet and sprinted up the beach, glancing towards the towering peak above the tree line. He would never make it back to the tower in time.