 Have a dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you escape. Escape, designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure. We're on a remote island in the war-torn Pacific. A paradise of tropic splendor. Where sounds of battle are far behind. While walking slowly toward you, our arms stretched out to you is the most beautiful girl in the world whose embrace could mean your death. Listen now, as Escape brings you Millard Kaufman's exciting story, The Island. The problem was, what could I do with Robert Lacey? Do you happen to have a dream book handy with all the charts and categories precisely arranged in alphabetical order? Well in it you'll find a dream for loneliness about girls in soft summery dresses. You'll find a dream for hunger, two-pound steak perhaps smothered all over with lamb chops. There are dreams for the traveler of the hometown far away and long ago. But find me a dream of a place you've never seen. A place that doesn't exist. A wake or asleep that was Lacey's dream. Corporal Robert Lacey, second battalion, fourth Marines. A harmless enough dream, I guess, and not to be taken seriously or... so it seemed until that night when Lacey's dream became my problem. May it was, 1945, in a little wood down Okinawa. I guess I got it. Where are we anyhow? A couple of three mines behind Jack Blines. Oh, fine. You worry too much, pal. Even for a guy on his first patrol. Well, I've been thinking of it as my last. Relax like me and you'll live forever. Nothing. Just a screamin', Mimi. Got a kind of a tail adjustment that cuffs the wind sort of screams. Jack uses it to scare us. Well, they sure succeeded. You scare easy, pal. Sure. Sure, I'm a pushover for that shreklikite stuff. Shreklikite? What kind of jive is that? Well, it means terror, fightfulness. German-German's got a whole arsenal of terror weapons. Japs have got a few themselves. What do you say we sack in, huh? Sack in here? As good as the next place. Well, it'll last you up. It's three miles behind Jack Blines. You've got no chance of gettin' back tonight. Get knocked off, we'll try. First watcher, I'm gonna sack in. You goin' to sleep? I just sit here and dream a while. You're sure pickin' a fine time for it. Hey, did I ever tell you about my island? Yeah, yeah, you told me. You must've told me 50 or 60 times in the past month. All right, so I'll tell you again. Now, this island, it's a sort of a special place, you see. There's no rain, no jungle rot, no war. Just a quiet, cozy spot where a man can lay down under a banyan tree and live off the fat of the land. Oh, there is no such place. Now, on this island, a man would never go hungry. All you gotta do is fish a little with the natives. And they're all big men, and they're friendly. Not like a nips. And all the dames are beautiful. You know, something Lacey, you read to me. I'm fixin' to go as soon as I can find it. I'm never going back stateside. I'm gonna lay down under that little banyan tree, and I'm gonna rest for a while. I let him rave on. What else could I do? Argue with him? There I was, three miles deep in enemy lines with a stranger. His eyes narrowed in a thousand-yard stare. It's a rush of words like a nervous twitch. He raved on about a place that doesn't exist with big men and beautiful women. And then I found myself listening, sort of hypnotized. And I learned something about corporal Lacey and what combat wariness means. He'd foraged too long among the rotten, bomb-scarred pebbles of the Pacific. He'd seen too much death, too many crack-ups. He was himself half-cracked and slightly dead, barely held together by the taut and twisted wires of his dream. So what could I do? Argue with him? There'll be cattle on the island, too. I'm gonna find me a beautiful girl and... Yeah, yeah, I'm listening. Look, Taburi out there coming toward us. Where? Four. Three men in them. They're heading right for us. What's the matter? You flip or something? They're not chaps. The men are too big. It's funny, the woman with them, though. Maybe his eyes were better than mine, but how could I trust that brain he has all fasted with dreaming? Look, I tell you, they're not chaps. The dame is beautiful. Only I'd listened to Lacey then. If only I'd known, but chaps are no chaps. I was taking no chances. I raised my rifle and... You jerk, you hit the woman. I'm gonna see if she's hurt bad. Come on. Lacey, Lacey, don't go. You know the chaps. Don't worry about me. Let go of me. Listen, you get yourself killed. Not me, Taburi. I live to spit in your grave. Now, let go of me. I just hope you know what you're doing. I don't want to get involved in any of your cockamani dreams, you know. Dreams? It's no dream, Taburi. You'll find out. Okay, Lacey, so where is she? It's funny. She must be around here somewhere. Maybe... Wait a minute. What's that? It came from over there. Come on. There she is. She's scared of us. Lady? It's all right, lady. Why? She won't hurt you, lady. She's bluffing. Break out your first aid kit. Yeah. Look, lady, let me fix your arm, huh? You see, we got bandages, adhesive tape, penicillin. She don't get what you're talking about. She gets the idea. That's right, lady. This won't hurt a bit. You just got nicked a little, that's all. Is it just a flesh wound? Oh, she trusts you. Yeah, she trusts me more than you do. Didn't I tell you she was beautiful? You told me a lot of things. How about the men? She was with the big men. She was with them and they weren't Japs. Not Japs. And a pig's eye, not Japs. There you see. Well, then what were they? They were... Who are you? What are you? What's your name? Name, please go away. Now you've scared her again. Look, Taki, it's all right. Everything's going to be all right. You just come with us, huh? No. I go home. Must go home. So go home. Scram, lady. Lose yourself. Oh, no, you don't. Let her go. Let her go back to her rice paddy, will you? You still don't catch Tabore. She ain't from Okanama. She's from that island I was telling you about. She must see. She must see. She must see. She must see. She must see. She must see. She must see. All right, then what are you doing here? Do not know. The Japanese bring us in canoe. She's crazier than you are. Who ever... Oh, shut up. Taki, where is your island, huh? Where is Yagachi? In...in China Sea. Yeah? A half day from Okinawa by canoe. Canoe. Well, what's it like, Taki, huh? Well, what's your island like? Listen, never mind the island. Let's find that canoe. Come on, don't you see where the canoe... we can get back to our lines by water. Yeah, I think you got something there. You...Taki, can you find the canoe? I think I can. Come on, let's go. She led us on through the wood. A lopsided moon came up in its rays, filled it through the clouds and down through the jagged trees. In the moonlight, she was like one of those porcelain figurines, delicate with a peculiar tint to her skin, unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It was like the shade of waxed ivory, ancient ivory. Her hair was long and black, drawn tight over her head. She was straight and slim. She walked with dignity. She was beautiful. As beautiful as a dream, Lacey's dream. But dreams don't come true, not like this, yet... Here she was just the way he described. And the three men. And the island that... I couldn't figure it out because just then I didn't have time. Lacey, listen to that. Yeah, come on. Taki led us down a slope to the water. There were canoes. And leaning against a prowl were two sentries. While they were safe, they thought three miles behind their lines snug as two bugs in a mosquito net. So safe they didn't know what hit them. Who knew, huh? All right, push off, Taburi. You take your bow. Sit down, Tom. You know what I think? I think we're going to make it. Okay, Taburi. We can take it easy now. I'm not taking it easy. It'll cross our perimeter. How are you going to tell at night? Maybe you think I got neon signs, huh? Well, maybe we'll see a landmark or something. Distances can fool you at night. We're labelled to paddle right into a platoon of nips. Okay, what do we do, Lacey? We'll stand by the morning and head for our convoy. We'll ride a shore in style in an LST. I don't know. I think it'll be better if we... Whatever you think you're outvoted, two stripes to one. What, are you pulling rank, Corporal? Well, why not, Knucklehead? This ship's got one skipper, and I'm it. Oh, you're like a... Now, look, if I want any stuff out of you, I'll knock it out of you. Now, morning, you don't follow up this detail. So what was I going to do? Argu with him? Start a private firefight in the middle of the China Sea? I was getting a little combat worry myself, but Lacey, he was all charged up Lying on the narrow deck of the canoe, I could hear Lacey, and the more I heard, the more confused I got. It's not like other islands. Is it, Taki? It's different, Yokashi. I wish I could tell you how. I know. It's pretty, huh? It's very pretty, but... Is the fishing good? Good. And we have pigs. Cows? Good cows. I knew it, I knew it. Cows and pigs. And Lacey, getting all this hopped up about them. Well, that was the last thing I remembered. I guess I fell asleep, and then suddenly it was daylight. Tabori! Hey, look, Tabori! What? Look over there, what do you see, huh? An island? Just an island? Not just an island? That's my island! What's so special about it? Well, look at it! It's surrounded by mist, just like I said. Oh, tell it to the troops. Let me get back to Okinawa. Look, Tabori, stand by for a ram. We ain't going back to Okinawa. Ain't no way to... I don't want any more trouble from you, Tabori. Well, then don't make any, or I'll... Hey, what? Looking for your rifle? Well, don't bother, because I got it right here. Now you get for it. You're crazy! Go on, move, Tabori. You're flirting with a purple heart. All right, now lean on that paddle. That's right. We're heading for Yagachi. The coral beach at Yagachi about four hours later. It was a lovely island with terraced hills and patches of tilled soil checkering the greenery. Well, Sien's believing that, Tabori. I wouldn't believe it. So close to Okinawa. Where are your people, Taki? Wrong way over here. But you must not come. You go back now. Oh, no, I'm sticking around. How about you, Tabori? I came this far. I'll sweat it out just for last. You're going to laugh out of the wrong side of your face. What do you mean? Well, that's just a figure of speech, Taki. Let's go. So there I was caught up in Lacy's dream when all the time I should have taken off at high port for Okinawa. I should have known better, but I didn't, and what you don't know can hurt you. Plenty. Hey, look at that cat, Tabori. I could eat her down in the hooves. I tell you, I'm going to live off the fat of the land. The trail snaked upward. There were scarlet flowers and lilies in the swordgrass. All very nice, I suppose, but I was looking for people, the big men of Lacy's dream, the girls all as lovely as the girl beside us. I was tense with expectancy at each bend in the trail, but Lacy's tensions had all vanished. He lost them because he had found Taki. Robert Bracey. No, Taki. My name's Lacy. Now, try it once more. Lacy Taki. L, I can... This is a lily. You are a lady. And you're a local. Tabori, I'm going to slug you. You're so funny, Lacy, when you're mad. Well, you laugh nice, Taki. It is the first time in five years. It is the first time I am happy. Maybe you were waiting for me to make you happy, like I was waiting for you. What do you mean, Lacy? Well, I... I mean it... Well, here. This is for you. Why you give me flower? Why, Taki? You don't know... I don't know how to say... You do not know me. I know you. I've been dreaming about you for two years. I knew I'd find you. Never forget what you say. I'll never let you forget. Lacy. Lacy, honey. L, I can love. We walked on together up the trail. A tall marine and a slim girl with the ivory skin with a flower in her hand. Now, and then she'd look at the flower and then she'd look at Lacy in a pained expression and cloud her face as though she didn't understand. I didn't either, but I had to find out. Man, what a climb. You know, it'd be easier for you if you'd give me back my rifle. Don't worry about me. I'll get by. Well, we got it, Lick. There's the summit. If you... you got it. Down there... Hey, look. Look at him. Be my people. I told you they were big men. How can you tell from this distance? Well, look how broad they are. It's funny how they're all on a bunch like... Hey, listen. Well, maybe it's what you call a ceremony or something, huh? It is. Well, maybe it's for us. I bet they know we're coming. No, it's for the dead. What happened, you suppose? A war? The war's not here. It's just my people die. Everybody's people die. It's just gotta happen sooner or later. Never heard it so well, Poit. Why don't you drop dead to boring? Let's go, Taki. Down the mountainside, down to a cape that jutted into the Pacific like a gnarled finger of doom. Far away we saw a village. We headed toward it through a sunless gorge. At the far end was a thatched hut. Looks like it's empty. What a fool could see. You wait here. I'll come back soon with Hetman. He speaks English good. The boring? You, uh... You're gonna stay here with me? No, I see. I just want one good look at your big men and beautiful women and their native habitat. And I'm off for Okinawa. He still won't prove, huh? There's something strange about this place. I wanna know what it is. It's just different, like I said. You're all fouled up, Lacy, in a dream. I'm not sure what it's all about, but I gotta find out or it'll drive me crazy the rest of my life. You mean crazy like me? I didn't say that. Since we left Okinawa, you've been giving me a bad time. Let's mute you. Now you just call me crazy. I know what I said. I know what you think. I know what you'll do once you get back to Okinawa. You'll tell the MPs I went over the hill and you'll tell them where I am, they'll come after me. You are crazy. I'm just crazy enough to make sure you keep your trap shut. You remember, Tabori, I said I'd be around to spit in your grave. Lacy, Lacy, stop kiddin' around with that rifle. I ain't kiddin'. I'm gonna kill you, Tabori. But first, you're gonna see I was right. I wanna see the expression on that smart ally face of yours when you admit it. And then I'm gonna kill you. Now get back in that corner. Keep him out shut. You the head man? I suppose you could call me that. His name, Hiroshi. What can I do for you? I, uh, stay here with Taki. I'm afraid you cannot. Well, I'll work my way. That is not the point. You cannot... Look, I don't want no arguments out of you. You cannot stay. Well, why? She is a leper. She's so beautiful. Yes, I know my son. But in three years, five years... I tried to tell you, but I did not know how. And then I could not, even if I wanted to, wanted it to one more hour, one more minute. They stood there facing each other. The tall marine and the girl with the ivory skin with the flower still in her hand, the flower already beginning to wilt. Good. Thank you. For the flower. I, I never... Hiroshi, what's this all about? It is quite simple. Two nights ago, the Japanese came to the leper colony. They took more than half my patients to Okinawa, headed toward the American lines. Why? To disrupt your advance. There was no chance of contagion, but, well, my patients do not all look as lovely as Taki. Oh, I see. Shreklikite. Exactly. A weapon of terror. Yeah. Tobori? Yeah, Lacey. I, I guess we better move on. You, you ready, pal? Yeah. It's a long road back to Okinawa. For me, the road back is longer than that.