Jump and Other Stories

A small community, the Teraloyna, live on a remote island. Sailors arrive on the island and teach the Teraloynas to fish using spears. The sailors don’t leave, becoming part of the community. Later, goats overrun the island, their origin unknown. The Teraloynas hunt the goats to control the population, but the goats can access parts of the island they can’t reach and cause irreparable environmental damage. The Teraloynas leave the island and emigrate across the world. Their racial makeup has already changed since the sailors arrived: “And so when we left we had among us only a child here and there who was raw-faced and blue-eyed; we were coloured neither very dark nor very light” (99-100). Over time, their cultural ways are lost as they spread across the world, and their appearances continue to change.

The goats deplete the island’s resources, then die of starvation. The island slowly returns to a new state of normalcy. Various countries consider claiming the island as their territory, and an unnamed country eventually takes control. Meteorologists start traveling to the island, finding it an ideal place to study the weather. They bring two cats and feed them leftovers. Meanwhile, the Teraloynas continue to integrate into other cultures.