Chapter 74: Copra
What Pedro said was true. The storehouses hadn’t even been emptied, with mounds of copra hugging the walls.
Copra was an abundant resource found everywhere on the island. It’s the dried kernel of the coconut, used to extract coconut oil. A landowner who knew little about agriculture could still grow rich if he had coconut trees on his property, since they barely needed tending.
But copra reeked—it smelled earthy, oily, musky, and smoky all at once. The scent clung stubbornly to fabric, which must’ve been why I’d been smelling it the whole way and assumed it was coming from somewhere else.
To its credit, copra made for a soft cushion.
"What are you doing?" Madrigal asked in alarm.
"Come on now, you know you don’t have to be careful around copra," I replied. Copra wasn’t delicate and was usually handled with little care. All it needed was basic protection from the elements. My body weight pressing on it wouldn’t cause any damage.
He shook his head. "No... why are you here?"
I kept laying on the bed of copra and shrugged. "You’re all sleeping here. Why can’t I?"
Pedro chuckled. "No... you don’t have to. You’re the governor and the general. We wouldn’t mind if you slept somewhere else. You’d be breaking the morale of the troops."
"Do they look like their morale is breaking?" I said, gesturing to the soldiers. Some were giggling and following my example.
"Do you remember what I told you during our first lesson?" I asked him. "The men eat first. A good officer ensures his soldiers are fed, cared for, and rested before himself. And you’ve done just that, Capitan Madrigal. You’ve made me proud."