Part 29 (2/2)

Jonathan shrugged his shoulders, ”I don't know. I guess because you're a girl.”

Jonathan never saw it coming. WHACK!

”Oing up across his calves, staring daggers at a very satisfied looking Sarah.

”That's for being a chauvinist pig. s.e.x has nothing to do with it. It's skill and determination, something we girls have tons of, right Candi?”

”Right.” And with that, she turned lightning quick and speared another fish, holding it up for everyone to see while shaking the water out of her hair. ”That's two for me!”

Kevin just grumbled to himself, staring out into the water.

Jonathan kept rubbing his legs, shooting dangerous looks at Sarah. Sarah pretended she didn't notice. She had already given up on mastering the art of spear fis.h.i.+ng, now focusing all of her energy on her cuticles.

”I think two fish is enough, if you guys are ready to go back ... ”

”Fine. I need to go rest my bruised calves anyway.”

”Yep, I'm ready to go back. I want to work on another rat cage,” said Sarah, already climbing down from her rock, heading for sh.o.r.e.

”You guys go ahead. I'm going to stay here and work on this some more,” was Kevin's reply.

”Oh boy,” said Sarah, as the trio walked back to the treehouse.

”What?” asked Candi.

”He's going to be out there for hours. Right now, I guarantee you, it is making him crazy that you can do this and he can't. This will now be his number one project becoming the best spear fisherman in the northern hemisphere.”

Candi laughed. ”Good. I'd like the company.”

Once back at the treehouse, Candi cleaned and prepared the fish for cooking. They took the guts she had removed and put some of them on the end of a piece of plant rope and hooked it up in the cage, the rest they buried far from the treehouse. They put the contraption off into the bushes, deciding they'd leave it alone until the next morning. It seemed like the rats came out at night anyway.

Kevin came back an hour later, very sunburned and without any fish. He was grouchy until dinner, refusing Candi's offer of help. She laughed to herself. Either he'd figure it out like she had, or he'd break down and ask for her help eventually. She was just glad she wasn't going to be the only one out there anymore.

The group sat on their cus.h.i.+ons around their dinner table and had their first almost normal dinner since they arrived a month ago. They laughed at the jokes Kevin told. They giggled at factoids that Jonathan shared, and as usual, he wondered what was so funny. Sarah was as relaxed as Candi had ever seen her, and it made her unable to stop smiling. She missed her parents a lot sometimes unbearably so but this new family she had wasn't bad. In fact, it was pretty awesome. She'd never felt this comfortable with someone outside of her real family ever before.

”We need to find something else for our bed covers,” said Sarah as she popped the last hunk of cooked coconut into her mouth.

”I know, those ponchos make me sweaty,” said Candi.

”Yeah, you're right,” said Jonathan. ”I a.s.sume it's going to get colder at some point. I mean, I'm not sure what lat.i.tude we're on, but judging from the angle of the sun, I'd say we're farther north of where we were on the cruise s.h.i.+p, so it's probably going to get cold here in the winter.”

”Do you guys hear that?” asked Kevin. His head was c.o.c.ked at a funny angle as if he was listening to something out in the trees.

”What?” asked Sarah, whispering.

”It sounds like ... a squealing or something or a very p.i.s.sed off bird.”

He looked at Jonathan, and Jonathan's eyes lit up.

”The rat trap!”

They all scrambled up from the table and rushed over to the ladder. Kevin was the first one down, followed by Jonathan. They rushed over to the trees where the girls had put the trap, Sarah and Candi right behind them.

”I can't see anything,” said Jonathan, frustrated.

But now they could all hear the squealing; they had definitely caught something.

Candi came over with a piece of bamboo that had palm canvas wrapped around it, tied in place with thick layers of plant rope. She had dipped the end in the hot coals left over from dinner, catching it on fire so it burned brightly. It made a decent torch, although it wasn't going to last very long.

”Here, does this help?” She held it up to illuminate the area where the trap sat.

There, under the bars of the now overturned bamboo box, sat a very unhappy brown rat. Its tail had somehow gotten caught between a rock and the edge of the cage. It sat glaring out at them, the light of the torch reflecting off its s.h.i.+ny, red eyes.

”Holy s.h.i.+t, it worked!” yelled Sarah. She held her hand up for a high-five, which Kevin immediately returned. Jonathan realized what was expected of him a split second later and gave her an awkward high five too.

”So cool ... Sarah, you are an expert builder of furniture and rat traps,” congratulated Candi.

”Yeah, well, he ain't no monkey, I can tell you that,” said a critical Sarah, staring at the small, sc.r.a.ppy-looking rodent who was giving the distinct impression that he was not happy with his circ.u.mstances.

”So, what do we do now?” she asked.

”Well, we have to bring him over to the fire so we can see him better. Then we have to figure out how to hold him permanently.”

”I made a cage I think will work.”

”A cage? When did you do that?” asked Kevin. ”I thought this was the cage.”

”When you were out there playing Poseidon,” responded Sarah, a little too casually.

Kevin gave her a suspicious look but didn't say anything in return.

Sarah went to her workshop, returning with a cage that was made of bamboo, held together at all of its joints with the plant rope. It had a lid that lifted and latched using plant rope ties.

With some coaxing from a small bamboo stick and some clever maneuvering, they transferred their guest from the trap to his new home.

”What do we feed him first?” asked Candi. She was anxious to find some new ingredients to cook with. She was getting tired of steamed fish with coconut.

”Give him some of those berries we found yesterday. They look yummy,” said Sarah.

Candi went to a basket hanging from the tree roots where she kept her cooking ingredients, locating a small palm canvas packet of the berries that they'd been finding everywhere.

”Here you go, Ratatouille,” she said, as she dropped them through the bars into the cage.

They all leaned over, watching the rat ignore the berries.

”Well, that was exciting,” said Sarah, sarcastically.

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