Part 49 (1/2)
ACT FIVE.
Root.
UNA OE SATO, ”CAT'S CLAW”.
FAMILY:Rubiaceae.
GENUS:UriCaY7a.
SPECIES:TOmentOSa, Guianensis.
COMMON NAMES:Cats Claw, Una de GatO, Paraguayo, Garabato, Garbato Casha, Samento, Toron', Tambor Huasca, Ann Huasca, Una de Gavilari, Hawk's Claw
PART USED:Bark, Root, Leaves.
PROPERTIES/ACTIONS:Antibacterial, Antioxidant, Antiinflammatory, Ant.i.tumorous, Antiviral, Cytostatic, Depurative, Diuretic, Hypotensive, Immunostimula.nt, Vermifuge, Antimutagenic
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
Betrayal.
AUGUST 1 7, 7:05 A. M.
AMAZON JUNGLE.
Nate woke to find his arms around a naked woman. Her eyes were alreadyopen. ”Good morning,” he said.
Kelly inched closer to him. He could still smell the rain on her skin. She smiled. ”It's been morning for some time:”
He rose to one elbow, which wasn't easy in a hammock, and stared down into herface. ”Why didn't you wake me?”
”I figured you could use at least one full hour of sleep.” She rolled out of the hammock, setting it swinging, and artfully drew off the single blanket and wrapped it around her.
With one hand, he grasped for her.
She stepped out of reach. ”We have a long day ahead of us:”
With a groan, he rolled to his feet and pulled his boxers from the pile of hastily discarded clothes as Kelly gathered her things. Through the rear door to the room, he stared out at the jungle.
Last night, he and Kelly had talked into the wee hours of the morning, about fathers, brothers, daughters, lives, and losses. There were still more tears. Afterward they had made love again, slower, with less urgency, but with a deeper pa.s.sion. Sated, they had collapsed into the hammock to catch afew hours of sleep before dawn.
Stepping onto the rear deck, Nate studied the forest. The morning skies were blue and clear, last night's storm longgone, the light sharp andbright. Raindrops still clung to every leaf and blade, glistening like jewels. But that wasn't all. ”You should see this,” he called back to the room.
Kelly, now dressed in her khakis with her s.h.i.+rt half b.u.t.toned, joined him. He glanced to her, stunned again by her beauty. Her eyes widened as she stared beyond the deck's edge. ”How marvelous. . .”
She leaned into him, and he instinctively circled her with his arm.
Covering the upper limbs of the tree, drawn by the moisture, were hundreds of b.u.t.terflies, perched on branches and leaves, fluttering through the bower. Each had wings about a handspan wide, brilliant blue and crystalline green.
”Morphospecies,” Nate said. ”But I've never seen this color pattern:”
Kelly watched one specimen waft by overhead through a beam of sunlight. It seemed to s.h.i.+ne with its own luminescence. ”It's like some-one shattered a stained-gla.s.s window and showered the slivers over the treetops.”
He tightened his arm around her, trying to capture this moment for-ever. They stood in silence and awe for several minutes. Then distant voices intruded, rising up from below.
”I suppose we should go down,” Nate finally said. ”We have a lot to accomplish:”
Kelly nodded and sighed. Nate understood her reluctance. Here, iso-lated above everything else, it waspossible to forget, at least for a while, the heartaches and hards.h.i.+ps ahead of them. But they could not escape the world forever.
Slowly, they finished dressing. As they were about to leave, Nate crossed to the rear deck and unhooked the bamboo-and-palm-leaf awning so it fell back across the rear door, returning the room to the way he found it.
Kelly noticed what he did and moved nearer, examining the hinges along the top margin of the door.
”Closed, it blocks the doorway . . . pushed open and stilted, it's a shade cover for the deck. Clever.”
Nate nodded. Yesterday he had been surprised by the ingenuity, too. ”I've never seen anything like it out here. It's like my father mentioned in his notes. An example of the tribe's advancement over other indigenous peoples. Subtle engineering improvements, like their crude tree elevators.”
”I could use an elevator right now;” Kelly noted, stretching a kink fromher back. ”It does make you wonder, though;' she went on, ”about the Yagga-about what it's doing to these people:”
Nate grunted in agreement, then turned to rea.s.semble his own pack. There was much to wonder about here. Once ready, Nate gave the room a final inspection, then crossed to the door where Kelly crouched.
As Kelly slung her pack to her shoulder, Nate leaned in and kissed her deeply. There was a moment of surprise . . . then she returned the kiss with a matching pa.s.sion. Neither of them had spoken of where the two would go from here. Both knew much of their urgency last night had come from a pair of wounded hearts. But it was a start. Nate looked forward to seeing where it would lead. And if her kiss was a clue, so did Kelly.
They parted, and without another word, they headed to the ladder leading down to the common areas of the dwelling.
As Nate descended, cooking scents swelled around him. He reached the bottom rung and hopped off.
After helping Kelly down, they both walked through the common area to the large front deck. Nate's stomach growled, and he suddenly remembered his hunger.
Around a stone hearth set into the deck, Anna and Kouwe were finish-ing the final preparations for breakfast. Nate spotted a loaf of ca.s.sava bread and a tall stone pitcher of cold water.
Anna swung around with a platter of honest-to-goodness bacon in her arms. She lifted her bounty.
”From wild boar;” she explained. ”A pair of tribeswomen arrived with a feast at daybreak.”
Nate's mouth watered. There was also more fruit, some type of egg, even what looked like a pie.