I must have dozed off while he was working on his project, because the next thing I know, he is gently nudging me awake.
“How long was I out?” I ask as I rub the sleep from my eyes.
“Not long, but I figured you needed it.” I feel him lift my hair off my shoulders. “May I borrow your head again, my lady?” I laugh at his horrible impression of an English accent, and lean my head towards him to give him better access. Besides, who am I to refuse a second head massage?
But instead of combing or rubbing, I feel him twist my hair. I automatically turn to see what he’s up to. “No peeking!” he chides, and gently presses his palm against my cheek and turns my head back around. I feel a bit more twisting, some gentle tugging, and finally something being slid into my hair.
“Voila, you’re done,” he announces, this time in a terrible French accent. He tugs me to my feet and turns me to face him. “You look fabulous,” he flamboyantly croons as he turns me around to model.
I reach up and feel my hair. He has twisted it into a bun, and used two branches that he’s whittled smooth to secure it – like you would do with a pair of chopsticks. Touched, I feel my eyes becoming glossy, and I quickly blink the moisture away.
“Thank you,” I whisper and smile, afraid anything more would make my voice crack. But it’s enough. His smile beams back at me.
With my hair tamed and myself relaxed, we lazily enjoy a lunch of berries. We finish by filling our containers with all the berries they can hold. We have enough to last us for several days, even eating generous portions.
I awake the next morning to hear something tapping on the igloo. I roll over and see that Ryan is awake too. He presses his fingers to his lips. We sit for a moment, wondering what is trying to get in. Then I hear a familiar chirping and cooing.
“Caper?” I ask warily.
I’m greeted by a symphony of his chirps and coos. Quickly I climb out of the sleeping bag, and I begin to unzip the igloo. But Ryan grabs my hand before I can finish.
“Are you sure it’s him and not another
meerkit
? We have our packs filled with berries right next to us.” He continues to hold my wrist.
“It’s him. What do you need him to prove it to you?” I grab my hand back.
“Just be careful,” he says wearily.
I unzip the igloo just enough to let Caper in, but not a larger
meerkit
, and call to him. His familiar face bounds into the igloo. He greets us both, warmly purring and wrapping his body and tail around us as he circles us.
“We missed you too, Caper,” I laugh. I’m overjoyed to see his familiar face.
“Maybe this means we’re closer to home than we thought,” Ryan says hopefully.
“I’d like to think that, but it’s more likely that
meerkits
cover a larger area of territory than we guessed.” I sigh. “But if Caper decides to stay with us, we definitely have better odds of making it home.”
“True,” Ryan says as he rubs Caper’s head. Ryan may not admit it, but I think he’s as happy to see Caper as I am.
Over the next several days, Caper proves himself the best scout we could have asked for. The opal berries turn out to be Caper’s main food source. He knows where every patch of berries is located along the river. Sometimes Caper even leads us to lakes with side streams that don’t branch out of the main river, but lead west toward other bodies of water. We quickly stop questioning his insistence at detours, and just follow as he leads us to both water sources and berries. It seems that wherever the berries grow in abundance, there is more white marble rock and a pool of water. I wonder if the berries are capable of growing in any other conditions. I use two of our smallest containers to collect both water and rock samples.
“You just can’t suppress the scientist in you, can you?” Ryan snickers, earning a glare from me.
“Are you faulting me for wanting to know more about the fruit that’s keeping us alive?” I raise my eyebrows. Then I walk over and stretch out on the warm marble beside him.
“Not at all; I’m just enjoying watching you act like yourself, despite everything.” His snickering has turned into a smirk.
“Everything considered, this has been a rather pleasant trek through the unknown wilderness. With regular baths and food, it’s starting to feel more like a vacation than being stranded in the middle of the woods,” I muse.
“I know what you mean. I can’t regret the day you risked your life and met Caper.” Ryan sighs and turns to watch Caper happily swinging from branches and vines.
“I hope you’re not getting overprotective of me again,” I chastise and roll over to face him.
“I always feel protective of you. That’s why I get so angry when you intentionally put yourself in harm’s way. I couldn’t live with myself if I allowed something to happen to you.” His eyes are suddenly distant and full of pain, as if he’s reliving one of those moments, but imagining the worst actually happening.
“Hey,” I say softly, placing my hand on his shoulder to bring him back to the present. “I feel the same way about you, Ryan. You’ve put yourself in harm’s way plenty of times, and I was sick with worry for you all of those times, too. I just didn’t rip your head off for doing it.”
“I’ll try to control my temper if you try to stay out of trouble.” He reaches over and grabs my hand in his. His bright green eyes are fraught with pain, concern. He reaches up and brushes a stray hair out of my face. My pulse quickens, and I realize I’m holding my breath.
“
Purr
!”
I jump back, startled. Caper has jumped right into the middle of us.
“I think he’s telling us that it’s time to go,” I breathe.
We quickly get dressed in our recently dried clothes, and gather our things in silence. Things suddenly feel strained between us. Neither one of us talks about it or even dares to bring up the topic, but we both realize we almost kissed. The entire morning’s walk we just suffer through each other’s silence.
In the afternoon, Ryan finally speaks up. Apparently, he wants to pretend that nothing at all happened, because he starts asking random questions again.
“So what’s the first thing you want to do when you get back on base?” Ryan asks.
“That’s an easy question. Hug and thank
Andi
. How about you?”
“Well after I thank
Andi
, I guess I’d want a long, hot shower. Don’t get me wrong; I like the swimming, but nothing can compare to a boiling hot shower. How about you? What would you do after thanking
Andi
?”
I pause briefly, daydreaming about a hot, steamy shower, then respond. “Hmm, that question’s a little harder. I’m going to say curl up with a good book in one of the library’s comfy chairs. After that, I would head down to the dance floor to watch all our friends dance.”
“That sounds nice, but I wouldn’t let you get away without dancing yourself.”
He grabs my hand and proceeds to twirl me around, but my ring catches on his hand and scratches him.
“Are you okay?” I reach out and grab his hand to examine it.
“I’m fine,” he snaps, snatching it back. “There’s no blood.”
He continues to scowl, even though he doesn’t look like he’s in pain or anything.
I let him fume for a bit as I get lost in my own thoughts. Neither of us had said the first thing we want to do is to see Kelly or Brody. In fact, they didn’t come up at all. What does that say about us? I’ve hardly thought about Brody since the flood. I’m more confused
now
about my feelings for Brody than I was the night he proposed. After all, it’s not normal to have a panic attack when you’re asked to marry a person, and I never did say yes to him. Am I so shallow that a few weeks away from him have erased all my feelings? I don’t know what to think anymore.
Several days pass before Caper greets us again. We had started to worry. Caper, on the other hand, acts as if nothing unusual has happened. He simply leads us to more berries and water, eats, and then plays in the trees. I’m thankful to have a bath and be well fed again. During the last few days, Ryan and I haven’t had any luck finding a side river that could lead us to berries.
After washing, I toss the soap to Ryan, and I stretch out on a rock facing the water. I watch Caper swinging from the trees, and I laugh at his playful enjoyment. Then my eyes are drawn to Ryan rubbing the soap on his chest. I still marvel at how a shirt can so easily hide such perfection. His torso looks as if it has been carved by an artist, and there’s hardly any hair on his chest. I’m wondering how pleasant it would feel to run my hands across that chest when I notice Ryan staring back at me. I blush and roll onto my back, trying to pretend I had been lost in thought. I close my eyes and focus on the feeling of the sun beating down, warming the rock and my skin. I pretend that is the reason for the sudden heat I feel.
“Are you enjoying the view this morning?” I hear Ryan chuckle as he lies down next to me.
I try to feign innocence. “Huh?”
“There’s no use trying to wiggle out of it. I caught you looking.” He stares straight into my eyes, daring me to deny it again.
“Well you’re no underwear model, but you’re not too bad to look at,” I admit, blushing at my own brazenness.
“Then I guess it’s only fair that I get to look back at you,” he teases, then props himself up on one elbow and looks me up and down in an exaggerated fashion.
“Like you haven’t looked already. I’ve caught you peeking before.”
“Okay, so it’s true, but you’re not so bad to look at either.” As he continues to tease me, he grabs my hands and pulls me to my feet. I’m acutely aware of his scantily clothed body so close to mine. He runs a finger down my arm and toward my hand. He stops abruptly when he gets to my ring. He turns, grabs a container, and starts picking berries. I have a sudden urge to fling the ring into the water, but a stab of guilt restrains me.
The rest of the day we walk in silence. Again, I am lost in my thoughts. What am I doing? I love Brody. Don’t I? It’s only been a few weeks since I saw him, but I’m having a hard time remembering what I even like about him.
I chastise myself for being so fickle and convince myself that I’m only responding to the proximity being stranded has forced upon Ryan and I.
Chapter 21
The next day there is no sign of Caper, so we continue our walk without him. It’s a hard day of walking; the sun is beating relentlessly down on us. We’re clearly experiencing a heat wave. We break early for lunch when we find a well-shaded area. Ryan decides to continue with his random questions during lunch. “So what do you think you’d be doing this very moment if you had stayed on Earth?” he muses.
“Not getting annoyed by someone asking stupid questions,” I grumble as a bead of sweat drips down my neck.
“Oh come on, you can do better than that.” He adds, “If you still had your parents with you, what do you think you’d be doing?”
After grumbling my displeasure, I give it some honest thought. “Hmm. I would have dragged my feet and procrastinated applying to colleges, and, as a result, missed all the deadlines. So I’d end up in community college for my first year or two, until I could figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.” I pause, realizing my timeline is way off. “But right now I’d still be in high school, so… I’d be sitting in my English Literature class, rolling my eyes because the kid next to me is whining that a two-page essay on the book we just read is just too much work.”
“Yeah, I’d roll my eyes too.” He chuckles. “Good details. Sounds like you had your whole life planned out.” The sarcasm in his tone is unmistakable.
“Now it’s your turn. And no copying my answer,” I caution.
“No problem. I already know what I’d be doing. It’s summer break, so I’d be working with my dad and oldest brother at the factory. Because there isn’t any money for college, it’s also where I’ll be after graduation. I’d take one course at a time, when I had enough money saved up for it. Right now I’d be in the lunchroom, trying to read a book, but my brother and his friends would keep disrupting me, taunting that books are for sissies.”
His voice suddenly sounds sad.
“You miss them.” I place my hand on his shoulder, unsure how to comfort him. There is no ‘
right now
’ for our families: we lost them long ago.
“I do. Despite our differences, they were still my family,” he admits, looking around uncomfortably. “We should get moving before we’re here all day.” He shakes my hand off his shoulder and stands. Apparently the discussion is over. He keeps his back to me as he packs, but I notice the unmistakable sniffs that tell me he is crying.
I gather my pack and silently walk after him, but after traveling just a short distance, I stop and look around. The most incredible smell vigorously assaults my senses. I can’t describe it. It’s like a combination of all my favorite smells meshed into one wonderful symphony. I look around for the source and notice a beautiful flower, towering above the underbrush. It looks like a blue tiger lily. I hear Ryan’s annoyed huff in the distance, but pay it no heed. My senses are overwhelmed with the scent the flower is emitting. Without thinking, I walk towards it, my hand outstretched.