Village E3: Survival of the Human Spirit (12 page)

While they were in camp, they were in
a habit of keeping the knife on a flat rock. John sat eating fish and looking
at the knife. Katie hadn't noticed, but Hailey could tell that John was
thinking about something. "You OK?" asked Hailey. "Yep," he
said. John got up, retrieved the knife, and returned to his seat.

He felt the edge of the blade, as if
to test its sharpness, then looked at the palm of his hand. He turned his hand
over and looked at the back, then turned it palm side up again. Placing the
edge of the knife on the fat part of his index finger, he slowly pulled it
across his flesh as Hailey watched him with wide eyes.

"Are you crazy! What are you
doing?" she screamed out. "I have to find out how it healed so
fast," said John, holding his hand out from his body, letting the blood
drip from the end of his finger. "You're nuts," said Hailey, taking
the knife from his hand.

Katie was already getting the first
aid kit from the hut. As she came out, with the kit already opened in her hand,
she stopped when she heard John say he wasn't going to tape it up this time. "Think
about us," said Hailey, still angry. "We need you. We can't afford
for you to get a bad infection," said Katie, trying to be a peace maker.
"I'll be all right. I'm going to find out what is going on, one way or
another," said John.

"Let us at least wash it
off," said Katie. "Might as well, it looks like it already stopped
bleeding," said John. He held his hand out, and let Katie pour water over
the deep cut. "I'm staying up tonight," said John. "Go ahead.
I'm going to get some sleep when it's time," said Hailey, still sounding
upset. "I'm with Hailey," said Katie. Later that evening, they left
John sitting by the fire, as they went to bed.

The quiet of morning, along with the
increasing light, woke Hailey. Having slipped into bed some time during the
night, John was next to her. She tried looking over him and even though he'd
been up most of the night, her movement woke him. He rolled part way over, and
lifted his left hand toward her face. "It's healed," he said.
"It was like watching grass grow, but it finally healed up," said
John, sounding pleased with himself. "It was pretty amazing to
watch," he said.

This was new information for them. If
small wounds could heal overnight, then what else could their bodies do that
they didn't know about? This knowledge was interesting and useful, but there
was still so much they didn't know.

After several weeks, it became
evident that what they had feared was true. Both Hailey and Katie were visibly
pregnant, and were each fat enough that they couldn't button their shorts. Improvising,
they each used vines around their waists to keep their shorts up.

It didn't take them long to realize
that once they were pregnant, they didn't have to worry about getting pregnant.
Love making sessions were an almost daily activity, but a threesome was too
much to handle for Hailey and Katie. At first one or the other of them would
make an excuse to leave, but they finally reached a comfort level that they
could each spend time with John without the other having to leave the area.

Hailey was more accepting of the
situation, but Katie still felt a twinge of jealousy when Hailey and John spent
time in the hut alone. Nighttime was the most awkward because cuddling without
having a touch lead to more was hard on all three of them. It didn't take them
long to realize that having John in the middle at night wasn't going to work,
so he slept on the outside, and Hailey and Katie took turns being in the
middle.

Today was one of those lazy days when
all of the chores caught up, so they could relax a little. They had plenty of
wood, water, fruit, and full stomachs. After eating a fish, Hailey walked
toward the fire to throw her stick in, but as she walked past John, he
playfully swatted her on the butt. Hailey turned and grabbed him, then wrestled
him to the ground, as they both laughed. The laughter increased when John
tickled her. "Good grief, get a room," said Katie. "Want
to?" John asked Hailey.

Hailey grinned, got up, and took John
by the hand. Katie watched as they walked away. She still had a little bit of
fish left on her stick and threw it into the fire, fish and all. It seemed like
an eternity to Katie before Hailey came out of the hut alone and took her place
by the fire. "I think I wore him out," said Hailey. Slightly miffed
at what seemed like bragging, Katie realized that tonight was her night to
sleep on the outside. Without saying a word, Katie went to the hut and stood in
the doorway. She saw that John was still in bed.

Crawling in bed next to him, she
began kissing his neck. "You will have to give me some time to
recover," said John, smiling at the extra attention he was getting.
"It's OK, I just want to spend some time with you," said Katie. Pulling
her close, they snuggled for a while. After a few minutes, Katie began
caressing him all over and it didn't take long for her to see that he was ready
to focus on her now.

He started kissing her, slowly at
first, then more passionately. Even though she hated how being second made her
feel, Katie liked how it made John take his time. They spent the next
forty-five minutes trying new things, and she could tell that he was really
getting into it. Normally quiet, she let out some loud moans as she finished.
John took that as his cue to feel free to join her. Totally spent, they held
each other and were both asleep in minutes.

After a couple of hours, Katie woke
John with a kiss on his cheek. She was dressed and kneeling next to him.
"You can stay in here for a while if you want," she said. "No,
wait, let me get dressed," John said, as he sat up, still dreary eyed. For
John, getting dressed meant just putting on his jean shorts.

Once he was dressed, he pulled Katie
close to him. They embraced for a short while, then walked out of the hut.
"Man, I thought you guys died in there," said Hailey. "I almost
did," John said with a grin. "Want to take a dip?" asked Hailey.
Katie and John both thought it sounded good, so they went to their familiar
spot for a swim.

Once they reached the pool, Hailey
and Katie got undressed, making their rounded tummies even more noticeable
without their clothes. John couldn't help making a joke. "I know I've told
you that I never would have thought I'd be alone with two bald ladies in the
jungle, but being alone in the jungle with two bald
fat
ladies is even
more unbelievable," he said with a chuckle.

"Do you want us to cut you off?"
asked Hailey, only half joking. "OK, I withdraw my comment," said
John, in retreat. "I know we've talked about this before, but I wonder if
the babies are mine," John wondered. "We will just have to wait and
see. If they come out of the womb cracking stupid jokes, we'll know they are
yours for sure," said Hailey. Katie laughed out loud. "Ok, you are
both cut off," said John. Hailey and Katie both laughed out loud this
time. "I hate it when a bluff doesn't work," said John.

After cleaning up and rinsing their
clothes out, it was time to catch some fish. They kept their fishing mat and
pole next to the stream, leaning against a tree. They still used the pole
sometimes, but they all enjoyed the excitement of using the fishing mat. By
trial and error, they had learned that fish scraps made excellent bait.

With the skill that comes with
repetition, they lowered the mat to the bottom and held it. Small bits of
leaves were then thrown in to disturb the surface of the water. This usually
attracted schools of small fish. As the small fish came in, they threw very
small pieces of fish scraps, saved from the previous fishing attempt. Once the
fish were actively feeding above the mat, someone would say "ready",
then "now." More times than not, one attempt was sufficient to catch
enough for a meal.

This time was no exception, as they
raised the mat out of the water, there were more fish flopping on it than they
needed. They carried the mat to shore, then threw back some of the smaller
fish. Even though they had been fishing exclusively from this one spot, they
hadn't noticed a drop off in numbers yet. Working as a team, they were becoming
very efficient at their chores, and now had more hours of free time. Tomorrow
they planned to do some exploring back at the cabin, since they hadn't been
back since the burial. After eating their evening meal and taking care of
routine chores, they went to bed, each with returning to the cabin on their
minds.

They were all up early the next
morning. This day would be different than most, and it was exciting to have a
break in what had become a sometimes monotonous existence. They ate a quick
breakfast of fruit, picked the day before. Any time they went exploring, they
always took their blanket with them, because it was great for carrying things.
Since it seemed to be indestructible, they used it a lot. Katie came out of the
hut with the blanket in her hand and after they each drank their fill of water,
they set out for the cabin.

Even though they had already searched
through the cabin, they went straight inside looking over the same areas they
had searched before. Katie went over to the bed, where the bones once were. She
stood there for a brief moment, then knelt to the floor and looked underneath.
"Hey, there's something under the bed," she said.

John and Hailey came over as Katie
was reaching for something. John could tell she was having trouble getting it,
so he grabbed the edge of the bed and flipped it over. Underneath were three
containers; a square one, and two smaller round ones. The square one was about
a foot across and the round ones were about six inches across and about six
inches tall. Remembering how the other containers they found opened, Katie
pushed down on the lid, which easily popped open.

The box was like a time capsule. Katie
pulled out a Canadian coin, looked it over, then handed it to John. Next she
reached in and retrieved a very small white object. "It's a tooth. A
child's tooth," she said. "Here are two more," she said,
reaching in again. The last item was a pocket knife. "Let me see
that," said John. Taking it from Katie, he opened the main blade and
tested its sharpness with his thumb. "Still in pretty good shape," he
said.

Hailey had already opened one of the
round containers. "Seeds," she said, holding it out for the other two
to see. "They are all mixed up," said Katie. "Looks like corn
and beans, and some other stuff too," said John. "I wonder if they
would still come up," said Hailey.

John inspected the construction of
the square box. The corners were rounded, both on the inside and on the
outside. "This is a great find. More containers will come in handy,"
said Hailey. "I know. It's not like we can go out and buy these,"
said Katie admiring one of the containers in her hand. With each of them
holding a container, they searched every nook and cranny inside the cabin. Once
they were satisfied that there was nothing left to find, they went back
outside. "I wonder what happened to the children," said Katie.
"Who knows. It's one of the million things we don't know about this
place," said John. "Now what?" asked Hailey. "Why don't we
look in the back. We haven't searched there yet," said John.

As they made their way to the back of
the cabin, they noticed some kind of structure off to one side. There wasn't
much of it left, but they could tell that it was manmade. There were remnants
of a pole type fence, most of which had fallen down. On the far side of the
fence was a pile of wood, which might have been
some sort of outbuilding at one time. John made his way to the pile and lifted
up some of the wood. As a cavity opened up, he continued to work on it until he
was able to squeeze inside. Just behind him, Hailey and Katie peered in.

"This looks a little like the
egg laying boxes my grandparents had for their chickens. Maybe they had
chickens," said John. "Wow, wouldn't that be great," said
Hailey. Pulling on more of the wood, John made another great find. It was
another container, but much larger than the others. It was about four feet
long, by two feet wide, and was made of the same type of material as the other ones.
John opened it and was a little disappointed to find that it was empty. It was
filthy on the outside but spotless on the inside. "This will be great for
keeping our fruit in," said John.

They continued to look around the
area, hoping to find more. As they went a little farther behind the cabin, they
could see more blue sky ahead. As they stepped into a clearing, they could see
that it wasn't natural, because it was rectangular in shape. In the clearing
were two neatly spaced rows of trees, which appeared to be fruit trees.

"It looks like an orchard,"
said John. As they moved forward, they discovered that they were citrus trees.
There were oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits. Just beyond the trees was
an area with pineapple plants. There was some vegetation growing between the
trees, but it was almost as if someone was still taking care of the place.
"This is amazing," said Hailey. "None of it is ready to pick,
but just think about when it is. Wow!"

As they moved beyond the pineapple
plants, they found a large mostly bare area. "This must be where they had
their garden," said John. "They had a pretty good life here,"
said Katie. To Katie, this whole area represented
an untold love story. She knew very little of the story, but was quickly
filling in the blanks in her mind.

What a horrible end to a love story.
Two lives ending, with not a single person around to care,
Katie thought, as a tear formed in
the corner of her eye. "I know Katie, it's so sad," said Hailey
seeing the tear. "Being here reminds me of when we went to visit my
grandparent's place, after my grandmother died. It was empty, and it was sad,"
said John. After they reached the end of the clearing, there wasn't anything
left to see. None of them said much as they turned around and went back. Picking
up their new containers, they returned home.