Candi reached up, self-consciously touching her hair. She knew it looked terrible. Sarah had suggested dreadlocks, and so far Candi had resisted. But she knew if she didn"t make an effort to do something soon, she"d just have a matted mess and nothing to fix. She decided then and there to have Sarah put it in dreadlocks. When she got back home she could just cut them all off and start over.
When she reached the treehouse, she found Kevin chopping thin stalks of bamboo into short lengths. He already had about ten of them on the ground.
"Whatcha makin"?" asked Candi.
"I"m making the materials for a rat cage. I found more rat c.r.a.p down here by our fire. I thought we should try to trap some of them and see what"s what."
Jonathan and Sarah came through the trees to join them.
"Sarah, do you think you can make rat traps if I give you some specifications?" asked Jonathan.
"Probably, if you ask nicely."
Jonathan just looked at her and raised one eyebrow.
Candi watched as they exchanged a look that told her things were getting steamy in the jungle. She looked over at Kevin, but he seemed oblivious.
The group spent the next hour debating the best rat trap design while Sarah built the box that was going to serve as a cage.
"I think the Wiley Coyote Looney Tunes style is the best," said Jonathan.
"What the heck are you talking about?" asked Kevin.
"You know ... Looney Tunes? They"re cla.s.sic cartoons. Old-school."
"I don"t remember an episode with rat trips ... sorry."
"It was a Road Runner trap. Anyway, you have a box that"s propped up by a stick that has a string tied to it and food attached to the string. The idea is that a rat will grab the food and run away with it, pulling the string, causing the stick to fall, thereby causing the box to fall down on top of the rat, trapping him inside."
Kevin thought about it for second and then started nodding slowly. "You really think that could work?"
"Yes. We"ve got the box." He gestured to Sarah"s newly finished project. "So, now we just need to tie some fish guts to a string that"s attached to a stick, and we"ll be all set."
"Well, I was going to go fishing again anyway, so maybe today"s a good day for all of us to have a lesson I"ve gotten pretty good at it, if I do say so myself," said Candi.
"Yeah, maybe us men can give you some pointers down there while we"re at it."
Candi scoffed at Kevin"s comment. "Yeah, we"ll see about that. Come on, let"s go now."
Everyone stood up and went over to grab a fishing spear from the collection Candi kept handy and sharp. They waited for Sarah to stow her rat box and then headed down to the shallows as a group.
Candi had found an area that had several rocks scattered in shallow pools of water that deepened around the base of the rocks. These spots seemed to be the favorite haunts of the fish.
"Okay, first lesson don"t let them see your shadow. And don"t sing. I found out eventually that they don"t like noise."
Everyone got up on one of the big rocks in the water with Candi.
"Now you have to sit and wait for a fish to come. Sometimes they"re hard to see, since they"re basically the same color as the sand most of the time. Just look for movement. The only thing you can really see is the black of their eyes."
"I can"t see s.h.i.t," said Sarah.
"Yeah, me neither," said Kevin.
Jonathan was staring so intently into the water, he looked like he was in a trance. "Yeah, sorry, Candi. I can"t see a thing."
"Well, it"s not like there are a million of them out here, you have to be patient. Oh, wait! Look. One"s coming now."
She gestured a little to the left, to an area that was near the deeper water.
"I still can"t see s.h.i.t."
"You will. Wait until it"s closer." Candi had lowered her voice to a whisper. "Now, when it"s close enough, slowly raise your spear slowly they don"t like sudden movements. And remember, the water distorts their actual position, so you have to aim kind of behind where you actually think they are."
Candi stood poised on the rock, spear raised above her head. She was staring intently at the water. She could feel Kevin watching her from the other side of the rock.
She lunged. The spear flew out of her hand and sliced neatly into the water. Candi jumped in after the spear and quickly picked it up, lifting the tip towards the sky.
She shook the water out of her eyes and hair. "You have to get the spear turned upside down pretty quick, otherwise they wiggle off the end and you lose "em or you have to go running all over the place to chase them down."
A shiny fish was flipping back and forth about five inches from the end of her spear point. Candi was smiling up at the group on the rock. "See? Easy! Now you guys try."
She climbed back up easily, the well-toned muscles in her arms and legs flexing with the well-practiced movements. "We have to spread out, though. I"ve just scared the fish from this pool, so we have to move. You guys make sure you have at least one empty rock between you, that way you won"t scare each other"s prey away."
They followed Candi"s directions and spread out, examining the water for potential dinner candidates. The first one to try their hand at spearing was Kevin.
"I see one," he said in a loud stage whisper.
"Okay! Remember to spear a bit behind where you think the fish is."
"Raaah booyah!!!!" was the next thing they heard, then a big splash.
"What the h.e.l.l?" Jonathan turned around to see what Kevin was doing.
Kevin came up with an empty spear. "Dammit, missed that sucker. Hmm." He looked confused, staring into the water and then at the top of his spear. "I think there"s something wrong with my spear."
Candi laughed. "There"s nothing wrong with your spear, it"s your technique."
Kevin looked hurt. "What"s wrong with my technique?"
"Maybe next time use a little less Rambo and a lot more stealth."
Kevin frowned at her but didn"t say anything.
Jonathan was next up, but he didn"t have any better luck, even though he was less enthusiastic with his war cry.
"This isn"t as easy as I thought it was going to be."
Candi looked at him crossly. "Of course it"s not easy. Why do you think it took me two weeks straight to figure it out?"
Jonathan shrugged his shoulders, "I don"t know. I guess because you"re a girl."
Jonathan never saw it coming. WHACK!
"Owww, Sarah! What the heck was that for?" He bent down to rub the welt that was coming 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 fishing, 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 cushions 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 ship, 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 shiny, 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.