"I think it"s a great idea, Jonathan. It reminds me of when we went to Myrtle Beach that summer," said Candi, wistfully.
"I"ll be there. Maybe by then we"ll have food from some other part of the island, and we can make it a really good picnic," said Sarah.
"So we have lots of things on our agenda. We have the treehouse to finish, platform exploration, ummm, music night, and a picnic on the beach. That should keep us busy for a while." Jonathan stood up. "No better time to begin than the present. Anyone up for a trip to the center of Peanut Island?"
Everyone volunteered. They left the fire ring to gather supplies, each taking a backpack with a full water bottle, rope, bananas, and cracked coconuts. Jonathan carried the flint and the telescope. They each picked up a spear from Candi"s fishing tackle.
They started walking straight towards the center of the island and were soon in an area that they had never been to before. The trees were dense, birds were chirping and screeching in the canopy above.
"Man, it"s louder here. I can"t hear the ocean anymore," said Sarah.
"If we could figure out how to spear a bird, we could have chicken for dinner," said Kevin, only half joking.
"It took me two weeks to figure out how to spear a fish that was two feet away from me I don"t think I"d be able to do the bird thing anytime soon," said Candi.
"Well, you know, guys, where there are birds, there are eggs ... ," said Jonathan.
"Hey, what"s that?" asked Sarah. On the ground, in a clearing where the sun was able to shine through pretty strongly, was a round, green fruit of some sort. Sarah walked over and picked it up. The tree she was standing next to had several of the same things still attached to its branches. "Is this a lime?"
"Let me see," said Jonathan, holding out his hand.
"Hmm, I don"t think this is a lime. It doesn"t look or feel right. Kevin, do you have the knife with you?"
"Sure, hand it over."
Jonathan gave him the fruit and Kevin sliced it in half. The inside was a bright pink.
Jonathan smiled at Candi. "You know what that is, don"t you?"
"Is it guava?" she asked.
"Yep, I think so." He looked at Sarah and Kevin. "We used to have Mexican night at our house once a week. Our mom would make tacos or enchiladas and we would drink guava juice. The container had a picture of a guava fruit on it. We loved it. I think it has a lot of vitamins too."
"How did a guava tree get all the way over here if it"s a Mexican fruit?" asked Sarah.
Jonathan looked up into the trees. "My guess is it came here in a bird"s b.u.t.t."
Sarah looked at Jonathan like he"d just grown two heads. "I"m sorry. I thought I just heard you say a bird brought a fruit tree here in its b.u.t.t."
"I did. What I meant was, the birds eat the fruit in Mexico, which means they get a seed or two in their bellies, then they fly around in their migratory pattern over to an island, they p.o.o.p, and the seeds come out and start growing. That"s how fruit trees that were native in one place start growing in other places when it"s not man transplanting them, that is."
Kevin cut the fruit up into four pieces. "Let"s give it a try. Bird"s a.s.s fruit. Yum."
They each took a hesitant bite into their piece. All of them smiled, although Sarah not as enthusiastically as the others. "What"s the matter, Sarah, don"t you like it?" asked Candi.
"It"s okay. It"s not my favorite thing in the world; plus the whole bird"s a.s.s thing isn"t very appetizing. But it sure beats the heck out of bananas right now. I"m happy to have a banana break."
"Me too. And I think I could use this to cook with the fish," said Candi.
"You know, guys, we should keep our eyes open for sugar cane," said Jonathan.
"What"s it look like?" asked Kevin.
"Actually, it looks a lot like the bamboo we"ve been cutting down, only it"s shorter and the stalks are thinner, and most of the leaves are at the top."
Sarah looked at Jonathan with a frustrated expression on her face. "How can you possibly know that? Did you download Wikipedia into a hard drive in your brain?"
"Well, about four years ago, in middle school, I did a science experiment about sugar cane. See, I was in the grocery store with my mom, and there were these sticks in the produce department I asked her what they were and she told me they were sugar cane. She bought a cane for me and told me to peel off some of the fibers and chew on them. I did it and it was sweet, like sugar kind of, but different. So then it was time to do a science experiment for school, and I had the sugar cane sitting there. I decided I"d do an experiment about making sugar."
"And how"d that work out for ya?" asked Kevin, smiling.
"Well, I put together a diorama of the process with pictures and stuff. I tried to actually make the sugar at home, but I wasn"t very successful."
"Well if you couldn"t do it at home with a kitchen and everything, I don"t know that we"ll be able to do anything with it here," said Kevin.
"Yeah, but I was trying to make refined sugar like the whole deal with white crystals and stuff. To make things sweet, you just need to squeeze the c.r.a.p out of the fibers. Cane juice is like sugar water kind of. It just still has the brown sugar mola.s.ses in it, so it has a stronger flavor."
"I think I could work with that. We could actually make like a dessert or a sweet coconut drink if we had some sugar cane juice." Candi was obviously getting excited about the idea.
"Mmm, sounds like party time. Island coconut daiquiris, minus the ice and pineapple," said Sarah.
"Okay," said Kevin. "Add it to the list of things to do this week find sugar cane."
The group continued moving through the trees. "I think it would be worthwhile to build some platforms going from the treehouse to the guava area. It took us about forty-five minutes to get here walking on the ground. If we had some sort of platform system and used ropes or something to swing from one to the next, we could move a lot faster," said Jonathan.
Kevin looked above his head into the tree canopy. "We really wouldn"t need to do too much, I don"t think. I mean, there are tons of wide tree limbs that wouldn"t need a platform at all."
Candi eyed the trees suspiciously. "I don"t know about the whole idea, guys. I was never very good at climbing the rope in gym cla.s.s."
"Yeah, me neither," said Sarah.
"Well, we at least need to do a tree climbing cla.s.s," said Kevin. "Who knows when you might be out in the jungle and need to get up off the ground? We still don"t know what other animals are out here."
"That"s a good point, Kevin," said Jonathan. "Let"s put that on the list too tree climbing. Maybe if we get good at tree climbing and rope swinging, we won"t need platforms. I guess we won"t know until we get up into the trees."
They walked on, debating the pros and cons of moving through the trees like monkeys. After a while they stopped for a lunch of bananas and coconut.
"I need to start heading back soon if you guys want fish for dinner," said Candi.
"Oh, man, I definitely want that," said Kevin.
The others agreed.
"Let"s get moving then," said Jonathan. "I suggest we loop a little towards the west side of the island, see if there"s maybe some sugar cane over there where it gets full sun most of the day."
"Might as well," said Sarah.
"Let"s do it," said Kevin.
"Lead the way, Jonathan," said Candi.
The group made a turn, heading towards the west side of the island. They reached the line of trees near the water, but it looked much the same as the east side of the island where they had landed in the lifeboat.
"Well, this is a b.u.mmer," said Jonathan. "I had hoped there"d be something else over here."
"We haven"t gotten all the way around, Jonathan, don"t give up hope yet," said Kevin, clapping him on the back as he took the lead.
Kevin"s stride hadn"t let up, even though they"d been walking for a few hours. The others started to fall behind a little as the humidity and lack of energy caught up with them.
They didn"t see exactly what happened next, but they heard Kevin"s yells.
"Holy ... s.h.i.t ... what the ... hey guys! Need a little help here!"
The others followed the signs of his tracks broken leaves and branches, along with footprints in the soft ground and found him standing in what looked like a sandy bog. He was sunk in up to his ankles.
"What are you doing, Kevin? Quit messing around, get out of there," Sarah insisted.
"I would if I could."
"What is that? Sand?"
"Try quicksand."
"No friggin" way," whispered Candi.
Sarah looked at Candi, who appeared to be as stricken as Sarah felt. Her eyes went back her brother again, unable to compute in her mind what was obviously playing out in front of her.
"Don"t struggle," ordered Jonathan.
"Yeah, I know. That"s what got me in this deep trying to get out."
Kevin was twisting his body around trying to see them behind him. All that did was manage to sink him in up to his calves. "Don"t get too close! You"ll get stuck too."
"Kevin, stop moving!" Sarah panicked as she watched the lower part of his legs disappear under the gelatinous-looking sand. He was now in up to his knees. "I"m going in there to get him," she declared, brazenly.
"No! Stay right where you are," ordered Candi, holding out her arm to block Sarah from walking any closer to her brother.
"We can"t just stand here and watch him get swallowed up in that quicksand! s.h.i.t, I didn"t even know quicksand was real! I thought it was just in the movies!" screeched Sarah, on the edge of hysteria.
Jonathan was staring at Kevin and the bog, tapping his fingertips on his chin.
"Kevin?"
"Yes, Jonathan?"
"I need you to trust me on this, okay?"
"Sure, man, I trust you. What are you thinkin"?"
"Okay, what I need you to do, is lie down in the quicksand."
"Ummm, no thanks, Jon. I think I"ll just stay right here standing up like this."
Sarah looked at Jonathan like he was a madman. "You must be out of your freaking mind!"
"Shhh, no, I"m not out of my mind. You just have to trust me. I"m pretty sure this will work."
"Pretty sure?" asked Kevin. "You"re pretty sure? Couldn"t you be more like "really sure" or "almost one hundred percent sure"?" He laughed nervously.
"Well, I"ve never actually tried this before, so I can"t be totally sure, but according to the laws of physics, this should work. You and I will just have to trust in those laws together."
Kevin barked out a short burst of bitter laughter. "See, though, the problem is, Jon, that physics and I have never really been on the best of terms. I got a C in my last physics cla.s.s, and I"m pretty sure it"s because the teacher liked the firepower a little more than she should have, and not because I actually had a friggin" clue what she was talking about all semester, sooo ... "
"You don"t have to understand physics to be its b.i.t.c.h. Now either do what I say, or sink. It"s up to you."
Everyone looked at Jonathan like he was totally off the range.
"Great," Sarah threw up her hands, "he"s finally cracked. Now. When we need his brain the most." She walked over to Jonathan and snapped her fingers in his face. "h.e.l.lo! Is there anybody in there? Jonathan? We need you to come back to us, babe."
He brushed her hand away from his face. "Listen, this is what"s called tough love. Now, Kevin, lay your b.u.t.t down horizontally in that sand and then roll over here to where we"re standing. It"s the only way out."
Kevin sighed. He looked around, as if trying to find another solution but coming up empty. "Okay, Jon, you win. So far you"ve never let us down, so I"m going to trust you. I"m putting myself in your hands. Brothers?"
He held up his hand ceremoniously.
Jonathan held up his hand at Kevin. "Brothers. Now throw me your backpack."
Kevin obeyed and then leaned forward so that he could get his body horizontal in the muck. It was difficult at first his legs didn"t want to come out, but eventually the weight of his upper body pulled him down. Then he began to float on the top of the surface.
Sarah clasped her hands together and squeezed for all she was worth. She began bouncing up and down on her toes, chanting, "Come on, come on, come on ..."
"Now roll over here!" yelled Jonathan, in an excited voice. "Ha, ha! It"s working!"
Candi looked at her brother in horror. "You act like you"re surprised!"
Jonathan shrugged, smiling. "Well I am, kind of. I mean, I suspected it would work, but I didn"t know for sure until he actually did it." His face was alight with the joy of the discovery he"d just made.
Sarah shook her head at him and swallowed the lump in her throat. She turned back to Kevin just in time to see him roll out of the muck at Candi"s feet.
He moved to get up, but before he was completely vertical, Candi grabbed him in a huge bear hug. She was so small compared to Kevin, it didn"t look very effective, but he seemed to get the idea behind the gesture.
"Hey, little Gumdrop, are you happy to see me?"
"Yes," she answered from his shirtfront. "Don"t ever do that again."
Sarah, now much more in control after seeing her brother safe and sound, walked over and slapped him on the arm. "Yeah, don"t ever do that again. You scared the c.r.a.p out of me. Can you imagine what Dad would say? "Oh yeah, sorry Mom and Dad, but Kevin sank in a pit of quicksand while I watched ... sorry "bout that." Yeah, that would go over really well."