~ * * ~
“Jack…Jack…Jack!” the frantic whispering finally penetrated my consciousness.
Instantly awake and alert, I glanced down in the dimming light and could make out Valerie’s panicked figure moving from tree to tree whispering into the darkness.
“Jack, where are you?”
“Damn,” I muttered under my breath, she wasn’t even wearing her raincoat even though it was pouring.
Sliding down from my perch I turned and collided with the frightened, half-drowned figure who grasped the front of my jacket with shaking fingers demanding angrily “Where have you been? I thought you’d left me…I called and you didn’t answer…”
“I’m here now,” I broke in, disengaging her hands roughly. “I told you to stay out of the rain.”
“Yeah you tell me a lot of things, but you never explain anything,” she accused “like why you only built the shelter for one…or where you were planning to be…or…?”
“Could you at least put your raincoat on?” I asked resignedly. “Or is that too much like telling you?”
Turning on her heel, she stormed angrily towards the shelter. I followed and attempted to assist her as she donned her coat, but she shrugged me off irately.
“Why did you take it off in the first place?”
“I was using it as a blanket,” she returned defensively “but I was…worried…when I woke up and couldn’t find you and didn’t think to put it back on.”
I crouched down beside the shelter as I shrugged out of my pack and fished out a C-Ration, placing it on the amazingly dry ground under the impromptu shelter.
“What’s that?” she asked suspiciously in my ear startling me.
“Food,” I answered shortly picking up my pack and withdrawing quickly to a safe distance.
“Will you stay here with me?” she asked tentatively, all traces of anger gone from her voice.
“No room.”
“I’ll make room,” she moved as far over to one side as she could, her legs sticking out into the rain. “Please,” she pleaded softly.
Sighing heavily I dropped my pack to the ground next to the shelter and slid my upper body into the small space.
“Thank you.”
I grunted noncommittally.
“That’s a lot of food,” she eyed the cans doubtfully. “I’m not really that hungry.”
“Pick a can,” I ordered. “We won’t stop to eat once we get going and I don’t want you fainting on me.”
“Do you dislike all women, or is it just me?”
“I don’t dislike you.”
“You’re giving a very good imitation of it then.”
“Which can?”
“What?” she blinked in confusion at my change of subject.
“Which can do you want?” I asked as patiently as I could manage.
“Surprise me,” she answered dismissively. “Is it that you don’t trust me?”
“I trust you fine,” I replied curtly. “Here,” I pulled the lid off of some weird looking meat like substance “I think it’s supposed to be turkey loaf or something,” I wrinkled my nose as I handed it to her along with the spoon I’d uncovered.
She tentatively took a bite and then commented “It’s not as bad as it looks…do you want some?”
“No thanks,” I attempted not to shudder.
“So you’re making me eat but you aren’t going to.”
“I ate…yesterday,” I couldn’t keep the humour from creeping into my voice.
She laughed, “Well I guess you’re good for at least another week then.”
There was silence as she finished the can.
“I guess you’re tired of…what did you call it…C-Rations.”
“Pretty much,” I agreed.
“So I’m guessing by your long hair you’ve been in Colombia more than a month,” she continued conversationally.
“Something like that,” I hedged. “So why did you choose Colombia? I’m sure you could have gone anywhere and been welcome with your medical knowledge and skills.”
“A friend of mine from nursing school was here, but got sick and had to return to the states,” she explained. “I was temporarily taking her place, but she developed complications and died…and so I stayed.”
“Cutting off his leg must have been hard.”
“It was the single hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and I was scared to death, afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop the bleeding and…” she broke off and I could hear the tears in her voice.
I wanted nothing more at that moment than to have the right to take her in my arms and comfort her, but I was worried that if I touched her, I wouldn’t be able to stop…besides the fact that I smelled worse than a sewer.
Abruptly I slid out of the shelter and as I straightened I instructed brusquely, “Finish eating, use the…facilities…and we’ll get started.”
“Bossy,” I heard her mutter under her breath as I headed into the forest to use the ‘facilities’ myself.