Page 60 of Wild Life
In my hurry with Poaka, I had forgotten to grab a basket, so I’d run back to the hut. Instead of following me, he had scampered away. I’d assumed he had been excited for our activity and had headed off to the tree, but when I had gone to find him, he hadn’t been there.
Aleki nodded his head, his expression flat as if I’d told him the sky was blue. “Okay.”
I sucked air through my teeth, casting the most judgmental glare I could muster. “Some pig-dad you are! Aren’t you worried he’s lost?” My relationship with Poaka was barely a blip in time compared to his relationship with Aleki. If this was how Aleki treated his friends, I wanted to disqualify myself from the running.
“Poaka never gets lost. He always finds his way back to me,” he said, unaffected.
“You sound like a Christmas-card commercial.” I sighed. “He could be in danger!”
“Poaka? He’s a danger to himself just walking.” Aleki snorted, and my palm itched to smack the smirk off his face. “I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he’s off roaming. He knows the jungle better than me.”
I worried my bottom lip as images of Poaka being cornered by a bear played through my mind. I wasn’t sure if there were bears nearby, but in my head, they were big and scary with razor-sharp teeth.
“You’re worried about him, and nothing I say will quiet those thoughts, huh?” Aleki tapped my temple softly before pressing his lips to the spot.
“I wish you’d use your mind-reading abilities to find our pig,” I jabbed.
His brow hiked. “Our?”
“Yes, ours. The furry blob eats nearly half of my meals, so that practically makes him my brother.” Poaka was an important part of my life now. He was like the dog I’d never had. He followed me everywhere and snuggled in my lap anytime I sat on the ground. If he wasn’t on my heels, his phantom footsteps were.
“Fine. I’ll help you look for him,” Aleki caved, and we started our search.
“Thank God. I was ready to go with plan B to convince you and pop out a tit.”
Aleki halted. “Wait. I could have gotten to see a nipple if I’d held out a little longer?”
I pulled his hand and dragged him along so as not to waste another minute. “You would’ve gotten to see both if you had helped me at the start of this conversation.”
“It’s not too late to change your strategy.” He pawed at my shirt from behind, pulling it up to sneak a peek, but I batted him away.
“Ease up, caveman. Pig before tits.”
I led him to where I had parted ways with Poaka, and we called for him. No luck.
Aleki scanned every direction, waiting for a mass of cream-and-black to barrel into us. “That’s so strange. He at least comes when I call for him.”
We continued through the coarse jungle.
The trees were so densely packed together that I struggled to see in the limited sunlight that reached us. The brush underneath swallowed my feet with each step, vines winding around my ankles like tentacles. This wasn’t a welcoming place at all.
“I don’t ever remember seeing this part of the island,” I said.
“I never come out here.” Aleki was having a difficult time weeding through the terrain, too.
“Why not?” I asked. He didn’t strike me as the type of person to ever be held back by anything.
“Snakes.”
Something brushed my leg, and I screamed. Aleki caught me as I leaped away. The image of a slimy snake slithering up my leg flashed in my head, convincing me I had been bitten. My leg tingled, and I knew I was going to die without an antidote available.Oh God. Why me?
Aleki examined the ground. “Vine.”
I slid from his arms, my cheeks heating. “Oh, okay.” I tried to play off my dramatic response, but Aleki grinned like an idiot.
“Ass,” he said, biting back a laugh.
“What’d you call me, motherfucker?” I estimated that if I slapped him, I would have a two-second lead if I ran away right after.
