Page 33 of The Legend
“Well, forone…we were in the woods.” Water splashed me in the face when Emma tried tohelp us by flailing her arms. “We’re in a tropical paradise here and there areno cougars. Turtles and strange birds yes, but no cougars, thank god. Stoptrying to help. You’re not.”
“Turtlesbite. You know that, right?”
“I doknow—”
“I think Isee him!” Sway announced. “It’s him!”
I craned myneck to see what she saw. It was Tour Ted standing on the white sandy shorewith a stick in hand, smiling.
“How wasyour trip? Did you guys bond well?”
It wasclear to me right then that motherfucker planned this and I had something tosay about it. When we reached the shore, I got up intending to beat the shitout of him when Emma kicked her leg out and tripped me.
With aface full of sand I said, “You are the world’s worst tour guide!”
“Jameson!”Sway chastised my tone of voice.
“What? Wepaid him to get lost. That’s not good.”
Tour Teddefended himself by saying it was a good experience for us but I lost interest.
I think Ihad become so disoriented and tired that I think I eventually gave up and laidin the sand staring at the blue sky. Worst mistake ever.
As TourTed and Aiden prepared the raft and its hole so we could return to San Jose, Ikept my place in the sand. I wasn’t helping. Sway sat down beside me, her handrested on my stomach. “I won’t plan anymore activities.”
“Youbetter not.” I turned on my side eventually intending to get up when I feltsomething touch my bare foot and then a sharp pain shot through my entire leg.
When Ijerked my leg back, I kicked Sway in the thigh. She screamed, and then Iscreamed when I saw a fucking turtle looking at me. “You are not one withnature!” Sway yelled at me holding her own leg.
Emma andAiden looked back and forth between our faces, confused and wary. Emma spottedthe turtle before Aiden did and fell next to him in a fit of laughter holdingher stomach. “I told you they bite!”
“Am Imissing something?” Aiden scratched his mop of California blonde hair. “Why areyou bleeding?”
Swaylooked up at me laying there like a rape victim and then rolled her eyes andgrabbed another drink from her bag. “You’re such a mess.”
Holding myside, I tried to catch my breath and explain what happened to Aiden butcouldn’t get it out. “I…you…Sway…turtle…shit.”
With acocky attitude, that goddamn turtle glared with part of my flesh in his mouth.I swear to god that he fucking glared. Okay, maybe he didn’t have any flesh inhis mouth but it sure, as shit looked like it. Here it was, another vacation,and I was being attacked by the wild life.
Awesome.
I looked downto see the damage and there it was, a big gaping turtle bite.
No onecared about my turtle bite but me and acted as if it was just your averagescrap. It wasn’t and I was in need of medical attention. At least I thoughtthat.
When weweren’t getting back to San Jose quick enough, I voiced my concern once again.
“What’sthe problem exactly?” I asked rather annoyed, but I didn’t care. I just wantedto get back to the hotel so I could get this fucking sand off me and clean myleg up. I was sure I would get some sort of flesh eating disease or infectionfrom this. For someone who has skin issues, an infection is pretty much lifeending.
“Okay, youknow what asshole? Just because you got bit by a turtle doesn’t mean you haveto make the rest of us miserable.” Emma said, getting angry. “We all want to gohome.” Once she finished her rant, she propped herself against Aiden’s shoulderas if she was going to sleep.
I tried totell Sway how unreasonable everyone was being. I was injured. Surely, I was inneed of urgent medical care.
“You’vegot just as many issues as him.” Sway said to Emma, ignoring me altogether, andlaughed from the other side of Aiden. Her eyes found mine. “You kicked me,remember?”
“Because Iwas bitten by a turtle,” I added holding my leg. “It wasn’t on purpose.”
Emmadidn’t waste any time before she was pulling Sway’s hair for her previouscomment and trying to push my drunken wife from the boat.
