7
The Jungle
How could the truck be gone?
I ran out to the gas pump and looked both ways down the dirt road. Nothing. No dust cloud. No people. Nothing.
Maybe the driver forgot about me? Maybe he needed to get something and is coming back? Maybe the truck was stolen and the driver is still around here somewhere? I knew none of these were likely scenarios, but they made me feel hopeful – if only for a minute.
I walked around to the other side of the gas pump and found my black bag lying in the dust. I rushed over to it, picked it up, and checked inside. Everything seemed to be in order.
Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me and whirled around to see Ren sitting by the side of the road. His tail twitched back and forth while he watched me. He looked like a giant abandoned puppy wagging his tail hoping someone would claim him and take him home.
I muttered, ‘Oh, no! This is just great! “Nothing will go wrong,” Mr. Kadam said. Ha! The driver must have stolen the truck and let you out. What am I going to do now?’
Tired, scared, and alone, my mom’s words of advice came flooding back: ‘bad things sometimes happen to good people’; ‘the key to happiness is to try to make the best of, and be thankful for, the hand we’re dealt,’ and her all-time favorite, ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemon meringue pie.’ Mom had tried and practically given up having kids – and then I came along. She always said that you never know what’s going to be right around the corner.
So, I focused on the positives. First, I still had all my clothes. Second, I had my traveling papers and a bag full of money. That was the good news. The bad news, of course, was that my ride was gone and a tiger was on the loose! I decided the first order of business was to secure Ren. I went back to the store and bought some jerky snacks and a long length of rope.
With my newly acquired fluorescent-yellow rope, I walked outside and tried to get my tiger to cooperate. He’d moved off several paces and was now heading for the jungle. I ran after him.
The sensible thing would have been to go back to the store, borrow a phone, and call Mr. Kadam. He could send some people, professional-type people, to catch him. But I was far from thinking sensibly at this point. I was afraid for Ren. I had absolutely no fear of him for myself, but what if others panicked and used weapons to subdue him? I also worried that even if he escaped, he couldn’t survive in the jungle. He wasn’t used to hunting on his own. I knew it was utterly foolish, but I chose to follow my tiger.
I begged, ‘Ren, come back! We need to get some help! This isn’t your reserve. Come on, I’ll give you a nice treat!’ I waved the jerky snack in the air, but he kept moving. I was weighed down with Mr. Kadam’s backpack and my bag. I could keep up with him but the extra weight was too much for me to overtake him.
He wasn’t moving very quickly, but he always managed to keep several paces ahead of me. Suddenly, he loped off and darted into the jungle. My backpack bobbed heavily up and down as I chased after him. After about fifteen minutes of pursuit, sweat was trickling down my face, my clothes were stuck to my body, and my feet were dragging like heavy stones.
As my pace slowed, I entreated again, ‘Ren, please come back. We need to go back to the town. It’s going to be dark soon.’
He ignored me and began winding through the trees. He’d stop to turn and look at me every so often.
Whenever I thought I’d finally catch him, he’d accelerate and leap ahead a few feet, causing me to chase after him again. I felt like he was playing a game with me. He was always just out of reach. After following Ren for another fifteen minutes and still not catching him, I decided to take a break from my pursuit. I knew I’d traveled far from town, and the light was dimming. I was totally lost.
Ren must have realized that I wasn’t following him anymore because he finally slowed, turned around, and ambled guiltily back over to me. I glared at him.
‘Figures. The minute I stop, you come back. I hope you’re happy with yourself.’
Tying the rope to his collar, I turned around in a circle and carefully studied each direction to try to get my bearings.
We had traveled deep into the jungle, looped in and out of trees, and twisted and turned numerous times. I realized, with great despair, that I’d lost all sense of direction. It was twilight, and the dark canopy of trees overhead blocked out the little sun we had left. A choking fear settled inside me, and I felt a wave of icy, nibbling cold slither slowly down my spine. It shot wintry streams down my arms and legs and poked out my skin in spiky goose bumps.
I twisted the rope around my hands nervously and grumbled at the tiger. ‘Thanks a lot, Mister! Where am I? What am I doing? I’m who-knows-where in India, in the jungle, at night, with a tiger on a rope!’
Ren sat down quietly beside me.
My fear overwhelmed me for a minute, and I felt as if the jungle was closing in. All the distinctive sounds rushed to clatter and wrestle with my frightened mind, attacking my common sense. I imagined creatures stalking me, their glassy, hostile eyes watching and waiting to pounce. I looked up and saw angry monsoon clouds surging, quickly swallowing up the early evening sky. A stiff, numbing wind whipped through the trees and swirled around my rigid body.
After a couple of moments, Ren got up and moved ahead, gently pulling my tense body along with him. I reluctantly followed. I laughed nervously and madly for a moment because I was letting a tiger lead me through a jungle, but I figured there was no point in me trying to lead the way. I had no idea where we were. Ren continued walking on some unseen path, pulling me along behind him. I lost track of time, but my best guess was that we walked through the jungle for an hour, maybe two. It was very dark now, and I was scared and thirsty.
Remembering that Mr. Kadam had packed water in the bag, I unzipped the pocket and felt around for a bottle. My hand brushed against something cold and metallic. A flashlight! I turned it on and felt a bit of relief at having a beam of light to cut through the darkness.
In the shadows, the dense jungle appeared menacing, not that it wasn’t equally as terrifying during the day, but my measly flashlight beam didn’t penetrate very far, which made the situation even worse. When the thin moon appeared and dispersed its beams intermittently through the thick tree cover overhead, Ren’s coat gleamed where the silvery light touched it.
I peered ahead, catching shiny glimpses of his body as he moved through the undulating, flickering patches of light. When the moon hid behind the clouds, Ren disappeared completely on the trail ahead. I turned my flashlight to him and saw prickly undergrowth scratching his silvery white fur. He responded to the thorns by roughly shoving the plants aside with his body, almost as if he were making a path for me.
After walking for a long time, he finally pulled me near a copse of bamboo that was growing near a large teak tree. He stuck his nose up in the air, smelling for who-knows-what and then wandered over to a grassy area and lay down.
‘Well, I guess that means this is where we sleep for the night.’ I shrugged out of my backpack while grousing, ‘Great. No, really. It’s a lovely choice. I’d give it four stars if it included a mint.’
First, I untied the rope from Ren’s collar, figuring that my trying to keep him from running away was moot at this point, and then crouched down and unzipped my bag. Pulling out a long-sleeved shirt, I tied it around my waist and got out two water bottles and three energy bars. I unwrapped two of the energy bars and held them out to Ren.
He carefully took one out of my hand and gulped it down.
‘Should a tiger eat energy bars? You probably need something with more protein, and the only thing around here with protein is me, but don’t even think about it. I taste terrible.’
He quirked his head at me as if seriously considering it, then quickly swallowed the second energy bar. I opened the third and slowly nibbled on it. Unzipping another pocket, I found the lighter and decided to make a fire. Searching by flashlight, I was surprised to find a good amount of wood close by.
Remembering my Girl Scout days, I built a small fire. The wind blew it out the first two times, but the third time it took, making homey little crackling sounds.
Satisfied with my work and setting aside larger logs to add later, I moved over to the backpacks closer to the fire. Finding a plastic bag in the pack, I picked up a large curved piece of bark, shoved small chunks of wood on the ends, and lined the inside with the bag. I poured a bottle of water into it and carried my makeshift bowl over to Ren. He lapped it all up and kept licking the bag, so I poured in another bottle for him, which he also drank greedily.
I walked back to the fire and was startled by an ominous howl nearby. Ren jumped up at once and rushed off in a whirl, disappearing into the darkness. I heard a deep growling and then an incensed and vicious snarl. I stared gravely into the darkness between the trees where Ren had disappeared, but he soon returned unharmed and began rubbing his side on the teak tree. Satisfied with that tree, he moved on to another one, and another one, until he’d rubbed up against every tree that surrounded us.
‘Gee, Ren. That must be some itch.’ Leaving him to his scratching, I plumped the softer bag with my clothes in it to use for a pillow and slipped my long-sleeved shirt over my head. I pulled out my quilt, hating to get it dirty but desperately needing the warmth and comfort it offered, and spread it out over my legs. Then I eased onto my side, tucked my hand under my cheek, stared at the fire, and felt fat tears slide down my face.
I started listening to the eerie sounds around me. I heard clicks, whistles, pops, and cracks everywhere, and started to imagine creepy crawly things burrowing in my hair and down into my socks. I shivered and sat up to tuck my quilt around me snugly, so that it covered every part of my body, and settled to the ground again wrapped up mummy-style.
That was much better, but then I imagined animals creeping up behind me. Just as I began to roll onto my back, Ren lay down right next to me, snuggled his back against mine, and began to purr.
Grateful, I wiped the tears off my cheeks and was able to tune out the night sounds by listening to Ren’s purr, which later changed into deep, rhythmic breathing. I inched a little closer to his back, surprised to find that I could sleep in the jungle after all.
A bright ray of sun hit my closed eyelids, and I slowly cracked them open. Not remembering where I was for a minute, I stretched my arms up over my head, only to cringe in pain as my back rubbed against the hard ground. I also felt a heavy weight on my leg. I looked down to see Ren, eyes squeezed tightly shut in sleep, with his head and one paw draped over my leg.
I whispered, ‘Ren. Wake up. My leg is asleep.’
He didn’t budge.
I sat up and shoved his body lightly. ‘Come on, Ren. Move!’
He growled softly but stayed put.
‘Ren! I mean it! Mooove!’ I shook my leg and shoved him harder.
He finally blinked open his eyes, yawned a giant, toothy tiger yawn, and then rolled off my leg and onto his side.
Standing up, I shook out my quilt, folded it, and tucked it into the bag. I also stamped out the ashes from the fire to make sure nothing was still burning.
‘Just so you know, I hate camping,’ I complained loudly. ‘I’m not so much appreciating that there’s no bathroom out here. “Nature calls” while walking in the jungle is on my list of least favorite things. You tigers, and men in general, have it so much easier than us girls.’
I gathered up the empty bottles and wrappers and put them into the pack. The last thing I picked up was the yellow rope.
The tiger just sat there observing me. I decided to give up the pretense that I was the one leading him and stowed the rope away in the pack.
‘Okay, Ren. I’m ready. Where are we heading off to today?’
Turning, he stalked off into the jungle again. He weaved his way around trees and undergrowth, over rocks and across small streams. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, and he even stopped for a break every once in a while, as if knowing I needed one. Now that the sun was out, the jungle was becoming quite steamy, so I took off my long-sleeved shirt and tied it back around my waist.
The jungle was very green and had a peppery kind of fragrance, much different than the forests of Oregon. The large deciduous trees were sparse and had graceful, willowy branches. The leaves were an olive-green color rather than the deep greens of the evergreens I was used to. The bark was dark gray and rough to the touch; where cracks formed, the bark peeled away and sloughed off in thin, flaky layers.
Flying squirrels leapt from tree to tree, and we often startled grazing deer. Smelling a tiger, they quickly bounced away on springy legs. I watched Ren to see his reaction, but he ignored them. I noticed another common tree that was more moderate in size and also had a papery bark, but where the bark split on this one, a sticky, gummy resin dripped down the trunk. I leaned against one to pick a pebble out of my shoe and spent the next hour trying to peel the goo off my fingers.
I’d just gotten it off when we weaved through a particularly dense undergrowth of tall grasses and bamboo and sent a flock of colorful birds into flight. I was so startled that I backed into another sap tree and got sticky sap all over my upper arm.
Ren stopped at a small stream. I pulled out a bottle of water and drank it all down. It was nice to have less weight in the backpack, but I was concerned about where I would get water from after my supply ran out. I supposed I could drink from the same stream as Ren, but I would put that off for as long as possible, knowing that my body wouldn’t handle it as well as his.
I sat down on a rock and searched for another energy bar. I ate half of one and gave Ren the other half, plus another one. I knew I could survive on that many calories, but I was pretty sure Ren couldn’t. He’d have to hunt soon.
Opening a pocket of Mr. Kadam’s backpack, I found a compass. I pushed it into the pocket of my jeans. There was still money, the traveling papers, more water bottles, a first aid kit, bug spray, a candle, and a pocketknife, but no cell phone, and my personal cell phone was missing.
Strange. Could Mr. Kadam have known that I would end up in the jungle? I thought about the man who looked like Mr. Kadam standing by the truck right before it was stolen and wondered aloud, ‘Did he want me to get lost out here?’
Ren wandered over to me and sat down.
‘No,’ I said, looking into the animal’s blue eyes. ‘That doesn’t make any sense either. What reason could he possibly have for flying me all the way to India just to get me lost in the jungle? He couldn’t have known you would lead me in here or that I’d follow you. He’s not the type to deceive anyway.’
Ren gaze shifted to the ground as if he felt guilty.
‘I guess Mr. Kadam is just a really well-prepared Boy Scout.’
After a brief rest, Ren got up again, walked off a few paces, and turned around to wait for me. I dragged myself off the rock, complaining, and followed along behind him. Pulling out the bug spray, I gave my limbs a good spritz and squirted some on Ren for good measure. I laughed when he wrinkled his nose and a big tiger sneeze shook his body.
‘So, Ren, where are we going? You act like you have a destination in mind. Personally, I’d like to get back to civilization. So if you could find us a town, I’d be most appreciative.’
He continued to lead me on a trail that only he could see for the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon.
I checked my compass often and figured out that we were traveling eastward. I was trying to calculate how many miles we’d walked when Ren burrowed between some bushes. I followed him to find a small clearing on the other side.
With great relief, I saw a small hut that sat right in the middle of the clearing. Its curved roof was covered with rows of canes tied close together that draped over the top of the structure like a blanket. Stringy fibers, tied into intricate knots, lashed large bamboo poles together to make walls, and the cracks were thatched with dried grasses and clay.
The hut was surrounded by a barrier of loose stones piled on top of each other to create a short wall about two feet high. The stones were covered in thick, verdant moss. In front of the hut, thin panels of stone were affixed to the wall and were painted with an indecipherable assortment of symbols and shapes. The shelter’s doorway was so tiny that an average-sized person would have to bend over to enter. There was a line of clothing flapping in the wind, and a small flourishing garden was planted on the side of the home.
We approached the rock wall, and just as I was stepping over, Ren leapt over the barrier next to me. ‘Ren! You scared the stuffing out of me! Make a noise first or something, would you?’
We approached the small hut, and I steeled myself to knock on the tiny door, but then I hesitated, looking at Ren. ‘We need to do something about you first.’ I took the yellow rope out of my backpack and walked over to a tree on the side of the yard. He followed me haltingly. I beckoned him closer. When he finally came close enough, I slipped the rope through his collar and tied the other end to a tree. He didn’t look happy.
‘I’m sorry, Ren, but we can’t have you loose. It would scare the family. I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
I began walking over to the small house, but then froze in my tracks when I heard a quiet male voice behind me say, ‘Is this really necessary?’
Turning around slowly, I saw a handsome young man standing directly behind me. He looked young, in his early twenties. He was taller than me by a head and had a strong, well-developed trim body that was clothed in loose white cotton garments. His long-sleeved shirt was untucked and carelessly buttoned, revealing a smooth, well-built golden-bronze chest. His lightweight pants were rolled at the ankles, emphasizing his bare feet. Glossy black hair swept away from his face and curled slightly at the nape of his neck.
His eyes were what riveted me the most. They were my tiger’s eyes, the same deep cobalt blue.
Reaching out a hand, he spoke. ‘Hello, Kelsey. It’s me, Ren.’