by Stieve Adams
7. Indians or paleids
It started to be evening and we did not hear any persecutors. We did not have to be thirsty, fresh water was good. But we did not have food and the hunger started to happen. We arrived at a wide river of rapids that we could not possibly pass over. We followed the rugged beach uphill. I had thought that the Caribbean would consist of sunny islands, sugar cane and some room mills. This was something completely different. Wet rainforest wet, everything was wet and sticky, the feet began to be full of blisters, and Valerie and Boy had long left the sandals and walked barefoot.
This reminder of South American jungles that I read about. Here maybe there were snakes and crocodiles. Or did not it? I had a slight idea that there were no marriedorms on the West Indies except a few. And for my life, I could not remember if Dominica was an island with or without poisonous snakes. That's why I kept the sandals on.
My companions seemed to take it all as a Sunday outing while I became increasingly discouraged. Soon it would be evening and who knew what creeps would come out then. Suddenly we came to a glance in the woods. Here there had been people for not long time ago. There were leftovers of a fire and there was a windscreen with a roof of palm leaf sealed with clay. Imagine if you could light a fire, I thought, sinking under the roof of the windshield.
Boy was looking around and judging my surprise when it immediately burned a fire.
"How did you fix that?"
"Below was a plastic bag with matches and a little dry," the answer was
It was clear that there was a resting place for someone who was used to the climate and put up a reserve of dry matches and dry wood. It was just thanking and receiving. We took off our soaked clothes and hung them on dry. I could not help laughing, here we were a nude shot, an equally naked black woman and an equally naked black boy on an island sometimes called the garden of Eden. Now only the food that was taken was found It possibly a stock of canned preserves too? It did not.
On the other hand, there was reef and fishhook. Actually. Now I had to show me on the straight line. I was looking for a worms, it was not hard in my nose, I put the worm on the hook and thrown into the river. It got a nap straight away! This was better than home in Scotland! I erase five fishes in five minutes. Grilled fresh fish tasted very good. Salt was not available, but it could be overlooked.
It was at the last minute we found this place. When we had ate it was dark. As always near the equator, it's almost no dusk. One minute it's bright, the second minute the sun has fallen straight down below the horizon and it's black night. Our clothes were dry, we dressed what we had and we fell asleep all three the same moment we left us.
I woke up suddenly, the sun was shining and it felt really comfortable. At least for a second or so, when I heard a completely unknown language, I was choked and then I opened my eyes and stared into two black holes. I changed the focus and behind the two black holes stared two black eyes on me. When I picked up my first shock, I realized that it was a strange individual who directed a double-barrelled blaster blunderbuss against me. I did not move out of the spot while I began to remember where I was.
My first thought was that now the Mexicans or Asians had found us. As I looked closer at the one who was behind the blunderbuss, I saw that this was something else. It was a white man, at least almost. At the same time he looked like an Indian. A white Indian, what was this now? I looked around carefully and saw Valerie and Boy sitting with other blunderbuss subjects aimed at themselves.
"Hi," I said, "Sorry if we borrowed your resting place, but we were hungry and tired and needed rest so we took the liberty of staying here overnight."
"How did you come here?" Then says the indian.
"If you wanted to be nice and back down with that gun. And be careful, maybe it may break off."
The Indians kicked back and I sat carefully next to Valerie and Boy.
"Have they been here for a long time," I asked them.
"Do not know," muttered Valerie, "they just woke me up"
There were three incredible individuals standing there and threatening us. They were equipped with long jungle knives in addition to each of their double-sided hail bushes, they were dressed like some kind of hippies with leather vests and cut jeans.
"Now I know" I recalled something "You are Island Caribs. You are some of the last urine people." I also recalled that the Island Carib people were one bloodthirsty rack of their time, human gauges, among other things. There was a rush through me. Maybe it was because I was crazy. "Right?"
The cruelest of the three cruel things that seemed to be a joking answer.
"You were the bravest warriors of your time. You were afraid of both white and black and red. Maybe you're still the Caribbean's brave warrior?"
They stared at me for at least three minutes without touching a muscle. Then, like a given sign, all three fell in a grinning laugh and they had a lot of fun.
"The little yellow men, are they chasing?" Then asked the Indians.
We briefly stated that it was. The Indians had seen "the little yellow men" get through the rainforest and bring a lot of noise.
"They are coming here now," said the Indians.
"Then we have to go. We have to cross the river, can you come across the river here somewhere?"
"Follow us," said the Indians, and we did. "There is a bridge upstream," they said.
Nice, I thought. Somehow, the Indians had taken our party to the Oriental. And maybe that was not that strange.
"Here's the bridge," said the Indians suddenly.
I did not see any bridge, but there were two powerful lanes from one side of the river to the other.
"And that's what you call bridge?"
One of the Indians hurried easily to the other side.
"Ladies first", I said to Valerie.
"You are an angel," she thought, went out to the "bridge" and with good balance she was soon over on the other side. Boy immediately followed and he was almost as skilled as the Indian. It looked easy, but across the front I looked down into the swirls and slipped off the lower lane. I still had the sandals on my feet And it was easy and slippery to walk on a lane over a slope.
I held the grip with my hands over the upper lane, and for a moment I felt the water against my feet and my feet were pulled out of the stream. I managed to lift my feet out of the foaming racket and get the foot on the lane again. Very cautiously, I managed to get to the other beach where Valerie helped me to land.
One minute later, the other two Indians were over on our side and we saw a number of Asians on the other side of the river. For further reflection it was strange that they did not come earlier. They could easily figure out we had to follow the river in one way or another. We hid on our side of the river and saw that they saw we crossed the river on the River Bridge. And they prepared to follow. They were in a hurry, so they crossed a few meters to get over as quickly as possible.
It did not mean that we were left on the other beach. I pushed one of the Indians' hailstones, looked for it was loaded, rushed to the bottom of the lower lane and four of both pipes. The lane held! The Orientales saw me pulling their guns and trying to shoot a few shots. With the background they stood on, the bullets near me did not disappear high up among the trees. Then the lily burst and two of the orients fell directly into the water, the rest remained. I pulled another rifle from another Indian and aimed at those who were hanging out. They saw it, and more likely, than to shoot, they thought enough and let go.
8. At sea
All the Asians disappeared into the rapids and also disappeared as they followed the stream. It was doubtful if they would survive but I just thought it was nice they were gone. Right now I was not interested in whether they would survive or not.
After collecting the nerves, it was time to move. When we looked around to thank the Indians for help, there was not an Indian in sight. They were gone, swallowed up by the rainforest. It was just to continue as before on your own. The rain had ceased but the air was so moist that
there was no big difference. I sweated, had pain in my hands and hands, but it was just to continue as well as it went. Even I went barefoot, often there was a soft moss on the ground that felt comfortable against my sore feet.
The simple plan we followed was to follow the coast, thus finding a building or some kind of boat so that we could reach civilization. After many hours, we heard the sea and we headed down to the beach to see what it looked like.
Out there was the motor cruiser anchored and the crew was heading to land in a dinghy. They had landed in a bay half a mile north. It seemed as if they were going to camp on the beach.
Suddenly the tropical darkness fell over us. Again. We were hungry and tired but it was not a thought to get any food this evening. If we continue, we must go in a large circle around the camps of the easters. It was only possible to make it comfortable and sleep.
"We swim out and steal the boat," says Valerie.
"How easy," Boy agrees, "There's only one old man on board"
After further advice, I agreed that it was the least unpleasant option. Certainly, it would be a heavenly boat to go instead of an uncertain riotous journey through the jungle. We waited a couple of hours. Everything was quiet on the almost completely dark boat and on land the company seemed nice to have dinner and drink.
We slipped into the water and swam against the dark silhouette of the motor cruiser. We started to have some habits