Village E3: Survival of the Human Spirit (8 page)

John's eyes popped open and he could
tell by how light it was, that it was much later than he normally slept.
Why
didn't somebody wake me up,
he wondered.
I must have slept well. I feel
great,
John thought. He looked over to see if Hailey and Katie were there
and what he saw frightened him. They were there, but it was obvious that
something radical had happened after they went to sleep. Their heads were
completely bald.

He looked at them for a couple of
seconds, and then lifted his hand up to his own head and found that he had no
hair either. He felt his face, his arms, and even lifted his boxers to find
there was no hair anywhere! His body was completely hair-free.

John wanted to scream or hit someone,
but he had to hold it in because he didn't want to wake the girls. He quietly
got up and knelt close to Hailey, looking at her face. She had no eyebrows and
no eye lashes. "You bastards," John whispered.
They are going to
freak out,
he thought, as he looked down at Hailey and Katie. As if on cue,
Hailey opened her eyes and let out a gasp. "What the hell! Oh, it's
you," said Hailey, at first not recognizing John. "How did you do
that?" she asked.

"I didn't," said John,
pointing at Katie. Hailey looked over, and her mouth dropped open. She quickly
covered it with her hand. Reaching up to her own head, she confirmed what she
already suspected and felt angry and confused. "No eyebrows either,"
said John, sticking his face close to hers. Amazingly Katie slept through their
conversation. John and Hailey looked at her, realizing it at the same time.

"Is she OK?" asked Hailey.
Without waiting for an answer, Hailey shook Katie's arm. Katie opened her eyes,
and they widened with fear. She rolled away from Hailey and John. Katie was
obviously shaken. "Feel the top of your head," said John. Katie slowly
reached up. "How did this happen?" asked Katie, after rubbing her now
smooth scalp. "We don't know yet," Hailey responded. As if she
expected to find hair this time, Katie felt her head again.

"Well, except for getting the
crap scared out of me, I feel pretty good," said Katie. "Me
too," said Hailey. "That is the first thing I noticed when I woke
up," said John. "I haven't felt this good since I've been here."
Hailey looked at John, and began to laugh. "What in the hell is so
funny?" asked John. "Your head," said Hailey. "Do you
realize how white your head is?" John wasn't sure whether to laugh, or be
offended. "That will change soon enough," he said.

"Are we still going on our
little expedition," Katie wondered. "Well, it is a little late for an
early start, like we planned," said John. "Maybe we should get
stocked up on wood and water, and try again tomorrow," Hailey said.
"That is probably a good idea. Our wood supply is running a little
low," said John.

"Oh, man, I really wanted to go
see that stream you guys found," said Katie. "I guess I can wait one
more day." They immediately got started on their daily chores, with John
working on getting the fire going again, and Katie getting water to boil.
Hailey walked out of sight, looking for wood. Even though the day had a
dramatic beginning it quickly became routine. For several hours, Hailey and
John gathered wood. While they did that, Katie boiled water until the container
was full again.

After resting for a while, John stood
up, and walked to the hut. "I'm going to catch some fish," he said.
"Good, I'm getting a little hungry," said Katie. "Me too,"
said Hailey. "We probably have time to gather some fruit," she added,
looking at Katie. "I'll show you where the trees are."

Hailey quickly walked to the hut, and
came back with John's shirt. "You ready?" asked Hailey.
"Yes," said Katie, standing to her feet. As the women walked out of
sight, John looked for bait, and once he had enough, he walked with his pole to
the pool. He couldn't resist taking a look at himself as he squatted at the
edge of the water. It had been a long time since he had seen his face with no
hair.
I see why she laughed now,
he thought.
Why the hair? What else
did they do to us,
he wondered.

As John fished, he felt his face
several times. It felt good to be clean-shaven. It had been months since he had
been able to feel the skin on his face, and he was beginning to like the feel
of no hair on his head. They hadn't taken the time to talk about what might
have went on while they were all out, but it was all John could think about
right now. He couldn't help but notice the dramatic difference in Katie's mood.

Did they give her something? Did they
do things to us all? If they did, what? This wasn't about a haircut.
Why couldn't they at least leave
us eyebrows and eyelashes,
he wondered. None of it made any sense to him. In
fact, very little had made sense to him, since he had been here.

It's bad enough just being here, but
having someone randomly screw with my life is really starting to piss me off,
he thought. His thoughts were
interrupted by a fish taking his bait. As was the case on most days, the first
fish was soon followed by several more.

Ending up with six fish, John wasted
little time gutting them and cutting three long green limbs to cook them on. By
the time Hailey and Katie walked into camp, the fish were about half cooked.
Looking at the bulging shirt, John could tell that they had gotten plenty of
fruit. "We got a bunch," said Katie, as she placed the shirt full of
fruit on the ground. "I see that," said John. "We found a new
tree too," said Hailey, sounding a little proud of herself. "Good
deal," said John. "I'm starving," Katie said as she looked at
the fish cooking over the fire.

"Before you two get settled in, I've
got something I want you to look at," said John, taking a couple of steps
toward the hut, then motioning for the two to follow him. Once inside, John
asked if they saw anything unusual. Not sure what he was getting at, they both
looked around.

"Nope," said Hailey.
"I don't see anything," said Katie. "Look at the leaves in your
bed," said John. The women both looked but didn't notice anything out of
the ordinary. "I changed those leaves yesterday, or what we thought was
yesterday. It takes about a week for leaves to look like that. Which means,
Hailey, that we were gone more than just the night," said John.
"Wow," said Hailey. "Man that's crazy," said Katie. "I
thought it was odd that the fire was completely dead," said John.
"Then I remembered the leaves."

As they walked back toward the fire,
they were each trying to make sense of what they knew, and all that they didn't
know. Much in their lives was completely out of their control now. They should
be talking nonstop about what happened, but for now, there was no talking at
all. John checked on the fish, as he picked up one of the sticks from the fire.
He sampled some of the flesh and found that it was ready to eat.

John divided the fish evenly between
the three of them, then looked at the two women eating their fish, and
chuckled. "Alone with two bald women in the Jungle," said John.
"I never would have predicted that, a year ago." Hailey and Katie
smiled, but said nothing, as they continued to eat.

After eating, Katie threw her stick
in the fire. She placed both of her hands on top of her head and felt every
inch of her scalp. She then reached down and ran her hand along her leg.
"At least my legs are smooth again," she said. "Tell the truth
John, were our legs starting to gross you out a little?" "Nope,"
said John, not wanting to make a bad situation worse. Even though John never
said it out loud, he found both Hailey, and Katie, physically attractive. He
already had strong feelings for Hailey, but didn't feel like he really knew
Katie, since she had been depressed for so long. However, he did like what he
saw of the new Katie's personality.

"So, John, which of us looks
better with a smooth head?" Hailey asked as she rubbed her head.
"Geez, why are you two putting me on the spot, all of a sudden?" he
said, trying to avoid the question. "OK, since you are fishing for a
compliment, I'll give both of you one. You are the two most beautiful, bald
women, I've ever met."

As the two women laughed, John's
thoughts went back to Colorado. His mother was a cancer survivor and he thought
back to when she lost her hair, due to Chemo. The happy expression of a joker
left his face. "I take it back," John said. "My mother was the
most beautiful bald woman I ever knew." With an unexpected rush of emotion,
he could feel tears begin to well up in his eyes.

He turned his back, and walked about
twenty feet, then stopped. Standing there, he felt a single tear slowly move
down his cheek, and then fall to the ground. He felt a hand touch his side. It
was Hailey. She had her arm around John, and put her head on his shoulder and
asked, "Cancer?" "Yep, she is a survivor," said John.
"You never told me that," said Hailey. "I know," said John.
"There are a lot of things I haven't told you. I'm OK, but thanks
anyway," he said, as he put his arm around Hailey and squeezed. Leaning
over, he kissed her on the top of her bald head.

As they walked back to the fire,
Katie looked down at the ground. This was the first time that Hailey and John
had openly shown affection for each other. It was an awkward moment for all of
them. John felt embarrassed by his display of emotion. Trying to act as if
nothing had happened, he went to get more water to boil. Their small pot only
held about a quart, and they had to purify enough for the three of them.

"So Katie, what is the story on
you?" asked John, as he returned. "You aren't all white are
you?" "No, I'm not," said Katie. "What do you think I
am?" "Part Hispanic," said John. "Nope. You might say I'm a
unique blend," said Katie. "My mother is half Japanese, and my father
is one fourth Cherokee Indian." "Wow, that is unique," said
Hailey. "That's interesting," said John. "I have some Eastern
Cherokee in my family tree, about five generations back."

"So, maybe we're cousins
then," said Katie, with a chuckle. "Maybe," said John. "Any
Caucasian skeletons in your closet, Hailey?" asked John, half joking.
"Maybe. There is a rumor in our family that we might be related to Thomas
Jefferson, but we have never tried to find out," said Hailey. "That
would be pretty cool, but sad too, when you think of the history of it,"
said John. "Sad and pathetic," said Hailey.

John, Hailey, and Katie spent the
next several hours talking about anything and everything. They had been so busy
with the day to day grind of survival, that they hadn't taken the time to
really get to know each other. They were trying to make up for that in one
evening. More smiling and laughter occurred on this one evening, than in all
the other evenings combined.

They were stuck with each other, but
with each passing day they became closer friends. They came to realize they didn't
just like each other, they needed each other.

"Are we still going on our
adventure tomorrow?" asked Katie, several hours after dark. "I guess
we better get some rest," said Hailey. "Yep, I'm about wore out
anyway," said John. After throwing some large chunks of wood on the fire,
they all made their way to the hut. Of all the social interaction they had
since they had been here, this was by far the best. They had just experienced a
full day unlike any other, causing sleep to come quickly that night.

At the first sign of light, Katie
woke up, eased out of her bed of leaves, and did her best to sneak out of the
hut. She gathered some dry grass and some small twigs. Stirring the ashes in
the fire pit, she found live embers, and raked them into a pile. Adding the
grass, and then the twigs, she quickly had a flame. After adding some larger
sticks and limbs to the fire, she went back to the hut and grabbed the pot.

By the time Hailey and John woke up,
Katie had water boiling. "Wow, it's nice to wake up and have some of the
chores already done," said John. "I'll second that," said
Hailey. Katie said nothing, but had a big smile on her face. Katie carefully
took the pot of boiling water from the fire, and placed it on top of a rock to
cool.

As they waited, they each took turns
drinking water from the plastic water container, using their single cup. They
might be gone for hours today, so it was important to be well hydrated beforehand.
As they waited for more water to boil, they also casually wandered close to
home and gathered more wood. Wood, water, and food were the things that kept
them the busiest. "Well, are we ready to go?" asked Katie, once the
chores were done. "Yep," said John, standing up, after a short rest.
"I guess so," said Hailey, sounding a little less enthusiastic.

They did their best to retrace the
steps that John and Hailey had taken on the day they found the stream, with
John a few paces in front. As they made their way along the tree line, they
came to a rut made by rain runoff. It was only about three feet across and John
easily jumped over it, with Hailey and Katie right behind. John stopped
suddenly. "Did you two notice anything different when you jumped?"
asked John. "What do you mean?" asked Hailey.

John jumped over the rut again, and
then jumped back. "I feel stronger," he said. "Try it, jump over
again," he said, sounding excited. Hailey reluctantly jumped over the rut
again. As she turned around, John backed up a few feet, and pretended like he
was drawing a line in the dirt, with his foot. "Jump to here this
time," said John. The distance to where he drew the line would make it a
leap of about ten or twelve feet. "Yeah right," said Hailey.
"Just get as close as you can," said John. Staring at the spot, she
gathered herself, and then jumped, landing beyond where John had marked.
"Wow, that was easy," said Hailey. "
We are stronger.
"
Just to find out for herself, Katie took a couple of jumps, and did much better
than anyone would expect.