Prompted to Write 4/27/15

foliis intraverunt duo folia

She hated to have to use it but Avon Bug Guard worked and with no Deet, she could crash in her tent at the end of the day without worrying. The last thing Mary wanted to do was to wash off bug spray, get under mosquito netting and worry about getting eaten alive by the little flying friends that were in there with her.

The waterproof boots were indeed not waterproof. Perhaps they were water resistant but her socks were soggy every single morning. A mile in soggy socks should seem trivial but for once she just wanted one dry spot on her body. What a luxury that would be. Next time should would not skimp on her supplies.

Q'pxit motioned at pointed up without a sound. She took her binoculars and looked up the canopy. She shook her head. He understood, a little frustrated, but he looked around. He pulled several leaves together to show her:

Two short leaves
2 long leaves
attached to a stick

A stick. Maybe he meant a branch. Q'pxit pointed again to the large branch above them. There were long nets of fig vines, draped lazily above them. She wiped her sweaty hands and used the binoculars again. It took her a moment but there it was, towards the trunk, on the right, just attached to the vines. Her breath caught in her throat as she found her camera. She wiped her hands again, this time from adenalin. She aimed her camera, searching frantically for the plant, when her phone went off.

She recognized her daughter's cell phone id. She hadn't heard from her in months.

"Hello? Jenna?" There was a pause. "Yes? What? What's wrong?"

Mary listened for a few moments then hung up the phone. She took a deep breath and took up her camera again. Q'pxit touched her shoulder and urged her to come his way. She cocked her head, not knowing what he meant. When she pointed her camera back up to the canopy, the jaguar leisurely lay on the branch, near the trunk. Its tail flipped once before it lay down its head.

The team never knew what happened. The next morning she was gone. The villagers said they saw her early, near dawn. It did not make sense because she left everything. All they knew was that one of their boats was gone and that she left no note. It would be up to Burly to find the plant to cure breast cancer.

~~~~

Mary paid the cab and walked up to her back door. She knocked because she had left her key with her things in a South American jungle.

"Mom? What are you doing home?" Jenna opened the door and walked up the back steps to the kitchen. There were dirty dishes every where, the floor hadn't been cleaned in months and the dog's ribs were showing.

"You were crying. You said it was important." Mary looked down at the overflowing recycling bin. Was that paper from a month ago?

"Oh. Yeah. I'm sorry about that. But since you're here, can you give me some money? I need to go downtown to an audition."

"I haven't seen you in months. I haven't had a decent shower since I left." Mary took out her passport from her shirt and dropped it on the table.

"I know. But this is the last day of auditions."

"Jenna." Anger welled up from her the bottom of her soggy socks. "It took me hours to get out of the jungle. I waited a couple of days to get a plane to take me to Bolivia and then I flew hours to get here. And you are worried about your audition?"

"Well, yeah. It's important."

Copyright 2015

by C. Deanne

All Rights Reserved

Prompted to Write