A GIRL'S MIND[CHAPTER FIVE]

Dave and Eddy gradually left the clearings into the jungle proper.Giant trees formed a canopy screening the sun from view.Though the rain had stopped in the night,it still rained here.Water was still dripping from leaves and pattering much more as the breeze passed through the trees.It was the very first time Eddy was coming into the heart of the jungle and he was getting a frigid feel.1

They walked on along the path which seemed carved among leaves and were wet to the skin.Leaves brushed them from heads to their feet.Eddy was still thinking about leaves and their wetness and the chill he was getting and wondering if he was with his senses walking such a long distance to nowhere in particular when he tripped over a plant and went heavily with machete and the empty sack to the ground.Searing pain shot through his small toe.2

'Easy,'Dave said,stopped and looked back.'Am I too fast?'3

Eddy limped from the pain,one hand on the injured spot,face twitching from agony and laughter.4

'Not at all,'Eddy answered,'I took my mind off the path.'5

'Oh,no!'Dave said.'In the jungle that's a wrong thing to do.There is harm under,over and in between.All you need to do is stay alert.Anyway,who you thinking of - Titi?'6

'Why are you asking?'Eddy queried as the pain gradually eased off.7

'Certainly,a guy's babe is a guy's thinking ground!And you can't tell me you're different - or are you?'8

Eddy could glean mischief in Dave's voice.'You goof,'he said.'This wet place was all that occupied my mind.'9

'And you say I goof about you and Titi?You two may think you're fooling people in the yard but everyone knows the two of you have something hot going on.And I can sure bet my scalp!'Dave said.10

'Don't dare or you'd lose it.'Eddy laughed.'What we share is not what you think.'11

'Tell that to the monkeys!'Dave cackled.'Just make sure no protruding tummy!'12

Eddy shook his head.'Absolutely,we are friends but not your definition of friendship!'13

'Friendship as in leaving a fish for a cat to guard?'Dave hooted,slicing a nearby plant with his machete.'Man,who would believe that!'14

'I've told you the truth and if you like believe it.The definition of what you think we have going on is twisted and wrong.'15

'Truth,truth,truth!Let's get to where we are going first and I'd tell you a little story about truth.Alright?'16

'Alright then,'Eddy replied and they both smiled.17

They resumed their journey.Not far,Dave cut and trimmed the stem of a tall plant.Leaving the path a bit,he poked upwards with the stick.Then Eddy saw it just as it detached and dropped - a big snail.18

Dave searched the undergrowth and picked it.As he came out to the track,he said:'When walking you must keep one eye up and the other down.The one down guides and guards your feet,the one up searches for the snail.It's either it's crawling on a stem,a branch or clinging to a leaf.Though rarely,most especially in the night,you can pick it on the ground.'19

It was close to two hours since they left the village early in the morning when they waded through a clean and extremely cool stream,standing around their knees and pulling at their feet,into a low and open thatched tent in a small open space - a lime tree markedly  standing beside it.Smouldering logs told them people in that tent had just left to forage the jungle.20

                                               END>>>Chapter Five.21

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