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Leslie had no weapons, no way to fight her way out, and although Simon was being kind, she had a feeling he wasn’t going to just let her go. He had given her his arm just a few days ago, and she had felt powerful muscles hiding under his shirt. She’d have to play it out until she could find a way out and make her way back to her friends.
There was a peel of thunder; then she heard the rhythm of footsteps in the mud outside. There was the scraping sound, then the door opened.
“Really? You had to lock me inside?” she said.
Sun walked in.
Leslie stood and stepped back. She held back her panic, taking deep breaths. She almost would have preferred it be Simon.
Sun seemed not to care though. He walked up close, grabbed one of the wicker chairs, and whipped it around to face her. Sitting down with a substantial weight.
Leslie gagged at the stench of locker room sweat that permeated his being. She pulled her chair a little farther away until she could breathe untainted air.
Sun leaned back in his chair. From his pocket, he pulled out the statue. He rubbed it between his hands and let it go. It floated on the air over to Leslie. When it stopped rotating, its eyes stared at her.
She reached up and turned the eyes away.
“Tell me where you found this.”
Leslie thought back to what felt like a year ago. “It was before we took off on the Toy. An old woman approached me. She gave me the statue and another package.”
Suddenly, Leslie was transported to the beginning of the trip. The sun was shining, and she was out in the open. The boathouse was nearby, and she heard the old woman’s voice.
“You. You come here.”
Leslie walked over to the woman, but this time Sun was standing there, watching as the two of them talked and as the woman handed her the first package. Sun studied the woman’s face up close.
Leslie wanted to step back, not to take the packages, but she seemed to be on remote. She couldn’t turn away or change what had happened. She remembered the weird jump the woman had done, but it still made her jump this time too.
“I almost forgot.” She produced a small brown package. “You’ll need this, as well.” She placed the package on top of the statue in Leslie’s hand.
Then suddenly they were back at the hut, the sound of rain pouring down outside. Leslie felt a chill.
“What did you do with the other package?” Sun asked.
She pulled open her bag and dug through until she found it and handed it over.
Sun repeated the words on the cheap tourist trinket, “Nauta.” And then he was gone.
Leslie glanced around the room, waiting to see if he’d reappear. He had left the door partially open when he had come in. It stood open now like a beacon. The last thing she needed was Simon to come back now. She closed up her bag and jumped up to the door. The rain was coming down in torrents.
The Jeep was facing away from the building, but she could see a form sitting in the driver’s seat. It had to be Simon talking on the radio. She could run for it, but in this rain, she wouldn’t make it very far.
She wanted that Jeep, but how to get it away from Simon without having to put up a physical fight?
Then the idea came to her. She stepped out into the rain. Closing the door behind her, she found a crossbar secured to the outside wall. She lowered it down, scraping the outside of the door as it dropped into place.
She backed around the building until she could see just a corner of the Jeep but enough to still see that someone was in it. She considered pulling her raincoat out of her pack, but she was already soaked.
Finally, the door to the Jeep opened. Leslie slid back so she couldn’t be seen. She waited until she heard the scrape of the crossbar and quickly approached the door as Simon moved into the building. She shoved the door inward, slamming it shut, and pushing Simon hard, then slammed the crossbar down.
“Leslie!” Simon called. “What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer. She ran to the Jeep, grateful to get out of the rain. There was a man’s jacket on the seat next to her. She used it to wipe the rain off of her face. Underneath the jacket was a man’s baseball cap. She wrapped her hair up around her head and put on the cap— it felt good to get the long, wet strands off of her neck.
Relief calmed her a little. It was an old military Jeep with a switch starter. No need to fight for keys or to walk in the jungle.
She quickly started it up, and the radio came to life. It didn’t take her long to turn the Jeep around and hear that Simon’s men had yet to find the rest of her group. They were still searching.
“How am I going to find them? I don’t even know where I am.” She tried to remember how long the trip had taken with Simon. It was challenging to guesstimate without a timepiece. She figured roughly an hour.
“Here I come, gang.” She shifted into lower gear to traverse a muddy hill and checked the rearview mirror. She hoped the crossbar would keep Simon out of commission for a while.