The Stars Trilogy (55 page)

Take care always. :)

DARE AWOKE TO A PIERCING SCREAM near his ear.

Celine!

His first instinct was to grab her and embrace her, making sure she was with him.

“Dare! There’s a man outside!” she said frantically.

Disoriented, he shook his head to clear his sleep-fogged mind. “What...? What are you talking about?”

“I saw him peeking at the window!”

He grabbed his Uzi and cocked it. “A man you say?”

“Yes, a dark man with wild, curly hair!”

“Dark? Black?”

“Yes! Oh my God, the headhunters!”

“Shhh.” He put his finger in front of his lips to silence her.

He carefully peeked outside the window. His eyes widened.
Fuck.

There was a group of what looked like aboriginal people outside, surrounding the plane.

“Do you see anything?”

“Yes. Natives.”

“Oh, there are others? Are they going to eat us?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Fix your dress. I’m going out first.”

“Going out? They might hurt you!”

He raised his machine pistol. “I can hurt them first.” He picked up the extra ammunition pack and slung it over his shoulders.

“Be careful.”

He opened the door.

“Dare, I don’t want to be some headhunter chief’s eleventh wife so don’t you dare get hurt!”

“Are you kidding me? I say, poor chief! He’s gonna have a handful!”

She made a face.

He slowly got out of the plane. The natives were all male, watching him quietly, their eyes, dark and intense. Each of them held weapons made of wooden pikes. Oh shit, it could get hostile anytime. He had to tread carefully. There were probably more than a dozen of them, ready for combat.

He slowly smiled and raised his left hand while steadily holding the Uzi in his right in a relaxed angle so as not to antagonize them. He hoped they wouldn’t recognize it as a deadly weapon.

“Hi!” he said in his most jovial tone. He supplemented his word with hand gestures. “Our plane...” he gestured to the wrecked plane, “We crashed from the sky...” he pointed to the sky and made a falling movement with his hand. He pointed to his wounded arm.

The natives looked at each other and started conferring in a language he didn’t understand.

“Please....we need your help.” he touched his chest with his palm and extended his arm to them in a gesture of peace.

Again, they talked to each other.

“Come out here slowly, Celine.”

“Are they hostile?”

“I hope not. Slowly.”

She got out of the plane and went to his side.

“My wife...” He put one arm holding the Uzi around her shoulders and with the other, he touched her belly. “She is pregnant.” He made gestures that described a rounded belly.

“Why are you telling them that?” she whispered.

“So they will not find you attractive,” he whispered back. “Now, smile.”

The natives continued discussing with each other and finally they ceased talking. Someone came forward. The tallest, biggest of the group. Most probably the leader.

“Mah-di,” the native pointed to his own chest and tapped it like Tarzan.

“Okay...I think he’s introducing himself.” He pointed to his own chest, too. “Dare.” He gestured to Celine with his hand, “Ce-line.”

The leader nodded. “Ing-glis,” he blurted and pointed to himself again.

“Did he actually say English?” she asked.

“Hush.” He pointed to his lips and slowly repeated what the leader said. “Eng-lish?”

The native nodded.

“Oh my God! He speaks English!”

“Don’t get too excited.” He addressed the man again. “Mah-di...we...want...to go...Phu-ket.”

“Pu-ket?”

“Yes. Help us... go...Phu-ket.”

Mahdi pointed to the west. “Pu-ket.” Then he pointed to the ground. “Su-rat.”

“He’s saying we are in Surat. He does understand English,” he said in relief.

“Is Phuket far from here?”

“It’s part of Surat Thani province.”

Mahdi was trying to tell them something. He pointed to the south. “We...Mah-nik pi-pel...good pi-pel.”

He sighed in relief. “He’s saying they are the Maniq people and they are good people,” he explained to Celine. “The Maniqs are generally not hostile. I’ve read about them.”

“Oh, thank God!” she exclaimed in relief.

“Mahdi...help us...go...Phuket,” he said.

Mahdi nodded and gestured to the south again. “We...go...hom.”

“Hom? He means home! He is inviting us to his village maybe?” she said.

“I think so. Smile at him and say yes.”

She put on her most dazzling Julia Roberts smile. “Yes, Mahdi. We go home! Thank you!”

Mahdi turned to his men and barked orders. The other natives started walking toward the south.

“Wait, Mahdi.” She raised her hands and then went back to the plane.

“Wrap your legs. I have a feeling it’s a long trek.”

She started wrapping her feet and legs again with the cloth. He helped her while covertly watching Mahdi. The article he’d read about the Maniqs in a Thai tourism magazine said these natives were generally friendly but he couldn’t fully trust anybody in the jungle. He had a beautiful woman with him and males of  any race would generally lose their heads over beauty. He knew that first hand and he was supposed to be a man from the civilized world.

“Let’s just bring all the canned goods or give it to them,” she suggested.

He lifted a bag full of canned goods and called Mahdi. The native approached them warily.

He showed Mahdi a can of sausages and gestured to his mouth that it was for eating.

Mahdi smiled at them for the first time when he saw the can’s label. “Hot-dog!!” he shouted with joy and eagerly accepted the bag.

She grinned. “I guess that’s the magic word. Hotdog. You should have showed that to them right away.”

“Unbelievable. Hurry up!” He grabbed the backpack and hoisted it on his back.

After wrapping her feet, she spread the blanket and gathered all the toiletries and extra clothing she’d found at the back compartment and bundled them up.

“I can’t believe you’re still gonna bring all of that!” he said, exasperated.

“I’m not gonna spend my days here without my toothbrush!”

He grunted and grabbed a roll of rope from the corner and tied the bundle, fashioning a duffel bag. He hoisted it up his shoulder, too.  “Come on, let’s go!”

“Don’t worry, Mahdi is quite happy with his hotdogs.”

During the trek with the natives, Dare remained alert, not fully trusting them. They could be plotting something and he and Celine were outnumbered. Well, not so with his good ole Israeli baby. He’d take ten of them in one burst of bullets. But that wasn’t a guarantee for their full safety. This jungle was the natives’ turf. They could just easily ambush them and if he died...
Oh God, please, don’t kill me off this way. Not with her around. Just let me bring her to safety first and then you can have your way with me. Please.

It had been a long time since he’d  prayed. But it seemed to be a habit of his the past few days. He’d been talking to God a lot recently. All because of Celine. Some dormant moral code this chick was bringing back in his system lately.

They trekked more than three hours to reach Mahdi’s village situated beside a riverbank.

He was so relieved to reach a semblance of civilization. These natives were inhabitants of the mountains but they had somehow learned a rudimentary knowledge in engineering for they had built houses made of bamboos and coconut leaves. He could see maybe two dozens of huts clustered within each other.

When they arrived, the warriors made a chorus of shouts and chants. Upon hearing it, the children came running toward them, welcoming them with cheers.

“Hom!” Mahdi gave them a welcoming gesture with his widespread arms.

Dare inwardly sighed and pulled Celine closer to his side.
Thank you, God for not making them hostile savages.

They followed Mahdi as the villagers flocked around them, curiosity on their faces.

Mahdi spoke to his tribe as if explaining who they were. When Mahdi showed his people the bag of canned goods, the collective look on their faces was priceless. Pure joy. The children all screamed in delight.

“I swear, when we reach civilization, I will ask Cruz to drop a ton of hotdogs on this place,” he murmured, amused.

She smiled. “That’s a great idea.”

The villagers prepared a feast for them.

Celine was deeply touched by their generosity.

They were treated by the villagers like visiting royalty.

The long table made of bamboo was covered by banana leaves. On top were roasted fish and birds and  grilled sweet potatoes. There were tropical fruits like banana,
papaya, guyabano, atis,
and other varieties she didn’t recognize. They all looked fresh and delicious!

It was clear now that Mahdi was the leader of the tribe. But aside from Mahdi,  there was one figure greatly revered by the villagers. Mahdi brought them directly to a hut upon their arrival and introduced an old man named Pah. Mahdi knelt before the elder as a gesture of reverence. They followed Mahdi’s lead and knelt before the old man, too.

The old man, whom they realized later was blind, raised his hand slowly and spoke something they couldn’t understand. Mahdi told them later that Pah was the father of the village, the bringer of peace. It was so amazing how they understood each other mostly through hand gestures. Thank God, Mahdi understood a few English words he’d probably picked up from visiting more civilized villages.

Mahdi stood up at the head of the table and addressed his people. “Der! Se-lin!” He gestured to them both and then brought his hands to his chest.

The villagers thumped their chests too and cheered for them.

“Isn’t this the coolest? I have tears in my eyes,” she whispered to Dare beside her.

He squeezed her hand under the table. “Yes.” When he looked at her, his eyes were moist, too.

Her heart melted all over again. She still refused to believe that this man was incapable of loving a woman when he treated her like this, like he would die protecting her from anything. It was hard to reconcile his hard, uncompromising words with his gentle actions.

She decided to temporarily forget her disappointments and just make the best of her remaining moments with Dare, when she could still have him like this to herself. It would end soon, she knew. She didn’t know what will happen to them once they’d reached civilization, when he was back as Dare Montgomery, the celebrity. But she can forget about that for now.

Dinner commenced.

“Are you having fun, Tarzan? This is like a Hollywood set!” she teased him.

He grunted, latching his teeth on a bird’s leg. “I wonder what kind of bird is this? It’s delicious. Even better than turkey.”

“Let’s ask Mahdi later.”

The children were touching her hair and giggling. One little girl touched her arm fascinatingly, testing the texture of her skin as her eyes were rapt in wonder.

“They find you beautiful,” he observed.

“Oh, they’re so sweet.” She smiled at the children and they ran away, laughing.

“What did Mahdi say? How can we get to Phuket?”

“Based on what I understood, he will take us to the nearest town, not Phuket. But it will be a whole day’s trek. These mountains are not accessible by any vehicle. They always travel on foot or aboard an animal, like a horse.”

“When do we depart?”

“We can’t make it today. We will leave at first light tomorrow.”

“We’ll stay here tonight?”

“We don’t have a choice. We’ll stay alert.”

“Okay.”

Mahdi brought them to a hut. By the looks of it, it was one of the best huts in the village.

“I guess this is the 5-star accommodation,” Dare commented in amusement.

“Yes. They’re too kind.”

They went up the hut and were surprised to find amenities like a bed and a table, albeit fashioned crudely out of tree branches and bamboo slats. The bed was topped with a thick layer of dried grass to serve as mattress.

“Cool!” she exclaimed.

She immediately went to work, unpacking the precious  contents of her ‘duffel bag.’

There was a rap on the door. Dare went to look. He came back with a brown blanket made of coarse fiber. “Mahdi’s wife gave this.”

“Oh, how sweet!” She took the blanket and spread it over the bed. “Great! See, first class!”

He grinned. “Not bad.”

She hopped on the bed happily.

“You take a nap. I’ll go talk to Mahdi. Any sign of danger, scream like a witch. I’ll be nearby.”

She laughed. “Okay.”

He unstrapped the knife from his waist and gave it to her.  She grimaced but took it and put it on the floor, within easy reach. He turned to leave.

“No kiss?”

He turned back. She opened her arms.

He bent and kissed her on the lips tenderly. She hugged him tightly.

Then she let go and fell back on the bed with a sigh. “Now I can sleep.”

Celine woke up at the sound of beating drums and laughter.

She got up from the bed and took a peek outside.

There was a huge bonfire. The villagers were having a party or something. Some men and women were dancing around the fire.