Chapter 5 Exploring Nirvana
Leah’s POV at 8 years old.
Jacob and I decided to go exploring for a bit while Charlie sat on the sand catching his breath from bringing the boat onto the shore.
I was having a difficult time treading behind Jacob because of my shoes. A half a mile later, I couldn’t take it anymore so I had to tell Jacob much to his dismay and annoyance that we had to stop.
“Jacob, we need to stop.” I said while sitting down on the rocky sand.
“Why now Leah?” He questioned, his annoyance evident by his whining tone.
“Because every step I take I feel like I am sinking thanks to the sand getting in my shoes and tights.” I pointed out to him.
“That’s exactly why I could never be a girl.” Jacob said in a condescending tone.
He then proceeded to tell me why boys are better than girls while I was getting my shoes and tights off. After his 12th reason why boys were better than girls, I couldn’t take it and decided to ball up my tights and throw them at his face. The expression he returned to me spoke volumes. He came charging after me.
I screamed and ran back to Charlie with my shoes in my hands.
“What in the hell has gotten into the two of you?” Charlie asked.
“She threw her stinky sweaty tights in my face.” Jacob replied.
“Well you wouldn’t shut up about being better than me because you’re a boy.” I said.
“I don’t care who started what.” Charlie said in an angry tone.
Charlie had enough of our childish bickering and figured he would stretch his body out after resting.
Charlie decided to search around the island for more people, fresh food, and water. Jacob and I decided to follow him after I placed my shoes next to Jacob’s.
After an hour of shuffling around on the sand and pushing the tall grass out of our way, I was beginning to wonder what we were looking for exactly.
My eyes began to focus on the most colorful bird that seemed to follow our every move and when I pointed it out to Jacob, we began to giggle.
Unfortunately, Charlie didn’t find our laughter amusing nor entertaining so he turned towards us and displayed a stern face while putting his fingers to his lips to silence our giggles. As soon as our giggles stopped, with every step we took, I kept having the instinct I was hearing water.
My guess turned out to be right. Before us was a waterfall and at the end of it, a small pool of water. Jacob couldn’t resist as he leaped into the crystal clear water and started splashing around while Charlie climbed the steep slope right beside the waterfall. I on the other hand decided to sit next to the pool that Jacob was playing in to rest my aching feet.
I noticed a barrel had floated against me and I decided to yank it out before Jacob spotted it. I kept twisting the nozzle and nothing would come out. I placed my little pointy finger in the sprout and when I felt a liquid sensation on my finger, I pulled it out and placed it against my lips. I detected something on my tongue but I wasn’t quite sure what it was but the smell was slightly familiar to me
I did that for a couple of minutes until Jacob decided to come out of the water and see what I was doing.
“What cha doing Leah?” Jacob asked with his mouth full.
While I was trying to figure out the contents of the barrel, Charlie managed to get on top of the slope and locate a bunch of bananas near a tree. He proceeded to break off the branch and throw them down to Jacob who in turn started eating them while Charlie slid down the waterfall towards us.
“I am trying to figure out what’s in this barrel.” I told him.
Jacob got bored with the barrel and decided to do exploring on his own
“Mr. Swan, there’s a barrel over here that smells like the captain’s breath.” I told Charlie who was gorging on something.
“Captain’s breathe?” He questioned me.
He gently pushed me out of the way so he could figure out what was in the barrel. He did the same procedure as I had but managed to figure out what was inside before I could.
“Rum, oh thank you sweet Jesus!” he exclaimed happily.
“Hey, look what I found!” Jacob shouted as he came back from his short expedition. “It has little holes in it.”
He was holding what looked like a human head.
Charlie took it from him and had the most terrified expression on his face. He quickly discarded it, grabbed the barrel and sternly told us, “We need to get out of here.”
Jacob kept trying to tell him that there were more but Charlie wanted to hear nothing of it. We ended up walking away from the little waterfall and pool never to see it again.
We walked back to where our trunk and boat were located. We placed the barrel in the sand. Charlie decided that we should check out what was located on the right side of us since we discovered that the waterfall.
It was nothing but land. Amongst the land was a huge hill.
After a while of climbing the hill, we finally came to the top and realized it would be a great view point for upcoming boats.
While Charlie and Jacob were conversing about not seeing Uncle Billy’s boat, I came across a little bush that had little red berries on it. I figured I would try one.
Just as I had one in my mouth I heard, “Leah!” Charlie screamed at me. “Get those things out of your mouth! Spit it out!”
The tone of his voice scared me so I ended up spitting out the berry and started to cry.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry.” He said gently this time around. He ended up telling us that those berries were called never wake up berries. He said that if you ate one, you would fall asleep and never wake up. “Let’s leave those berries alone.” He added.
Several hours later when night began to fall, Charlie started a fire so we could have some light.
“We had a cat that went to sleep and never woke up.” I told Charlie. “Uncle Billy said she was dead and buried. Do you think she ate some of those never wake up berries Mr. Swan?” I questioned.
“Possibly.” He mumbled
He was pretty quiet about it until now. “What does dead and buried really mean?” Jacob asked Charlie.
“It means they put you in the ground, and they cover you up with dirt hence the term dead and buried.” Charlie told us.
“Oh like Mrs. Uley’s baby. Lee remember?” Jacob replied, recalling our neighbor back in La Push.
“The doctor came to deliver the baby from the cabbage patch.” I said full of remorse.
“Cabbage patch?” Charlie asked bewildered.
“Yeah and then he came to bury the baby in the cabbage patch again.” Jacob said haughtily.
“So he could grow and become an angel.” I said while my focus was on the fire.
Charlie looked at us like we had concocted this story but it was the truth or so I thought it was at the time.
“I ended up digging that garden and I never did come across any angels or babies.” Jacob said with a sigh in his voice. “Only worms.”
The next morning while I was playing with the music box, Jacob and Charlie were browsing through the slides and the telescope lens that came with it. One slide in particular had Jacob’s curiosity level peaked.
“Were you ever married?” Jacob asked Charlie.
“Several times.” Charlie gruffly replied. “In every port from La Push to Boston
He then mumbled about something but I was too far to decipher what he was talking about. Jacob acted like he knew what Charlie was talking about but I was sure he had no clue as well. I did manage to catch the end when he mentioned, “They all have my eyes.”
“Charlie, what does subjugation mean?” Jacob questioned.
“Something I’ve been avoiding my whole life.” Charlie quickly responded.
And with that the subject matter was closed.
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