Chloe and Me

Chapter 11

Chloe
The morning sun shines on my face as I get out of the cosy tepee. I hum along to the tune I have stuck in my head "Tried to keep you close to me, but life got in between. Tried to square, not being there, but think that I should have been. "
Hold Back the River. Lucy and I had loved singing that song together. It was quite a popular song when we left Melbourne. It's probably really unpopular now!
" Is that you singing Chloe?" I hear Lucy's voice come out of the tepee.
"Yeah, it is. Do you remember that song?!" I call back.
"Hold back the river let me look in your eyes, hold back the river so I, can stop for a minute and be by your side, hold back the river, hold back. " Lucy sings along and we start laughing. Then suddenly Leo's ears prick up. "What is it boy? Is something there?" We start looking around keeping each other close. Lucy hops along on her crutches and we hear a noise in the tree. "Hello?" Anyone there?" I call out. More rustling and a branch brakes, something heavy is definitely up there. Then a dark shape jumps down. It is a small African boy, he is wearing a few leaves around his waist and his hair is wild and dark. "H h hello?" Lucy tests to see if he understands English. His lips curl up at the edges and a smile spreads across his face. He points at Leo and laughs. His laugh is very soft and beautiful. He pats his leg and Leo runs over and sits on him. The boy pats him. "Lion cub. " the boy speaks quietly.
"You speak english! What's your name? My name is Chloe and this is Lucy. "I gesture towards Lucy and introduce ourselves. "Name is Jukamequa or Juki." Juki replies.
"Hello Juki, nice to meet you."
He points at me, "Lucy?" I laugh
"No, no, no. I am Chloe." I point to myself. Then I point at Lucy. "That is Lucy. " He grins.
"Chloe," He points to me. "Lucy." He points to Lucy.
"Yes! You I'd it!" Lucy and I laugh. Juki smiles and laughs too. He moves and says "follow." Lucy starts walking after him, hobbling on with her crutches, so I go along too. We make our way through the jungle and Juki occasionally says something in English, pointing out berries or fruit. I am so pleased now we can have fruit with our meals.
Leo walks up ahead with Juki and Lucy and I walk behind. "Nearly there. " Juki calls out.
"Great!" We call back. We scramble through vines and climb over big fallen trees. Lucy struggles a bit with her leg but overall she's fine. We finally reach Juki's home. Well that's what he calls it. It's absolutely awesome! His home is in a massive tree. He climbs up quickly and I slowly but surely climb up too, Lucy stays down keeping watch of Leo. Juki shows me that this is where he sleeps. In a crevice of the tree, he is a jungle boy! Juki then jumps, I gasp. Will he fall? He doesn't because at the last second he grabs a big vine and swings! All the way to another tree. He laughs, "your turn!"
"You can do it Chloe!" I hear Lucy's encouragement so I go for it. I jump, clasp my sweaty hands onto the vine and swing! My hair loose, air rushing past me. I feel wonderful, amazing! I yell out, "Yipeeeeee!" This is so much fun!