Julie and the Jungle Girl

Kimi Meets Her Idol

One to one-and-a-half-hours earlier,

Julie "The Jungle Girl" Vidic lounged in the treehouse she shared with her boyfriend/mate Kaitan, reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It took all of her inner strength not to get angry at the mistreatment of Native Americans by the US Government, but then again, that's probably what the whole point of the book was in the first place. Really, she was inching her way through the book chapter by chapter while trying to keep herself calm. Once she finished the chapter, she shut the book with a "FWOMP" and put it away to pull out a Harry Potter book.

It's okay to be angry at systematic injustices, but it's also okay to not be constantly enraged. Anger at injustice is what prompts meaningful change, but as you can see on certain places like Tumblr, that constant anger is bad for everyone. There's better ways at making change in social justice than yelling at people for being ignorant about the issues, and using buzzwords that will only alienate potential allies. The author himself cares deeply about the struggles of Native Americans, and wants something done about it. He just doesn't know what to do, and it concerns him.

But getting back to Julie, she opened the first book, Sorcerer's Stone, and started reading from the beginning, concerning the strange goings-on in Vernon Dursley's life. Knowing what happens later in the series, she could sit back and enjoy how much denial Dursley was in at the strange cat and the flying—oh wait, Mr. Dursley never saw Hagrid's flying motorcycle.

But she also had to get past the sad and horrendous treatment Harry had to go through at the hands of the Dursleys. Whatever little bits of comeuppance Dudley received over Harry's younger years were strangely cathartic, even though they were rather unrealistic, especially considering the circumstances Harry grew up in.

Julie on the other hand, grew up in a nice household with a loving family, both immediate and extended. At times it made the 23-year-old miss them dearly. Okay, she always missed them, but knowing she was happy and they were happy for her, there was no guilt involved. Still, it'd be nice to go back to SoCal and see them again before returning to her new home on Greystoke. It's just that she was worried that Kaitan, who'd been away from civilization for so long, might be a little... caveman-ish for their taste, so maybe she should just invite them back.

In all this thinking, she sadly lost her place when she closed the book, thinking about how to get them to Pōmaikaʻi. Then she realized what she did and quickly hurried back to the page she was originally on, which was page 50, the page where Hagrid drops the famous bombshell line, "Harry—yer a wizard".

OOOOH, that made her so giddy every single time she read that line that she restarted the chapter just so she could feel that giddy tingling her spine, a sensation that she never got tired of.

The bookshelf she sat next to was a veritable library, containing books she ordered off Amazon. The worn-out ones, which stuck out like a sore thumb—mostly Steinbeck, Tarzan and educational books—helped Kaitan keep his English-language skills while he grew up in the jungle and amongst the Teo.

Believe it or not, but jungle-dwellers have a lot of free time. And, not having any use for TV or Internet (unless absolutely vital, like the blog she keeps up), those books make for great entertainment at any time of day.

She finished reading the chapter and closed the book with a "FWOMP", put a bookmark after page 60 and got up to put it back on the left side of the bookcase, where most of her books were. In fact, her name was carved at the top of the left side of the bookcase. She put it at the beginning of the Harry Potter series, of course, which had its own shelf.

When she stood up, you could get a true appreciation of her. She was slender, yes, but she was also fit and toned without a trace of arm or leg fat and a toned stomach and average bust size for someone her age. So she kinda looked like a women's MMA fighter. Her complexion was fair, but with some tan and freckles, a result of living in the jungle, although she did wear sunscreen every now and then to prevent skin cancer. She fluffed out some of her unkempt, shoulder-blade length brown hair, which framed a slender face, itself a framing brown eyes.