Julie and the Jungle Girl

Seeds of Discontent

The next couple of days had Julie and Kimi continue to work on the basics of the whole jungle girl thing, mostly around climbing trees and getting used to being out in the wild. In the meantime, she continued to live with the Jungle Couple and became part of the household, doing her part to contribute to the new impromptu family. Through this, she also learned about the mundane, day-to-day life of Julie and Kaitan.

There is no real need to describe the mundane activities of the Jungle Couple in great detail, only that they still brushed their teeth, bathed, shaved, ate breakfast and occasionally washed their hair. They were only 23, but behaved in such way one would expect out of a couple that had been married for so long that they could simply enjoy the mundane in quiet, loving moments. Kimi wished she could have a relationship like this with anyone. And Julie noticed whenever Kimi thought this way, because she looked pretty forlorn and sad, as though she missed someone.

And as they went on, Julie started taking her deeper and deeper into the jungle. And it was during these treks, where Kimi mostly watched Julie, she learned about some of the uncomfortable truths about life in the wild.

They were getting far from the treehouse one afternoon. Julie was following the trail of a pig she'd spotted and decided would make a good breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here, Julie found the right time to teach Kimi a couple things about tracking 101. "Okay, let's get a closer look," she said. She gestured to Kimi to kneel down with her. "See these?" she pointed at some footprints. "Looks like the pig stopped to smell the roses. And eat them." Some plants looked like they'd been chewed on. Kimi took a mental note of things and eagerly nodded.

Julie stayed low, moving in a crouched, ape-like stance. Kimi followed, but crawled on all fours instead. It seemed to work for her, despite how dirty her hands and knees were getting, because she was able to keep pace with the Jungle Girl. When Julie looked back at her, she smiled and nodded her head. "You're doing great!" she said. "Just stay off the trail."

"Got it," Kimi said. It was simple. And from the way Julie pointed at the pig's footprints, it was going to be easy to follow.

"What can you tell me about this pig?" Julie stopped and asked. "Just make a guess."

"Okay," Kimi stopped and examined the tracks again. "I think he's a bit fat."

"How can you tell?" Julie asked.

"Well, his tracks look kind of deep," said Kimi. "I'd think he'd have to be heavy to make tracks like that."

"Yeah, but look at your feet," Julie replied. Kimi lifted her foot up and noticed that her footprints were also deep. Kimi wasn't that big to begin with. "Here's another lesson: Never make assumptions. This soil, in this particular spot, is pretty soft, so it might make something that's light seem bigger than it is. Also, look at the stride length. See anything?"

Kimi looked again. She felt the pig's footprints, carefully trying to touch them without disturbing or damaging them. With her other hand, she measured a pair of prints. They were about her shoulder-width apart. That didn't indicate much, ad looking up at Julie, she recognized that pretty quickly. So she kept the examination going. But upon finding another, closer print, she realized something.

"This pig was running," she said. "And it was..."

"Fleet-footed," Julie finished. "Not bad. So, from the evidence, what conclusion can you draw?"

"That the pig is lighter than I thought?"

"Bingo!" Julie slapped a congratulatory palm on Kimi's shoulder, causing her to twitch. "Sorry. By the way, you kind of seem on edge whenever something like that happens, are you okay?"