Vines

Money Hunting

Flashback

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The blaring sirens were a minor noise to me. It was like the annoying buzzing of a mosquito. Men scrambleing in the dead of night didn't know what hit them. A tiny bit of nervousness and excitement rushed through my veins. This was finally it. I had never gone outside that wretched compoound that they held me prisoner in without a soldier or two with me. They couldn't even talk to me. They spoke Spanish and having taken only two years of it, I could only understand bits and pieces. I could respond with little or none of my words getting through to them. I shook the memories from my mind. I pumped my legs even faster. I had a job to do. A life saving job that only I could do, right now. I was near the base of the waterfall. I lugged three massive black duffle bags full of money, not just a little bit either. My straining muscles were twitching with the heavy load, but I had to ignore them. If I didn't ignore them and force myself to continue than someone would die. I couldn't quite remember who but I knew that if I failed now, death would await both of us. I quickly found a narrow ledge to walk behind the waterfall. It was a familiar path that I had been practicing walking on. Practicing not to slip and fall into the steady torrent of water from the waterfall. My stomach was against the wet, slimy rock as I shuffle my feet across the ledge. My feet easily found the familiar places to step and I swung one bag off into a cave. My back was getting drenched in the water as I swung the second bag into the cave. I would have perfered not to use all my strength to throw the heavy bags, but where the water came down and where the ledge jutted out gave me little to no room for all three bags and me to go at the same time. If I did try to go with the bags, then they would catch the water from the waterfall and drag me down to a watery grave. I threw the last bag into the cave with a loud grunt. I braced myself as I crawled over the jut while cold water hammered down my back. I made it into the cave! My body felt like it was a cloud without those bags weighing me down, but that sensation was halted becasue I had to take the bags deeper inside. I swung them back over my sore shoulders and continued.

The further I walked, the slimier it got. The more slimier it got, the more strange plants that grew on the ceiling. "Plants aren't even suppose to grow in caves." I thought to myself. I bumped my head on rocks and stubbed my bare feet on so many rocks that I wanted to cry. "Oh Opal, what made your life turn out like this?" was would any sane person would say in this current situation. However, it was too late to turn back. After what seemed like hours, I finally ran into the almost back of the cave. There happend to be a small crevice that I had to remove the bags and shove them through to enter. It opened up to a large cavern. It had a little blanket spread out, that I felt with my wet and trembling hands. I wrapped myself up and went to sleep. There was no way I would find the exit in the dark. I would have to wait for the morning light to guide me. 

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I opened my eyes. Realization struck me like lightning hitting a tree. The money. I knew where it was at. I jumped up and started to dance. My ankle didn't bother me that much. Jessica put some type of ointment and wrapped it up, that caused it to heal faster. Of course, it wasn't as bad a break as I thought it was either. I wanted shout out loud, but I would wake the whole jungle.

"I remembered! I remembered!" I chanted to myself.

The single most important memory just returned to me! Eli stirred in his sleep and I immediatly froze. This memory was way before my dive off the cliff. What does that mean? Why didn't I just take the money and go home, where I still don't know where it is? I wanted to keep asking questions but then I remembered that I wouldn't answer them, so I stopped. I can't tell Eli, but I don't think I'll tell Jessica either. Even though during the week Eli was gone, we bonded. I still feel like money changes people. I don't want the money to change her like she said money will change Eli. Jessica and I spent hours acting. She was so proud of me, when I could completely act like a differnet person. She, in a way felt like my mother. A mother that I'll never see because Eli killed her. The day he got back, the anger that sat stirring within me, wanted to kill him. I can't kill him though. There is no way that Jessica or I can carry those bags out of the cave. We need Eli to do it, but I need to come up with a plan for him to help us, and them get rid of him. The only problem is that I have no idea on how to make the plan. It was still dark outside and so I happily laid back down. Eli told me the other day that today was a big day. For what, I don't know. I dredded the fact that I didn't know. I made me want to stay up and try to figure it out, but I knew that I needed to sleep. I forced my eyes to close and I went back to sleep.