Castaways {Jariana}

No More Fish

"No way, I refuse!"

"Come on, Ariana. You have to eat something", Jai pleaded as he pulled in the fish trap.

Ariana sat on the bank of the small lagoon and scrubbed some barely edible roots with her once pristine nail brush. That manicure kit was certainly getting a workout.

"I am. Just not fish", she replied. "I'll eat ... other things ... like these lovely roots."

"But you hate those roots. You said, yourself, they taste like bitter jicama. And there's no protein in them. You have to have protein."

"Maybe, I'll eat one of your little monkey friends." She smiled wickedly.

Jai looked up in astonishment. "You wouldn't dare lay a finger on Angelina or Brad", he said fiercely and then, with a little bit of worry in his voice added, "Would you?"

She sighed and looked up from her task. He was so cute when he was protective. "No ... of course not. I know how much they mean to you."

It had been two weeks since the two monkeys had 'saved' Ariana by leading Jai to her after she'd become lost in a huge storm. Ariana remembered little of it (and believed even less), but Jai still vehemently declared that she owed her life to those monkeys. He'd become so taken with them that he'd named the pair after Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

"But you still seriously expect me to believe that this monkey, a non-sentient being, somehow got it into her small primate brain to help save me by communicating to you through a convoluted imitation Ariana-like tantrum that you should follow her to where her mate waited, guarding over me until your arrival?"

He looked sort of numb. "Weell", he started slowly. "When you put it that way, it does sound pretty crazy, but I swear that's what happened." He carried the full trap over to the grass where Ariana sat and started to dump its contents on the ground.

"Please, don't do that", she said seriously. "If I even have to look at another fish, I think I'll..."

It was too late; Jai had already up-ended the basket and the fish flopped out onto the ground.

"Ewww", she moaned and was just about to move away when something caught her eye and she turned back to study one of the fish. "Does that fish look familiar to you, Jai?"

"Huh? They all look the same."

"No, that one", she pointed a no-longer well-manicured nail at one of the larger fish in the pile. "I think I recognize it."

"Okay, Ariana. Maybe, you're right. Maybe, you do need a break from eating fish. Take all the time you need."

Ariana wasn't listening. She'd pulled out the nail file from her battered Prada bag and approached the fish with a gleam in her eye. "You didn't think I'd know it was you, did you?", she said, addressing the flopping fish.

Jai held out his hands carefully. After all, she could do a lot of damage with that file. "Calm down, Ariana. You need to take it easy. Uh ... uh." He was way out of his league here. "Deep breaths. Yeah, try that." He demonstrated by inhaling a shaky breath.

Meanwhile, Ariana was ignoring him. She quickly picked up the 'familiar' fish and with one well-practiced slice of the knife, or file, in this case, spilled the fish's entrails onto the ground. Her next move made Jai seriously consider how he should go about restraining her because she dug into the intestines and started squishing them between her fingers.

"Ariana... I swear I'll never catch another fish again. W-we'll find something else to eat, I promise ... just please stop this. It's not healthy. If you need to take out your frustrations, we can find a better way." Man, I sound like Dr. Phil.