Julie and the Jungle Girl

New Understanding

Kimi was impatient. Or getting impatient.

As the sun set on the jungle and Julie typed away on her Tumblr blog, the Nisei/Sansei read Julie's copy of The Sorcerer's Stone with scrunched lips and furrowed brows. Julie's incessant typing, along with the equally-incessant sounds of the insects outside, only heightened Kimi's annoyance. Those bugs were kept from entering the house by some screens they closed during the evening and some safe bug repellent outside. It seems a little contradictory, but remember that you can take the girl out of civilization, but you can't take the civilization out of the girl—SHOT

Julie closed her laptop and stood up to walk over to the window. "It's a pretty sunset," she said. "Why don't you take a look?"

"I'm okay," said Kimi.

"You sure?" Julie asked, turning around. "You don't look happy."

"I'm fine," Kimi insisted.

"Okaaayyyyy," Julie said in a sing-song. She looked outside again. "Hmph. I wonder where Kaitan is."

"What?" Kimi asked.

"Nothing," said Julie. She walked over to the HAM radio and sat down. She twisted the knobs until she found the frequency she was looking for. "Tribe Family, this is Jungle Girl, come in Tribe Family."

"Tribe family?" Kimi asked.

"The Teo adopted my boyfriend," said Julie. "If it wasn't for them, he'd be dead. And they adopted me, too." She showed Kimi the tattoo (should've mentioned that earlier) on her arm. "I am an official member of the Teo Tribe. I've gone native!" Her voice was filled with infectious giddiness and glee.

"Will I be adopted?" Kimi asked.

"Maybe," said Julie. "It's not like this was easy, though."

"Jungle Girl, this is Tribe Family," Tim's voice crackled over the radio. "What is it, Julie?"

"Hey Tim," said Julie. "You know where Kaitan is?"

"He just left," said Tim. "The Pele trading caravan got attacked, and—"

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!" Julie sputtered, "Slow down! Whaddaya mean, 'attacked'?"

"I mean those Teo fakers attacked the caravan on their way here!" said Tim.

"You gotta be kidding me," Julie groaned. "Not again."

"Should I tell you the details?" Tim asked.

"No, it's fine," said Julie. "I'll ask Kaitan when he gets back."

"Got it. Tribe Family out."

"Jungle Girl out," she said before leaning back in the chair and releasing a frustrated sigh.

"What were you talking about?" Kimi asked.

"We've been monitoring the activity of a cult for about two months now," said Julie. "Look at this here." She handed a notepad to Kimi. The scribblings on the paper noted each attack and the date. In May, there was an attack on a Pele trading post just inside Teo territory. The attackers appeared to be Teo, but witnesses described several men who appeared to be "palemen". Kimi obviously didn't understand that reference, so Julie pointed out what it means. Another note, this one from June, was about the capture of a paleman, who committed suicide before they could get answers out of him.

"We think they're a cult," Julie mused. She looked up at the map of the island. Teo territory was filled out in orange streaks, Pele in blue. What WAS the territory of the Paea in the east was labelled as "power vacuum". A note, attached to the map, noted Queen Orangta, the woman behind the slaughter of the main Paea village and by extension, the chief.