The Guadeloupe Squadeloupe

Chapter IX: Janis Bradshaw

"One glance and the avalanche drops. One look and my heartbeat stops."- WALK THE MOON // Avalanche

The old guy is bothering me.

It's not in the way that he'll try to spend time with me or talk to me. He's bothering me no matter how close he is. I'll be talking to Alice and he'll be sleeping, but it doesn't matter. His very presence is getting to me.

And it's because we've met before.

It was the only unusual part of the three years I spent in Maine with my cousin while Alice was in Germany. It was like a bright flame amidst all the emptiness of that old house. It was strange but more interesting than anything I'd done those years.

And it's not like seeing an old man in Maine is weird. In fact, there were a lot of those.

But he wasn't an old man. He was 10 years old.

And that was seven years ago, just after my dad died.

And I didn't even get to have a chance to live with my mother, who felt it necessary to leave us right after we were born.

Everytime my eyes happen to glance in his direction, I try to deny myself of what I'm thinking. There can be plenty of people named Bob Fincher that are illiterate.

At least, that's what I tell myself.

"Janis, wake up."

"I am," my mouth grumbles for me.

We're sitting around the campfire. That's what I'm now remembering. Everyone is looking at me expectantly, as if they want me to say something, which I'm not used to.

Perry and Alice are sitting together, which I don't like, for whatever reason. I'm not stupid enough to officially like a dude after a day of knowing him, right?

"Janis, do you like the idea of leaving tomorrow?" Perry asks.

"Leaving?" I yelp, almost falling off the log.

Rolling her eyes at me, Alice asks if I've been listening at all. I want to sneer at her, but I know that'll only be childish.

"Yeah, I've been listening. But why aren't we leaving? Aren't we going to send up a signal? A flare or something? I thought we talked about that."

Next to Diana, who seems to be near crying, Guad begins to look testy, like I'm the reason she's tearing up. "We're surrounded by grassland, mountains, jungle, and who knows what else, which means no one is near us."

I raise an eyebrow. "So that means we should go out and venture into these grasslands, mountains, and jungles?"

Heavily getting angrier, Guad says, "I survived in the woods for seven years as a child." My stomach does a flip on the inside. He what? "So I'm going to be leading us to where we can find an easier way to escape."

Escape. He made it sound like we were stuck in some prison camp, or an evil lab. Something along those lines.

Honestly, the idea of trekking through the rainforest and the Andes without any professional help didn't sound like the greatest idea. I'd always wanted to do something like backpacking in the jungle, but never while stranded with an insufficient amount of food. That part never really came to mind.

But I find myself saying, "I'm not going to argue."

Guad seems a bit happier."So tomorrow. We can pack up in the morning."

Nodding, Perry seems to agree. "So we should get a lot of sleep tonight so we have the energy to walk all day tomorrow."

Looking excited, Guad smiles awkwardly and begins to kneel down and build a fire. In the time I've known Guad and Perry, I never thought they'd get along. But now the Chilean and the Californian grin back and forth at each other to the point where I wonder if they're both gay.