BY JESSICA
CHAPTER NAVIGATION BAR
CHAPTER 1  ·  CHAPTER 2  ·  CHAPTER 3  ·  CHAPTER 4  ·  CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6  ·  CHAPTER 7  ·  CHAPTER 8  ·  CHAPTER 9  ·  CHAPTER 10  ·  NOTES

NOVEL
(otherwise untitled)
CHAPTER 8
"We'll eat that fish for supper" the man stated.

"Can't we let the dog eat that fish and catch some for ourselves later." Melissa asked thoughtfully.

"Well, we're gonna have to, he's almost finished eating it, raw." the man said as he glanced at the hungry dog.

¹⁰⁹The man handed each of the girls a¹¹⁰ coconut. Jill fiddled about with it a moment looking for some sort of hinge, then asked, "I can't open this, what shall I do?"

The man looked at Jill and smirked, "You don't open it, well you do ... watch me cut my coconut."

He took the large coconut¹¹¹ in his hands and walked over to a¹¹² big rock. He hit the coconut several times on the rock and it cracked. He picked up his knife, which was lying in the sand nearby, and cut it in half.

"See this water like stuff?" he said as he displayed the half coconut.

The girls nodded.

"It's coconut juice, very tasty, now look at this white jelly-like coat around the juice" he said as he pointed to it.

The girls leaned forward to look at it.

"I don't know what it's called, but it's supossed^* to be quite nutricious*" he remarked, "Now give me your cocnuts^* and I'll cut them in half, You first Jill"

Jill came forward holding the heavy coconut and dropped it softly on the flattish top of the rock. She watched the man as he cracked and cut open the coconut.

"Here you go" he said in a satisfied tone as he handed it to her.

Jill went to a log and balanced¹¹³ her coconut halves on it. Happily Jill drank the coconut water, finding it very tasty.

"Next" the man joked.

Patricia made apporximetly^* the same moves as Jill did and the man did the same to Patricia's coconut.¹¹⁴ Melissa was next.¹¹⁵ The four sat quietly devouring the coconuts. As they were eating Melissa started thinking of how calm Patricia and Jill were acting. Of course they were nervous, but for children they seemed¹¹⁶ calm. she got deeper and deeper into her thoughts and it suddenly ocurred^* to her that her parents would find them! Police would search for them and see them¹¹⁷ (if they were in a plane)

"Whereabouts are we?" Melissa asked.

"Kohna¹¹⁸ area, why?" the man glared at her as he spoke.

"Just wondering" she remarked.

"Kohna Area!" Patricia spoke aloud,

"What's the matter Patricia?" Melissa inquired.

"Nothing" Patricia answered.

Patricia fidgeted and the [sic] pulled an earring out of her ear¹¹⁹ while the man was not looking.¹²⁰ She put it underneath a shell that that¹²¹ she found. She turned to Melissa and said aloud, "can't find my earring, will you help me look for it?"

"Oh, alright."

As Patricia moved over towards a palm tree she said "I think I lost it somewhere over here."

Melissa came over and Patricia stated, "We're in Kohna Area!"

"Yes, I know. I was thinking that mom and dad would not find us and get a search party out. The search party would fly over this island and ..."

"That's where you're wrong" Patricia inturupted*, "Remember when we first moved to Trinidad from England?"

"Yes."

"We thought it was really weird" Patricia recalled "Everyone was so superstitious, well some people still are and one of the places they are superstitious about is Kohna Area."

"Oh my god, I see what you're getting at" Melissa said, "The planes won't fly over here!"

"Yes" Patricia's eyes watered.

Melissa turned her head toward the man and called, "Can Pat and I go back to find¹²² a shady place, it's so hot?"

Knowing that there was no way for the children to escape he let them go.

Melissa put her arm around Patricia and they started walking into deeper into the island. Patricia began to wimper^* and Melissa started to give her a pep talk, "Hey, rememer^* hearing about all those people getting taken hostage in the news, they all get rescued. Anyhow this weirdo is harmless, I just don't understand why he spends so much time with Jill."

Patricia stopped wimepering.^* As they were walking they found their wet clothes laid out in the sun, drying. The man must have put them there, they thought. Patricia noticed the [sic] her clothes were dry and put them on. Melissa's jeans were a bit damp but she put them on anyway.

"Yes, it is strange about him and Jill" Patricia responded after great thought.

"You know" Melissa said, thinking out loud, "There's got to be some reason he kidnapped us, I mean people don't take kids hostage just out of the blue."

"I know what you mean, but I don't patricularly^* feel like solving a mystery, I just want to go home!" Patricia said, good and ready to get hysterical.

Melissa grabbed Patricia suddenly, and squeezed her tightly. Soon they were both in tears. Melissa desperately tried to gain control of herself, but couldn't. After a good long cry the two calmed themselves down.

"Now" Melissa said, "We can't¹²³ escape by swimming away from this island ..."

"Hey" Patricia interrupted, "The man said that we could not swim away from the island because of the sharks, but wouldn't the sharks have eaten us on our trip here?"

"They were sharks," Melissa sighed "I saw them, but I didn't tell you about them because it would have frightened Jill."

"Oh."

"But there's something going on that I just can't figure out, the way Jill acts with the man¹²⁴ ... and when he took us hostage she didn't seem scared" Melissa said intriged.*

"Here" Patricia displayed a pad of paper and a pen in her outstretched hand, "I found this in the man's boat, keep a note on what you find out about what's going on."

"Oh thank you" Melissa answered enthusiastically, "only you and I shall know about this, not even Jill, just you and I"

Melissa turned to Patricia, but she was not there. She got up and called, "Pat, come on pat, come out"

Melissa started to search for the missing girl. Her heart began to thump fast and hard, for she knew that Patricia was not playing a mere game of "hide n'^* seek!" Whitey came running to Melissa and whined aloud, with his tail down. Melissa followed Whitey, who seemed to know where he was going. Whitey approached Patricia. Melissa gave out a horrifying scream. Patricia lay on the ground, crushed to death, obviously by some enourmous* or strong object.

The man and Jill came running. Jill buried her head in the man's stomach,¹²⁵ so's not to see and the man just stood there shaking,