The Missing by Kiersten Modglin (essential books to read txt) 📕

“No,” he said. “I can clean a fish, but I don’t know anything about real animals.”

She snorted, taking the knife finally. “Okay, A, fish are real animals. And B, please don’t ever call yourself Daddy again.”

As she set to work preparing our dinner, James instructed Noah on how to help him with the fire, and Harry and I filled the coconut shells with water, placing them delicately on the stones of the fire until they boiled, which seemed to take forever.

Once dinner had been cooked, the water was cleared to drink, and the sun had set, we all settled into the evening, relaxing by the fire with full bellies and wet hair from playing and rinsing off in the water.

Harry had told us he’d wake us up bright and early, but as none of us had any alarm clocks, he was just guessing like we’d done the morning before.

“I was thinking…” I propped myself up, my elbow in the dirt, cheek resting in my palm. “Once we get up there tomorrow, one of us should turn on our phones. Just to see if we have service.”

“We didn’t have it on the beach,” James said skeptically. “You think we’d have it somewhere higher up?”

We all looked at Harry, who seemed caught off guard by the question. “I mean, it’s always possible, I guess.”

“But not probable?” I asked.

“Well, I would think if we had access to a cell tower anywhere on the island, we’d have access to it just about everywhere. I mean, maybe not in the depths of the jungle, but out in the open where everything’s clear… I just wouldn’t expect it to be any better. But, I don’t know, guys. Believe it or not, there are things I actually don’t know a lot about. I live in the city. For as long as I’ve had a cell phone, I’ve never had to worry about service.” He traced his finger through the dirt. “It’s worth a try, at least.”

Noah lit up, giving that same lopsided grin he so often did. “Well, whaddya know, Boy Genius doesn’t know everything after all.”

“I never claimed to know everything,” Harry said. “I just happen to know a few things.” He pushed himself into a sitting position, fiddling with a blade of grass. “And those few things are probably the only reason we’re all alive right now, Noah, so maybe lay off a bit.”

“Easy, hoss, I’m just playing with ya.”

Ava twirled a finger through one of her curls. “Relax, Harry, Noah doesn’t know how to communicate with people unless he’s insulting them. Some of us never learned people skills.”

“Fat load of good people skills would do me out here, Princess,” he snipped.

“Some of us are making friends,” she said, looking up at James, who was on his side lying just above her, her head resting on the ground in front of his stomach. Apparently, they’d made the decision to no longer hide whatever it was they had going on. The line had been drawn, and Ava and James were firmly on one side together while the rest of us, the outsiders, were alone.

Without a pact.

James ran a hand over Ava’s arm and moved to stand. “I need to take a leak.” He tossed the bone he’d been picking at to the ground and walked away from the group, standing near the edge of the clearing to get some privacy, but not so far that we couldn’t still see him.

Suddenly, Ava clutched her stomach, shooting up and running toward the opposite side of the forest. Before she’d made it, the vomit had begun spewing out of her mouth, and I heard her coughing and gagging as the sickness overcame her. I stood, too, trying to get near her, but this time it was James who rushed to her side, his hands holding her hair back. I stared at the hog carcass, my stomach churning, as I tried to convince myself I was just imagining the ill-timed nausea.

Harry and Noah were still. By that point, we were all so used to the terrible smells of living with four strangers, none of whom had washed in days, that nothing seemed to bother us too much.

When she’d finished getting sick, Harry handed a coconut shell to James, who handed it to Ava, lifting it to her mouth gently. She sucked the liquid down.

“Why does it feel like I’m the only one getting sick around here?”

“Do you think it could’ve been the meat? Or the water?” Ava stopped drinking as I asked the question. “Maybe we did something wrong with cooking it?”

“It could be either,” Harry said, still playing with the strand of grass in the firelight. “I guess we’ll know if someone else gets sick.”

My stomach lurched, and I forced the thought down. I wasn’t getting sick. I was fine. I’d just watched someone else get sick, and it made me feel queasy. But the truth was, I was terrified. I’d had food poisoning once in college and spent the next day and a half in the bathroom. All I remember of that time is pain and the cold floor digging into my knees, and the agony of the emptiness I felt, unable to keep anything down. I’d thought then I was going to die, and that was in the comfort of my own home, surrounded by clean water and medicine and access to medical care if things got too bad. I couldn’t imagine dealing with it here where we lacked…well, everything.

“I feel much better,” Ava tried to reassure us. “Honestly, it just hit me. I’m probably dehydrated again. I haven’t gotten sick since yesterday, and that was just from coconut water.”

James led her back to where they’d been sitting, and they sank to the ground together. The night sky was dark and cloudy, the wind blowing just enough to keep it too cool for comfort, and we each seemed lost in our own heads.

I lay