🌼🌹ONCE UPON A GIRL🙅♀️
🥀🍁SHE’S JINXED (CURSED)🍁🥀
(The ‘Right path’ is not always right)
©GIFT OKORIE✍️
👑CHAPTER 15👑
“Whatever it is, we will make it across” David as-sured us, he looked down at me, I nodded and smiled at him.
*********
“Wake up lazy dummies, it’s morning” we all jumped up when we heard ru-by whistle, followed by a gun sh0t.
Everyone was ru-bbing their eyes sleepily.
“You are the head dummy” Kira mumbled at ru-by.
“As long as you’ve admitted being a dummy, I’m good” ru-by replied. We all stiffens a laughter, Kira threw her water bottle at him, he stuck out his ton-gue for her and she eyed him.
“Why did you shoot the gun?” Mum asked dad who was holding Salvador’s gun.
“I had to help ru-by in waking you guys up since his screaming wasn’t helping” he replied, mum laughed a little while dad smiled at her. They really looked like they’ve missed each other, but will that change anything. I really nee-d to talk to them in pri-vate, I nee-d to know why dad c@m£ to help, I nee-d to know why he wants to get closer to us all of a sudden, what about his bit-chy wife and son. Do they want our family back, what is going on in their minds? I nee-d to know.
“What are we gonna have for breakfast, our snacks has finished?” Henry asked.
“All I nee-d right now is a bath” Kira complained.
“I second that” David backed up.
“I third that” Kiwi added.
“Kiwi there is no such thing as I third that” Bathny corrected, we all laughed while Kiwi giggled shyly.
“Oh come on, give the girl a break, anything can be a word, who’s gonna fourth that” dad asked and I raised my hand, everyone laughed.
“Lucky y’all, we are still close to the village, before you get to the village gate, there’s a narrow pathway by the right, if you go down, you will see a shiny river, you can bath there, though the villagers don’t go there often” mum stated.
“I know I nee-d a bath badly, we all do, but one thing I can’t do is bathing in any river in this jungle again, that won’t happen” Kira exclaimed which triggered another round of laughter considering what happened with the crocodiles.
“Let’s just find something to eat, but make sure you don’t give Marichuiy any berries, reasons best known to the jungle” Henry blurted out, we all laughed again.
“You know? Ever since we got dee-per into the jungle, Marichuiy hasn’t experience any bad luck, who else noticed?” Bathny asked.
“Yea, that’s true” they all chorused except my parents.
“How does it come, what does it feel like?” Dad asked. I shrugged and gave a light but unsure smile.
“Painful, bad, weird I guess” I replied. He gave me an apologetical smile, I nodded in un-derstanding.
“So what’s for breakfast?” Henry asked.
“Does any of us look like your chef?” Kira fired at him.
“I say we hunt for squirrels and roast them for breakfast” Ricky suggested the worst.
“Eeeeewwww” we exclaimed.
“Seems like you guys are not hungry yet” Salvador mocked us. He took a rifle from the black guy, he beckoned on them to join him, they walked out probably going hunting.
“plea-se not squirrel” Kira prayed.
“I’m gonna puke if I see it” Kiwi complained.
“I won’t even look at it” Bathny stuttered.
“I can see you guys are not actually hungry” dad chuckled out.
“Dad?” I called him, he swiftly turned to me, probably surprised I called him that, well he wasn’t the only one, mum was also staring and so was everyone else, why are they surprised, they were the ones begging me to let things go, now just because I called him dad with a soft voice, they are looking at me as if I swallowed a ten year old frog. “How do you expect us to eat squirrels, those things carries bunch of diseases” I complained.
“Beggers are not supposed to have choice munchkin” he breathed out. Munchkin. I missed that. I missed hearing him call me that, but why did he leave me.
“Oh, here comes the hunters” dad announced, we turned to their direction and saw Salvador returning with his men but empty handed. “And the hunters caught nothing” dad complained.
“This jungle has no eatable animal, it’s either a wolf, or a tiny dragon, or snakes or crocodiles” Salvador complained, we sighed sadly. “And antelopes..” Salvador continued, we all turned to him.
“Did you say antelopes?” Dad asked him.
“Yes, why” he asked back.
“Because antelopes are eatable, this guy is something wrong with your br@in?” Mum fired at him.
“Who on earth eats antelopes?” Salvador barked.
“Everyone except you” Dave and Michael snarled at him at the same time.
“Well, sorry if It was that important” he stated nonchalantly.
“Ugghhrrr” Kira gro-an ed and stood up.
“Well bye bye to breakfast” Bathny cursed un-der her breath.
“Let’s just go, it’s almost mid morning” mum informed us.
As we were packing up, I heard a whisper. “The day after tomorrow is the D day”
“D that of what?” I asked David and Bathny who were busy with their backpacks. They both turned to me in confusion.
“Huh?” Bathny asked.
“You said tomorrow was the D day, or peharps one of you said it” I asked them.
“We didn’t say anything” David replied.
“Oh my gush, the whispers c@m£ again?” Bathny asked me and I nodded.
“Could it be that those dark dragon lords are nearby?” David asked.
“I don’t know” I shrugged.
“What are you guys whispering about?” Mum asked us as she approached.
“Whispers of the dark dragons and their dragon lords, we encountered them before we got to the village” I explained everything to her.
“Hey, don’t worry, we will get to the temple before your birthday, I promised” she as-sured me. “I have a feeling that the temple is close, it could probably be across one of this pathways, we just have to find the right path to follow” she added as she stared at the three pathways.
“Well one thing is for sure, it’s definitely not the middle path” Henry blurted out and we laughed.
“I say we take the left” mum suggested.
“No, the last time one of you suggested, we ended up in fire forest” Salvador complained.
“Well did you see the right path to take in the map?” Mum asked him. Good question.
“I’m not even seeing any of these paths in this map, but my instict is telling me to go right and my instinct is always right, so we are going right” he stated.
“Dude, this jungle is not about instincts” Michael warned but Salvador didn’t listen, he was alre-ady walking towards the right path.
“We have to go with him, no matter what we have to always stick together, if not I would have suggested we go left and leave him and his instincts to go right” dad whispered, we all laughed.
He took the lead and followed Salvador while the rest of us followed him.
“So far so good” Mum breathed out as we admire the different types and colors of beautiful flowers in that forest.
“Maybe the original path is always the right, not the left or middle, this place is awesome” Henry blurted out.
“Don’t be too sure” Michael snarled at him.
“I have a bad feeling about this” I whispered to David.
“Yea, nothing seems right here, it’s so weird and too easy” he replied.
“Oh, I could live here forever” Kiwi jumped as she swing her arms in the air, David smiled at her, I looked away, I didn’t want to but I did.
Dad was trying to catch up with Salvador but Salvador was trying to get away from him, Ricky and mum were chatting and laughing as they walked. I felt jealous on dad’s behalf, but the inner me said ‘come on, they are just chatting, nothing serious’ so I shrugged and kept walking.
“Woaw, is it just me or is it getting chilly in Here” ru-by asked.
“It’s not just you, Marichuiy is shivering alre-ady” David complained, he drew me into his che-st and covered me with his arms, I smiled gratefully at him.
“Goodness, this is worst than the heat of that fire in the previous path” Bathny complained, Henry held her ti-ghtly.
“I’m gonna freeze in ten seconds” Kiwi complained. David was about to re-move his jacket and give it to her but ru-by beat him to it, he covered Kiwi and held her to his che-st, I think he really likes her.
David shrugged and held me, and for the first time he didn’t look jealous, instead he looked happy that Kiwi was fine. Is he getting over her or what. Seriously this jungle can change all the narratives you once had about people.
Kira is no longer rude to anyone even though her crazy path comes once in a while. Kiwi is no longer that dumb, she’s getting expo-sed to things and she can express herself freely now, no longer that timid. Henry has been cool with Bathny, no longer crushing on his father’s agemate (Ricky) in the name of being a g@y. The boys no longer hate me, they love me now. Bathny is no longer a nice girl, but crazy and very troublesome, lol.
This is cool.
I was thinking de-ep, not realizing our situation, everyone was shivering to death, even Salvador who was avoiding dad was now sharing dad’s big coat with him, dad gave mum the small one.
“What is going on, before it was fire now this” Kira screamed.
“Hey did that flower just move?” Bathny asked.
“Of course flowers move when they respond to the wind” Michael replied.
“Or maybe the flowers are freezing as well” Henry stated.
“Temperature is getting to 6°” Ricky informed us.
“We are gonna die” Kiwi cried out.
“Maybe this is not the right path, I suggest we go back” dad suggested.
“We are not going back, we continue until we get to the other side” Salvador fired.
“I don’t think we can get to the other side” mum screamed.
“If we continue the only other side we will get to is hell, cause we can’t survive that” I pointed at the two sculptures facing each other, the one on the left breaths out A gigantic snow ball, the one on the right will turn it to freeze ball and it will fall down and shatter into tiny pieces, and they start the process all over again.
“Oh my goodness, I think dying by that fire will be better than breaking into tiny pieces” Kiwi complained between shivering teeth.
“Let’s keep going” Salvador screamed.
“If you wanna keep going towards death, be my guest, but I’m not gonna relax and watch you endager these kids cause of your selfishness.” Dad fired at him. He left the coat for him and turn around. Even though he was cold hut he controlled himself and walked back to us. “Let’s get out of here” he screamed at us, mum smiled in admiration, this woman really didn’t get over this man.
Dad took the lead as we walked back, he was walking as if he was feeling nothing. I guess two years in the military paid off.
“Your dad was in the military” Kira asked, of course I thought aloud, stupid me.
“Yep, he was, he got sh0t multi-ple times in Afghanistan, he was brou-ght home for proper surgery, after that he refused to go back” Bathny explained.
“Nope, he wanted to go back but mum held him back, she said she didn’t wanna lose her husband, she almost died when he was in coma” I corrected.
“Yea, so he resigned, and they replaced him with another soldier who just got out from military school who happened to be the best in his clas-s, they call him SS Cobr@21” Bathny added.
“That’s my dad” Kiwi blurted out.
“Really, it’s true, you said your dad Is in Afghanistan” Bathny commented.
“But Bathny how did you know about it, we were both just kids then” I asked her.
“Duh, your dad was more like my dad as well, until he left us” she frowned funnily and we laughed. “Also I remember his stories about war and battle and how he used to hate grenades but their commander always make him carry a bag of it” we laughed again.
“Guys are you coming” mum screamed at us and we replied yes. I looked behind to know if Salvador and his men were coming and well, I breathed in a sigh of relief when I saw them coming.
“But then he later bec@m£ a bad as-s” Bathny continued. The story was actually helping in shaking off the cold.
“No wonder why your mum wouldn’t get over him, if I were her, I wouldn’t” Kira blurted out and we laughed.
“So when he resigned, what business did he get into?” ru-by asked.
“Real estate” Bathny answered.
“Cool” they all replied.
“How’s everyone feeling right now?” Dave asked us.
“Shaken up I guess” Henry answered as well kept walking.
“Umh guys, remember when Bathny said the flowers were moving” dad asked.
“Yes” we replied.
“She wasn’t bluffing” He stated.
We all exchanged glances and then ran to him. As we got closer we saw the unbelievable turning to reality.
The beautiful and colorful flowers were weaving themselves as if there was a spider webing them, the weaving was alre-ady so thick that it looked like a very thick bush with no way in a way out, we couldn’t even see the entrance, what the h*ll is this.
“We have to cut it” Salvador said from behind.
“Hey look who c@m£ along” dad screamed with a mocking smile ma-king us laugh, Salvador rolled his eyes and walked closer to him.
“Can we focus” he fired at dad, dad shrugged.
“How are we gonna cut it?” Dad asked.
“I still have that broken bottle we used in cutting that bridge and the rope that almost killed Kira” ru-by announced.
“I have mine too” Ricky added.
“Well what are you waiting for, start cutting” Salvador screamed at them.
“Bottles, how is bottle gonna cut this thick bush?” Mum asked.
“And how can you enter a jungle without a knife, matchet or sword?” Dad backed up, he signaled mum, she opened the local bags which I as-sume the villagers used in replacing their backpacks, she brou-ght out a 15 inches fine sword and threw it to dad.
“I love this man” ru-by commented and we laughed. He threw his own bottle back into his backpack and walked back to us, leaving dad and Ricky to do the cutting.
“We will take turns in cutting” dad explained as he started slicing the flowers off.
“You and who?” Salvador asked him.
“Me, this one..” He pointed at Ricky. Jealous man, lol. “You and your men” he replied.
“The name’s Ricky” Ricky corrected him.
“Go to h*ll” dad snapped at him with a light smile.
Mum smiled, she shook her head and screamed at them “boys can we not fight”.
“I love it when she call the boys” Kira commented.
“That’s because they are boys” mum said to her. “Let’s make camp fire, girls gather the fallen flowers and let’s use them as firewoods” she instructed and we obeyed.
“Thank God we’ve pas-sed the freezing side” Kiwi stated as we packed flowers.
I couldn’t help but look up, I have a feeling we will spend the night here cause this flower bush is too thick and much.
“It looks like we won’t make it across tonight” Bathny whispered beside me.
“I’m scared, if we pas-s the night here, then it’s a day to my birthday, I don’t wanna remain like this for the rest of my life” I complained as tears dropped from my eyes.
“And you won’t” I heard mum whisper from behind. She gave me a bear hvg. “I won’t let anything happen to you baby” she as-sured me. Bathny win-ked at me and walked out.
I guess it’s finally time to settle things.
I turned to face her. “Mum why, why is dad here, why did he leave in the first place, why didn’t you tell me you were leaving to fix things, why are you acting as if you’ve forgiven dad, as if he did nothing wrong after he pushed me away, after he left us, why everything?” I cried out.
“Baby, everything dad did was for our safety, he left because he wanted to protect us” she stated, I twisted my brows in confusion. “He never married any B*chy p@rty girl and he doesn’t have a son” she confused me completely.
“I don’t un-derstand” I cried out.
“I’ll explain….”
TBC
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