and girls were out of the river now and came forward shyly at first and then started laughing and joking and teasing each other and running about – except one boy, who stood apart from the others, just staring hard at them.
He looked a bit older. He was wearing a wrap with leather bands around his wrists and across his shoulder. He stood with his hands on his hips, watching with his eyes screwed up against the bright light. It was hard to make out his exact expression but he wasn’t smiling.
Ollie jerked his head in the boy’s direction. “He doesn’t look too friendly. What do you think he wants?”
Zinzi shrugged. “Probably just curious to see all the stuff we’ve brought.”
Ollie looked at their heap of equipment and then at the students’ pile as well. It seemed a lot for collecting orchid and fungi data. He pointed at a huge mound of thick, rubbery plastic tied with a rope and nodded at Felix. “Qué?” It was at least one of the Spanish words he knew. “What?” he repeated, just in case.
Felix smiled. “Un bote.”
“A boat?”
“Sí.” He made as if he was pumping up a tyre and then made a whooshing sound and showed with his hands that it would get big.
“A blow-up boat? Big?”
“Sí. Grande.”
‘What’s he say, Ollie?”
“It’s a boat. I suppose one of those rubber ones that inflate.”
“A boat? To go further up the river?”
Felix had obviously understood and shook his head. “No es un bote para el río. Es un bote para los árboles.”
“What’s he say, Ollie?”
“Wait! Slow down. My Spanish is not that good. Árboles? Something to do with trees … I think.”
“He says it’s not for the river. It’s a boat for the trees.”
“A boat for the trees? What?” Ollie spun around to see who’d spoken English.
But there was no one there … just the kids jabbering in their own language. The silent boy had pushed off from the bank and was heading his dugout canoe upstream, paddling swiftly on either side. He didn’t look back.
“Did you hear that?”
“What?”
“That boy. He spoke English.”
“He couldn’t have. He’s Embera, Ollie.”
6
Letter to Grandma
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