Chapter 16 - Feliks
“Let’s find somewhere to sit and rest for a bit,” I told Jenna.
I squeezed her fingers gently as we walked toward a big tree together. We settled against its trunk, using the roots as our chairs.
“What should we do now?” Jenna asked, her lips trembling as she spoke. Her eyes darted around. It had gotten cloudy, and the cool evening breeze was getting intense. The moon was beginning to take its place in the southern part of the sky.
Jenna wrapped her arm around herself and buried her face. I was staring at her with sympathy.
“I will light a fire to keep you warm,” I told Jenna as I stood.
She grabbed my hand and looked up. As I stared into her eyes, I could see her eyes getting glassy with tears.
“Are we lost?” she asked.
“Only luck can save us,” I teased her with a slight smirk.
She scrambled to her feet and clung to my arm. “I will go with you.”
“I’m only fetching wood to light the fire to keep us warm—it’s not like I want to leave you here all by yourself.”
“Still,” Jenna insisted, tightening her grip around my arm. “I’ll go with you to gather wood. What if you get lost? I’ll be here all by myself!”
Jenna and I gathered a few sticks and twigs together. At first, finding dry wood was difficult; we had to check under the big trees, where the rain could not reach the ground. It took a while, but we returned to our seating spot together. I gathered the sticks together and pulled a lighter from my pocket.
I struck the flint, but the wood wouldn’t catch; after a few tries, we decided to look around and gather dry leaves. Once we arranged them in between the sticks, I tried again, with more success.
Smoke filled the air, and Jenna began to cough roughly. Her eyes were red and filled with tears. I started blinking uncontrollably as well.
“My eyes hurt,” Jenna complained.
She stood and walked away from the fire, out of the smoke, where she began to rub her eyes. I chuckled a bit mockingly. I was also in pain, but I wasn’t about to show it.
Jenna later found something to fan the fire until it started bringing out flames. The smoke didn’t stop entirely but eased a bit as the flames took hold. We gathered some damp sticks around the fire to dry them out so we could use them next.
Jenna and I walked back to the tree and sat there. She was still blinking uncontrollably. We remained silent for a long moment.
“What if we don’t find our way back?” Jenna asked after a while. She seemed shaken, and her eyes were beginning to water again—this time, not from the smoke, but because of her fear of getting lost.
We saw lightning in the sky, and after a few seconds, a rumble of thunder followed. Jenna flinched as she grabbed my shirt and drew closer to me. I looked up to the sky and back at Jenna, trembling in my arms.
It started to drizzle, and Jenna’s shaking intensified. Luckily, the fire had grown relatively large, so it would be difficult for the rain to douse it completely.
However, the smoke had now been joined by steam from the wetness of the woods. I hoped that the fire wouldn’t go out quickly since it was the only thing that kept us warm.
Jenna was shivering violently. She flinched whenever there was lightning and grabbed me more tightly whenever it thundered.
“Are you scared of thunder?” I asked Jenna.
It was apparent already; I didn’t know why I’d even asked her that. I pulled her close to my chest and wrapped my arms securely around her.
“Don’t be scared, okay?” I spoke calmly into her ears. “My men would find us once it’s morning. We are not lost at all.”
Jenna breathed in sharply and exhaled heavily. Repeating this helped her calm down a bit. I placed my hand on her head and gently curled her hair backward.
We heard another rumble of thunder, and again, Jenna jumped. Her hands shook as they grabbed my shirt even more tightly.
“Jenna,” I whispered her name softly.
She didn’t respond. She just kept panting heavily. She began to sob, and her hands began to shake uncontrollably. I tightened my grip around her to make her feel more secure.
“You don’t have to be scared, Jenna,” I told her. “If you’re scared of the lightning, then close your eyes. Ignore the thunder and focus on my heartbeat.”
Her breathing slowly began to settle. She was no longer panting, and her trembling subsided. After a while, Jenna seemed normal again, although I could still hear her heartbeat slightly.
“I feel secure in your arms, Feliks,” Jenna whispered.
The statement made my head swell, and a slight smile appeared on my face. The smile slowly disappeared and was replaced by a neutral look as I stared into space and thought about the statement for a while.
It was cute that Jenna said she felt secure in my arms, but it was also worrisome. I didn’t want to appear too soft, and her statement insinuated that. I decided to change the topic immediately.
“Guess who ended up clinging to me once she got scared,” I teased her, chuckling.
Jenna lifted her head and gave me a knowing smile. Of course, I wasn’t fooling her. She could already tell why I decided to tease her and what I was trying to achieve.
She hugged me again, swallowing. I looked down at Jenna and combed her hair with my fingers. Her eyes fell shut, and I admired how beautiful she was.
“Jenna,” I called softly and tapped her gently.
She gently opened her eyes. She seemed a little lost, and her eyes were red. It was obvious that she’d already fallen asleep.
“The fire is dying,” I told her. “I need to feed it to keep it alive.”
Jenna let go of me, nodding, and I walked toward the fire. I added a few sticks to the fire and glanced back at Jenna. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, and her head rested on them. Her eyes were closed again, but I could tell she was still awake.
I leaned a little near the fire and whispered her name. She opened her eyes and stared at me. I motioned her to come over and sleep on my chest.
She lay down and began to draw imaginary images on my chest.
“I’m so scared about what might happen if nobody ever finds us,” Jenna told me.
I scoffed. It was ridiculous for Jenna to think that way, but I couldn’t blame her.
“There is no way we would be stuck here forever. My men will come in search of us once they notice our absence. They will find us for sure,” I assured Jenna.
She only nodded her head.
After a while, I stood up and added more wood to the fire while Jenna sat up, waiting for me so she could settle on my chest again.
I picked up a few dry leaves and fed the fire with them. After that, I lay back, and Jenna took her place on my chest. I ran my hands over her back as she drifted to sleep.
I tried to keep myself busy to avoid drifting off, too. Someone had to be awake for security reasons, and that someone was me. My eyes searched everywhere, and my thoughts traveled at the same time. I struggled to stay awake, but I knew I needed to.
I moved my gaze to Jenna. She looked so angelic in her sleep. I wished she was awake for a second to keep talking throughout the night.
I admired how angelic she looked in her sleep and smiled. I wasn’t going to reject this angel as a wife. I didn’t regret agreeing to this arrangement at all. I now saw Jenna as a gift, not the bother I’d thought she would be.
I had divided my attention as I tried to balance admiring the angel sleeping on my chest, watching out for any form of danger, and keeping an eye on the fire.
When I noticed the fire was going down again, I slowly pulled Jenna and made her lean. I walked away from her for a while to hunt for more dry wood, making sure not to go too far. I stayed close enough to see her while I was searching.
I never took my eyes off her for long. I’d stare at her and the ground for another second.
I gathered a few more twigs and placed them beside the fire.
Before I’d gathered the new ones, the dry-erase sticks around the fire were almost gone. I added them to the fire and decided to add the wet ones as well. I didn’t want the wood to be consumed too quickly. I made sure to put in enough wood that would last longer so I wouldn’t have to tend to the fire again.
I walked back to Jenna and lay down, pulling her back to my chest. Halfway into midnight, she woke up and began to look around.
“Are we still here?” she asked me, sighing deeply as she sat up.
I remained prone, already a little exhausted. “It’s not morning yet.”
Jenna walked toward the fire. The smoke was getting worse—from the wet wood I’d added. She walked toward the fire, poking it with an extra stick, then began to blow on the flames.
It was cute to see her like that, bent in front of the fire. I found myself smiling as I watched her tend to the fire.
I wondered why Jenna was using her mouth instead of fanning the fire, then suddenly remembered that I’d mistakenly burnt the paper she’d used to fan it earlier.
Jenna stood up and walked back to me. She sat beside me on the ground and took my hands. I looked up at her, but she was staring into space.
Sleeping would’ve been easy since my wife was awake, but I didn’t. I no longer felt sleepy.
Thinking about Jenna being my wife made me smile broadly.
“It’s hard to sleep,” Jenna said. She was still staring deeply into space.
“You were snoring on my chest a while ago,” I teased her.
She turned to me and pursed her lips. I pulled her back and made her lie on my chest.
“Let me go and tend to the fire,” she said and tried to pull away, but I pulled her back and tightened my grip around her body.
I wouldn’t choose to be stuck on an island with anyone else. Jenna was the perfect option.
It wasn’t too long before Jenna slept again.
Luckily, when morning came, a helicopter landed nearby. I stood up quickly when I heard the sound, waking Jenna. She sat up and began to rub her eyes.
I watched her as she tried to wake up fully. I looked down at the fire. It was now filled with just smoke and little to no flame.
I stood up and helped Jenna to her feet.
“I think they’re here to rescue us,” I told her, pointing to the helicopter nearby.
Her eyes lit up, and there was a smile on her face as she sighed. She placed her hands around her chest.
Immediately after we stood, the smoke from the fire shifted in our direction, and our eyes began to water again.
“Thank goodness! At least we were safe until we found help.”
My men walked out of the helicopter. They rushed toward us and led us back to the craft. Tom was there when we arrived. He sighed deeply when he saw us and walked down from the helicopter.
“Thank goodness you’re both safe,” he said.
“Thank you for coming to our rescue,” I replied.
“When I couldn’t contact you, I decided to come over and see for myself,” Tom began when we sat in the helicopter. “I saw your car there and not you both, so I panicked.”
He paused and turned to Jenna, then back to me. It seemed like he wanted to tease her, but he changed his mind. Her head was on my shoulder, and our hands were locked together.
“Luckily, I saw the smoke from the bush and called my rescue team to come with their helicopter to rescue you both.”