The Next Adventure

by Janice Horton

  I was going to have to crawl along an adjacent horizontal branch to get to where I needed to be and so with my latex gloves on and access to my collecting boxes, I inched along the branch, almost jumping out my skin after coming across a small sloth, who might have been more surprised than me to find a human in his tree. It leapt away, making me grab the branch with both hands and shredding holes in my now useless gloves. I gathered myself and, finding the branch sturdy, I continued on until I was around six feet or so away from Tom.

  I checked the thick hordes of leaves and vines growing all around me and saw they in turn were covered in many reddish-brown caterpillars with small patches of lime-green on their backs. I asked Tom to pass me a collection box and then started to harvest them and a quantity of their food. I worked quickly and meticulously, turning over the leaves to examine the undersides and plucking off their eggs and all the happily munching caterpillars together with those sleeping and metamorphosising in their silky cocoons. Then suddenly, amongst the vines, I saw something and I froze with fear. It was a snake. A big one. It looked to be sleeping on the branch. I couldn’t speak and neither did I want to move in case I woke it.

  I turned my widened eye balls in Tom’s direction to try and alert him.

  ‘What’s up?’ He yelled, his voice projecting through the space between us.

  I had no choice but to move my arm in a slow and undulating way as if I was playing a game of charades. I was attempting to indicate ‘there’s a snake on the branch’.

  ‘A snake?’ Tom yelled.

  ‘I wobbled my eyes and groaned. ‘Yes!’

  ‘What colour is it? How long? Any distinctive markings?’

  All very difficult questions to answer only in slow mime.

  ‘Shhhhh’ Tom suddenly urged with his finger to his pursed lips. ‘Did you hear that?’

  ‘What? Hear what?’ I hissed in horror.

  Had the snake woken? Was it preparing to attack me?

  Am I going to die a horrible death?

  ‘One and one is two. Two and two is four—’ Tom whispered ever so quietly.

  ‘What on earth are you doing?’ I wanted to know.

  ‘Ha-ha! It’s an Adder!’ Tom laughed so loudly that he rocked the branch back and forth.

  ‘This is not the time and place for your sick sense of humour and silly jokes!’

  Then the snake started to move away.

  I suspected it had been disturbed by my trembling and Tom’s vibrations along the branch.

  ‘Joking aside, it’s a racer snake. It’s passive and none poisonous.’ Tom assured me.

  With my heart banging against my ribs I continued my mission to collect eggs and caterpillars and chrysalises. Oh Ethan, if you could only see me now!

  Then a giant Green Morpho butterfly fluttered past me, it’s large wings iridescent against the canopy of green. I gasped and caught my breath. My mesmerised eyes widened and every hair on my body rose with excitement. It was so beautiful. When I looked across at Tom, I saw that he was grinning from ear to ear and giving me a big thumbs up sign.

  Chapter 15

  Back to Tortola and Waterfall Cay

  Just after noon, we started to head back to the airstrip to meet with Captain Edward. As we passed by the area below the plateau, where I’d first found Monty, he’d suddenly leapt from my arms and went his own way. We can only assume that he recognised the way back to his family. I watched him go and wondered if he could ever know how grateful we were to him?

  Thanks to Monty, we had ten containers of healthy-looking caterpillars in various stages of growth, several large bags of foliage for them to munch on and lots of leaves with eggs attached. We’d also collected some of the precious chrysalises with the caterpillars inside them completing their metamorphosis into the giant Green Morpho.

  Edward arrived right on time as promised and flew us straight onto Tortola as arranged. It was a short flight of just thirty-five minutes. I could tell that Tom was feeling just as exhausted as I was and that he was more relieved than afraid to fly this time. Not to mention starving.

  We seemed to have lived for two days on cake alone.

  After landing on Tortola, we took a taxi over to the marina, where Ethan and I had initially hired a motorboat on the day he’d introduced me to Waterfall Cay. I left Tom to check us into an adjacent hotel and to check on our precious cargo of Green Morphos in their various stages of development while I went to see the man in the Panama hat.

  As I didn’t have a clue how to drive a motorboat and neither did Tom, I had to ask Mr Panama Hat, whose actual name was Jorge, if he’d be willing to rent out his boat to us complete with a driver for a departure first thing in the morning. He agreed to drive us himself and produced a card machine. I am guessing that my bank card was steaming.

  Back at the hotel, Tom and I agreed to meet up in one hour in the waterfront restaurant.

  We were both ravenously hungry, thirsty, but far too sweaty and filthy from island rainforest and pungent aromas to consider sitting down to eat yet. My entire body ached and was stiff and sore from two days of walking, climbing, gripping onto tree branches and from the tension brought about by the fear of falling and the fear of failing to complete our mission.

  Even taking one flight of stairs up to my room seemed to take all the energy I had left in me.

  Only the thought of being able to shower and wash my hair enticed me to make the effort.

  My room was small and clean and had a balcony with a beautiful view over the bay. I eyed the bed and wished with all my heart I could just lie on it for a moment, but I knew that if I allowed myself that luxury, I’d have crashed and starved to death in my sleep.

  After a hot water shower, I wore the only clean thing I had in my pack.

  It was the dress I’d bought on St Lucia. Although, I feared it would likely be holding onto an undetectable only to me pungent sulphurous smell. Just before I went downstairs, I texted my sons and my mum to tell them I was just back in the land of wi-fi and would call them later.

  I doubted I had the energy to speak coherently until I was fed. I’d already decided on something considerable for my dinner like a double cheeseburger and fries and a pudding that contained a high percentage of chocolate.

  Tom was already in the restaurant when I got downstairs. He looked so unlike jungle Tom.

  He was ridiculously handsome now that he was clean and his hair, still damp from the shower, was combed back off his forehead. He was wearing chino shorts and a t-shirt that had ‘born to be a butterfly’ printed on it that looked impossibly white against his darkly tanned skin. The restaurant wasn’t busy, but I saw that a few of the women and several of the men were busy eyeing up Tom. I greeted him with a kiss to both sides of his smoothly shaven face and sat down. Picking up the menu, I was hopeful that service would be reasonably fast.

  Our waiter introduced himself as Anthony. As I ordered my burger and fries and a chocolate cheesecake, he poured us water as a matter of course. I gulped down a whole glassful straight away without stopping to breathe. ‘Whoa, someone is thirsty!’ Anthony remarked.

  ‘Yes. Very. Can we also have two cold beers please too?’

  ‘Two bottles of local beer coming right up!’

  After our meal, lethargic with food and dizzy with tiredness, Tom and I parted company for the rest of the evening with a reminder to each other to set our phone alarms for an early start.

  We had to be on the move as soon as the sun came up.

  I lounged back on the blissfully soft bed and mulled over my thoughts about the past couple of days. Knowing the final part of the plan was the most crucial and our timing tomorrow had to be perfect. Firstly, we had to reach Waterfall Cay and trek to the waterfall to rehome the Green Morpho caterpillars and cocoons and eggs. Then we had to be sure to get back to Tortola and file our petition. I’d checked the government website to see a notice that they closed at 4.30p.m. tomorrow. It was going to be another gruelling race against the clock kind of day.r />
  Too tired to hold a proper conversation, I quickly messaged my mum and my boys again, saying that it was late here and I was going to bed. I did explain that I would call them tomorrow evening from the airport with my arrival time back in London.

  I’d looked quickly at flights to see that I had a couple of options with different airlines.

  Before I could sleep, I had to draft out my petition statement, knowing that time would be of the essence tomorrow. Tom had also promised to draft out his expert statement before he went to sleep. I knew I had to be factual and practical in my plea as it wouldn’t do to be emotional. I decided on three succinct paragraphs. One that detailed the historical value and presence of the Green Morpho on the island at the time when Wallace had first identified the species. Then noting the fact that the giant butterfly had been previously declared as endangered and then falsely reported extinct. Followed by the rediscovery and the second chance being offered to the world to save and preserve the Green Morpho on Waterfall Cay, as classed and identified by world-renowned expert and lepidopterist Dr Tomas Remington.

  Then I slept like a proverbial log until my alarm went off at 5.30a.m.

  Jorge was waiting for us as we arrived at the marina. He was stocking the boat with a cool box filled with drinking water, sandwiches and fruit for our picnic lunch. He asked us if we’d like champagne too, but we declined. I explained to him that the trip was of a scientific nature and that we also required his discretion as we were dealing with a rare species. He agreed and didn’t ask any awkward questions. Probably because he knew Ethan and I worked together.

  So Tom and I brought onboard our precious Green Morphos and Jorge steered us out of the bay and headed out down the straits. We enjoyed the warm sun on our skin and the fresh wind in our hair, but we could hardly relax. I could see that Tom was anxious and fretting over the condition of our precious cargo. It had been many hours since we’d taken them from their original home and we hoped our efforts to rehome them wouldn’t take too much longer.

  After almost three hours, once we’d passed the Dog Islands and I could see Mosquito Island emerging on the horizon and Necker Island in the far distance, I knew we’d soon spot Waterfall Cay off our port side. Tom remarked, just as I had the last time I’d made this journey, that these islands seemed to be at the very end of the world.

  Finally, we slipped quietly into the small heart shaped bay and secured the boat.

  Tom and I hurried to get our boxes ashore while Jorge relaxed back on the boat.

  Tom and I traipsed through the rainforest towards the waterfall. It felt strange being back here without Ethan. I’d explained to Tom that the site where we were rehoming the Green Morpho was at the opposite end of the island and away from the beach area, the lagoon, and all the construction works. Like the experienced hikers we had become, we made good progress along the track that Ethan and I had previously trekked and we reached the waterfall, breathless and sweaty and quite exhausted.

  As I was myself, Tom was in awe of the incredible setting. As we entered the lagoon, the emerald pool looked so amazing and enticing, that we had to resist the temptation to throw ourselves into it because we had our important work to do. Tom had to scout around the waterfall area to assess the very best place for us to rehome our charges while I unpacked our boxes and equipment. When he came back to me, he said he’d found lots of Butterfly Pea plants growing in the shaded area at the back of the waterfall and we immediately set to our task of transferring our chomping caterpillars – several hundreds of them – but still only a tiny amount of the ones we’d seen on the vines on Luminaire.

  Once they’d all been happily rehomed, it was the turn of the chrysalises, which were still attached to the foliage they had woven themselves onto. We hoped that when they woke up from their sleep, they wouldn’t even know they had just been airlifted to another island. Ditto the eggs that were still all attached to the undersides of the same leaf their mothers had chosen for them. All we needed now was for the butterflies to hatch.

  Tom estimated it might perhaps be a day or two before those in their cocoons began to emerge. When our task was completed, only then did we go for our well-deserved swim.

  ‘I can hardly believe that we actually managed to pull this off!’ Tom exclaimed in surprise.

  ‘What? So you really did think this plan of mine was crazy?’ I laughed, splashing him.

  ‘No, not crazy, but it was certainly daring. I can see why you want to live here. It’s idyllic!’

  ‘While we’re here, I’d like to show you what’s going on at the other side of the island.’

  I was also curious to see how far Damion’s plans for his hotel and resort had progressed.

  So we made our way back to the boat, where we found Jorge happily fishing and eating sandwiches, and we stowed away our specimen boxes. Then we headed over to the beach and lagoon area using the route that I knew would bring us out right at the top end of the beach.

  ‘We can use the boulders below the headland to spy on the Goldman’s construction site.’ I told Tom. And so, when we got there, we both squatted down and ducked our heads and peered out from our rocky hiding places to be completely shocked by what we saw.

  There were construction workers everywhere. Noisy machinery was being moved from the jetty that crossed the reef to the footprint of the resort, where building materials were stockpiled and cranes swung shuttering into place and cement machines noisily churned the toxic concrete sludge to be poured into the sand and to provide the foundations to the building and swimming pool. The difference in what I’d seen here last time and now was heartbreaking.

  ‘This is happening even faster than I thought possible!’ I breathed.

  ‘Yes. We really need to get back to Tortola and file those papers.’

  I nodded. My throat felt tightened by all the turmoil and the intensity of my emotions.

  We had clear seas until we reached Virgin Gorda, then frustratingly, we had to slow right down because we got caught up in a Christmas pageant taking place in the straits. There were so many sailing yachts and power yachts and catamarans, all being driven by people wearing Santa hats and sunshades and with their boats decked out for the upcoming holiday.

  It took us more than an hour longer than expected to clear the straights.

  When we finally reached the harbour at Road Town and tipped Jorge to watch our stuff, we made a dash in a taxi to the government buildings. I’d been continually checking my watch and had estimated that we would arrive back mid-afternoon and with an hour to spare on closing time. Time enough to complete the paperwork between us and file our petition.

  But to our despair, despite what had been on the website, the offices were shutting earlier.

  ‘Sorry, but you’ll have to come back next week.’ The woman closing declared.

  ‘Please, this is important. Can you just give us the paperwork we need to pursue our claim?’

  I quickly explained what is was that we needed. My tone was of desperate begging.

  Luckily, we were dealing with someone who believed in Christmas spirit and who willing to give us the time of day and we were given the guidance booklets and a wad of forms to complete. ‘Getting an indigenous species documented is straightforward. The board is very keen to favour and support new petitions. Just pop your completed paperwork through the letterbox on the door an you’ll be informed of their decision after the next board meeting in January. Thank you and happy Christmas.’

  I calmed myself and gritted my teeth. ‘Thank you and Merry Christmas.’

  Tom led me back to the waterside café. We sat in the shade and drank iced coffee.

  ‘For some reason, until I saw the pageant today, I’d completely forgotten about Christmas.’

  ‘Yeah, it had kinda escaped me too, but it is just a couple of days away.’

  ‘So it’s likely to be at least a couple of weeks, possibly more, before we hear anything.’

  Tom shrugged. ‘Think of it this way. It coul
d work out in our favour. It might be ten to fourteen days before the application is processed, but in a butterfly’s life cycle, that’s plenty of opportunity for our Green Morphos to establish themselves and for all the pupa to hatch. Come on, Lori. Cheer up. We did a great thing. We found a species that the world thought was extinct and we returned it to its natural habitat to survive and to hopefully thrive. We should celebrate. It’s Christmas!’

  Of course, he was right. We must wait. We must be patient.

  The paperwork looked pretty straightforward. I completed a statement that defended the petition and provided evidence to warrant both a wildlife preserve and a protected habitat on Waterfall Cay. Tom finalised his witness statement confirming the sighting of the indigenous/endangered species and stated his formal qualifications as a credible expert in his field. An hour later and we had posted our petition and our mission had been accomplished.

  We stood staring at the letterbox for a while and then we turned to each other.

  ‘Well, it’s been an amazing adventure.’ Tom said to me.

  ‘I don’t know how to thank you.’ I said, feeling quite overwhelmed and lost for words.

  ‘No need.’ He assured me.

  ‘So when do you fly to Mexico to join your fiancé?’ I asked him.

  ‘I’ve already booked a flight out this evening.’ He told me with a dreamy look in his eye.

  I smiled. ‘Good. I’m going to jump on a flight back to London. I want to offer both you and your soon to be husband my heartfelt congratulations. But I don’t actually know his name?’

  Tom laughed. ‘No. That’s because when we talked, I realised my fiancé and yours have the same first names, and I thought it might just confuse things.’

  ‘You are marrying an Ethan, too?’

  ‘Arh and, so it seems, are you!’ Tom remarked.’

  I laughed. ‘Yes. I’ve decided that I’m going to marry my Ethan. If I send you an invite, will you and your Ethan come to my wedding?’ I asked him.

  Tom nodded eagerly and wiped away a tear. He really was a very soppy and romantic soul.