Page 22 of Love in the Wild

Eden sat down on the grass outside the plane’s open door. “Do you remember what happened to them?”

Thorne joined her on the ground, resting his arms on the tops of his bent knees. They sat side by side, looking into the jungle.

“Bad men came. Men with guns.” He’d learned that word from Bwanbale while the man had treated the wound on Thorne’s arm where a bullet had grazed him. Thorne had demanded to know what the sticks were that made such a terrible noise and caused such pain. Bwanbale had taught him much about the violence of men, and that was why Thorne had never sought them out.

“Men with guns? Did your parents know them?”

“No ...” Thorne struggled to remember that awful day that had robbed him of a life he would never have remembered if not for Eden. “Father came. Took Mother and Thorne away. Bad men found us, used guns.”

“So your parents were murdered?”

“Murdered?” He didn’t know that word, but it left a terrible taste in his mouth.

“Yes. Killed by another human.”

Thorne nodded. “Murdered.” The word tasted bitter upon his tongue.

“How did you survive, Thorne?”

He could feel Eden’s eyes upon him, searching for answers. He was silent a long moment, collecting his thoughts. “Keza found me.”

“Keza?”

“Mother.Othermother. Keza is gorilla.”

Eden stared at him. She blinked.

“What?”

“Keza found Thorne. Took Thorne in her arms. Made Thorne safe. Gave Thorne family.”

“Agorillarescued you?”

Thorne nodded.

“Gorillasraised you?”

Thorne nodded again.

“Gorillas.”

Thorne wondered why she was having trouble understanding him.

“Nobody is going to believe this,” Eden muttered, scratching at her forehead. “This is incredible.”

“What isincredible?” He sounded out the unfamiliar word. Eden used so many words he did not understand.

“It meansgood. It meansbeautiful. It means ... Actually, it meansnot believable, which is pretty accurate, come to think about it. I don’t really know how to explain it.”

Thorne half smiled. “Thorne understand. Good. Beautiful.” He reached over and cupped her face with one hand. “Eden is incredible.”

Her cheeks turned a soft pink like the petals of wildflowers that grew in the mountains.

“I’m not incredible,” she mumbled.

“Yes. Incredible,” he said in that dominant tone of his that warned her not to argue with him.

“You really lived with gorillas all this time?” Eden leaned closer, seeming quite curious. He liked it when she was curious, when she was happy.

---