Page 27 of The Hitchhiker in Panama
“‘To kiss Eivind.’”
I protested, but he held up a finger.
“Wait, wait, wait. ‘To kiss Eivind,’” he reiterated.
I gave him a look. He shook my head gently.
“‘To kiss Eivind.’” I mumbled the words, and he grinned.
“On our last night together.” His grin faded as he watched me.
I cocked my head at him, and he released my face.
“Promise me,” he whispered.
“I, Lila, solemnly swear to kiss you on our last night together.” My voice was husky.
“Okay.” Eivind reared back, putting some space between us. “Now, I promise, I will not try to kiss you again. You get to kiss me. I can wait.”
I laughed and pressed my face into his chest, attempting to hide a very pleased smile. Eivind was one of the sweetest guys I’d ever met.
“Lila! Eivind!” Edith called us through the door. “Jonas is waiting outside.”
Reluctantly, Eivind and I rolled out of bed and went to join Jonas, Marcella, and Elayna on the dock. Edith sent me off with a bottle of water, which I slipped into Eivind’s backpack while he pulled on his trainers.
We mingled with the group of walkers in front of the hotel and introduced ourselves to the leader, Francois, who I had talked to on the radio but hadn’t met yet, and at the designated time we took off into the woods. We followed a thick trail with lush jungle on either side. A few minutes into the walk we had to clear the path for a car, so technically, it must have been a road. Several walkers had binoculars. We weren’t a quiet bunch, conversing with one another. But we still managed to spot so many interesting critters.
At one point Francois stopped us and pointed into the trees. He grinned at me as I stood beside him, peering into the jungle.
Several trees over, branches started to sway. The thick foliage blocked my view. I craned my neck, standing on my tippy-toes, as if that would help.
I heard it: the same call I heard every day. It reverberated through the forest, echoing off the trees. A flash of black fur peeked through the leaves.
Suddenly, from behind me, another call sounded. It echoed from further away, so I didn’t bother looking for it, but the monkeys were communicating across the jungle—and we were in the middle.
“Uh, should we be worried?” I whisper-hissed to Francois.
“No, you are perfectly safe.”
Just to be sure, I inched a little closer to Eivind and froze, looking up into the trees, catching glimpses of the animals here and there.
Finally one cleared the leaves. Following closely behind, six or so more came into view, some smaller than the others. I watched them climb in the canopy, wrapping their hands, feet, and tails around branches and vines.
One monkey paused, hanging upside down from two vines. His legs were spread-eagle from vine to vine, proudly showing off his goods to anyone who cared to look. His tail tightly gripped one of the vines.
Rotating his head, he watched us, watched the jungle, watched his fellow monkeys. Still dangling, he howled—not necessarily at us, but perhaps at the jungle around him and to anyone who would listen.
The group around me chuckled as he howled again and bounced up and down, giving us a floppy X-rated show. Perhaps disappointed in our response, he moved on.
The group of monkeys passed overhead, climbing out onto the branches of the trees on one side of the road and leaping across to the other side.
I took this all in, reeling in the knowledge that I stood in a completely different world than I’d ever known. Close encounters of the jungle kind were an unexpected benefit of this trip so far. In all my planning, I’d never imagined being someplace so wild.
Twelve
When the monkeys moved along, we did too. I couldn’t take my eyes off the canopy, hoping that more monkeys would approach. But we’d left them behind.
The walking group didn’t last very long. Jonas had struck up a conversation with one of the men, and they talked about an old military base further into the jungle.
