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.Looked like thankfulness to me.And anyway…I want to try the lotus.”She looked at him curiously.“Why?”“Just to see.”“See what?”Gideon fell silent.They spent the next half hour discussing other ways to persuade the natives to take them to the island.But they kept coming around to the one, intractable problem: they went to the island only for the ceremony.Finally Amy gave in.“But I’ll only agree if you promise me one thing: I take the lotus.”More arguing, but Amy was adamant.They returned to camp and sat down around the fire again.While Gideon messed with the medical kit, Amy ate a second breakfast—another bowl of thick maize pudding and mashed plantains.It almost made Gideon sick just watching her cram so much food in her mouth.She gestured for a coconut to wash it down.iPhone brought one to her, hacking off the top with an expert swipe of a machete and gouging a hole for her to drink from.She drank and passed it to Gideon, who drank and set it beside himself.Surreptitiously, when no one was watching, he took a small bottle of ipecac he had palmed from their medical kit and poured the contents into the coconut.Amy called for coconut milk and he passed it back to her.With a knowing glance at him, she drank deep.And immediately began vomiting.Everyone leapt up in horror as she continued retching and heaving, bringing up her enormous breakfast.As she puked, she hammed it up, writhing on the ground and shrieking between bouts of the heaves.The effect was electrifying.While Gideon rushed over and made a show of trying to help her, at least half the settlement fled into the jungle in a noisy panic, taking with them the children.The chief came over, followed, very reluctantly, by iPhone.“I’m dying!” Amy shrieked.“Dying!”“Muerte!” Gideon cried, dredging up another Spanish word from his schooldays.The dry heaves had passed—ipecac was very short acting—but she continued to scream, rolling her eyes, clawing the sand, and feigning convulsions.It was so hideous that even Gideon felt his gorge rise.Most of the rest of the village edged farther away, with more fleeing into the jungle.But the chief and iPhone bravely stayed put, trying to help her.The chief started chanting and laying on hands while iPhone attempted to hold her down.Gideon pulled the carved wooden box out of his drysack, opened the lid, and took out the lotus.“Give her this!”This suggestion was greeted with a cry of instant approbation.The chief leapt up and fetched some boiling water from the fire, while iPhone whipped out his machete and began mashing and chopping the pod into tiny pieces, then crushing them with the flat of the blade.A foul scent rose from the crushed plant and Gideon had a bad moment, thinking it might be poisonous.But they didn’t look like poisoners and were clearly concerned with her illness.When iPhone had reduced it almost to a powder, it went into the pot of boiling water.Amy screamed one last time, and then—with a final rolling of the eyes—flopped out, unconscious.The chief and iPhone worked frantically, boiling the lotus in the water, then straining it through a piece of pounded bark.A bad-smelling rose-colored liquid resulted, which they cooled with some fresh water.Talking rapidly, they gestured to Gideon to prop Amy up so she could drink.Gideon managed to get her up, her head lolling back, spittle drooling from her lips.He couldn’t believe what a good actress she was.The chief, carrying a coconut cup with the foul beverage, knelt in front of her and gave her a couple of hard slaps.Her eyes flew open.He put the cup to her mouth.Making a face, she drank down the concoction.She fell back, once again unconscious.Gideon eased her down.A minute passed while she lay motionless.The tension and anxiety from the chief and iPhone were palpable.They stood over her, wringing their hands, their faces distorted with worry.And then, suddenly, Amy opened her eyes and looked around a little groggily.A great cry went up from the chief and iPhone.The others who had retreated to the edge of the jungle now shuffled forward to see what was happening.Amy raised herself onto her elbows and glanced up at the onlookers, blinking.More hubbub and excitement.People were still hanging back, but the relief was tremendous.Slowly, gingerly, Amy rose to her feet.The retching and convulsions had passed.She thanked first the chief, then iPhone.People began to crowd around.Amy looked awfully tired, swaying slightly on her feet, but nobody seemed to notice as they came back out of the bush, eyes wide in wonderment at the miracle, making a great noise of thankfulness, gesturing to the sky as if praising the gods.And then the chief seized Gideon’s hand and raised it in triumph.He gave another incomprehensible speech that seemed to be full of praise for Gideon and his wisdom.At least, that’s what Gideon hoped it meant—since that had been his intention all along.Clapping his hands, the chief began calling out instructions.The village children began chasing around a goat, finally capturing it and tying it up.iPhone came over with his machete and, to the sound of much horrible bleating, cut its throat.The chief was beaming.He clapped again.“Fiesta!” he said.“Fiesta,” murmured Amy, as if from a long way away.“Fiesta.”As they prepared the feast, Gideon took Amy down to the beach to clean off the dirt and flecks of vomit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]