Escaping the Lost Island (working title)

Chapter 12

I was amazed. "You're incredible!" I told her.

She smiled but shook her head. "Not at all. You must know so much more about the rest of the world than I do."

I scoffed. "That hardly helps me escape a deserted island."

Her bronze cheeks tinted pink and I immediately was sorry I had deflected her admiration. "So how did you learn English anyways?" I asked. It was something that I was actually really curious about and it successfully changed the subject.

"My father taught me when I was a little girl," Rita explained. "As used to say: "Ang labaw nga kita makakat-on sa usag usa, mas gugma nga kami aduna alang sa usag usa" which means 'The more we know about each other, the more love we have for each other.'"

"That's beautiful," I said. "Your father must have been a wise man."

"The wisest." Her face was solemn.

I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

She shook her head. "I'm not. He is with God now."

This surprised me. "You believe in God?"

She looked at me as though I was crazy. "Of course."

"I just didn't think... I mean, since you talked about the spirits of the sea and all of that..." I stopped, hoping I hadn't offended her in some way.

Rita rocked back on her heels. "We believe that the spirits of the sea and earth are those of our ancestors, placed there by God to remind us of his presence in our everyday lives."

Huh. I had never thought about that. "That's actually really cool," I said finally.

Rita shrugged. "Well I think so, but that's what I grew up with. What do you believe?"

"I.. I'm not sure." I hesitated. "I think I believe in God too? I grew up going to church and stuff." 

She shook her head. "But what does that mean to you?"

"I..." I stopped. I guess I wasn't sure what it meant to me. 

"I believe that there's more than what I see." The words came out of my mouth before I had thought about them. "That someone is looking out for me in a way no one else can."

Rita smiled and nodded. "Very cool."

She returned to digging up roots but I remained motionless. If God was really watching out for me, was that the answer? That he could save me and my friends? 

I had always known there was nothing I could control about this situation, but knowing maybe someone else could was actually quite a refreshing thought and I felt as if a weight was being lifted from my shoulders. I looked over at Rita and marveled at how wise she was. She couldn't be more than eighteen or nineteen and yet she knew much more already than most of the adults I knew.

"Rita, why did you go with Toby?" I asked abruptly.

"What do you mean?" She kept her eyes on her work.

"I mean weren't you happy with your family? And your friends?"

"Yes, I was happy there," was the opaque reply.

"So why did you go with him?"

"I love him," she said simply.

I started.

"Not like that," she said, reading my thoughts. "But when I met him, I knew there was something different about him. I just felt this... connection."

That was definitely the first time I'd ever heard someone else say they felt a "connection" to Toby. He wasn't exactly the touchy-feely sort. At all.

"He was so...earnest. And determined. He cared so much," she went on. "I just felt like helping him was the right path for me, especially after my father died."

Now I was officially shocked. Toby? Caring so much? I mean, I thought I was the only one who had ever seen that side of him. I couldn't believe how easily he must have opened up to Rita, and in such a short period of time. A twinge of jealousy poked at me, but I brushed it away, irritated with myself. I felt like it was easy to open up to her, why shouldn't he?

"So what happened when you were at sea then?" I asked. "I mean, I know you told us a bit about what happened before, but you were on the water for weeks."

"Two weeks, four days," Rita confirmed. "Even though I knew how to get here, the ocean has a mind of its own that no human can control."

"Definitely," I said feelingly. "But what was it like?"

"It was the hardest journey of my life," she said truthfully.

I sighed and grabbed a handful of leafy root tops. "Get ready for a harder one."