My newfound optimism made up for my lack of sleep when I awoke at the same ungodly hour as usual the next day.
"What's wrong with you?" Isaac asked after I responded pleasantly to his greeting.
I feigned surprise. "Whatever do you mean?"
His eyes narrowed. "You're cheerful. And it's early."
I smiled and clapped him on the back. "I just have a feeling it's going to be a great day." I left him staring at me in befuddlement and went in search of Rita.
She was in the girls' hut tidying up when I found her. Her brown eyes brightened when she saw me. "Good morning, Meg," she said. "Are you ready to get started?"
I gave her a thumbs up. "Ready when you are!"
She smiled. "Excellent! I just need a little more time to finish up, but I'll be ready soon."
"Here, I can help." I knelt beside her and began to shake the sand off of one of the mats on the ground.
Rita nodded gratefully and together we quickly finished the job.
"I remember seeing some of the roots over by the beach where Toby and I first arrived," Rita said as we headed out of the clearing. "But I'm sure there are many more of them around. This is an excellent climate for them to grow in."
I nodded. "Good. The more we have, the better. I'd like to even bring some extras on the rafts with us if we have enough."
Rita shrugged. "We'll find out I suppose."
Despite the fact that she had only been on the island for a few weeks, Rita seemed to know her way around the island. She glided effortlessly through the thick foliage and I found myself struggling to keep up as we neared the water's edge where the ferns grew thickest.
"Here they are," she announced at last.
I stumbled to a halt beside her and looked around. The ground appeared to be littered with some of the same weeds I used to see in my garden back home.
"Um what exactly am I looking for here?"
Rita squatted down and ran her hand across the same leafy tops I had just observed. "All of these," she said excitedly. "Isn't it wonderful?"
I knelt beside her. "How can you tell what they are?"
She grabbed a stray leaf that lay beside one of the plants and motioned me to move closer. "See this?" She asked. "See how the top is rounded but there are two little notches at the base of it?" She pointed at them.
I nodded.
"That's how you know," she said simply.
It seemed too easy. "But what about other plants that have leaves just like that?"
Rita shook her head. "There aren't any tropical ones that small that I've ever seen."
I'd never been good with plants and things so I wasn't going to argue. "Sounds good to me, let's get started, shall we?"
Rita grabbed a handful of plants and pulled in response.
We set to work, making pleasant conversation as we did so. I found myself envying her naturally sunny disposition. Nothing in particular seemed to bother her. She told me about her life in her village and her family. I couldn't even imagine a life as different from my former one as hers sounded. She had never gone to school but had been educated about the ways the natural world by her grandmother. At my request, she easily identified the surrounding plants.
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."