Kirt Heinrich
Two days have passed since Sergio, Gallagher, and Seagale left the camp and not one of them have returned. It was still raining outside.
Yesterday we weren't that worried because we thought that maybe the storm caused Sergio to not return on the day he left, and we thought that he would return any time yesterday. But his absence for two days alarmed me.
I could understand Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Seagale's absence because they told Alice that they were going to search for Mr. Gallagher's passport. But I couldn't understand what took Sergio so long. I couldn't understand why he didn't return. He was supposed to return on the same day he left. Sergio was a man of the jungle. He couldn't be detained by a storm for more than a day. Something was wrong.
No matter how many times Alice tried to mentally examine what our teachers and Sergio told her before they left, she ended up with the same conclusion: that Sergio was supposed to return.
Timothy McAllister suggested that since we didn't know when Sergio would return, we better take an account of all the resources we had.
Alice and I agreed.
So all of us (except a few) took inventory and asked Brian Campbell to make estimates of how long each resource would last, using our average rate of consumption of each resource during the last five days.
I decided that it was very important that we clean the boys' toilet which was stinking and dirty. Rhett, Tom and I took the job of cleaning the toilet and the shower room. Putting on the hand gloves, which we found in a box of them in one of the capsules, we got to work. Now, Rhett, Tom and I shared a love for country music. So, we played country music on my portable speaker as we worked. The first song we played was my all-time favorite: Play it Again by Luke Bryan.
Timothy McAllister
Where was Sergio? Maybe he was hurt. Maybe he would have met with an accident. I certainly shared Kirt's feeling that something was wrong with him. How could he not return in time, when he was someone who knew the jungle very well both in and out?
That day, we counted everything that we had on the bus and listed them down in a notebook that AnnSophia Fabron brought with her. If one always needed anything, the right person to go to is AnnSophia Fabron. She somehow manages to fit her entire room in one little bag.
After we explained to everyone what we were doing, everyone was willing to co-operate with us: everyone except Zachary White, Bill Lancaster, Michaela Smith, Fiona Buckingham, and Alejandra Hernandez. I didn't expect anyone of those exceptions to help us anyway.
As we were pulling out every item we found stuffed in the storage compartments, we began listing them by name and quantity.
After Rhett, Tom and Heinrich were done with the toilets, they wanted to help count the resources that we had in the luggage space that was accessible from the outside. They removed their shoes, pulled up their pants and put their foot into the mud and slush as they waded, amid the rain, towards the doors of the luggage space that was accessible from outside. With great difficulty, they had opened its door and found some things inside, including a snake which slithered out when they opened the door. The snake slithered away into the jungle as soon as they discovered it hidden in that luggage space.
Shifaly Udawatte
The guide who told me about La Familia De Princesa Irene came to our building that day. After he finished conveying something important to Mr. Seneviratne, I got to talk with him for a while. I was very curious to know why La Madre De Princesa Irene collapsed suddenly.
When he sat down on the couch in the common room, I gathered the courage to ask him, "Mr. Contreras, why did La Madre De Princesa Irene collapse?"
He looked at me as I sat down.
After I made myself comfortable on the couch beside the one on which he sat, Mr. Contreras began, "Well you see La Madre De Princesa Irene, Shifaly…"
He thought deeply for a while and continued (rephrasing the sentence that he was about to begin earlier):
"You see Shifaly, La Madre De Princesa Irene: it didn't collapse just because of two days worth of rainfall. It is because of national confusion and national disagreement."
"I don't understand."
"I'll explain. Last year, the government decided to withhold massive amounts of water in the reservoir formed by La Madre De Princesa Irene so that they could sell some of the water to our neighbors.
Now this plan came at the same time when many experts were calling for the decommissioning of La Madre De Princesa Irene. The dam had already crossed the day that the original builders of the dam set as the day when the dam would stop functioning optimally. Numerous experts were publishing opinion articles expressing disagreement with the government's intention to continue using the dam without forming plans to create another dam. But the government didn't pay heed to any of their opinions.
Now, I don't blame the government at all, because Bolivia is not a wealthy country and we have very fewer resources than the other countries in South America. Consequently, we have very little productivity.
Therefore, we don't have the same level of money in our treasuries that other countries have in theirs.
That's why the government championed the idea of selling water.
But I must confess that that project put tremendous stress on all the reservoirs on the river La Princesa Irene.
That's why six months ago, the government decided to terminate the project because the dam administration ofLa Madre began complaining of the immense stress she was taking. Then the government decided to relieve the stress by releasing as much as water that La Madre could release. That's when the government of Argentina began protesting that the release of water was causing floods in the Salta Province of Northern Argentina.
Our government was in a stalemate. Finally, they decided to slowly release the water that they held back when they were optimistic about the idea of selling water. Because the release of water was slow, La Madre continued to take immense stress."
"So, this storm and heavy rains were just the straw that broke the camel's back?", I asked.
"Exactly, Shifaly".
We continued to discuss the collapse for a while until he had to go. Before he left, I thanked him for his time. That was the last time I saw him.
That day I had lots of time to spend with my new friend: Bernita Beatriz Risotto. The more I and Bernita Beatriz Risotto talked, the more we discovered common things about each other. She had a little sister like me. When she was little even she was a fan of Horrid Henry - the British T.V Show. We both love stuffed animals. And, can you believe it? We have the same quote on our Instagram bios. I got to know that when we were talking about Instagram. We noted down each other's Instagram ids so that we could follow each other once connectivity returned.
Avanthi was jealous of her the whole time because I was spending more time with Bernita Risotto.
Alice Boe
While I was counting the resources we had, Savannah passed me by. I said Hello, but she gave me a cold shoulder.
Even though I was sad that she behaved coldly with me, I distracted myself by continuing to count the number of hand gloves that we had.
Brian, our class mathematician, was being assisted by Jackson King in the calculations that he had to make.
"Ah… don't worry about Savannah," said AnnSophia Fabron, patting my back after she noticed my interaction with Savannah.
AnnSophia's attempts to comfort me gave me no comfort at all. I don't think AnnSophia ever felt the sting of losing one's own best friend. How would AnnSophia know? She was one of the most popular girls in the class.
Savannah used to be my best friend. It was an issue that occurred between us that broke our friendship beyond repair. It was an issue that stole away one of my closest friends. It was an issue where I was not responsible for anything.
Savannah Henderson was the daughter of the Californian businessman Jackson Huntington Henderson, who owned about 500 car showrooms all over the West Coast. She was born to a Bulgarian mother. When her mother gave birth, her father tried to leave Bulgaria for the United States before being stopped by the Bulgarian Police. Her father reluctantly agreed to bring her mother and her to the United States. As years went by, no matter how hard Savannah's mother tried to win the love of her husband (who tried to desert her in Bulgaria), her husband didn't reciprocate. He rather spent time with different women all over the world during his business travels. And whenever he used to return home drunk and angry, he used to flog Savannah and her mother with his belt telling her mother that she was the one who ruined his life by giving birth to a "garbage of a daughter". One day, overcome by depression and grief over her treatment, Savannah's mother committed suicide by sticking her head into the oven in the same fashion as Syliva Plath. She left no suicide note.
After his wife's death, people's attention began to narrow in on the way Jackson Henderson treated his daughter.
He was forced to put on a facade of being a "nice daddy". He did that for a few years until Savannah was older.
When Savannah became older, her father began to fear that she would reveal to other people how he mistreated her mother. Fearing that, he took her to Wyoming one day on a long drive and attempted to kill her near a ranch by the highway. His plans failed when a rancher, who saw what he was about to do, shot him to death.
After numerous foster families, she was finally discovered by Miss. Longhorn who enrolled her into Wolfgang Academy.
She joined our school when she was in grade 4, like me. She came to Wolfgang a month after I came. We both became very close friends after we met. We did projects together. We always went to the same restaurants together whenever we were allowed to go to Herculeville Town. We always traded books. We made many memories together and that is why I felt sad even after our friendship was damaged beyond repair.
When we were in Middle School, she began changing. I couldn't accept the fact that she was changing. Savannah didn't want to hang around with me anymore because she thought that being friends with me would make her look like a loner. She never told that I made her feel that way explicitly, but I could understand that that was what she was feeling by looking at her behavior. She began avoiding me. She rejected all my invitations to go to our favorite restaurants in Herculeville. She stopped calling me to her parties. Despite those things, we were still sort of friends.
But things took a turn for the worse when one day a male student (who was Savannah's ex-boyfriend) used my name and sent letters all over the school calling Savannah all sorts of bad things. He forged my signature.
That's when Savannah began hating me. The last conversation she had with me was when she expressed her sadness over the letter. After that, we never talked to each other. Soon the actual culprit behind those letters was discovered (he was in 10 B, so he was touring Sri Lanka while we were in Bolivia). Even though Headmistress Longhorn publically announced that the letters were not my doing, it was not sufficient to repair our friendship. The period of coldness we had before the actual culprit was discovered broke off even the little strings of friendship that connected me with Savannah.
She found my replacement in Michaela Smith, Fiona Buckingham, and Alejandra Hernandez. Yeah, she became one of those promiscuous girls. Those girls hated me and fed hate into Savannah.
"Alice? Alice?" said AnnSophia.
"Huh?" I said as I recovered my train of thought.
"Are you okay?" asked AnnSophia Fabron
"Yeah," I said as I resumed counting.
Kirt Heinrich
By 3:00 pm, the calculations were complete after Brian Campbell cross-checked them four times.
"We have food for fourteen days. We have fuel in the bus to power it for five days, and we have some backup fuel in a barrel (in the luggage storage area that was accessible from outside) that can power the bus for ten more days after the fuel in the bus runs out. We have toilet paper for twenty days…" began Brian Campbell as he listed all the things we had and how long they would probably last.
We could survive for two weeks approximately, by his estimates.
"Is there a way you think we can increase the usability of one of these resources?" I asked Brian Campbell, interrupting him.
"Well," he said as he began thinking. "If we don't use air conditioners and lights at night, we can use the fuel for five more days," he added.
I began thinking about what else we could do to expand the usability of each resource, as he began listing his calculations to everybody else.
Felipe Altamirano Alvarez Espadachín
Mr. Armada called the station telling me that he couldn't meet with me that day, as arranged the day before (when I rescued him). He told me that he would be willing to meet me the next day. I told him that it was fine, as I had to do night duty that day.
I looked at the sky wondering when the storm would end.