PERU, 1936
NIGHTIE'S POV
I looked at the jungle we traveled as I followed my father, Indiana Jones. I have always wanted to go with Dad on his adventures, and it took until last year for me to convince him! He originally had just wanted me to wait inside a car in Shanghai with Short Round, but after a crazy car chase, a plane crash, kinda, and floating down a mountain, we ended up in India. In India, the local village people told of that the Thuggee cult had returned, stole a magic rock, and their children. Following our adventure in the Temple of Doom, Dad and I started doing small jobs like this one. It took several months for Dad to even consider taking me on a small job. Back at home, right before we left, Dad sat me down in the kitchen. "Now Nightingale, this isn't going to be like in India. We just get in, grab the idol, and get out. So don't expect anything like last time." he said. Nightingale was a nickname Dad gave me last year in India, I loved it so much, I began to use it as my name. I nodded, indicating I understood what he was saying. I was kinda hoping for a more quiet adventure anyways. I couldn't help but feel like Dad agreed. I enjoyed being here in my new outfit, I had a tan safari hat, with a tan top shorts that were a darker tan, they ended just above my knees, and my brown hiking boots.
I was right behind Dad, and behind me was a group my father hired. I only knew the name of the youngest one Satipo. They dragged along one donkey, which my father jokingly named Assina. Ugh, he loves making dad jokes. I heard something rustle behind me. I saw one of the guys, the one wearing the colorful beanie, move branches off a statue. Several bats flew at his face. He began to scream and ran away. I shook my head in embarrassment as Dad swiftly walked to the large statue and examined it. We continued on our way when Dad suddenly stopped at a tree. He pulled something out of it, examined it, and then dropped it on the ground. Satipo and the one wearing a white hat ran over and picked up the object, which when I got a better look at it, I recognized as a Hovito poisoned dart.
"Hovitos are near." Satipo said. He then put a drop of poison onto his fingertip and licked it. I shook my head. Why would you ever lick a poison dart?! My dad taught me to never do that, and I was ten! "Poison is fresh, three days." Satipo continued, looking at his companion with a look of worry. The white hatted man shook his head. "If they knew we were here, we'd be dead already." I continued walking behind Dad, noticing he pulled out two pieces of a map and examined them. Satipo walked over trying to get a good look. Suddenly my dad turned his head, he heard something! Something I had not! He turned very quickly, unlatching his whip from his belt as he did so, and whipped the man in the white hat's hand. A gun went off as it fell from his hand and into the river. The man clutched his hand as he ran away.
As Dad coiled his whip, he turned to face me. "And that Nightie, is why you always keep an ear open. You never know when you're about to be betrayed like scum like him. I nodded and thought about Dad's words. I guess I never had to worry about betrayal. Last time, it was me, Dad, Shorty, and that singer Willie Scott. While Willie was obnoxious at first, she wouldn't betray us. I looked over at Satipo. Was he going to betray us? Satipo noticed me staring at him and looked away. "Come on." I heard Dad say. We approached the temple, and Dad started preparing. "This is it. This is where Forestall checked in." Dad said grabbing some sand and putting it in a bag. Satipo cocked his head sideways. "A friend of yours?" he asked. I answered before Dad could. "He was a competitor." Dad nodded. "He was good. Really, really good." He tied the bag shut and handed it to me. "Hold on to this for me, will you pumpkin?" he asked me. I smiled as I nodded, happy to be helping somehow. Dad winked at me as to be saying I'm glad you're here right now. "Senior, no one has come out of there alive!" Satipo said desperately. My Dad forcefully turned him over to grab supplies. "Please." Satipo begged. "Ok, you can wait outside, while my ten year old daughter and I go in. Are you ready, honey?" he asked me. I nodded. "Are you sure? This temple is too scary for a grown man to enter willingly." Dad said. I had a hard time containing my laughter as Satipo looked from Dad to me, his face turning red from either anger, or embarrassment. Maybe both. "I'll join you, Senior, and Senorita." he said, not making eye contact with either of us. Dad went inside the temple, chuckling. I followed suit, and Satipo followed me, muttering something about American show offs.
Inside the temple wasn't too bad, at least until the tarantulas showed up. Dad had five of six of them on his back! "Dad! Spiders!" I screamed. Dad turned around and looked at me empathetically. I wasn't afraid of creepy crawlies, they just reminded me of the bug tunnel in India. Which in turn reminded me of that trap that nearly crushed and impaled Shorty, Dad, and myself. I still got nightmares over that fiasco. Dad brushed off the spiders on my back using his whip before doing the ones on his own. "Senior." Satipo said. Dad signaled to him to turn around, and I gasped dramatically. His entire back was covered with tarantulas! Dad brushed them off, and Satipo gave me a look of superiority. Letting me know he found my reaction to the spiders amusing. I hated him. We walked down a dark hallway where only one patch of light shined in. "Stop." Dad said, turning to me and Satipo. "Stay out of the light." he said, pointing at us with his whip. Satipo and I nodded as we watched Dad crawl under the light, and stick his hand in it before swiftly removing it. There was a woosh sound as spikes flew from the wall, showing a familiar dead body caught inside the trap. Satipo screamed as Dad simply said "Forestall. Make sure to crawl carefully." I crawled carefully and joined Dad.
There was about a mile deep hole which was ten feet long. Over it was a tree branch. I already knew what Dad was going to do before he did it. He pulled out his whip, flung it over the branch, and swung across. Dad pushed the whip into Satipo's hands, and he swung across, but he didn't quite make it. Dad grabbed his belt buckle and pulled him to safety. He swung the whip back to me. I grabbed it, peering into the hole. "Remember honey, hold on tight. I'll catch you on this side." Dad said, assuming a position to catch me. I took a running start and swung across the hole, landing right into my father's arms. He hugged me as he sighed in relief. "Good job, Nightie." Dad said. He looked up at Satipo. "Her first time swinging. Can you believe it?" he asked. Dad walked away as Satipo soured at me. I shot him a look of superiority as I followed Dad. There it was, the Fertility Idol! It was just across this long room. Wait, it's never this easy. Is it? I looked over at Dad, and he had that look on his face again. His thinking face, he was just as suspicious of this room as I was. He looked down at the floor as Satipo joined us. "Let us hurry, there is nothing to fear here!" he said, about to step forward. My Dad grabbed him and shoved him against a wall. "That's what scares me." he whispered. He pulled a torch from Satipo's backpack, and poked a dark oval on the ground with it. An arrow flew and hit the torch right beside my father's face.
"You two wait here." Dad told Satipo and I. "If you insist." our companion said, grinning a relieved smile. "I need that bag of sand, sweetie." Dad told me. I handed it to him, and I watched as Dad carefully stepped in just the right places on the floor. Satipo and I cringed as we watched him almost fall backwards. I sighed relief when Dad made it to the idol. Satipo and I watched in suspense as he pulled out the sand bag, and estimated the weight of the idol. Dad removed some sand from the bag, tied it back shut, and prepared to switch it out for the idol. Satipo was doing this stupid thing with his hands as Dad did his stuff, and Dad switched them. We waited a couple seconds, and nothing happened. The three of us chuckle as Dad turns around, but then suddenly, the bag begins to go down, and the whole building begins to shake. Satipo takes off, and I watch desperately as Dad runs across the room, dodging the darts. "Move, Nightie!" he yelled as he ran. I went to the next room where I saw Satipo swing across the gap, the branch falling and the whip unlatching as he reached the other side and fell. Dad ran in to see Satipo holding the whip. "Give us the whip." Dad said quickly. "Throw me the idol, and I throw you the whip." Satipo replied. He looked behind him to see the door closing. "No time to argue." he said. To my horror, Dad threw the idol to Satipo. "The whip!" Dad cried desperately. Satipo looked at us and grinned. Dropping the whip, he went through the door saying "Adios Joneses." I looked at my father in fear unsure what to do. "Stay here. I'll make it across, and whip the branch again." he said, taking a running start and leaping to the other side. He just managed to grab a thick weed. He began to climb up it, but it was beginning to fall down with him. I looked at the door, if Dad took the time to whip that branch, we'd be trapped. I gulped as I leapt across the ditch. I managed to land beside him. He climbed up and lowered the whip. "Grab on!" I obeyed and he pulled me up, and we rolled through the door. My hat fell off as we ran, I reached under the door and pulled it back through right before it closed. Dad and I got up, brushed ourselves off, and he looked at me in a half stern, and in a half impressed sort of way. "Don't do that again." he said.
We went down the dark hall and saw Satipo, impaled right next to Forestall. The poor idiot forgot about the trap in the hall. Dad picked up the idol as I said "Adios Satipo." As we ran, there was a crumbling sound. We spun around to see a large round boulder chasing us. "Run!" I screamed. Dad and I lost our footing a couple of times, but we threw ourselves out the door of the temple and rolled down the hill. We landed in front of a large group of Hovitos, with the white hatted man in front of them. He fell face first revealing his back to be entirely covered in poisoned darts. I heard footsteps, I looked up to see the only man I ever saw cheat his way to becoming a better archeologist than my father. Rene Belloq. Belloq had been competing with my dad for years, but he recently seemed to be everywhere Dad went, and he had a very similar outfit to mine on at the moment. "Dr. Jones, once again, you see there is nothing you can not possess, which I cannot take away." Dad chuckled in his sarcastic chuckle. "Except for my daughter." Belloq looked at me with disinterest. "Anything worth taking, Jones." Dad was about to pull out his revolver, but the Hovitos made threatening moves. Dad handed Belloq his revolver as Belloq said. "You chose the wrong friends, this time it'll cost you. As Dad handed him the idol, he said "To bad the Hovitos don't know you the way I do, Belloq." Belloq grinned. "Yes, too bad. You could warn them. If only you or you daughter spoke Hovitos. He suddenly stood up straight, holding the idol above his head and said something I couldn't understand since I didn't know how to speak Hovitos. Dad took this opportunity to grab my wrist and run. I could hear Belloq make a weird sound, the Hovitos begin to chase us, and Belloq cackling. No doubt admiring the idol as he did so.
Over the field, I could see Jock's white plane parked in the river. He was sitting on top of it fishing. "Jock, the engines!" Dad shouted. "Start the engines, Jock!" I screamed. Jock looked up at us and saw the Hovitos chasing us. He threw his pole into the water, and ran into the pilot's seat. The plane started, Dad grabbed a vine, and the two of us swung into the river. Swimming towards the plane we managed to avoid the projectiles of the Hovitos, and climb into the plane. Dad and I got in the passengers seats and relaxed, when suddenly Dad started jerking. "There's a big snake in the plane, Jock!" Dad screamed. "Oh, that's just my pet snake Reggie." Jock said matter of factly. My Dad grew red in the face. "I hate snakes Jock, I hate them!" Jock shook his head. "Come on, show a little backbone." I stiffled a laugh, but it didn't go unnoticed by Dad. "You think it's funny? You ride with it!" Dad said, shoving the snake onto my lap. I pet Reggie the whole flight back to Bedford, Colorado, much to the displeasure of my Dad. "I swear, sometimes I wonder if you're my kid." he laughed, not taking his eyes off Reggie. Once we arrived at Bedford, we thanked Jock, got in a taxi, and rode home.