Bill and I were up and on the 'Bloody Mary' around 6am, getting ready for our guests. They arrived an hour later and I could already tell it was going to be a long two weeks. I was already two seconds away from punching that Gail chick and she had only got here literally two minutes ago.
"Seriously I've seen subway cars in better shape than this." She complained while glaring at the boat
"Yeah she may be ugly but she puts out." Bill told her carrying my bags for me. I had only packed a few clothes and my medical bag, seeing as I already had a bunch of my necessities on the boat already. I also did a little grocery shopping I didn't know what these people liked so I tried to grab a little of everything plus the stuff I knew my guys liked. Bill and Tran were loading fuel when a red pick-up truck pulled up and two more guys got out
"Damn how many of them are there?" I asked Bill shrugged. I rolled my eyes when I heard one of the guys complaining about the rain, then about the boat, and about missing a basketball game back in New York.
"I probably should've told you this before but I gave the two women our room." Bill told me and I threw the rag I had in my hand at him as he walked past
"You missed." He said with a laugh
"Asshole." I said to myself
It took us almost another hour before we were able to finally get on the river. Once we were on the river I settled down and started going over the budget for the clinic. While I was doing that Bill was showing them the route he was planning on taking
"This is where the exploratory team found the orchid, in the Selatan Basin. It took them three days to get up river." The man whose name I learned was Jack told Bill. I just rolled my eyes did these people did not understand the meaning of rainy season.
"Yeah but that was before the rainy season some of these waterways might be dangerous now." Bill started but that Sam girl cut him off
"You said you'd get us there safely." Sam said that when I cut in
"And he will but safe isn't always quick." I snapped at her
"Right now we'll work our way up on river one bend at a time. If I don't like what I see we change course. You can't chart the fastest route before you begin." Bill told them
"Already have." The complainer whose name is Cole cut in. Then began to show he mapped out the route on his computer then showed us the fastest route. I rolled my eyes and bit down the urge to push him overboard
"Alright we got less than a week to get to that Orchid. If you can't get the job done give us our money back and we'll get someone who can." Mitchell said to Bill
"I'll get you there." Bill said confidently
We were about an hour in and the rain had stopped and it was starting to warm up. Everything had started going pretty easy until we heard Gail screaming about something attacked her in the room I was gonna go see what it was but Bill stopped me and went instead.
"Oh my God." I said when Bill came out of the room with Kong on his shoulder
"It's alright buddy its okay. What the hell you'd do? You scared him." Bill said as Kong jumped from his shoulders into my arms wrapping his arms around my neck
"It's okay baby boy." I said moving to sit back in my spot at table
"I scared him?!" Gail snapped
"This is Kong. Kong lives here you're guests." I snapped at her as everyone else laughed at her
"Be nice." Bill said then went back up top with Tran
"Here you want a snack buddy?" I said grabbing a mango from the kitchen and sat back down cutting it up for him.
"He is so cute." Sam said smiling at him
"Oh don't give him complements they go straight to his head." I joked and she laughed
"How did you guys get him? Capuchins are native to this area right?" She asked
"No they aren't, he came with the boat. He's actually how I met Bill and Tran."
"Wow really?" She asked and I nodded
"That's a story for another time." I told her then went back to my work
I sitting at the table reading a book when both Mitchell and Gail were both trying to talk on the phone, but no service out here surprise, surprise. So they were basically walking in circle shouting into their phones. I rolled my eyes and got up and went to the top deck with Bill. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around him from behind.
"How much longer?" I whined and he laughed
"I hate to break it to you baby but it's only been a few hours." He told me and I groaned
"I'm gonna kill that Gail bitch before the week is out I know it. I don't know what's worse is the way they act, or the fact I probably used to be like them." I said and Bill laughed again
"Lia I highly doubt you were that bad, besides eventually you got a clue." He joked and I hit him on the ass
"Oh now don't start something you know you can't finish." He said and I just kissed his shoulder,
"Stop the boat!" Jack shouted, I groaned as we pulled apart to go see what was going on. When we got down there Sam and Jack were talking about some flower they saw on the shore. They wanted to go collect a sample. Bill said okay then grabbed his rifle, and Tran grabbed his machete.
"You guys be careful." I told them they nodded and Bill kissed me then they left. They were gone for about 20 minutes. When they came back Bill and Tran pulled me up top.
"What?" I asked I knew something was up by the looks on their faces
"We found a skin out there in the forest." Bill said
"What kind of skin are we talking about here?"
"Anaconda." Tran answered
"Oh God."
"There something else…..The skin we found was huge. I mean like abnormally huge. The biggest one I've ever seen." Bill told me
"Okay…so there's an abnormally large anaconda out there somewhere right now." I said and they nodded
"So what are we gonna do?" I asked
"We're gonna stick to the plan get them to the flower then back to Padrang, but no more stops and no more getting off the boat." Bill said
"Okay good. What are we gonna tell them?" I asked nodded towards the stairs
"Nothing we keep this between us, we'll just tell them some places are starting to look flooded and we can't afford to waste time." Bill said
"Yeah they'll buy it you see how crazy they are for a flower." I said
"And for fifty grand I can keep quiet." Tran said, we talked about it some more then I headed down to start dinner
While I was cooking Ben, Sam and Gail came and help well Sam was helping. The most work Gail was doing was raising a beer bottle to her lips. Ben was actually showing me this recipe he learned to make in Sri Lanka. Ben had stepped out for a few minutes leaving us girls alone
"So Sam you were one of Jacks students?" Gail asked her
"Yeah he was teaching a seminar on botanical pharmacology. Soon as I finished my dissertation he hired me." Sam said with a smile
"Well that's one way to get a leg up." Gail said making me freeze I stopped and counted to ten in my head and took a couple of deep breaths
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam asked her
"I had a professor who wanted to hire me right out of college but of course he wanted me to be his secretary."
"Look if I've done something to offend you-"Sam started but Gail cut her off
"No, no not at all dear. Actually I admire you, took me ten years to get where I am. Clearly your generation has it all figured out?" She said giving Sam a fake smile the grabbing her beer and leaving
"And its bitches like her are the reason why I left the states. Don't worry about her because I detected a lot of jealousy in that entire conversation." I said then Ben came back into the kitchen. Once the food was done we set the table and served it up.
"Man this is good man. Where did you learn how to cook like this?" Cole asked Ben
"Just a little recipe I picked up in Sri Lanka." He told him
"What were you doing there?" I asked him
"Doctors without borders it's my day job." Ben said
"You guys expect to need a doctor for some reason." Bill asked from his seat on the side of the boat
"Can't get the expedition bonded without one." Gail answered
"Why didn't you guys just use mine?" Bill said winking at me I rolled my eyes
"You're a doctor?" Gail asked me with surprise written all over her face
"Yeah, I own and operate the clinic back in Padrang." I told them and they looked impressed
"Is that what brought you here?" Sam asked and I shook my head
"No I also worked with doctors without borders, it's just after a while I still felt like I wasn't doing enough, so I stayed."
"What do you specialize in?" Ben asked me
"Trauma surgery, but over time I've learned the basics of Pediatrics, I'm a midwife, and lately I've been looking more into eastern medicine." I told them
"That really cool I would like to trade some tricks if you're okay with that?" Ben asked and I nodded
"Yeah sure just say the word." I said just then Bill shouted
"Hey!" We turned and saw Kong trying to grab a banana off the table
"You've had your dinner. Get out of here." Bill told him and he squeaked at him then went away, then came back two seconds later when he thought Bill wasn't looking
"Hey what'd I say?" Bill said then Kong ran off upstairs
"Oh Bill he can have a banana, if he wants one." I said
"No he can't he already ate."
"So?" I said
"You're the reason he acts that way." Bill said to me
"He doesn't act any kind of way. He's a very good monkey for your information."
"You spoil him rotten."
"One banana is not spoiling him." I argued back
"You think I don't know how much you let him get away with behind my back."
"I don't let him get away with anything. He just loves me more because I'm nicer."
"And you give him whatever he wants."
"Well if you know I give him whatever he wants why not just let him have the banana now? Since you know I gonna give it to him later?" I said and Bill just rolled his eyes
"Whatever you're gonna make him fat." Bill said and I hit him on the arm. Just then we heard some laughter then realized we had an audience. Everyone was looking at us with small smiles trying to hold back their laughs
"So how long have you two been together?" Gail asked
"Two years." Bill answered
"Two very, very, long years." I said
"How did you two meet?" Sam asked
"Kong." We said at the same time, then we launched into the story of how we met. Just as we finished we heard an animal screech.
"What the hell was that?" Cole asked
"Something's getting eaten." Bill told them bluntly
"By what?" Gail asked disgusted
"It's the jungle everything gets eaten out here." I said