Chapter 39

Seaweed Madness

"Helga, wake up. Helga!" Arnold said, as he gently shook her.

She slowly opened her eyes.

"Arnold," she sighed dreamily. She suddenly remembered where she was. "Hey, who said you could touch me?" she snapped, shoving him away.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Well? What do you want? I was sound asleep, you know," Helga said irritably.

"Sorry."

"What time is it anyway?" she asked, looking at the sun, which was high in the sky.

"I don't know. Do you have a watch?"

"No, Arnold, I don't have a watch. Did you wake me up just to talk about watches?"

"No. I wanted to know if you had any food."

"Oh, sure. I have half a banquet stuffed in my back pocket," she said sarcastically.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm really hungry."

"No, duh. We had nothing to eat yesterday."
"Well, then, what should we eat?"

"I don't know. Go jump in the water and catch a fish or something."

"I couldn't catch a fish barehanded. We would need some kind of string, like on a fishing pole."

"Where are we gonna get string, football head?"

"I don't know. Do you have any?"

"Yeah, a whole bunch. It's keeping the banquet company in my back pocket."

"Maybe we could use…" Arnold glanced around the raft. "Could we use your bow? If you untie it, we could-"

"NO WAY!" she screamed. "No, sir! Out of the question!"

"Why not?"

"Cause…cause it's my most prized possession, and I don't want to dunk it in the ocean. I might lose it."

"You really like it that much?"

"Doi! Why do you think I've worn it everyday since I was three?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Uh oh," she thought. "Don't want to go there!"

"Yeah, well, how come you always wear that stupid blue hat?" she asked.

"My parents gave it to me. It's kind of the only thing I have to remember them by."

"Yeah, well, same thing with my bow. It's got…sentimental value and junk like that."

"Okay, if it really means that much to you. But what are we going to eat?"

"I don't care. You think of something."

"I'm not going to do all the work! You think of something!" Arnold shot back at her.

"Why should I? I don't care if you go hungry."

"Helga, we got into this mess together, and we have to work together if we're going to survive."

"W-well…what do you expect me to do? I mean, look around! There's no food!"

"Um…" Arnold glanced into the water. "How about this?" He reached in and pulled out a mass of seaweed that was floating near the surface.

"What the heck is it? It looks dead."

"It's seaweed."

"It's dead."

"It's a plant."

"You expect me to eat it?"

"What else are we supposed to do?"

"We could turn cannibal…" She looked at the shocked look on his face and laughed. "Just joking. But really, I'm not going to eat that."

"Fine then. I don't care if you go hungry."

Helga felt a twinge of guilt, but quickly pushed it away. "Oh, yeah, great comeback Arnoldo. You can't even make up your own insults! You have to copy off me. Pathetic."

"Yeah, well…"

"Like I said. You can't think of one. Best not to try to beat me at my own game, football head."

"Whatever you say, Helga."

"Exactly! Now stop talking, and go get some real food."

"Seaweed is real food."

"No, it's not."

"Sure it is. Lot's of people eat it in Japan."

"Great. When we get to Japan, I'll eat it."

"We're not going to Japan."

"What, do you have some sort of a destination in mind?"

"I don't know. Shouldn't we just try to get back home?"

"How are we gonna do that, hair boy? The current's pushing us in the opposite direction, and besides, we're already hundreds of miles away."

"I guess you're right. But since we're probably not going to go anywhere with decent food anytime soon, I'm going to eat the seaweed." He picked up a piece and put it in his mouth.

"So? How is it?"

"Salty."

"Doi! It was in the ocean, Einstein."

"I know that, Helga."

"So, um…is it edible?"

"Yeah. It's actually not that bad."

Helga picked up a piece. "This is so against my better judgement." She closed her eyes and put it in her mouth. "Hmm…you're right. It's not too bad. I wouldn't want to eat it everyday, but it's okay."

"Great, now we won't starve."

"Aren't you optimistic. Oh, well. Bon appetit."

He stared at her in shock. "What did you say?"

"What? Aren't you optimistic?"

"No, after that."

"I don't know! Why would you care?"

"For a second I thought you sounded like someone I once knew."

"Who?"

"This French girl. Her name was Cecile. Well, actually, I don't know what he name really was. She never told me."

"O-oh really? Well…um…that's interesting."

"Yeah." He was silent for a moment. "Forget I said anything."

"Uh, okay." She took another bite of seaweed. "This stuff is getting really old really fast."

"If I could just use your bow-"

"NO! Just shut up about it!"

They ate in silence.