Chapter 43

Land

"Cecile? Where are you? Ceci-"

Arnold suddenly stopped. His eyes snapped open. He was immediately blinded by the sun shining directly above him. Once he had adjusted to the sudden brightness, he looked around. He could see palm trees and tropical flowers growing father up the hill that he was lying on; beyond that was an immense looking jungle. Colorful birds flew through the air. A gentle wave washed up by his feet. Everything was beautiful, but he could care less about his surroundings. He only had one thought in his head. Land.

He jumped up. He was on a sandy beach. Splintered pieces of their broken raft lay scattered next to some boulders the jutted out of the ground near the water's edge. They must have crashed on the rocks, but he didn't remember. He didn't remember anything after the raft fell back into the water. But that didn't matter. The important thing was that they survived, and now they were on dry land. Boy, wouldn't Helga be surprised…

"Helga!" he gasped. He had been so excited that he had forgotten about her. He glanced around. Where was she? She wouldn't have gone into the forest without him, would she? Maybe she was just farther along on the beach.

"ARNOLD!"

"Good guess," he thought.

"Helga?" he shouted. "Where are you?"

"Here! I'm right here!"

Arnold followed the direction her voice was coming from. He saw someone coming. He stopped and stared. It was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was slowly coming toward him, with a smile on her face. Her long golden hair flowed out from behind her. She was wearing a sparkly hot-pink dress with spaghetti straps. She had sapphire blue eyes that seemed to reach into the depths of her soul. And she was wearing a pink bow. He really liked that bow. It was pink like her dress…

"ARNOLD! Hey, Arnold! Earth to football head! Anybody home?"

Arnold snapped out of his daydream but continued to stare at Helga.

"What are you looking at, football head?" she spat at him.

"Oh…nothing." He shook his head. "I just thought I saw something."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just a trick of the light."

"Maybe the crash messed up your eyes or something."

"The crash! I almost forgot! Actually, I did forget. I don't remember anything after we fell," Arnold admitted.

"Me neither. I just assumed from the sorry condition of the raft that we had crashed."

"Yeah, but that's a good thing. I thought I'd never see dry land again!"

Helga looked around, taking in the surroundings for the first time.

"Wow. Talk about lucky. We've landed on some sort of paradise island!"

"It's amazing, isn't it? It's surprising that no one's discovered it by now. I say it would make a pretty cool resort."

"I'll say." Helga thought about it for a moment. "Hey, wait a minute. How do we know it's not a resort? Maybe we're just one the wrong side of the island! I bet you anything that there's some fancy hotel thing on the other side."

"Helga, you're a genius! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Cause you have paste for brains," Helga said matter-of-factly.

Arnold glared at her. "Look, we made it this far because we worked together. And if we want to keep going, we're gonna have to keep working together. I'm willing to be nice if you are. What do you say?" He held out his hand.

"I-I say…I say you're a weird headed freak who doesn't know what he's talking about! We never 'worked together'. Maybe in your perfect little world, but not mine! It doesn't matter how many times you start talking about peace and harmony and whatnot because it's never gonna happen! Got it?"

"Fine then, I'll just go to the other side of the island without you."

"Oh, what, and leave me here to suffer?"

"I'll send someone for you when I get there."

"Fine! I'll just let you do all the work for me! You can go traipsing through the jungle! See if I care! I'm gonna stay right here." She sat down and crossed her arms to emphasize her point.

"Right. See ya," he said, without too much enthusiasm.

"But if I never did have to see you again, I can't say I'd be complaining," he thought to himself, as he walked into the forest.

He had only been gone five minutes, and Helga was already regretting that she hadn't gone with him.

What had she been thinking? How could she have let him leave her like that? What was she supposed to do now? Just wait? What if he didn't make it back? What if there wasn't even a resort? What if he was in trouble? What if he was, right now, lying somewhere in the forest, dying? Oh, how could she have been so stupid?

"I've got to find him!" she exclaimed.

She got up and walked to the edge of the forest.

"Criminy!" she said out loud, walking in a few feet, "How am I ever gonna find him in this stupid maze?" She started to walk anyway, heading deeper and deeper into the forest.