Emerging Compassions

Chapter 16: Adaptation to This Humid Ecosystem...

(Jimmy's POV)

This has GOT to be the most humiliating experience I've ever been through..., I begrudgingly thought to myself as we ran in hot pursuit of those monkeys that stole our stuff.

One of them stopped long enough to mock us by blowing a strawberry at us, then ran ahead and joined his buddies again. I couldn't help but notice that he was wearing my red t-shirt backwards.

Cindy just blew one back at him as we continued to pursue them, though not without some of us gasping for breath as we ran.

"Uh, Jimmy?" Carl gasped, "Can we stop for a minute? My legs are chafing, and I need OXYGEN!"

I stopped long enough to respond back and say, "Carl, you're letting them get away! C'mon!" With that, I started running after those monkeys again.

Out of the blue, Cindy cracked, "Neutron, isn't that big head of yours getting rather heavy?"

"Cindy, aren't you getting a little old for that particular type of taunting?" I wanted to know, getting just a tad out of breath.

"Oh, yeah...," she muttered, "Not that good for a relationship like ours..."

Then I added just to tease her playfully, "Isn't that stomach of yours getting just a TAD heavy for ya?"

"Oh, Jimmy, you're such a kidder!" Cindy replied, giggling.

"Uh, guys? I don't know about you, but I can't see OR hear the monkeys anymore...," Sheen put in breathlessly, catching his breath.

The rest of us stopped with him, as well, to catch our breath, too.

"I think Sheen's right," Libby pointed out, just barely gasping for breath, "I can't see or hear them, either..."

"Neither can I...," I mused, "We might as well give up on the chase."

Finally catching his breath, Carl added, "Besides, didn't you bring some spare clothes in that infinite-space-thingy of yours along with the camping stuff?"

"Hey, you're right!" I noticed approvingly, "Carl, you're a genius!"

"But I thought they made us hot in this jungle, Neutron," Libby reminded us as we headed back to camp.

"Good point," I noted, then turned to Goddard and asked, "Goddard, what's the temperature?"

He then displayed on his screen: "115°F."

"Holy Heisenberg!" I exclaimed, "No wonder we feel just fine now! We'll save them for when my rocket's fixed and we head for Mt. Everest."

"Good idea, but what should we do for now?" Cindy wanted to know.

"I believe, as to avoid overheating ourselves, we should just stay the way we are. But if you don't feel comfortable doing that, you're all welcome to make yourself something out of the native flora to cover yourselves up. I prefer the latter to the second option, though. Too much needlework for me," I told them informatively.

"Well, not fo' us! C'mon, Cin! We've got some sewin' t' do!" Libby said, grabbing Cindy's arm and leading her into the forest about 50 feet away from us.

As for me, I immediately began work on my wrecked rocket with Goddard's help. Carl and Sheen weren't far off, arguing about who knows what.

Some 30 minutes later, Cindy and Libby emerged from the jungle flora wearing some garments created from the jungle's mega-flora. "So, what do ya think, Jimmy?" Cindy wanted to know, striking a fashion model pose, just as Libby was.

I took one look at her and gasped, "Cindy, you look so... FABULOUS!"

Then Libby hollered to Sheen, snapping her fingers to get his attention, "Oh, Sheen!"

"Yeah?" he questioned, turning around, then really looked at her and exclaimed, "Whoa, BABY! I sure got me some hot tamales right there!"

"I think Elkie would look equally as hot in that outfit!" Carl shyly interjected, looking at his feet. I was pretty sure he was picturing his Swedish friend in the same outfit as Cindy and Libby. Surprisingly, he was a lot slimmer at age 17 than at 11.

The 2 girls then snapped their fingers at us again to grab our attention with Cindy snapping at us, "Hey! Pay attention, all 3 of you!"

We shook our heads vigorously and returned to reality. Then I inquired, "What is it, ladies?"

"We made some stuff for you boys, too," Libby informed us, and brought out some handmade garments they made for us, similar to what they wore, only they were more masculine and didn't include the upper half they were wearing.

"How do we know whose is whose?" Carl asked.

"Simple. We wove each of your first and last initials into the belt portion of these loincloths," Cindy explained helpfully, "Plus, they should all fit securely around your waistline and cover you up decently without riding up or sliding down or off of you."

"Gee, thanks, ladies!" I thanked them with Carl and Sheen voicing generally the same thing, "That was very thoughtful of you!" Without another thought, we slipped the garments on without any problems.

Then, as a token of thanks, I gave Cindy a brief kiss on her lips, after which, she just blushed and said softly, "Thanks, Jimmy."

Little did we know we were being watched...