Oh thank heavens you found me.
It feels as though I’ve been wandering through this jungle for years.
I’ve used up the last of the food we carted in with us.
The old tent is torn and dripping. Our vehicle is out of fuel and overturned.
I cannot seem to locate my compass.
Very disoriented.
I’m far up river.
The jungle, once familiar, chokes and surrounds me — almost alien, unforgiving — forming a verdant fog of dense growth that is ever changing.
The generator is long dead. No way to power up the wireless and connect through the ether to the world I left behind at the dock.
Even the local villagers, who were so friendly and welcoming, appear to have moved on and are nowhere to be seen.
My old friend Trader Sam also left sometime ago.
Last I heard he was slinging drinks at a bar he opened at the outskirts of civilization, along the edge of the forest.
Poor Sam. He seemed melancholy when he left.
His misty eyes no longer as fire-filled and purposeful.
He handed me one of his last shrunken heads and disappeared into the teeming dampness.
Landmarks that I knew well have been reclaimed by the jungle, have sunk, or become unrecognizable.
A skull canoe marked a key turn in the river and I cannot find it anywhere. The bends all look the same.
And there are a LOT of monkeys hanging around—-more than I can ever recall seeing in these parts.
Wait a minute —- is that a gift shop???
WHERE am I?
—-Mike
P.S. To any of my four (4) readers who may still be out there: I’ve missed you terribly!
