One Grave Less

his Ric alias have credentials? Had he simply run away from all his responsibilities to a place where he felt he had none? Maria thought that was probably what happened. A rather mundane solution to a mystery. Better, however, than having drowned. To be fair, she had no idea what his side of the story was.
    Maria looked at the hammock of knotted rope woven with grass. She knelt down to Rosetta’s eye level.
    “I think it would be a good idea to sleep in the truck,” she said.
    “Is something wrong?” The little girl looked worried.
    Maria would have liked to protect her from all worry, protect her from any thoughts of danger. Have her think the trip from here on out would be easy and safe. But in their present circumstances, that was hardly realistic. She had decided earlier on to be as honest with Rosetta as she could.
    “Maybe. I really don’t know. But the man isn’t who he says he is,” she said.
    “Neither are we,” said Rosetta.
    Maria smiled, almost laughing. “You’re right. Sometimes there’s a good reason to conceal who you are and sometimes there’s a bad reason. I don’t know what kind of reason he has.”
    “Who is he?” asked Rosetta.
    Maria glanced at the hut he disappeared into, then looked back at Rosetta and spoke softly—easy to do with her still-sore throat.
    “He was a student at a university in the United States. I saw a newspaper article telling about how he disappeared several years ago and was thought to be dead. He’s changed his name. Maybe it’s nothing to concern us, but I would like to sleep behind locked doors.”
    Rosetta nodded and grabbed Maria around the neck and hugged her.
    “I don’t like him either,” she whispered. “He looks at us funny.”
    “We are an odd pair, two girls alone in the jungle in a beat-up pickup. He may be as suspicious of us as we are of him.”
    “Maybe,” said Rosetta. “He’s not happy like the people here.”
    Maria looked outside at the children running around playing, the adults working and talking. Rosetta was right—they were a happy group. Perhaps Ric simply had the weight of his past life on him. Perhaps he regretted not telling someone that he had not died, and now five years had passed and he probably thought it was too late.
    The two of them walked outside. They watched the people, mostly naked, painted red. Maria wondered if the paint worked as a bug repellant.
    Maria and Rosetta wandered over to the women preparing food. Their offer to help was met with laughter. An older woman was roasting wild boar on a skewer over a fire, another was frying grubs in a well-worn, dinted metal pan. Two young girls, Maria guessed they were about twelve, were peeling and cutting up fruit and an assortment of plants. It looked like a feast after the little food they had been eating.
    Some of the younger children tried to get Rosetta to play with them, but she clung to Maria. Maria knew she was probably just pretending to be shy. Neither of them wanted to become separated. Their lives felt precarious, like they would have to flee at anytime and needed to stay prepared, stay together.
    It didn’t take long for the women to finish preparing the meal. The boar had already been roasting before she and Rosetta had arrived. They had only to cook the other food. The tribe was small, not more than twenty people. They all fit in the largest hut, sitting in a circle on the floor. The planks in the floor were rough-hewn and spaced an inch or more apart. They had been coated with something that made them smooth.
    The food was piled on wooden platterlike planks in the middle of the circle. A couple of young women passed servings around on wooden or metal plates. The housewares were a mixture of local handmade utensils and items that came from the outside, from the modern world. A woman gave Maria food on a wooden plate for her and Rosetta. Maria watched her host, Ric/Kyle, to see when to eat. He nodded at her and took a bite of the roasted meat with his hands. Maria and Rosetta followed. It wasn’t too bad. The meat was a little tough but tasted good. The grubs were crisp and the fruit succulent. The two of them ate slowly.
    A bowl of hot drink was handed to them. It had a strong fruit and herb aroma. Maria saw Rosetta snake a finger into the liquid and put it in her mouth. Maria lifted the bowl to her own mouth and started to drink. Ric turned from saying something to the woman sitting by him and watched the two of them. Rosetta was holding