Free Medicine Cup by Bill Clem Page B

shirt was soaked.
    “It’s like a sauna in there.”
    Drake nodded. “Get used to it. This is the thickest part of the rain forest. It’s gonna be that way from here on out.”
    Jennie Bradford joined them a minute later, sipping a water bottle and fanning herself. “Morning, Findley.”
    “Morning, Jen,” he said, reaching into his pack. “Here.” He tossed them each an energy bar and put one in his top pocket. “Breakfast. We need to get going. The Yohagi village is at least ten miles. Ten hard miles .”
    They all started down a narrow trail away from the boat and into the perpetual gloom of the Amazon rain forest.
    The jungle rose up on both sides of them. The air buzzed with the sound of cicadas. Drake looked back at the small boat. As crappy as the boat was, he knew it was their lifeline out of there. Despite his experience in this environment, his instincts told him going to see the Yohagi was a dangerous game. As a Peace Corps worker, he had avoided this part of the jungle whenever possible. Men, he thought, just didn’t belong here.
    Somehow, though, he had let Jennie talk him in to it. He just couldn’t let her go hiking through the Amazon with Paul Grant as her only protection. Grant was likable enough, but he was no outdoorsman. That would certainly change by the time this trip was over, Drake mused.
    Jennie walked alongside Grant, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was staring at the jungle. The air on the trail was hot and still, trapped between the huge trees that rose up on either side of it. The trees were thirty to forty feet high, covered in twisted vines. At ground level, in the darkness beneath the jungle canopy, huge ferns grew so thick they created an impenetrable barrier, a solid green wall. Drake thought: Good thing I’m with them. You could go ten feet off the path and be lost forever. You’d never find your way out.
    Grant stripped off his shirt and wiped his face with it. Drake stopped him and shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The mosquitoes here are as big as praying mantes’”
    Grant nodded and put his shirt back on.
    Jennie, now in the lead, suddenly stopped.
    “What is it?” Drake asked.
    Jennie turned slowly around. The color had drained from her face. She pointed with her right hand to a spot a few yards in front of them.
    “Anaconda,” Drake said.
    Jennie instinctively backed up a few steps and held onto Paul’s arm. Drake gazed at the snake. It was at least thirty feet long and as big around as a man’s waist. Its mouth was agape and protruding from the jaws was a small boar.
    “That’s disgusting,” Paul said.
    “I agree,” Drake said. “One thing’s for sure, though. He won’t bother us. You could actually step on him right now and he could care less. When feeding, they’re helpless.”
    “Good,” Jennie said, “let’s get out of here.”
    The last ten years had been a period of intensive reptile study, with most of the attention going to snakes. It had long been thought that large snakes, such as the Anaconda and other constrictors, would hang out in trees and wait for unsuspecting victims, including humans, then drop from overhead and strangle them until they were unconscious. Then they’d swallow the victim whole.
    It’s true there are many documented cases of big snakes swallowing humans, but all the humans were infants. And all were taken from a point of origin on the ground. Most of the time, a native mother had left her baby unattended while she washed clothes at the riverbank or ran some other errand, returning to find it gone, and then seeing the telltale signs of an Anaconda swimming through the water.
    Tragic to be sure, but the fact is, an Anaconda cannot swallow a full grown human. And the reason is simple. Despite the fact that their jaws drop open to three times the size of their body, a human’s shoulders are just too wide to accommodate the mouth. At least, so far. Still, Drake had a great respect for large