Free Follow Your Star by Jennifer Bohnet

group as they hacked their way through the rain forest.
    The village clearing appeared unexpectedly. One minute the guide was leading them along a muddy track beneath the jungle canopy, the next they came to an abrupt standstill as their way was barred by a group of native Indians holding their hunting spears at arm’s length.
    For one heart-stopping moment, Vanessa thought they were about to be attacked, but it was simply the welcoming party come to escort them into the village.
    The primitive palm thatched huts on their stilts stood around the edge of the clearing, where the village animals, including a fat pig and several roosters, were roaming freely scouring the land for scraps.
    Walking to the centre of the encampment with curious villagers eyeing them from a distance, Vanessa noticed a small child standing close to her mother watching the strangers with wide brown eyes.
    Vanessa smiled at her and was rewarded with a shy smilein return before the little girl turned and ran after a baby pig, before settling down in the dust to stroke and play with it. Looking at her, naked and beautifully brown, with her bare feet planted firmly on the earth, the phrase ‘being at one with nature’ came into Vanessa’s mind. This little girl was definitely in harmony with the natural world that she lived in.
    Briefly Vanessa envied her the simplicity of her childhood – and her life to come.
    The chief shaman came forward to welcome them and showed them to the hut reserved for visitors.
    They’d barely had time to sling their hammocks between the beams and change their damp clothes before a young woman appeared inviting them to come and eat the special meal the villagers had prepared in their honour.
    There were bowls of yucca soup, rice, fish, fruit and, to Vanessa’s horror, large white live grubs and what was clearly organ meat from various animals, all laid out in their honour. She looked at Ralph in dismay.
    ‘I don’t want to upset anyone but I can’t eat those things,’ she whispered, pointing to the wriggling white grubs and the meat.
    ‘Stick to the rice and fish,’ Ralph advised quietly. ‘And have some fruit.’
    As Vanessa began to peel a banana a small monkey who had been wandering around scratching the earth, suddenly ran up to her, snatching the banana from her, before jumping on to her lap and settling down to eat it. Vanessa looked at him in amazement. She must remember to tell the twins about this.
    Listening to fragments of the conversation around her asshe watched the monkey, Vanessa realized the village was struggling to survive.
    Angela, the mother of the little girl Vanessa had seen earlier, was shaking her head sadly as she spoke to Ralph in fragmented Spanish.
    ‘It is terrible with the forest – so much destruction. People need to find a way of surviving, of helping the jungle to grow back. Much is being done but the bandits, they still spoil things.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘The drugs and the gold smuggling is taking over our culture even here in this tiny village. We have a school now, but the children – what future do they have? The government want our people to report anyone who abuses the forest but we’re not going to risk our lives, are we?’
    Angela looked at Ralph in distress.
    ‘How would my children survive if I ended up with a rifle in my mouth?’
     
    Early on Sunday morning, pit lane passes hanging around their necks, Nanette and the twins crossed the Boulevard Albert 1st at a designated crossing place between the barriers, and made their way to the area where Jean-Claude was fine-tuning his Lotus before the race.
    Pierre was excited at seeing all the old cars close up, but Olivia was already bored. Mathieu and Florence were busy preparing the apartment for the lunch party and had gently suggested Nanette took the twins out of the way. Olivia had protested saying she’d rather stay in her room, but Mathieu had insisted.
    ‘Papa Jean-Claude’s down there getting