THE BOAR HUNT- by KAI

Disappointment filled me when Dad told me I could not go boar hunting.

I told myself not to be angry.

It was not his fault.

Joseph was the one who said I could not come-but it was not his fault either-it was no one's fault.

It was just a change of plans, instead of going during the day, they would also be going at night and it was just too dangerous.

Still, I couldn't help but feel disappointed...I had been waiting for weeks to go.

I sulked off into my room.

That night, my hopes rose somewhat, again, when Paul came home and said the plans had been changed again.

The men would go hunting only in the day now, because the boat driver who was going to take everyone to the back side of the island-had to do something, so they would not be staying over for two days. This still did not mean i could come but it was a 'maybe".

That night, I lay there contemplating all the possibilities of getting to go boar hunting and hoping with all my heart, Jospeh would say "yes".

The next morning, I got up and put my clothes on, hoping against hope-that I would get to go.

I decided to get ready, just in case, I could come.

I put on my cargo shorts, sneakers and belted on my knife and filled up some water containers. 

When Mom saw me, she gave me a curious look.

"Kai, are you going somewhere?"

"No" I said. 

"i'm, um, ahhh... getting Dad's water bottles ready".

Mom gave me a pitying look. "Don't get your hopes up" she said.

I knew she was right, but it could not  hurt to hope.

Just then, Dad walked into the room and said, 

"I'm going to shore, to talk to Moie".

Without hesitation, I asked if I could go with him.

"Sure" said Dad.

So we hopped in the dingy and raced off for shore.

Moie was waiting for us on the dock.

Dad was halfway done talking to her about what to bring, when I gave him a nudge.

"Oh, yeah" he said. "can Kai come since we are only going for the day?".

Moie gave me a long hard look and said..."YES".

Two hours later, i was rumbling into an anchorage with a boat full of men going boar hunting.

I looked at the twenty foot breaking waves on the shore.

"We are going into that?" I asked Dad, quietly.

"Yup. Good thing we have a hard bottom dingy with us".

He was right, the waves were breaking on big volcanic rocks.

"Yeah, mate. I hope it doesn't get too banged up in the process" said Bruce who owned the dingy, that we were dragging behind the speedboat.

Bruce is a friend and also another cruiser.

Right then, the engine stopped. 

"It's time" said Dad.

We all took off our t-shirts and shoes and put them in our backpacks-which we loaded into Bruce's dingy.

Then, we dove into the water.

The water was like pitch; Thick and black, from all the black sand and rocks on shore.

It gave it a spooky feeling, sInce you also know that hundreds of sharks are below you.

As we neared shore a wave so big came by, that even outside of the break zone-it was starting to break.

All of a sudden, I felt sand between my toes. I looked down and I was in waist deep water.

You wouldn't be able to tell from the surface, for all anyone else knew, I could be in fifty feet of water.

While i was walking in, I saw a very large wave coming towards me. A sudden stab of pain, shot through my right foot.

"awww. crap" I said out loud.

I just stubbed my toe on a rock, which meant that I was in the second break zone, where the rocks met the sand.

It was not a good place to be, with a breaking wave over your head-because if you fall and tumble,( which you always seem to do, in this situation) you would get smashed against the rocks. 

This really sucks. Trust me, I know. I tell you this from experience.

Suddenly, I felt my feet lift out from underneath me and I fell backwards, with an awful "CRUCH" my back hit the rocks.

Then the water washed over me. The first thing that happened was both my shoulders slammed into the rocks, forcing me to flip over onto my back again. Then, I was sliding and bumping along...

Right when I thought it was over, my head slammed into a rock and my neck crumpled under the weight.

I stood up out of the water.

"OWWWW" I grumbled to myself softly as I scrambled onto shore.

When I got to shore, I sat down and resting and mustering all my strength for the hunt ahead.

"Quiet" said, Dad.

It had been two hours, since we had come stumbling off the rocky shore and into the bug-ridden jungle.

"What?" I whispered back.

'Look there, see all the eaten fruit and all the tracks...a boar has been here recently"

I looked and there were a lot of tracks.

I slumped over to a nearby tree. My chest was burning. 

We had been bush crashing up an almost vertical slope for an hour and a half in a muggy, hot climate.

I caught my breath while one of the more experienced hunters tried to discern where the tracks led.

After a while, he seemed to get an idea of the general direction. So, he signaled for me, dad and Taiki to wait-and told Paul to come.

Paul lifted up his 22.caliber and tiptoed off into the undergrowth.

It was a long suspenseful half hour before we spotted Paul again and another fifteen minutes before we saw the hunter.

But both of them were unlucky-there was no boar to be found.

We took a little break, listening to the tropical birds as we ate some crackers.

'You...come" said the main hunter to my Dad. 

His voice was thick with the Marquesan accent.

Without a word, Dad picked up a gun and walked off into the green depths of the jungle.

I climbed up a low-lying tree to watch Dad go.

Just as he turned out of sight, there was a loud groan and a crack as the branch underneath me broke...

and I fell.

As we headed down the mountain, I cursed myself, silently.

It was late in the afternoon. 

I knew it wasn't really my fault but I couldn't help but blame myself for not getting any pigs.

I looked up and could see the bay.

The speedboat was already there, waiting to take us home.

As we left the jungle and stumbled onto the beach, we stripped off our t-shirts and ran into the water.

It felt so god to be back in the water after hiking all day.

After body surfing for awhile, we put our stuff onto Bruce's dingy and fought it back out through the surf to the waiting boat.

It wasn't a bad day, all in all...even if we did not get a boar.

I got to lots of fun stuff and it was a really great experience-one that I will never forget.

Jungle boy and mango
(Kai wrote that whole story totally by himself, with no help or prodding, He spent about three hours doing it and then gave it to me to post. Yay, un-schooling)

Singing in the rain

WE WILL MISS YOU
xxoooxoo