Page 109 of Totally Wrecked
I swear I hear Rex growl, but then he turns to his niece with a smile and holds out his hand. “So what’s my party job, peanut?”
“Singing! You can be the music. Sing us some songs!”
We are all trying not to crack up as Rex kneels at her level. “You sure that’s what you want? We could pick flowers together for decorations, or I could help you figure out some fun games?”
Key puts her little foot down. “No, a party needs music, and I'll make decorations with Daisy.”
I rub my hands; I love it when a plan comes together. “Alright! Everyone knows their jobs, let’s aim to have our party in three days' time. That’s probably when the moon is full, right?”
We struggle telling when the moon is full-full, or a hair off full.
“Three days it is,” says Daisy.
Gray, Harvey and Killian all give me the thumbs up.
“Rex?”
He meets my eye, promising retribution at some point. “Oh yeah, I just can’t wait.”
???
Daisy is coming into the jungle with me, and we are going foraging for umu ingredients. Well, that’s what we are telling everyone, but what we are really doing is having some alone time.
“We can’t just go to the pool, the others are going to and fro from there all day,” she says, her hand in mine as we set off. “And it would be good if we also did a tiny bit of foraging.”
“So, to the land unexplored we go. Off the map…‘Here be dragons!’”
“I like that you are also a bit of a nerd; I would never have guessed.”
“Because nerds can’t be as handsome as me?”
“Idiot,” she giggles.
We really are going to go off the beaten track, though. It’s something we’ve all been discussing, that we need to explore and map out this whole island. Daisy and I are heading east. The sun rises in the east in both hemispheres, so we got up at dawn to set out.
“It’s crazy how quickly we’ve become acclimatized to all this,” Daisy says. “I hardly notice the humidity now.”
“And all the clouds of bugs?”
“Well yeah, I notice them, but it’s not as bad. I definitely think aloe is a repellant.”
We’d all taken to rubbing ourselves with the clear goo if we spent anytime in the jungle.
“Tell me something about yourself, Leander. Something… I don’t know. I’ve heard all these stories from Killian about his parents and grandparents and growing up in Ireland, but you are much more of a mystery.”
“Me? A mystery? I’m an open book, my darling, I will tell you anything. It’s just that Killian has a much more romantic background than I do…ass wipes, remember?”
She giggles, “I’m sure there is more to your family than that.”
I stop to move a bough out of the way and think about my family. I have two brothers: Malcolm, my oldest, who lives the Hollywood lifestyle dating models and investing in weird TV shows. And then there is Jasper, the little brother, who has thrown his whole life into horses and playing polo. Nowthere’san expensive hobby if you ever want one.
“I’m the middle of three boys,” I tell her. “There is Malcolm, Jasper, and me. My family is pretty wealthy, it’s generational wealth. My parents don’t work. My brothers are a little cliched to be honest; playboys who spend a lot of money and drive ridiculous cars. Or horses, if it’s Jasper.”
“So what stopped you being like that?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. It just didn’t sit right. I was definitely going down that path, but, I don’t know, I wanted to get my hands dirty and have muscles from labor, not a gym. Maybe I have more of my grandfather in me than my dad or my brothers. He’s the one who made Westhall Formulas the empire it is today.”
“What about your mom? What’s she like?”
