Read Online Forest of the Pygmies by Isabel Allende - Free Book Online

off. “Yes, but we don’t plan to go into the forest.”
    â€œAre you thinking of staying here forever?” the missionary asked.
    â€œWe can’t get out of here by land. The only possibility is the river.”
    â€œSwimming?” Brother Fernando persisted.
    â€œWe could build a raft,” Alexander suggested.
    â€œYou’ve read too many adventure novels, young man,” the missionary replied.
    â€œWe’ll decide that tomorrow; right now, let’s rest,” Kate ordered.
    Alexander and Nadia’s shift began at three in the morning. With Borobá they would watch the sun come up. Sitting back to back, weapons on their knees, they talked in whispers. They always stayed in contact when they were separated, but even so they had a thousand things to tell each other when they met. Their friendship was profound, and they were sure that it would last throughout their lifetimes. True friendship, they believed, survives the passing of time, is selfless and generous, and asks nothing in return except loyalty. They had never actually discussed it, but both protected their affection from the curiosity of others. They loved each other without making a great show of it, discreetly and quietly. They shared dreams, thoughts, emotions, and secrets by e-mail. They kneweach other so well that sometimes words weren’t necessary to express what they were thinking.
    More than once Alexander’s mother had asked him if Nadia was “his girl,” and he always denied it more emphatically than was necessary. She wasn’t “his girl” in the common sense of the term. The mere question offended him. His relationship with Nadia could not be compared to the fits of love that struck his friends or to his own fantasies about Cecilia Burns, the girl he had thought he would marry ever since he started school. The feelings between Nadia and him were unique, untouchable, precious. He realized that such an intense and pure relationship was not common among teens, and that is why he didn’t talk about her. No one would understand.

    An hour later the stars began to disappear, one by one, and day began to dawn: first a soft glow in the sky that soon became a spectacular blaze flooding the landscape with orange reflections. A variety of birds filled the sky, and a concert of birdsong waked the rest of the party. They immediately sprang into action, some stirring the fire and preparing something to eat, others helping Angie remove the propeller with the hope that it could be repaired.
    They had to pick up sticks to stave off the monkeys that descended on the small camp to steal food. The battle left them exhausted. The monkeys withdrew some distance down the beach and watched from there, awaiting a moment’s inattention to attack again.
    The heat and humidity were crushing: Everyone’s clothing stuck to their bodies, their hair was wet, their skin burning. The forest exuded a strong odor of decomposing organic matter that blended with the stench of the excrement they had used for their fire. They were besieged with thirst, but they had to conserve the last reserves of bottled water they had in the plane. Brother Fernando suggested using water from the river, but Kate said that it would give them typhus or cholera.
    â€œWe can boil it, but with this heat there’s no way to cool it down; we’d have to drink it hot,” Angie added.
    â€œThen let’s have tea,” Kate concluded.
    The missionary used the jug hanging from his pack to bring water from the river and also to boil it. The water was the color of iron oxide, metallic in taste, and had a strange sweetish, almost nauseating smell.
    Borobá was the only one of them to venture into the forest; everyone else was afraid of getting lost in the thick undergrowth. Nadia noticed that he kept darting back and forth, with a look that at first seemed to be of curiosity but soon resembled desperation. She called