"I can't do that." He said with sagged shoulders and a long face.
"Of course." I walk past him to the other side of the boat, all the snacks are gone, how do we survive now.
"Both the tiger and Bel are gone." He looked sad and hurt.
"Whose fault is that?"
"I don't need a constant reminder."
"How do we survive now? All our food are gone, so is my luggage and hand bag also my phone."
"That should be the least of our concerns right now, we are going the wrong way."
"What!!" I asked in dismay throwing my hands in the air.
"We are not too far from the right wa—"
"Why are you still talking? Take us back to the right way."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because I can't use my right arm because of the huge bite on it, the damn tiger bite me."
"Whose—"
"Fault is that.....that's what you were about to say right?"
"Right."
"So you have to do the paddling."
"I don't know how to, can't you use your other hand?"
"You're so cold and inconsiderate." Ouch.
"Me?! How?"
"You can see vividly I'm bleeding, my arm hurts like shit, I'm in so much pain and you're telling me to paddle, you're a fvcking bitch."
"It's your fault all this happen in the first place, besides you've wrapped a clothe around it so it's fine."
"All I did was try to pet it and my arm is so not fine, does it look fine to you?" Okay in all honesty, it doesn't.
"I guess, besides that was a brilliant idea, wasn't it?"
"How about we just get lost, that'll be nice, wouldn't it?"
"Just know, I hate you right now."
"Thank you."
"How do I do this thing? You know, steer us back in the right direction."
"First we need to know which way we are going."
"Okay...so which way are we going?"
"North."
"Which way is north?"
"Follow the stars." He said with a weird look on his face.
"Look, we are not trying to act a movie here, so just tell me exactly the way north is." He got up with a look on his face, is he trying to smoulder? He looks like a constipated cat with diarrhea.
He stared at the stars and gave the sky a thumbs up and did a couple other stuff.
"North is....that way." He pointed a little to our left.
"Okay so now what?"
"Tie the knot and pull the sail until it catches the wind, then tighten it and pull it towards north."
"Okay." He showed me how to tie the knot, and did as he instructed, we got the boat going in the right direction in no time.
"We did it!" We went in for a high five, then it got awkward.
Two hours later.
"I am starving!" We've been laying down doing nothing, I'm feeling really lazy now.
"How about I catch some fish for us to eat?"
"How will we cook it?"
"Go under water, I think there is a gas cooker and fish ingredients." He is such an ass.
"You're so annoying."
"We'll eat it raw of course."
"Ew." I scrunched up my nose and twisted my face in disgust.
"You're not hungry yet, when you're hungry you'll understand what you need to do to survive when there is no food and you're in the middle of the sea." He brought out his fishing line.
"What will you use as bait for the fishes?" I know for sure you can't catch fishes without baits like worms.
"There are a few worms over there, not more than five." He went over and brought the worms to us, I backed away a bit, I don't like being too close to the edge of the boat, also the worms are disgusting me right now, I think I'm going to throw up.
He put the hook in the worm, raised the fishing line far above his head and lunged it forward, the line went straight for the water, five feet from the boat, he let the line loose waiting for a fish to get caught on the hook.
"Let me help, your arm must hurt a lot."
"Yes it does but I can handle it."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
After about ten minutes of trying but his efforts was in vain, he finally caught one, a big one at that, he put it in a bucket and tried again, this time instead of catching a fish, he caught my luggage.
"O my gosh." I gasped out in surprise.
"I think this is yours." He said with a small smile.
"Yes it is, you're a really good fisherman." I complemented him as I took my luggage from him, although all my clothes are wet I'm still happy I got them back, will just dry them.
"Try again maybe you'll catch my hand bag or maybe Bel." I said in a jolly tone, I opened my luggage and started looking for where to spread my clothes for them to dry, I decided to be creative, I attached the end of the rope to one end of the boat and the other end of the rope to the other side of the boat.
"You wish." He said nonchalantly.
"Just try please."
I started spreading my clothes, so I dried them under some of my clothes, no way I'll leave my under wear on display.
"Have you caught it yet?" I asked looking back at him, I'm keeping my fingers crossed, I wonder how he is doing it with a injured arm, he's pretty strong.
"No...wait yes, I caught something, its really heavy," I rushed over to him "don't just stare, help me." I collected the fishing line and pulled it in with all my strength, you can do this Axymah, you're going to catch your first big fish, or so I thought.
"Its a....its a—" I feel faint, I couldn't form coherent words
"You caught the tiger!!!" I never cease to amaze myself. Jeff and I brought it on deck with really great difficulty.
"I can't believe you caught the tiger, wow."
"Thanks, but its bleeding." I can see a few wounds on it, it must have fought with something.
"Yeah, the hook must have injured its mouth."
"Okay, it must have fought with something, see those wounds." I pointed at them and Jeff took a look from a safe distance.
"Yeah, what did it fight with?"
"You're asking me! How would I know?"
"What!!" He is so stupid, how can he ask me? Was I down there with the tiger?
"Anyways, how is it even alive? I thought it drowned or something."
"Tigers are really great swimmers."
"So does that mean?...."
"Don't bet on it."
"Bel could still be out there." There is a ray of hope left, Bel could still be alive.
"Is she a great swimmer, like the tiger?"
"No but—"
"Don't keep your hopes up." He just burst my bubble.
"I think it must have swallow water."
"Press down on it's chest, maybe that'll cause the water to pour out of it and it'll be alive again."
"No way.....I've learnt my lesson the hard way, you do it!"
"No I will not."
"You're the sailor, it's your job."
"To what?....die?"
"Make sure everyone is alive."
"You're crazy, I'm not going anywhere near that thing." Of course he would not, especially not after all I said to him.
"I'm sorry about all I said to you," maybe an apology will make it better and he'll be willing to try "please help save its life." I gave him my best puppy eyes.
"What are you doing? Please stop."
"Okay, just save the thing."
"Fine but if anything bad happens, you'll be held responsible."
"Noted." He went close to tiant the tiger and knelt beside it's stomach.
"I can't do this, my arm...."
"Come on, just try." I know where this is going, he'll tell me to do it that his arm hurts.
"I can't, I'll have to exert pressure on its chest that is exerting pressure on my injured arm."
"Fine, I'll do it." I inhaled deeply and started saying my last prayers.
"Good."
"Coward." I mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." I went close to the tiger and knelt beside it's stomach, I turned it over a bit, so it was lying on its back, cautiously placing both my hands on its chest, I exerted pressure on both my hands pressing hard against its chest, I did that a couple of times and that did the trick.
It gasped for air, at least that's what I think it did, I flew backwards tripping on the bucket causing the fish to fall out, its already dead from being out of the water for too long, water poured from tiant's mouth as it laid back on its side before getting up on all four.
It stared longingly at the fish, I got up and moved far from the fish, Jeff did the same, Tiant leaped landing gracefully close to the fish causing the boat to shake, Jeff and I fell again, it sat and devoured the fish.
It stared at us silently demanding for more, unfortunately for us there are only two worms left.
"You better make it count, I don't want to be tiger food." I whispered loudly to Jeff, getting on what I meant, Tiant turned its attention to me while Jeff went and caught two more fish and also my hand bag.
I was beyond excited, everything in the bag is wet, its a good thing my phone is water proof, the money in the envelope was also wet, great, I spread it so it could dry.
"The tiger ate the two remaining fishes and no more baits, what are we going to eat now?"
"We should be thanking it because its yet to eat us, not complaining that it ate something else that's not us."
"In short, we are going to die of hunger." I said exasperatedly, my phone battery is still at two percent, the battery is strong, its just cause I didn't use it, its past 4:00pm now, the sun as gone down.
"How much longer till we reach there? I'm getting tired of seeing nothing but water."
"You're in luck because you're about to see more civilians." He said in a rather unhappy tone.
"Meaning?"
"Look over there, there is a boat heading to our direction." He was right, I got up to take a closer look, its a boat that was just like ours, they got to us and was right beside us five minutes later.
"Hey, nice to see people other than these dimwits here." The guy in the other boat said, referring to the other guys with him.
"Hi." We greeted back, there are about three guys on the boat.
"Where are you both headed?" They asked, I decided Jeff should do the talking, these guys are giving me strange vibes.
"River Niger, what about you?" He yelled.
"River Benue." They yelled back. I was about to go seat in a corner till they leave when I spotted something.
"Adeemah?!!" I heard a voice yell, Bel?
"Bel?! Where are you?" She called out to me, she must be nearby, I started looking around in the water.
"I'm here—" she said but her voice came out low, like she was hushed.
"Bel isn't here." Jeff said.
"Didn't you hear her call for me?"