“What Would Wonder Woman Do?” she said, like a prayer.
And then, as if in answer, Jennifer raced for the spear, which had been thrown free when the girl was swallowed. But the snake’s undulating tail knocked it just out of reach.
“You scaly bitch16!” Jen gasped.
The snake lunged. With a loud screech, Jennifer leapt up and grabbed hold of a tree limb, hoping that it was, in fact, a tree limb, and not some other freaky form of island life intent on eating her. Inside the snake’s throat, the girl pushed with her hands and feet, forming a blockade with her body. She wasn’t going down easy, and it gave Jen new courage.
A quick drop to the ground and she snatched the spear in her right hand. With a loud “GAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!” she hopped onto the snake’s back and jabbed the sharp end into the creature’s head. It thrashed wildly and Jennifer was thrown clear. Now it was truly pissed. But it wasn’t from Jen’s assault. From inside the snake, the swallowed girl had managed to crawl up. She positioned what looked like a smallish white tub between the snake’s back teeth. It allowed just enough room for her to slide out on a tide of heavy saliva. Without thinking, Jennifer pulled the girl to safety behind a fat, broken tree.
The snake bit down on the large jar between its teeth and exploded. The girls were coated in snake insides.
“Yes!” Jennifer screamed. She pumped her fist. “How ya like me now, Snake Parts?”
Beside her, the rescued girl coughed and hacked. Her eyes widened as she hacked up a mouthful of slime on Jennifer’s shoulder.
“Ew.”
“Sorry,” the girl said in a voice that sounded slightly broken and a little loud. “I was choking. I’m Sosie Simmons. Miss Illinois.”
“Jennifer Huberman, Miss Michigan. Oh my God. I thought that you were a total goner, man. But you were all, ‘Feel my fists of fury, Amphibian Bitch,’ and I was all, ‘Let’s settle this, X-Men-style,’ and you were all, ‘Aaaaaaahhhhhh jar action!’ and I was all, ‘Kayaaaaaaaa spear time!’ and, oh my God, that was flippin’ amazing. Wasn’t that amazing? I haven’t felt so good since I punched Dennis Anastasias during sixth grade recess when he called me thunder thighs ’cause, I’m sorry, that little punk had it coming.” Laughing maniacally, Jennifer combed her hands through her snake-slimed, muddy hair and looked up at the doily of sky far above, and even though she had just nearly met her demise with a gigantic snake on a deserted island far from home, somehow this moment was glorious.
Sosie stared at Jennifer’s mouth, trying hard to make out the words that rushed over her lips in a formless torrent. “Um, sorry. I didn’t get that. I lost my hearing aid inside that thing. I’m hearing impaired.”
Jennifer was forced to really look at Sosie. What she saw was a face with large, green eyes and a light dusting of freckles across a small nose. And for a moment, she was more undone by this girl’s beauty than by the carnivorous snake.
“Oh. Sorry,” she said slowly.
Sosie smiled. “That’s okay. Even though I have a disability, it doesn’t stop me from realizing my aspiration of representing my country as Miss Teen Dream.”
“No. Of course —”
Sosie placed a hand over the left side of her chest. “They said that because I could not hear the music, I would not be able to dance, but I refused to be limited. I chose to listen to the music of my soul. With the help of my teachers, I organized a dance troupe of non-hearing kids called Helen Keller-bration! And we travel America, showing that nothing can stop you if you don’t stop believing.”
Jennifer looked around. “Who are you talking to?”
Sosie squinted at Jen’s mouth. “Oh! My handler said you should act like the cameras are on you at all times and always be at your best.”
“There are no cameras. The crew, the handlers, they’re all dead.”
“What?”
Jennifer mimed a finger across her throat.
“Oh. oh!”
Slowly, with great care, Jennifer explained about the storm, how she lost the others, that she didn’t know if they had survived.
Sosie took it all in, nodding. “After the crash, I was so scared. I found this place. It was really weird. There were all these jars of Lady ’Stache Off.”
“Maybe they fell when the plane crashed?”
“That’s what I thought at first. But one of the jars — the one the snake just had for breakfast — had this weird, almost-battery-looking thing in it. The jars were all in a box. And that’s not all. Come on, I’ll show you.”
She offered her hand to Jennifer, and Jennifer took it, marveling at the softness of the girl’s fingers.
“Sorry. I stink like snake insides.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“What?”
“It’s okay,” Jennifer shouted, feeling like an idiot because wasn’t that what people always did with the deaf? Talked louder, as if that would help?
Sosie positioned Jennifer’s fingers in her own, nudging them gently into new forms. “O … kay,” she said.
“Okay,” Jen repeated, putting her fingers through the motions again.
Sosie smiled. “Very good. If you want, I can teach you to sign.”
Jennifer blushed. She wanted. She wanted very much.
Sosie inched closer to the snake corpse. She poked it with a stick. It didn’t move. Feeling braver, she and Jennifer examined it and saw that it had been sick. Its long body was covered in disgusting sores and tumors. Its scales were mostly gone. The few that remained were an iridescent greenish blue that dazzled. It had probably once been a glorious creature, and Jen was reminded of the old, tough-as-algebra barflies in her neighborhood, the ones with the long, permed hair who still clung to the leopard-print dresses they’d put on thirty years ago and refused to retire.
“Poor thing,” Sosie said.
“That poor thing tried to eat us,” Jennifer said.
Sosie nodded. “Poor bitch.” She grabbed a shard of the plastic Lady ’Stache Off jar. “I wonder what made the snake explode? You think it was that battery thingie?”
Jennifer wiped her hands with the edge of her dress. “Don’t know. It looked pretty sick anyway.”
“What?”
“The snake. Looked sick,” Jennifer repeated, and Sosie showed her the sign for sick.
“I want to show you something.”
Sosie led the way through ruined trees and denuded earth. Off to the right were a series of weathered totems. Clearly, this had once been somebody’s home, but whoever they were, they were gone now, and the land around here didn’t look like it could support so much as a carrot patch, let alone people. At last they came to the ruins of an ancient temple carved into the side of a mountain. Veiny tree roots closed around it protectively, as if saving it from the destruction their brothers and sisters had faced.
Sosie motioned for Jennifer to follow. The temple wasn’t too dark inside, thanks to a hole in the top where a family of birds had built a nest. There were also seat cushions from the plane, a blanket, a kerosene lantern, and an old ham radio.
“Dude! A radio!” Jennifer grabbed for it and hugged it to her chest.
“Doesn’t work,” Sosie said.
Jennifer twisted the knobs and dials. Nothing. She opened the back of the radio. The wires were a jumble of color. She let out a low whistle. “Man. That is a mess. Still. I might be able to get it up and running. I’m pretty mechanical. I wonder where all this stuff came from.”
“What?” Sosie said, and Jen said it more slowly, letting Sosie read her lips. “That’s not all. Look.” Sosie showed Jennifer what appeared to be a military ration kit. Inside were chocolates, water, and protein bars. There was also a machete, two knives, and a wooden crate packed for shipment with the lid pried loose. Sosie removed the lid. Inside were moldy packing peanuts stuffed around several jars of Lady ’Stache Off.
“It’s so strange. What’s this stuff doing on this island?”
Jennifer ignored Sosie’s question and pointed instead to the ration kit. She made a puppy begging face, which made Sosie grin. Together, they sat on the weed-choked temple floor and shared a chocolate bar, which tasted better than anything Jen could remember. She’d never had a meal in silence before. At home, there was her little brother yakking it up, Jen and her mom arguing. At school, at juvie, at the pageant training center, someone was always instructing, advising, reprimanding, and Jen had learned her only defense was to talk, loudly and a lot, in order to keep the needling “helpful” words of others at bay. Now, there was just the food, the company, and the quiet.
She kind of liked it.
MISS TEEN DREAM FUN FACTS PAGE!
Please fill in the following information and return to Jessie Jane, Miss Teen Dream Pageant administrative assistant, before Monday. Remember, this is a chance for the judges and the audience to get to know YOU. So make it interesting and fun, but please be appropriate. And don’t forget to mention something you love about our sponsor, The Corporation!
Name: Shanti Singh
State: California
Age:17
Height: 5’ 3”
Weight: 128 lbs. A lot of it is muscle. 116 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Best Feature: My hair. People say it is glossy. I use an old Indian treatment.
Fun Facts About Me:
I have studied botany, fencing, synchronized Tae Kwon Do, gymnastics, classical piano, cello, Bollywood dancing, and Indian cinema.
I can make popadam as my mother and grandmother taught me.
My favorite class is chemistry.
I hope to be the head of my own Fortune 500 company.
My platform is called First Generation Health. It helps kids in immigrant populations get the health care they need.
My proudest accomplishment was hearing my handler, Mrs. Mirabov, tell me that my evening gown walk only made her want to put out one eye. Trust me — that’s a compliment.
The thing that scares me most is failure.