Perk Up, Mr. Misery PART TWO

And so, dear readers, this is how Logan sank into a fast and inevitable despondency. While his friends careened around him a little more happily, he was mourning – for what, I don’t know. After all, pixie minds work in very strange way.  

If I’m allowed to ponder it, I have a hunch that something died in him that day after he stormed off into the forest. Will we ever know what? Probably not. After carefully surveying his story, Logan Manchester morphed from a shy, cowardly boy into a brave leader, then into a dejected young man very quickly. And, in the end, this alteration proved a sole aspect for his end.

Logan lay awake. Saraha was dozing by the fire. Ji-Ji’d been so happy that day, unlike him. Logan hated being sad. He loved it and hated it and envied it and despised it, but it still clung to him like an infection to a wound.

Ji-Ji had burst from the bushes, into camp, a cheery smile on her face. This overly excited behaviour was rare for her.

“This place is wonderful!” she’d gushed. “Idyllic. Perfect.”

“You seem… happy,” Flo P said suspiciously.

Logan had cocked his head to the side in agreement. “Why’s that?”

Ji-Ji hesitated for a fraction of a second. She never hesitated unless there was something not up to par. “It’s a good spot, as well as a good village. They have lots of supplies, and little suspicion… Just trust me, it’s great.” She trotted off to find Saraha.

Flo P looked at Logan and raised her eyebrows. He shrugged his shoulders back.

That night, a cry rent the air. Saraha had caught a fish, and she’d immediately ran back to camp, holding the flopping thing by the tail. Logan saw it, immediately turning angry.

“ARE YOU MAD?” he said. “KILL THE THING, YOU’RE TORTURING IT.”

She looked at him for a moment. “Whatever you say, King Ra of the Holy Sun.” Saraha placed the fish on the ground. It was still flopping horribly, albeit a little more sporadically and dully. Saraha took the butt of Ji-Ji’s hunting knife and clubbed it. 

The fish stopped moving. The tail twitched once more, and was still.

“I am not gutting this thing,” said Saraha.

Flo P had her nose wrinkled, disgusted. When no one stepped up, she said, “Finders keepers. You caught it, you clean it. Go down to the river. I’ll come.”

“Logan and I’ll start a fire,” said Ji-Ji.

Saraha cut open and washed it in the stream, letting the inedible organs and brain flow downstream, washing away the smell. When the fish had been cleaned, she and Flo P returned to camp to see a small but hot fire, and a couple sharpened sticks, ready to roast the meat.

Logan eyed the fish. “I’m so hungry, I volunteer having the stomach.”

They divvied up the fish, and ate gladly and barbarically. The fresh fish, though a little charred, was better than the week-old bread, canned tomatoes and stale water that they’d been living on the for the past weeks, and whatever unpalatable thoughts anyone had had of the animal soon vanished. The entire fish dematerialized soon after.

Saraha proffered her watch, and the others soon fell to sleep.

But not Logan.

He was aware Saraha was dozing, slightly, perhaps neglecting her duties after an uncannily full stomach, but he was glad she couldn’t sense his acuteness.

What of his feelings of Flo P? Logan laid them out – everything, bluntly – before him. There was definitely admiration… respect, protectiveness, friendship, and everything he should feel. But what of the more difficult emotions? Love? Could he really go so far to say that? Though he’d only really known Flo P closely for three and a half weeks, it felt like decades and eons and centuries, and infinite time, he thought to himself.

Yes, he said to himself. I like her a lot. I like Flo P. She is the one for me… Hey there, Flo P – you’re the one for me! Can’t you see, Flo P? – I love thee! And with these odd tunes floating through his head, Logan soon fell into a fitful sleep.

A very short and very mysterious chapter, I will admit. What will become of Logan next? (And what does “sole aspect for his end” mean, Sarah? D:)

READ “AHOY, SNUGGLE BOY!” ON JANUARY 6^TH TO FIND OUT…