Chapter 6

The Best Class

Chapter 6

The group all looked toward the jungle where Brooke was pointing. There, rising high into the sky, were many tall, slender trees. There were no branches except for a cluster of wide, green leaves at the top. Among the leaves were several round, hard shapes.

“Coconuts,” shouted _Brooke. “They’re in the trees.”

“Are you sure?” asked__ Kody. “Those look pretty big to be coconuts. All the ones I’ve seen in the stores are smaller and have brown hair on them.”

“That’s just the inside, said _Brooke. “If you break those coconuts in the tree, you’ll find the kind of coconut you see in the store on the inside.”

“I think you’re right,” said __Remi. “I saw something about that on the Discovery Channel. They smash them down onto sharpened stakes to split them open. There’s also milk inside.”

“Did the program show how to get them out of the tree?” asked _Kody.

“Well, I’m afraid I must have missed that part,” replied _Remi.

“So how do we get them down?” asked __Caitlun.

Nobody had an answer. They all stood around, looking up at the coconuts hanging about thirty feet above them.

“I guess we could try climbing the tree,” said__ Talan. “Though I’m not sure how we’ll do that without any branches.”

“Maybe we can hug the tree and just sort of...sort of… sort of… scoot up,” said __Kody. “Who wants to give it a try?”

Several of the children all shouted, “I will,” but __Aliyah was the first to rush to the base of the tree. Wrapping _her arms and legs around the tree, _she started trying to shimmy up the tree. She got about six feet up, and started to slip back down. She let go of the trunk and pushed herself away. She plopped down onto the soft, white sand. “That’s not as easy as I had expected,” she said, rubbing her rear end.

Several of the other children tried, without success. _Rhylla got eight feet up the trunk, but that was the highest anyone got. When they were all tired and somewhat bruised, they sat back on the sand and began to think.

“Somehow, we’ve got to get those things down here,” said __Kody. “Maybe we could throw something up and knock them down.”

“It’s worth a try,” said __Caitlun.

The children scattered about looking for rocks. These were in short supply, but they found a few. For about half an hour, they took turns throwing rocks at the coconuts. The children were good athletes, and scored several hits on the hanging coconuts, but failed to knock any loose.

“We’ve been gone an hour,” noted __Rhylla. “We should be turning back now.”

“That’s true, said __Bryan. “But I hate to go back without some food. I”m getting hungry and I’m sure the others are too.”

“If we had the flare gun we could try shooting them down,” said one of the children.

“That might work,” said __Rhylla. “But we only have three more flares. We might need those to signal a passing plane or scare off another tiger. Besides, “Tanner’s group took it with them.”

If we had an axe we could cut down the tree,” said __Jocelyn.

“There was a knife in the raft,” said Bryan. “But it would really take a long time to cut down a tree with it.”

“If only we had a ladder,” said _Aliyah. “That would certainly make it simple.”

“Let’s look around and see if we can find something to use for a ladder,” said Kody.

The children agreed that this might be a good idea, so they began to look about. None of them were very excited about going into the jungle, but they did look around the edges of it. There were several tall, skinny trees, that might have made good ladders, but they had nothing to cut them down with. All they could find were a bunch of short sticks.

Finally, they all gathered on the beach and sat looking hungrily at the coconuts. Suddenly, Asher jumped up and said, “I’ve got it. We’ll make a ladder out of the tree.”

“How are we going to do that?” asked everyone.

“Quick give me your shoelaces,” said __Asher. He untied his own shoelaces and pulled them out of the holes in his shoes. Grabbing a short stick, he placed it across the trunk of the tree and, with his shoelaces, tied it to the tree. He put one foot up on the stick. As he put weight on it, the stick twisted, but did not slide out of its binding. He quickly put his other food on the other side of the stick. With a foot on each side of the stick, it evened out. The sticks and the shoelaces slid down a little, but, since the lower the tree truck went, the wider it got, the shoelaces became more tightly bound to the tree. “Alright,” said _Asher. “Hand me another stick and some more shoe laces.”

These were handed quickly to _Asher, who tied another step three feet higher. He clamored up to it and repeated the process. _Jocelyn, climbed up onto the first step, so she could pass the sticks and shoelaces up to _Asher. Soon they had both climbed up another step and _Brooke joined them on the tree.

Higher and higher the makeshift ladder went. Soon five children were on the tree, working as a team, passing the sticks and laces up to one another. After tying several steps, Asher at last reached the top. Using a long stick, and stretching as high as he could, he began to swat at the coconuts. After a couple good whacks, one broke loose and landed with a soft “plop” on the sand. The children all cheered, and _Asher began to whack away at the others. Soon, he had knocked twenty coconuts to the ground and left the tree bare. Coming back down was easier, except for untying the knots. But soon everyone was back on the ground, with their prize of coconuts.

“We’re about an hour late,” said _Rhylla. “We’d better be getting back.”

“That’s true,” said _Asher. “But at least now we can go back with some food.”

The children headed back with their arms loaded with coconuts. Knowing that they were late, they hurried as fast as their heavy load would allow. About half way back, they met _Tanner and his group.

“We were worried,” said _Tanner. “You’re late.”

“We know,” answered __Jocelyn. “But look what we found. We found enough coconuts for everyone.”

With _Tanner’s group helping, the trip back to the raft went quickly. The children all went to work cracking open the coconuts. They tried several methods and discovered that the way Remi had seen on TV did actually work best. Using the knife from the raft, they cut and sharpened a stake. They buried it in the ground and pounded the coconuts down onto it.

After everyone had eaten and gathered enough firewood to get them through the night, they settled down around the fire as the sky grew dark.

“Did your group find anything, _Tanner?” asked _Kody.

“No,” said Tanner. “We hiked about forty-five minutes and came to some cliffs that came right down to the water’s edge. We turned back at that point.”

_Asher’s group then described how they had gotten the coconuts down.

“You guys really know how to work together,” said Doug.

“It’s the only way we are going to get through this,” said _Zoey. “If we don’t help each other, we are going to be in big trouble.”

“Do you think we will be rescued?” asked_ Doug. There was a quiver in his voice.

“We’ll be alright,” replied Zoey. “We’ve only been here one day and already we’ve found food and we’ve got a good fire.”

“Also, we’ve got the beacon,” added _Braxten.

“But the tiger…”

“Don’t worry about him,” _Talan interrupted Doug. “We’ve got a good fire to keep him away, and we still have three flares if we have problems with him.”

“We’d better get to sleep,” said _Patrick.”

“You’re right,” agreed __Aliyah. “We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow. We’ve got to get more food, explore this place, and start figuring out a place to live until we’re rescued.”

The children huddled together covered with the few blankets that they took from the plane. The night was warm, so no one was cold. _Steve agreed to take the first turn keeping watch and tending to the fire. It was about midnight when he heard the sound of crashing nearby in the jungle. In the distance, he heard a piercing scream. He jumped to his feet and stared into the jungle. He listened hard, but no more sounds came. ___Steve threw some more wood on the fire. In one hand he held a heavy stick of wood to use as a club and in the other hand he held the flare gun. Whatever it was out there in the jungle, he was ready to defend his sleeping friends.