Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jordan followed along, fascinated by the flora and the slightly creepy lack of fauna. He let Mel take the lead, occasionally lagging behind to inspect something, then catching up again, reluctant to be separated from his new friend in the absence of anyone else he knew.

When Mel pointed up, Jordan looked, and said in an awed tone of voice, "Dude. That's awesome. Let's try to get up there."

"Yeah, it'll be safer to have a place to look out from. We could camp there tonight if it's solid," Jordan suggested, trying not to sound too excited about this. Really, though, a treehouse in the jungle was pretty awesome.

He let Mel get a little way up the ladder before he started up himself, politely not crowding the other boy, going a little slower than he would have on his own.

"This is incredibly cool," Jordan agreed as he dropped his bag on the floor and moved over to look out the window with Mel. He had no trouble with heights, and he stretched to get a look at how high they were, looking down at the ground far below. "We're so high up, like two stories."

He looked out over the trees to the blue line of the ocean. "Maybe we're in, like, Florida," he suggested. It was obvious they were on a coast.

"You can drive a boat? That's cool," Jordan opined. He could swim well, b ut he certainly couldn't drive a boat.

"Water everywhere? Are we on an island? Maybe we are in Hawaii. But I thought there would be more bugs in Hawaii." Jordan made a circuit of the treehouse, found a trunk, and dug through it. "Hey, binoculars," he said, and held a pair up. "There's a bunch of like notebooks and stuff in here, and some old blankets, and some weird equipment. Oh, and a canteen, but it's empty."

"I was on a boat once, one of my friends, his dad has one. It was cool. We live close to the ocean too," Jordan offered. "But it's dark greeny blue and it's always cold, even in summer. I still like swimming."

He helped arrange the blankets, because camping out was cool and camping out in an amazing treehouse was even cooler. When Mel asked about lights, he stopped to go back to where he'd dumped his bag, triumphantly producing a small flashlight out of it. "I got one. Maybe the guy we got these from does camping?" he suggested.

"It looked pretty normal," Jordan pointed out. "If it was a murder island, I bet there would be like, deathtraps and stuff all over the place. Maybe with man-eating plants in the jungle." They hadn't seen the basement rooms; if he had, he might have put more stock into the idea.

"Yeah, the treehouse is defensible. Only one way to get in. If anyone tries to get us we can kick them in the face and they'll fall down the ladder," he pronounced confidently.

At the question, he went still for a moment. Then he moved over to lean on the windowsill and look out, carefully controlling his voice. "She's only been in the hospital for like a few weeks," he explained. "My aunt is taking care of stuff and looking after me and my brother. But we don't know how long it's going to be. Maybe not long," he said, sounding out the idea again, but not like he believed it.

"My dad died last year," Jordan said, still looking out the window, his voice still as steady as he could make it, though it had taken on a rough edge.