CHAPTER 12 – CORN
Chapter 12
When the goats were between me and my dog, I hid behind a tree. Then I shouted at my dog, “Come here.” He started to run to me and the goats too. I stayed in my position behind the tree. When one of the goats was close to me, I jumped and I caught its leg. But then the goat kicked me with its second leg in my nose. It hurt a lot. I let the goat go and the goat was soon gone.
We weren’t successful. This wasn’t a good way to catch a goat. We had to do it differently. I told my dog, “Let’s go home. I need some rest.”
I worked on my fence from January to March. It took me a long time because I wanted to make it very strong. During this time, I found pigeons on the island. Their homes weren’t in the trees. They lived in holes which were in the rocks. It was easy to catch them. Their meat was great. I could also cook and eat their eggs.
When I worked on my fence, I found a small bag. I remembered corn in the bag, but now there were only some leave and dust in the bag. I took the bag outside my camp. I emptied the bag because I needed it for the gunpowder. This happened shortly before the rains.
A month later, I found a few green leaves in that place. It was young corn.
Words couldn’t express how happy I was. I had corn on the island. It was fantastic. I could bake bread in the future.
Something happened on March 16th. I was inside my cave when pieces of earth started to fall from the ceiling. I was scared. I didn’t want my work to be destroyed. I ran outside the cave. I noticed that the ground started to shake everywhere.
It was an earthquake. I was shocked and scared. Some big stones fell from the hill. But I was lucky. They didn’t hit my tent. The earthquake was finished soon. But I was afraid to go inside. I sat on the ground in front of my tent.
I started to think, “Maybe, it was better not to sleep in the cave. It wasn’t very safe in case another earthquake came.”
But I didn’t want to sleep in the tent. So I decided to make a house instead of the tent. I wanted to use the cave only as a cellar.
The next day, I started to build the house. It was in April. It took me three months to build the house. But I was happy with my new home.
I was ill in the last week of July. I had a temperature. I couldn’t get out of the bed. I was very weak. I could do nothing in that state. I had crazy dreams. The dreams weren’t very logical. But for me they were real when I had these dreams.
WORDS FROM CHAPTER 12
