CHAPTER 12 – CORN

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

hid
caught
kick
successful
let
hurt
dust
earthquake
pigeon
hole
ground
differently
empty
leaf
corn
express
bake
ceiling
notice
remember
shake
rest
case
insteadiof
cellar
crazy