Jungle Jitters , livre ebook

Jungle Jitters
Lisa Dalrymple

Copyright © Lisa Dalrymple 2017, 2021
Published in Canada and the United States in 2021 by Orca Book Publishers. Previously published in 2017 by Orca Book Publishers as a softcover ( ISBN 9781459813496) and as an ebook ( ISBN 9781459813502, PDF ; ISBN 9781459813519, EPUB ). orcabook.com
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: Jungle jitters / Lisa Dalrymple. Names: Dalrymple, Lisa, author. Series: Orca currents. Description: Second edition. | Series statement: Orca currents | Previously published: Victoria, British Columbia : Orca Book Publishers, 2017. Identifiers: Canadiana 20200371908 | ISBN 9781459830851 (softcover) Classification: LCC PS 8607. A 47 J 86 2021 | DDC jc813/.6—dc23
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020948719
Summary: In this high-interest accessible novel for middle readers, Tate goes on a school trip to the Amazon, where he must confront his worst fears. A free teacher guide for this title is available at orcabook.com .
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Design by Ella Collier Cover photography by Getty Images/Alvaro Faraco Author photo by Nadine Graham

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For Marc, who has shared each adventure and every journey .

Chapter One
Life was sweet—if I didn’t think about becoming an anaconda’s breakfast. I was sitting beside my best buddy, Dre, and we were flying along the Amazon River in a motorboat. Dre’s attention was glued to the screen of his dad’s old camera. He was all about getting video for his 912 YouTube fans. Noelle bounced along on the front seat, her black ponytail whipping about in the wind.
We were totally psyched to be on this trip. Mrs. Gallagher, our sixth-grade teacher, had been grinning since we got into the boat in Iquitos. Her husband had designed a school for a Yagua village, and because Dre, Noelle and I had done a lot of fundraising for the project, we all got to come to Peru with him while he inspected it.
In the back of the boat, Armando slowed the motor. “We are coming up to the quebrada , the creek, that will take us to the Jaguar Jungle Lodge.”
His accent was cool, but I had to listen hard to understand what he said.
I turned back for one more look at the Amazon. I had pictured it snaking through overhanging vines and jungle growth, but it was miles wide— a supersize water highway.
Mr. Gallagher fidgeted with the brim of his Indiana Jones hat and gave me an impatient smile. Behind him, a flash of silver shot from the water. It streaked toward Armando’s neck. He ducked, but he was too slow. The fish sank its teeth into his shoulder. I tried to call out, but my mouth was frozen.
That wasn’t the case for Armando.
“Guys! Guys!” he shouted. “Look at this!”
He gestured to the long silver creature attached to him. Okay, the fish wasn’t physically attached to his body. But it had latched onto his T-shirt with fangs the size of my baby fingers—and that was pretty much the same thing.
His shirt ripped as Armando tore the fish off him.
“Freshwater barracuda,” he explained. “They get excited by the moving boat. They think we are something to eat.”
He snorted and tossed it overboard. I edged away from the side of the boat while Noelle laughed nervously and put her hand on my arm. She did that sometimes in math class too, but I knew she was only trying to see past me out the window. Dre pointed his camera at the water where the barracuda had disappeared. Wasn’t anybody worried that a vampire fish had jumped out of the river and sunk its teeth into one of us?
Dre was probably just ticked that we didn’t get a photo. I dug my phone out of my backpack and hit the Home button. Zero bars. But I didn’t need reception to take pictures.
We rounded a bend in the quebrada. Murky water lap-lapped against the sides of our boat, and vines trailed from overhanging treetops. This was the Amazon I had imagined. Bugs droned around us, and sweat plastered my jaguar-spotted life jacket to my back. Armando had said a quebrada was a creek, but I didn’t think I’d even be able to touch the bottom. Not that I planned to find out.
A couple of boys were paddling a hollowed-out tree trunk. I shuddered at the thought of being that close to the dark, muddy water. If I fell in, I wouldn’t even be able to see my own feet. Never mind what was swimming just below them.
I wondered if they thought we looked funny in our life jackets and sunhats while they glided along in their faded shirts and shorts, looking totally comfortable with the river. They stared at us as we passed. I guessed they hadn’t seen that many people with dark skin and dreadlocks like Dre’s. He held his camera to one side and waved. “Hey, Tate, you should wave too,” he said, elbowing me in the ribs.
“Tate?” Mr. Gallagher asked his wife. “I thought you said his name was Ethan.”
“It is. Tate’s short for Potato, I believe.”
Mr. Gallagher nodded as if to say, That makes total sense , while his expression said, That makes no sense at all . Mrs. G. looked apologetic. I knew she would never tell him the joke, so I explained. “Like a boring old potato.”
Noelle punched me on the shoulder. “Oh, come on! You know it’s not because you’re boring.”
“Oh, really?”
“No. It was that speech you did in third grade. It was…um…impressive. Who knew anyone could talk for a full twelve minutes about potatoes?”
“See what I mean?” I said. “Boring.”
But over the next five days, I was determined to take on anything the Amazon could throw at me. No one would ever call me boring again. That is, if I survived.

Chapter Two
We docked at the Jaguar Jungle Lodge, and Armando made sure we left our life jackets under our seats. “If you go out in the fishing boat, you will need to bring a life jacket from the lodge. These ones stay here for my passengers. If my boat flips, at least nobody will drown.”
Ha! I knew what would happen if I fell in wearing one of those life jackets. I’d be a yummy chunk of bait dangling from a jaguar-spotted lure, enticing anything lurking below. I gave Armando a sarcastic smile. “Well, that’s good to know.”
He beamed.
We hauled our backpacks onto the dock along with the three boxes of books we’d brought. Once we were on the riverbank, Armando pointed at a wooden shed.
“Go inside and get some rubber boots,” he said. “It is always swampy here. Also, they will protect your feet.”
“Protect our feet from what?” Dre whispered to me.
Did it matter? I gulped.
Still, I was more comfortable on land. At least I’d be able to see what was coming for me—and I could run.
I found a pair of size 10s and clomped along behind Dre and his camera. Two men with machetes slashed at the undergrowth, clearing paths around the lodge.
Turning the camera toward his face, Dre whispered to his viewers, “You can already feel the jungle creeping back again. Mwah-ha-ha!”
A couple of kids watched us arrive. They had copper-toned skin and black hair like the boys in the canoe, but I could tell they weren’t from around here. The girl’s hoodie gave them away. It looked like something you could buy at the mall. “Maria and Oscar!” Armando called to them as he walked past. “Can you take these guys to the canteen? We will meet you there after we register.”
Maria grinned at us. Oscar was too busy poking a spider with a stick.
“What’s he doing?” Dre asked.
“Oh, just trying to get attention,” Maria said.
Noelle laughed. “Yeah. My little brother is like that too.”
“This place is driving me crazy.” Maria groaned. “I have no one to talk to except him . Half the staff only speaks Yagua. And Mom works all the time.”
Oscar coaxed the spider onto his hand.
“So you’re not guests here?” Dre asked.
Maria shook her head. “Oh, we haven’t been guests for months. Mom worked it out so she can do housekeeping until she finds herself or whatever.”
Noelle screamed. Maria jumped.
Oscar dangled the spider between two fingers. In his other hand, a detached spider leg still wriggled.
“Seriously, Oscar?” Maria reached out to give him a swat.