Survive The Jungle

The website had been counting down for weeks, to this day, this hour, this minute when she would make contact. This was the payoff; the eagerly awaited reassurance that all the pounds, dollars, yen and euros that had been invested had not gone to waste.
She was making last minute preparations, breathing out the anxious flutterings as she went over and over mental lists trying to silence the voice in her head that said make one wrong move and you bring the world crashing around your ears.
He was sat comfortably in his armchair, his laptop screen open showing the countdown. He found his eyes travelling to it again and again, weighing up the actual passage of time against this anticipation of it; wishing his life away. The side table beside him held the small, red velvet box that cushioned a single carat of diamond on a simple golden band. He would have to wait to slip it onto her delicate hands, but he wouldn’t have long to wait for her answer.
Inside the tent she wiped her brow, pushing hair out of her eyes and away from her sticky forehead. Her skin had taken on an orange cast as the light was filtered by the fabric of the tent. Checking the clock, she leaned over her computer and clicked the button to start the webcast. There were 3,547 people already on the channel. The sigh of the wind through the trees and soft calls of the parakeets were soon joined by the electronic bings of others joining the channel.
‘Hello!’ she waved towards the small shining circle at the top of her screen where the camera was located.
Immediately the chat window that ran beside her screen lit up with comments, they scrolled past too fast for her to make sense of them. It added some authenticity to her confusion when she said, ‘I’m sorry, the connection isn’t great. I’m not even sure if anyone is getting this. I hope you are.’
Biting her lip she suppressed a smile as the chat window became a blur of desolated reassurance; oh how her public wanted her to know that they could hear her. How desperate they were to be the one who got the message through. Any guilt she felt was cleansed in a wave of loathing; they deserved all they got.
‘Well, anyway. I made it!’ she gave the camera a thumbs up. ‘I’m here, in the rain forest.’ Obligingly, the sound of a parrot squawking came from outside the tent. ‘As you can hear!’ she grinned, glancing in the direction of the noise. ‘I want to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you for your donations; I literally wouldn’t be here without you.’ Keeping the smile fixed in place she leaned forward to mute the sound as once again the screen erupted with chat. The unsettling idea had come to her that the quiet beep from the computer might be audible over the webcast. Had she given herself away? Covering, she made an anxious glance to the side of the tent, giving herself a few minutes to breathe, to think.
‘Sorry, I just thought I heard something…’ she murmured, pulling on a smile like a mask as she faced the screen again. ‘It’s like that here, of course. There’s always something going on. You never know when a rare creature will wander by the camp.’
Scanning the chat screen, she saw most people were wanting to know what kind of animals she’d seen, but she was determined to stick to her plan; be as vague as possible to avoid screwing it up and saying something that couldn’t be true. Some of these armchair adventurers knew a lot more about where she was supposed to be than she did.
‘The chopper dropped me off on the plateau yesterday, I spent most of that day finding a good camping site…’ she paused, reaching stealthily for the mouse button on the computer to start the visual effect that would make it look like she’d lost contact for a few moments. ‘So this is day one; just 9 more days to go here, 9 days to survive, before they come and pick me up.’
Now was the time so show some vulnerability, she knew, to get them further invested in the idea of her. The donations to get her on the trip were just the beginning, if she played her social media right there was a cash rich future of personal appearances, blogging, a book and maybe even a movie deal to be had.
‘I didn’t expect to feel lonely, already. It’s just, if there’s a place that will make you feel small and insignificant, it’s here. I’m such a tame thing, here in the wild.’
The comments screen became a blur of response, strangers all across the world wanted to reach out to the character she had created, to offer this intrepid stranger their words of encouragement and comfort.
He wanted it more than any of them; because unlike most of them, he knew her. He had loved her from the first moment he set eyes on her. More amazingly, she’d loved him too. But when she’d first mentioned the idea of the jungle trip, he’d felt the clutch of jealousy in his guts and had give her an ultimatum; the jungle or him. Tonight he hoped to make amends.
Leaning forwards, fingers trembling with pent up emotion, he typed out his question.
He watched her face, waiting for the moment when…if, she caught his comment in the rapidly updating stream. No sooner was it asked, though, than his question was taken up by others. Others who had read the heart rending blog she had written about their break up. Shippers, they called them; fans who were interested in the relationship above all else.
He saw the moment she read it. Saw her face blanch to pale, even under the orange of tent filtered sunlight. Saw her stare, jaw falling lax in surprise. Saw tears fall from her eyes, saw a smile rush up all unbidden.
‘Yes!’ she shrieked, and his heart inflated like a balloon. He made a fist and punched the air.
She leaned towards the screen and said, ‘I’m getting married!’
She wondered how it was that he, useless, boring, frustrating man that he was had chosen just the right moment to ask the question; because at any other time she would have laughed in his face but this? Oh, this was going to secure her future. The wedding itself could be televised, maybe their own reality TV show featuring a quick divorce and her finding another man, one more worthy of her celebrity status.
A momentary lapse in judgement made her think she should stand, dance, show her excitement. Swept up in the moment she forgot the size of the tent, one spin and she caught the screen of the laptop sending it spinning and crashing down from the table.
It landed with the camera facing towards the tent door; showing clearly the parrot, kept in a cage. The fan, blowing a gentle breeze across the canvas. The CD player, whirring around as it played rainforest sounds and the humble interior of her living room beyond.
All around the world, donors came to the realisation that she was a fraud. The screen exploded with their angry comments and their demands for a refund. She didn’t read any of them, she just scrambled to get her things and get out of he flat before someone traced her address.
He sat back in his chair, watching the screen with tears rolling down his cheeks. His heart was broken, but even so he knew at some level he’d had a lucky escape.