After 2 hours practising underwater, it was time for Colette to take a break, she swam back leisurely. She spotted some large scallops,
'How unlucky for them.' she thought grinning to herself.
She dove down elegantly, as if the sea were her element, it was a strange contrast to the person who spent nearly an hour to coax herself into the water before.
The breathtakingly clear water helped her to spot the scallops, she even spotted a giant clam! She was salivating just imagining how she would cook it. However, she decided to leave the clam, for now.
Looking around she saw some another clam variety, though she wasn't sure what it was called, she knew it was edible. It had a light creamy coffee coloured shell with a few black line across.
She excitedly pulled out a small net from, well... her swim pants... she had no pockets, okay?!
She stuffed the shellfish into the net and closed the opening with her hand. Colette swam to the surface for air before swimming quickly back, to prepare her snacks.
Upon reaching the shallow waters, she immediately dashed to the beach, locating the little area she "built" specifically for cooking.
She placed half of the washed shellfish in the small pot, which Lenny left for her three years ago, and the other half on some banana leaf for later.
Colette began by shredding some coconut husk and lighting it to create a fire with the ferro rod. Thankfully, it had not rained recently, the dry husk quickly began to smoke.
Seeing this, Colette calmly blew at the smouldering fire to help ignite a flame.
A small fire quickly grew, Colette transferred it to the fire place and added more husk and fire wood.
Finally, with the fire going, she focused her attention to the food. She began by pouring in some fresh water from the stream into the pot, then placing the pot over the fire to simmer.
She proceeded to add some crushed peppercorns, lemongrass and sliced chilli to the pot.
As the clams began to open Colette added some coconut water, lime and some sea salt to season.
The pot was extremely fragrant! She unknowingly started to drool...
'Alrighty, last step, take it off the heat, set some aside to cool and start steaming the others!'
Colette doused the remaining shellfish in some coconut water before carefully wrapping the shellfish in a few layers of banana leaf. She stuck a few skewers made from small twigs and branches, after stripping the bark and boiling them.
She placed the wrap onto the fire and removed some of the larger firewood to help the fire die out and avoid the shellfish from being overcooked.
Seeing the fire die, she turned her attention to the pot of shellfish, she poured out some salt and pepper from a jar into a large shell which she was using as a dipping plate, and squeezed some lime in.
...
She licked her lips and patted her slightly protruding belly in contentment.
'That was good.'
After her stuffing herself, Colette was too lazy to go back into the water. After all, she would waste 20 minutes staring at the water.
The sun would be setting by the time she entered the water, thus, without even a tinge if reluctance she gave up on her goal for the day. She only improved by 3 seconds.
Instead she decided to run a few laps through the forest, after she had digested part of the feast though.
At the rate which she eats, without some daily exercise she would surely find it difficult to traverse even a small distance, like the distance from her little tree house to the small stream.
As she was enjoying the view she flashed a beautiful smile, it was filled was happiness. She was reminiscing about her decision three years ago, to not return with Lenny, she did not regret it one bit!
Why would she go back to such a toxic place, people scheming and everything was about the money. Without money, how would one afford food and shelter, to earn money you would often have to work to the bone. There was always some sort of sacrifice involved, she thought it such a vain way to live but it was just "life".
Colette was determined to live a happy life with chimps on the island, it was so unproblematic since they had accepted her.
Overall, her health has never been better, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and socially- ... ah ... well the chimps should count as a form of interaction, right? She may be unable to freely to converse with them but she hardly had any friends in her last life anyway... being alone was nothing new to her.
She was enjoying her leisurely life, it wasn't boring at all. There was always something to do, but if she was too lazy, she could just leave for another time! There would always be time later, it was a very relaxing way to spend her days.
Not far from her, Bobo approached with his arms with a few bananas and a pineapple and was about to happily run over, not expecting her to be back so early but came to a stop , dropping all the fruit in arms on the sand.
Making the connection between her and all the shells nearby, he started screeching at her wildly and jump like he was standing on hot sand!! As if saying,
" We were meant to eat fruit together!"
Colette only giggled and patted the spot next to her, Bobo was utterly adorable. He was sulking as he trudged over. He looked dejected as if the effort to gather the fruits were all wasted.
Bobo had been as clingy to her like in her last life, no, he was even more clingy!
However, she enjoyed it, it was like she was raising a child.