The Taaw’t Bato

I always thought the best of friends were the ones who treated each other as equals. I took myshot. I made the gesture of exchange; my Swiss knife for his blowgun. There was no hesitation. Tig gave me back my Swiss knife with a nod, and I nodded back. I looked at him with admiration, for not agreeing to the exchange. His blowgun was more important to his daily survival, and I noticed him looking back at me with respect. The feeling was mutual. Right about here I noticed a beautiful butterfly flitting over the creek, a beautiful iridescent green. Tig followed my gaze and saw the butterfly, and extended his arm, with his index finger out. The butterfly landed on his finger. My jaw dropped as Tig moved the butterfly closer for my inspection, and twitched his finger to let it fly. Tig and Lomi were smiling from ear to ear, and I was nodding and smiling with appreciation. There was a screeching of birds, so I looked around. A flock of Philippine cockatoos flitted from tree to tree. It was the first time I had seen them in the wild. Beautiful!

It was time to head back, the sun was setting, and it wouldn't be safe to try and fly out of the jungle at night. I waved good bye to my new found friends, and they waved back. It was fun, and I wished I could help them out somehow. I lifted off with the Italians. They spoke very little English, and were not a talkative lot. Back at Brooke's Point, I wanted to refuel for the trip back. But the Lieutenant said I was to fly back on one of the Hueys, and return for another day's filming. Uh-oh. That wasn't the plan, and I told him I had to get back with the Bolkow, or there would be hell to pay with the Amoco brass. I always hate it when they say they have to follow orders. I got in the Huey and wondered what I would tell Glenn. (Not his name, but let's call him that because he had an uncanny resemblance to Glenn Campbell, a US Country-Western singing star.) I expected a dressing-down when I got back, and I got one. Glenn was going to lose another day's productivity, and that would be expensive. Instead of telling him this was what I warned him about, I told him how to salvage the situation. He got taken advantage of, but now he had the leverage to demand even more concessions from the Navy, and he eased up. There's more there than meets the eye, he said. I'll see you tomorrow. In a way, I was glad I was going to see Tig and Lomi again.