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I’ll drain the barrel and you’ll start from scratch.’ ‘OK,’ I said. I wasn’t sure I had the strength to do it, but I wouldn’t win an argument with Sami. ‘Can I ask you one question first?’ ‘If you have to,’ Sami said. ‘You know when we were at the side of the road? Something made you change your mind about killing
    me. What was it?’ ‘I already told you, traitor. If I killed you, it would make us no better than the army.’ I shook my head, ‘No, you were going to kill me. The end of your pistol was touching my head and
    something changed your mind.’ Sami looked down at her boots, ‘Have you ever seen the Disney movie, The Fox and the Hound?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘When I was little’ I was a bit surprised Sami even knew what a Disney film was. ‘You frown like the cute fox when the big dog gets angry,’ she said. ‘I felt sorry for you.’ I cracked up laughing. Sami looked furious and booted the two empty cans towards me. ‘If that barrel’s not full whenever I come here, I’ll make Don beat you.’ I went back and got my trainers. Don and Amin weren’t around, thank God. My feet hurt, but at least with trainers on I didn’t get any new cuts. I tried carrying two cans together, but I wasn’t used to the heat and I was weak from all the blood I’d lost. Once the barrel was full, I stumbled around to the shady side of the main building and collapsed in a heap. Nobody stayed indoors in the daytime, it was too hot. Beck found me after a bit. ‘I hung Don’s clothes out to dry,’ he said. ‘You better not lay around in here. You’ll get pounded if
    Don sees you.’ I sat up, ‘My head hurts.’ ‘You can come hunting with me if you want,’ Beck said. ‘It’s cooler under the trees, but I’ll have to kill
    you if you run away.’ I laughed, Beck was about half my size. ‘I wouldn’t know which way to run,’ I said. ‘But just out of interest, how would you plan to kill me?’ Beck pulled a big knife out of a pouch over his shoulder. His eyes scanned a tree about ten meters away. ‘Red parrot,’ Beck said, pointing. ‘Longest branch, second bird from the end. See it?’
    ‘Yes.’ Beck hurled the knife into the tree. It thudded the wood. A cloud of birds erupted into the air, all
    except the dead one pinned to the longest branch by the knife. Beck grabbed branches and clambered into the tree. He twisted and pulled his way deep into the leaves until I couldn’t even see him. He emerged at the thick end of the long branch, shuffled along with his legs wrapped round it and retrieved his knife. Then he dropped about four metres to the ground, landing in a cloud of dust and standing straight up. His grin was even wider than usual.
    ‘Fancy your chances?’ Beck grinned, holding the knife in my face, before wiping the bird blood onto his shorts.
    We walked deep into the trees. It seemed every fly in the world wanted a piece of me. God knows how Beck knew his way amongst thousands of identical looking trees. ‘What are we looking for?’ I asked. ‘Mostly monkey,’ Beck said. ‘Everyone is my friend if I bring back a monkey.’ He stopped by a palm and raised a leaf. The underside was crawling with featureless white blobs, like
    giant maggots. ‘Hold the sack open for me.’ Beck snipped off the palm, folded the white blobs inside the leaf and dropped it into the sack. ‘Do you eat those?’ I asked, shocked. ‘What are they?’ ‘Palm grubs,’ Beck laughed, ‘You ate loads last night.’ I made the connection between the white sausages on my plate and the blobs wriggling around inside the sack. I was a bit grossed out, but they’d tasted really good. As we walked, Beck scoffed green caterpillars and a cracked open giant beetles before sucking out the insides. A few yards further on, Beck grabbed a beetle the size of a kids fist off a tree trunk. He held it upside
    down with the legs flipping about. ‘Try,’ Beck said, shoving it in my face. ‘These are the best