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Hadley gasp, and I look over and she has the most aghast look I have ever seen before on her face. Horrified, as if she had seen a ghost. The color even seems to drain from her face momentarily. I am worried. What could I have just said to elicit such a reaction? But she recuperates and seems to be unscathed.
    “Is everything ok?”
    Hadley assures me, “Yes, it’s just… I feel like I’ve heard a scary story similar to that one before when I was a child. I can’t put my finger on it though.”
    Not wanting to risk frightening her anymore, I quit talking about it. I lay back onto the cool stone, and the sound of the gushing water from the waterfall has a calming influence that washes over me. Hadley lies next to me still keeping her head buried on my bare chest. A perfect fit. We lay like this for a while until I am startled by a loud crack of thunder outside. We must have dozed off for a few minutes. I immediately realize if the weather gets bad, the walk back will be harder, and we might be late to the Feast. I lightly kiss her on the cheek to wake her up, and we prepare for the swim back. I realize we didn’t even get to read to each other today, but we will have time for it tomorrow after our labor shifts. I have another day out in the pineapple fields ahead of me, and she has to go through another day of physical training.
    We emerge on the other side into the lagoon and walk ashore. Hadley hates the long walk back so it has become our routine for me to let her ride on my back while we walk. She usually kisses my neck and whispers to me the whole way so it is well worth the extra effort. I bend down for her to hop on, but she says she feels like walking today. We hike side-by-side holding hands the entire way until we get to the outskirts of camp. We are not allowed to show any signs of public affection when we are in the confines of the camp so I give her a quick kiss before our hands separate. When we get to the District at the center of the camp, I can tell the festivities will be commencing soon.
    This will be the first Retreat Feast held on our Island. I have heard of these since I was old enough to remember, but this is the first time any of us have been old enough to be auctioned. I still have six months until I am to be open for auction, and Hadley still has nine. The Feast is for those on Island 3 who have been sold at auction. Our version of a going away party. It is a bittersweet event. We all get to gather out in the District at night, and there is a spread of food like I have never seen before. Normally, our meals consist of one fruit with a few other nuts or lettuce leaves. They give us enough energy to make it to the next meal, barely, but nothing extra. Laid out all across the tables has to be any and every kind of food available on this Island: Pineapples, bananas, strawberries, raspberries, coconuts, mangos, macadamia nuts, turtles, and every type of fish imaginable, some of which are cooked and some raw fish neatly wrapped with rice. Then I notice something I have never seen before. There is a deep hole dug into the ground creating a pit that appears to be lined with stones. In the pit, there is a pig wrapped in banana leaves impaled with a rotating spit over a small fire with orange burning coals. It gives me an odd feeling to see a pig cooking in such a manner. With its hind front legs curved up towards its chest and hind legs laid out as if it were a dog waiting to have its stomach rubbed. I get over it quickly, however. We do not eat much meat here on the Islands other than the aquatic creatures we catch. I have never had pig before in my life, but I have heard the Grods and Holds talk of the delicacy before. The smell is already making me salivate. I don’t think I can just take their word for it; I’m going to have to try this out for myself tonight. I look up at the skies, and I am thankful the bad weather that seemed to be previously looming has dissipated.
    I glimpse over at the center