Page 39 of Protecting Kelli
If they were in the bus long enough, they’d have to drink the dripping water…but he wanted to put it off for as long as possible.
The possibility that the water was tainted…some other way for their kidnappers to torture them…wasn’t something he was going to bring up at the moment. He needed to be nothing but positive for Kelli. There was no use scaring her with scenarios that might not even happen.
She nodded and closed her eyes as she took a single swig of the water.
He accepted the bottle and took his own drink, before replacing the cap and putting the water aside. He urged Kelli to sit and made himself comfortable next to her. He said a little prayer that whatever was in the unknown cans was edible. He definitely hoped what they had wasn’t dog food either, but he could eat it if it was. It would totally suck, but nutrients were nutrients.
Both cans in the box had their labels stripped off, and he balanced them in his hands, trying to decide which to open first.
“Eeny meeny miny moe?” Kelli asked with a smile.
“How about you just pick a hand?” Flash countered.
“Right.”
He waited. When she didn’t say anything, he asked, “Are you gonna pick?”
She chuckled—Flash ticked off another line on his mental chart—and said, “I just did.”
“Oh! I thought you were agreeing with me,” Flash said, returning her smile. “Right it is.”
He put the cans down and reached for the spoon. “I think I told you yesterday that the lid’s thinner than theactual can itself. So if you use the tip of the spoon to rub over and over in the same spot, making a groove, eventually you can break through the thinner tin.” He demonstrated by gripping the spoon firmly, holding the can still, then carefully putting force on the spoon as he rubbed the tip over and over at the edge of the lid.
Before too long, the spoon punctured the surface.
“Voilà!” he exclaimed happily.
“It worked! You did that fast!” she said.
“I’ll let you do the next one.”
“Oh, that’s okay.”
“Nope, you need to learn how to do it too. Doesn’t matter if you aren’t as fast as I am. I’ve had more practice. Besides…what else do we have to do?”
“True,” she said. “What is it? What do we have?”
“After you make the hole, use the spoon to cut all the way around the top. You can fold the top back when you get far enough around. But the lid is super sharp with the jagged edges, so you have to be careful not to touch it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…what’s in it?” Kelli asked, leaning forward eagerly.
Flash carefully peeled the lid back, then picked up the candle and held it closer.
“Is that…spinach?” Kelli asked.
“If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably canned callaloo.”
Kelli looked at him with both brows furrowed. “What’s that?”
“A Jamaican vegetable that’s rich in iron, calcium, and B2. It’s in the spinach family.”
“So…it’s spinach,” Kelli said, licking her lips. “Can we eat it raw?”
“Yes.” Spinach wasn’t Flash’s favorite food, but right now, his mouth was watering and he couldn’t think of anything more delicious than the leafy vegetable in the can.
He dipped the spoon in and held it up to Kelli.
Her gaze came up to his, then she leaned forward. Without taking her gaze away, she opened her mouth and let Flash feed her…then moaned as the vegetables hit her taste buds.
