Chapter One
Mina clung to the ropes and edged forward along the rope-bridge. “How on earth did I get into this?” she asked herself. She’d been flattered when she was asked to be on the expedition to Brazil and hadn’t really thought about the consequences, but as a botanist it was a privilege to be asked to find the Valentine Slipper Orchid, one of the world’s rarest
(click on the answer to reveal the correct one)
flowers chocolates shoes
Gusts of wind pushed clouds full of
(click) acid alchoholwater across the sky and rocked the bridge. Mina closed her eyes, for just a second. She couldn’t look scared in front of Quentin, their navigator, who was striding across ahead of her. He was handsome, strong and confident, and he laughed as he teased the terrified team doctor, Ben, who was still half way across the ravine.
Chapter Two
As Mina walked along she couldn’t help comparing them. Ben had been silent and sulky for the whole trip. In fact, he had hardly said a word since they had met four weeks before, when he had tipped tea all over her and her notes making the
paper ink pencil separate like a chromotography experiment.
Of course, Mina had no way of knowing that Ben had liked Mina from the moment he met her. He loved her sparkling eyes and radiant smile. But the more he knew her, the more nervous he became and now he could barely say a word. It was like his
nose tongue pancreas no longer worked.
Unlike Ben, Quentin laughed a lot. He was always teasing and was so energetic. And had he been flirting with her last night? Ohhh, she hoped so… because she had a little experiment for him…
Chapter Three
The region was famous for its love potion, brewed from a local plant. Mina had found just enough to make a small sample. Not that she believed in these things; to her this was an experiment, but one she longed to work.
So in Mina’s pocket that afternoon was a small glass bottle filled with green liquid. All she had to do was sprinkle it on Quentin and he would be hers. She just had to wait for the right moment.
Upstream from the rope-bridge she stopped to admire the view. Down below her the river was smooth and calm with the
mist rocks current from the nearby waterfall separating the sunlight into different colours in a fabulous rainbow.
Chapter Four
By chance she looked down, and at her feet was a tiny flower head. She blinked, and then shouted, “It’s here, it’s here!”. Quentin, with his boundless energy, ran over to her, but his shoes were slippy on the ground because they had a
hole in the sole stones in the toe low coefficient of friction
Quentin did what Mina had wanted – he swept her off her feet. Right off her feet and down the bank and into the river below.
As she fell in, Mina caught a branch and held on. The river wasn’t as calm as it looked and she was being pulled towards the waterfall. Suddenly, Ben appeared in front of her, wading into the river. He took off his shirt and using it as a rope he pulled her in and into his arms.
He carried her safely to shore. Mina smiled at him, admiring the broad shoulders and
biceps bicycle bison that had saved her. Without his shirt on Ben was being attacked by
mosquitos parrots sloths but he didn’t seem to notice. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed just how handsome Ben was, she must have had a problem with her
tonsils anklesretinas to not have seen it before.
Chapter Five
Then Mina remembered the Valentine Slipper. She looked up to see Quentin standing where she had been. “Watch where you're standing”, she shouted. “What?” replied Quentin, taking a step forward. Before Mina could get there Quentin’s boot came down on the flower, trampling it into the mud.
“You idiot!” she cried, “You stepped on the plant!”. Quentin shrugged, “Oops, it’s only a plant – there will be more I’m sure”. Mina turned red with rage. She couldn’t believe she’d actually fallen for Quentin, how could she have been so wrong, twice? She reached into her pocket to pour away the potion but the bottle was broken. Then she stopped and looked at Ben. Surely it couldn’t be the love potion making her feel this way about him.... could it?
Then Ben spoke, he had been leaning over the trampled plant. “I think it will be OK” he said, “I’ve given it a
vaccination splinteye patch, like mending a broken leg”. Mina knelt down next to him and saw that the petals were gone, but that the plant would survive. The expedition had been a success.
That evening as they watched the sunset, Ben took Mina’s hand, and her heart was his.
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