Chapter 5 - Scampi Wedge

            It was early on a Saturday morning. Akira was sitting up inside of an orange tent with Murder Lexicon lying across her folded knees. She read half the book that morning without giving herself any bathroom breaks. She awoke much earlier than everyone else and didn't bother moving from her spot with the jeopardy of waking up her bunk-buddy.

            Everybody planned to wake up at eight o'clock that same morning. Her roommate's alarm clock was even set to go off in the next ten minutes. Akira had woken up at five that morning because of her daily routine. No matter what time she went to bed, she would always wake up just early enough to miss the sunrise.

            Ivey slept at her feet with her mouth hung open as if she were human. She still couldn't breathe that well through her nose after two surgeries on her nasal passages from when she was only two.

            Akira's neck became stiff from looking down at the book and her bladder started to twitch and over-exaggerate. There was no noise coming from outside so everybody was knowingly either still dreaming or doing what she was doing. It was like turning in a test. She didn't want to be the first awake and out of her tent.

            She marked the page with a folded corner and laid her head down against the de-feathered pillow. She thought that she could possibly go back to sleep, but only seven more minutes of sleep wasn't going to do any justice. Just lying there on the blanket helped her stiff neck straighten out and align with her good posture again.

            The alarm clock inside of their tent began to beep with intensity. Akira understood that it was eight o'clock and that her resting days were over. A hand rose up from underneath the covers and tried finding the snooze button hysterically. "Why won't this device shut off?"

            Akira reached over the raised blanket and performed the action for her. She yelled out in a slurred manner, "Finally!"

            "So, are we not waking up yet?" Akira inquired as she sat back up again to dig through her backpack.

            Jessica scoffed. "Me? No - beauty sleep is not an option...what time is it? I will wake up accordingly."

            "It's eight."

            "Eight o'clock?"

            "No, eight turnips."

            "Who set my alarm for eight o'clock? I wake up at one!" Jessica unplugged the alarm clock from the wall and tossed it across the interior of the tent. "Wake me up at one, please."

            Akira shrugged it off and started to collect her belongings that were scattered all across the ground. Papers written with thoughts and ideas littered all over wet grass; several books, maps, and pens strewn around to add a little more zest to the flavor. She piled everything neatly into folders, pockets, and compartments. She finished the job by zipping every pocket and exiting the tent through a narrow opening in the front.

            She let Ivey jump through and closed the hole back up with old and scratchy Velcro. She fed Ivey a T-bone treat and packed the bag away securely.

            Eagle was the first to leave his tent besides Akira. He was all dressed up in what looked like a scout uniform, a belt with a large buckle, and black hiking boots up to the middle of his shins. He spotted Akira standing over Ivey and sprinted over toward her as he did when he first saw her the day before. His dog did the same, only trailing shortly behind.

            "Akira, I want to talk to you!" Eagle yelled out to her, though he was close enough to touch her by the time his sentence was finished. He expelled a deep breath into the frosty morning air. "I'm really sorry about yesterday. I didn't think it was a big secret."

            "Well, you did yesterday when you wanted to talk to me alone about it. What changed in that short amount of time?"

            "You didn't seem like you were trying to hide it, and I thought everybody deserved to know."

            "Well, they didn't." She raised her voice angrily. She controlled her emotions and lowered it again. "They aren't my close friends. They didn't care about me before you drew me away from the fire. Maybe Yura did, but you saw how Stefano made him uncomfortable with his foolhardy comments. He couldn't speak up over the fear Stefano would be witty again."

            Eagle laughed. "I know, and I am sorry for what I said. I just still didn't like the idea." He watched as the two dogs sniffed each others muzzles. "You know, we can just forget about that for right now, while we're here at the festival. We have to re-learn how to be as close as our dogs are."

            "All right, but I'm not licking your nose." Akira remarked playfully. The two laughed together and were soon met up with by most of the others.

            Everyone chipped in on ideas for what to do next that early morning. Consequently, this section of the group fell in love with the idea of taking a walk through the public park just ten minutes away from the Festival. The pack of four left the area right away, leaving Yura and Jessica still asleep in their own tents.

            Day Two of the Diansi Whalefest was the only full day they were all there. This was the day where everything ceremonial took place. There were dozens of different presentations and activities associated with the celebration of the opulent marine life of the northern oceans: Museums filled with sculptures, tanked seafaring animals, and slideshows amused hundreds of people fascinated with such topics. Taking three days out of your time to relax and enjoy the show was what everyone in Alaska seemed to want to celebrate, whether it be at the Festivals or not.

            Akira woke Jessica up at one as she was instructed, and once everyone grouped up at her tent, the entire day was spent as a clique together. The first hour was spent navigating through the Jai Gallery & Exhibition Center. Memories of high school Marine Biology came back to Akira with a slap. She recalled ten percent of the information she received, while the rest was obviously new, though intriguing in a scholar know-how kind of way.

            The tour didn't last long for Eagle. He got booted out of the main lobby for trying to take a loose tooth out of one of the tiger shark displays.

            At two in the afternoon, Eagle caught up with everybody at a Porta Potti just outside of the museum he was kicked out of. They all crowded around the largest franchise in the eatery and talked amongst themselves until the food was ready.

            Three o'clock was the habitual lunch time when festivities took a break. In celebration of aquatic animals, ironically, the festival-goers ate them for lunch. The main course was crab legs, scampi, lobster, and cod gumbo with enough to feed the entire city. Béchamel, tartar sauce, and plenty of other dressings were available to use for the seafood. Sides consisted of garlic butter breadsticks, five different types of lettuce and every topping thinkable for the all-you-can-eat salad bar, baked beans with chunks of franks, bacon, and shiitake mushrooms inside, et cetera.

            There were no dining tables available so everybody ate wherever they pleased. Most Individuals, including Akira's group of acquaintances, just ate inside of their tents. In this case, everybody congregated inside of Eagle's tent. In an expected way, his was the gaudiest tent in the whole lot; it also happened to be one of the largest.

            Hot pink with orange zig zags on the outside, standing nearly eight feet above the ground they walked on. It had dimensions double those of a standard-sized tent. You didn't have to crouch and break your back to get through this one unless you were Yao Ming. The stakes keeping it in the ground were custom-made at almost three inches thick around.

            Everybody sat in an oval around a bottle of Lapis's Hot Sauce as if it were their savior.

            "Hey Akira, you want to be the first to taste it?" Eagle took the bottle by the cap and swung it another inch in her direction.

            "I don't want to be the first, nor do I want to be the sixth." Akira waved the back of her hand toward it. "Get that filthy glop away from me."

            "I'm with Akira." Jessica took the bottle and tossed it back into Eagle's lap. "I would rather acquire my daily protein without turning my precious pink tongue red."

            "Yeah, God forbid." Eagle rolled his eyes and placed the bottle back down in the middle of the circle. "I will bet money on whoever tastes this sweet, yet spicy one-of-a-kind Argentinean masterpiece that has already broken three records."

            "You'll bet money?" Jessica laughed while lifting her fork to her mouth. "Sorry, Eagle. Nobody brought Monopoly with them."

            "Hardy-har-har." Eagle aggressively shoved a whole shrimp into his mouth and nearly swallowed it whole to get his next sentence out. "I'm serious. I have five's in my wallet."

            The group just sat silent for a little bit. No one was contemplating his decision; they were all just trying to eat. The bottle still sat motionless in the middle of them all.

            Jessica was the first to talk after she finished her plate. "Why did you order that if you weren't gonna use it yourself? That's a waste of thirty dollars."

            "For occasions like this, of course. You see, Dear, when the group is all attached to the subject of the conversation and eating food at the same time, whipping out Lapis's is a great idea. It sparks interest and the internal flame of the human body. I would love to know if the rumors are true."

            Akira grew skeptical. "What rumors?"

            Everybody let out some sort of groan one way or another. Jessica placed her hand on Akira's nape and massaged lightly. "It's okay. She didn't know not to ask."

            "Well, thank you for your solo cooperation, Akira. Legend says that once you take a drop of Lapis's to your meal, you can hear sizzling as if it's cooking the food itself! They are supposed testimonies of people burning holes in their tongues. It's riotous!"

            Nobody, not even Akira, responded to the allegations leaving his mouth. Jessica stood up with her empty plate and headed out of the tent. She proclaimed that she was getting more food and hurried out the flaps when she could. Stefano and Sean placed bets that she wasn't coming back.

            Eagle picked the bottle up off of the ground and screwed the cap off with his cupped palm. He could feel everybody watching him single out a drop onto the piece of shrimp lying on his plate. He picked the shrimp up right after doing so and raised it up next to his ear to listen for it sizzling.

            Sean leaned in close; he was paying attention for the first time. "Don't play with your food, honey."

            "Shut it." Eagle spoke sharply toward him. He snapped his finger and dropped the shrimp back down on the plate. "Oh, jugs! It's not sizzling."

            Eagle's sadness only lasted for five more minutes when everybody realized Jessica wasn't coming back. The group found her alone in her tent eating crawfish one by one.

            Akira followed everybody outside with both of her hands squeezing the straps around her shoulders. Ivey was ahead of her lead for the first time on that whole trip, getting to know Pawla as a friend rather than a stranger. Eagle chuckled at the two dogs and gave each of them a slab of salmon. Jessica asked Eagle for some salmon and he threw a large piece into her mouth as if she were a shark. Jessica had noticeably perked up more since the day before.

            Eagle led the pack through an undiscovered area of the Festival once the sun started to set. A pink hint lined the horizon.

            Mosquitoes were easily sensed; Yura sprayed everybody off with bug spray and left the aerosol in the air to choke on.

            Chatter grew loud the further they walked toward a series of meadows with people standing on top. People screamed and laughed and chanted over the sounds of great wind and Arctic birds. The grass under their feet turned dry and bothersome.

            "This is my favorite part of the Whalefest."

            Eagle stood behind a handwritten sign greeting whoever entered through the archway. He pointed to the large headline at the top that read, "10 PM-12PM Siberian Minuet!".