Chapter 19 -- A Wild Mystery Woman Appears

Must keep going with this book... must... keep... going...

At least you'll be able to forget this book once

it's over, Dory...

Our protagonists are still slogging through the jungle, and despite the fact that Bramford's been lugging her around all this time Eden is the one that's "bone-tired."  Absolutely no sympathy for you, girl.  Also the buzz she got from the acai berries has worn off.  I don't think Foyt realizes that you can't get high off of acai berries -- I know they're supposed to be some kind of wonder food, but to claim they can actually substitute for oxycotin for a drug addict is ridiculous.

Eden hears a bird in the forest, a tinamou (do we get the Latin name for it?  Is the Pope Catholic?), and thinks that it's a nocturnal bird which means she's been away from home for twenty-four hours by now.  Guess what, Foyt -- tinamous are most active during the day and actually roost at night.  Next time do more freaking research on your critters than just looking up the scientific name.

Finally they reach a clearing, and Eden sees the sunset and is "humbled by its perfection, though not in a submissive way."  Um... I don't understand what you're trying to say here, Foyt...  Also apparently "if something so beautiful existed in the world, then maybe some part of her also held such beauty."  Nice to see you have to twist everything to be about yourself, Eden.

An Indian woman steps out of the forest and addresses Bramford in Spanish -- and of course her name is Maria.  Why do actual research on the Native Americans of South America when you can just fall back on tired stereotypes, am I right?  

Unlike her tribesmen, however, Maria cringed when she looked up at Eden.  Fear lurked behind her startled eyes.  (That's rather redundant...)  Was it because Eden now lacked a shed (???) of dark coating? -- p. 133

Maria leads them through a camouflaged gate and into a compound, and Eden wonders if she's the first white visitor.  And of course its made up of huts with palm-thatched roofs and a large bonfire in the middle of the compound, because stereotypes!  Eden notices that Bramford's heading for the largest hut and assumes its his, though he hasn't "branded" the door.  So apparently he's had dealings with these people before... interesting...

Eden notices two other huts -- one behind a fence without any visible door, and one that's overgrown with weeds and has a bar across the door.  Then two naked children come running out of a nearby hut because of COURSE an Indian tribe is going to have its kids run around starkers.  And one of them has a parrot on her shoulder (cue the scientific name for scarlet macaw) because of COURSE everyone owns parrots in South America.  It's not just blacks that are made to look bad in this book...

The girls greet Bramford warmly... and then proceed to freak out at seeing Eden, screaming something about "Rebecca."  That gets Bramford roaring, Maria scolding the girls, the parrot shrieking... okay, what's going on here?  This might actually be interesting...

Eden asks who's Rebecca, and Bramford gets ticked off.  Then it turns out Eden's into BDSM.

The name had struck a nerve in him.  If she said it again, he might make her pay.  He might grab her with those big, rough hands and pin her down.

Eden couldn't help herself.  "For Earth's sake, Bramford.  What did you do to this Rebecca to make the children so afraid?" -- p. 135

You're gonna get your face bit off, and 

you're going to deserve it

Bramford pounces on her and drags her toward the prison hut.  She screams at him, asking him if this is where he takes all his victims and telling him he's an animal, and starts hitting him.  He doesn't retaliate, and even throws her some nuts and berries before he locks her in the hut.

Eden slumped to the ground, humiliated.  The unfamiliar sting of tears surprised her.  She let them spill down her cheeks, tasting their salty wetness with the tip of her tongue.  She hadn't even cried when her mother died.  Emotional relief always had been an oxy-drip away. -- p. 136

To quote Linkara -- our hero, ladies and gentlemen.  Seriously, you can't cry at the death of your mother but you sob like a baby because someone's mean to you?  How selfish can you be?  And don't blame the drugs -- it was your choice to go on them.

Apparently Eden's mother refused to take oxy even on her deathbed, because she wanted to feel something, even the pain.  Her father wasn't around for her death because he couldn't handle the "chaos" of death, which is also kind of jerkish, though different people do handle death in different ways, and some people just can't handle the death of a loved one.

Eden asked her mother why she was smiling even when she was crying with pain, and she replies that it's because she has hope of life after death.  Eden apparently took a government-mandated "death experience" (I'm guessing through the World Band) and expects only a "calm black void."  Yay, government-mandated atheism, you know this is a dystopia...

Eden's mom quotes another Emily Dickinson poem ("Hope is the thing with wings...") and Eden says the poem doesn't make sense because "to which species of bird did Aunt Emily refer," which is entirely NOT the point of the poem.  

She goes back to fantasizing about how hot Bramford is, and we get another "winner" of a line here.

Eden gathered the food Bramford had left; surprised that even in his fury he'd thought of it.  It suggested that his mind was still more powerful than his raw emotions.  Therefore, from now on, she would use pure objective reason to tame the primitive creature.  -- 137

Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhh... NOT the best line to include in a book that's supposed to be against racism.  Because this IS part of racism -- feeling that you're inherently superior to people of another color and it's up to you to educate them or otherwise improve their lives.  Not that white people helping people of color is inherently racist, but the attitude that a white person is morally and/or intellectually superior to a black person and must "tame" them is full of some icky implications.

At least this chapter has raised a few new points of interest -- how does Bramford know these people, who's Rebecca, where's Eden's father, is our protagonist ever going to get over herself...  I doubt we'll see answers to that last one, but at least I have something to look forward to in future chapters besides more running through the jungle and more furry romance...