72
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*Grunt* *Grunt* *Grunt* makes Rosie as she is tugging and pulling a brown bag. Rosie pulls the brown bag all the way up the ladder to her treehouse. 

“Quita! I’ve got another one!” Rosie yells. The large green tree snake comes out from the another room.

“Ain’t he purrrty?” says Rosie with a blushing smile.

“What, child?” says Quita.

“Oh!” exclaims Rosie. She runs over to the bag and dumps it. Out falls Romie face-flat on the floor. “There!”

“Oh my! Is this whom will be staying with us?” says Quita.

73
​
“Yup! I’m putting him in your son’s room as a surprise. We all know how much Petri hates humanoids.”

“Wait, I’ll take him! I could use the hands. Come with me!”

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* Romie coughs out leaves. “Can everybody on this island quit treating me like I’m not right here! I’ve had it with you people!”

Rosie grabs the broom and smacks Romie with the broom. “We do not speak like that here!”

“Ouch!” exclaims Romie.

​

74
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“Quita take him! I don’t know why y’all keep bringing others like me here!”

“Hey! I’m just as annoyed as you. That’s why I stay away from all the chaos.
Tell me..why did you bring him here?”

“I don’t have a place for him here. What was I to do? Let him frolick through my ecosystem that I worked tirelessly to build?”

“Well, no, but you could have thrown him out to Fitz.”

“Fitz is the reason he’s here! If Fitz just destroyed the bay like I told him people wouldn’t keep showing up here!” yells Rosie.

​

75
​
“Fitz can’t do that, my dear. How do you think we get all the supplies?” says Quita.

“Duhh!! If you all just let me finish what I was doing we wouldn’t need those supplies! 
Everything we need is right here!” says Rosie ending in an energetic tone.

Rose runs over to the window to look outside. “See Q!” Rosie points out to overlook the isolated volcano vanishing in the clouds. In the valley are various civilizations of plant species and animal kingdoms.

“And over there I figured I could build ‘The Watch.”

​

76
​
[The watch is an electrical tower Rosie has been trying to construct to bring electricity to the island via lightning strikes.]

“Hey! I was over there! You own all this?!” says Romie running over.

“Eww who invited you! Quita get rid of him! AHHHHHH!!!!” Rosie screams.

The scream is so loud the treehouse begins to rock & shake, resembling that of an aftershock. Quita grabs Romie and they dash to Quita’s quarters.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave?” says Quita to Romie.
​

77
​
“Yeah but you didn’t tell me the chick was absolutely ___!”

“Ahhh!” says Quita cutting off any pejorative word Romie may use. “Rosie is…well. Have you heard of Roses?”

“Yeah like the flower? I like the black ones.” says Romie.

“And Roses have thorns.”

“Yes.”

“Rosie is like a batch of Roses. When you get handed her she pokes the hell out of you if you just grab her. So you have to delicately admire her beauty.”

 

78
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“Oh, so then she’ll let me smell her!” says Romie.

Quita smacks Romie with her tail. “No! Then you pluck her! Because now you know how to watch out for her thorns.”

“Back before that pig took me…”

“Hog!” says Quita correcting Romie.

“Hog, he said…”

“They!” says Quita correcting Romie.

“They said…”

​

79
​
“Can you get to the point already? You humans take forever,” complains Quita.

“Well if you would quit cutting me off…”


“Well if you would quit being sleep when everybody’s awake I wouldn’t have to,” interjects Quita cutting off Romie again to make her valid point.

“Okay I’m up hello! Good morning! Anyways!
They said I was handpicked for something. What was he..I mean they!! They! I said they!!!
What were THEY talking about?”

​

80

​“Factually correct, thank you. Every year during Rosie’s birthday a man shows up on the island. It’s unpredictable yet almost recyclable. It’s like a testament from Jah.”

“So…I was supposed to end up here? For what?” says confused Romie.

“Beats me. I just gave Rosie a friend to play with. I’m only here because there’s too many snakes back at my place.”

“Am I here to free Rosie? She must’ve been stranded here forever!” Romie thinks to himself. “I’ve gotta help her! Even if I get stabbed by 1000 thorns!” Romie says while yawning. 

Romie falls asleep on top of Quita. “Good boy,” she says.