You look like Mommy

Ibrahim explored the forest. He brought with him hunting tools that he built. He has bows and arrows and two wooden spears with aluminum tips. He set up traps for small animals. There were only two of them and he did not need to kill a lot of animals to feed them.

Ibrahim's hunting skills were honed over the past few months. He hunted hares and boars and used their skin to make clothes for him and Amaya. He caught a pair of male and female wild goats and domesticated them so Amaya can have milk.

He decided to make another house deep in the forest. He chose a location near a stream. He built a house up in the tree. The floor, the walls, and even the roof were all made of bamboo that was sun-dried and cured in the sea for two months. The roof and the walls were made from halved bamboo poles placed in an alternating manner to prevent the rain from coming in.

Amaya loved the tree house. "This is awesome Daddy. Aya loves the tree house." She giggled as she climbed the bamboo ladder with ease. Sometimes she would use a vine to jump down directly from the tree house to the ground. Ibrahim was scared at first. Eventually, he resigned to the fact that the earlier Amaya was trained to survive in the jungle, the better.

One early morning, when Amaya was three years old, she heard a growl from under the tree house.

"Daddy, wake up, there is something down there." Amaya shook his father lightly.

Ibrahim looked down and saw a severely injured tiger with a cub. He took some herbs from the corner of the tree house and used a stone to pound them and he came down using the bamboo ladder.

He placed the herbs on the tiger's wound. The tiger growled weakly. The cub who was a month old was scrambling to get its mother's milk.

Amaya came down from the tree house by jumping through the vine. She landed just in front of the mother tiger. The little girl and the mother tiger looked each other in the eye. The tiger growled. After some time Amaya said. "Don't worry, I will take good care of her. I'll be her big sister." Amaya reached out and patted the tiger on the head.

"Hey don't do that." Ibrahim grasped her hand to prevent her from touching the tiger's head. "The nature of this animal is wild Amaya. Be wary of her. You cannot pet a tiger okay?"

"Don't worry Daddy. She will not hurt me. She just wanted me to take care of her cub. She lost two of them and she is the only one left." Amaya said in her innocent voice and patted the tiger on the head.

Ibrahim was dumbfounded. He did not know how to make out of what Amaya said. Did she understand what the tiger wanted?

He carried the tiger on a bamboo sled while Amaya carried the cub in her arms and they headed to their cabin outside the forest. By the time they arrived at the cabin, the tiger has died.

"Daddy, can I take care of this cub? Ah, she is a girl like me. I will call her Kala." Amaya blabbered excitedly.

"Yes, you can have her." Ibrahim agreed. Her daughter doesn't have any playmates. Having a pet would be good for her. Since the cub was still young, it can be trained.

Ibrahim skillfully skinned the tiger and cut the meat into slices. They will have meat for a long time. He stored the tiger bones in the bamboo baskets that were hanging in their dining area. Some of the meat he dried in the sun while the rest he preserved using salt and herbs.

He looked at the tiger's head and contemplated what to do. He wanted to preserve it but he lacked the material. He will let it dry for now and decide whether to bury it later or not.

He wanted to cook tiger meat for dinner but he found out that they ran out of salt.

"Aya, stay here. I'll go harvest the salt."

Amaya tugged at his hand. "I'll go with you, Daddy. I want to learn how to make salt so I can harvest it by myself."

Ibrahim smiled and patted his daughter's head. She has grown taller and he can now hold her hand without bending down. Father and daughter walked hand and hand to the west side of the shore where there were large protruding rocks. He carried Amaya and placed her atop one of the smaller rocks.

"To make salt, you need to contain the sea water and let the sun heat it. When water evaporates, you will have salt crystals." He explained. He then handed Amaya the bamboo pole and a scraper he made from bamboo.

Amaya happily scraped the salt from the rock, scooped it, and placed it inside the bamboo pole.

"I chiseled off the top layer of this rock to make a shallow depression to hold the seawater. Let's go. There are another two we need to harvest."

"But Daddy, don't we need to refill this with seawater?"

"My daughter is the smartest." Ibrahim beamed happily. He passed Amaya the empty bamboo pole and let her scoop sea water and pour it on the rock.

They harvested salt from two more rock beds and Amaya was very happy to see the bamboo pole filled to the brim with salt crystals. By the time they went back to the cabin, the sun was about to set. Ibrahim cooked dinner which consisted of mashed wild sweet potato and tiger meat.

After dinner, the father and daughter lay down on the sand and gazed at the stars. They spent a week in the forest and have not seen the stars for a few days.

Ibrahim taught Amaya about the different constellations. They appeared brighter on this island than when he studied them using a telescope back in a military academy.

"Daddy, look! There is Polaris, the Little Dipper, and the Big Dipper." Amaya pointed to the vast expanse excitedly. "And there is Hercules!"

Ibrahim sighed. He turned sideways and studied his daughter. She was a genius. At the age of three, she can already accurately identify the constellations.

'If only we can go back to civilization.' He thought sadly.

"Daddy, does Mommy still watch over Aya? Amaya suddenly asked.

She still referred to herself as Aya and she started calling Ibrahim daddy when she turned three.

"Of course. Mommy is always watching over us. Why did you ask?" Ibrahim tried to mask the sadness in his voice. Even now, he still cannot get over the fact that Danaya has died.

Amaya sobbed softly. "I cannot remember Mommy's face, Daddy." Amaya confessed guiltily.

"Silly child. You look exactly like Mommy. When you grow up, just look at yourself and you will see Mommy."