And if it was, then, quite possibly, the jaguar had seen it and understood as only a wild animal could understand, that he was not its prey, that their encounter out there in the jungle might have been predestined, but it was not meant to end with death for either of them.

Or maybe it had just been spooked, giving Tom the time to react and throw his phone.

Kate looked at him now and said, “What are you thinking, Tom?”

He shook it off and shrugged, though he wasn’t sure if either of them saw the gesture in the dark. “I was just thinking about how it didn’t attack me right away but could’ve. And maybe this stuff about fate is true, you know, that it just wasn’t my time.”

As he spoke he realized it was the kind of philosophical discussion they had in English class, and true to form, Kate said, “No, Tom, because that means it was Naomi’s time, and I know she wasn’t meant to die like this.” Her voice was shaky, but the anger was never far away. “She died for the same reason Toby died, because Joel’s an idiot.”

He smiled, not so much because of what she’d said, but because the conversation was even taking place. He often wondered during English class, what use conversations like that would ever have in the outside world, and yet here they were in the middle of the jungle, investigating the death of one of their classmates, and they were having precisely one of those conversations.

George chimed in now. “I think Tom’s right. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, me quitting the football team.”

Kate gasped and said, “I didn’t know that! Of course, that’s why you weren’t sitting with them.”

“Exactly. Coach kept telling me it was the worst possible timing and couldn’t I just stick it out for a while longer. And I couldn’t explain it to him, not any way that made sense, but I felt so strongly that I had to quit right away. So that’s it, maybe I just wasn’t meant to die in that plane.” He turned to Tom. “But Kate’s right too. This was still Joel’s fault.”