Anyway, the fish jerky made to a beautiful golden and smelled great. Miyoko put a long string through the eye sockets of the fish and stretched the line between the branches of a tree like laundry. Michael, who ate the meat, wrinkled his nose and looked at Miyokosideways.  Miyoko laughed and said,

    "It smells like pine needles. I've madesashimi separately, so tonight we'll eatsashimi as well as smoked fish."

    By the way, the smoked fish became chewierday by day. After a few days, the fish texture was like rubber sandals. The two thought it was a waste to throw them away and determined to eat them all.  However, Miyoko and Michael couldn't eat all of them by the time they left Leo’s island to return to Koror.

    The next day, Miyoko was working with paper and reference books spread all over the table as usual, but she noticed that there were a lot of insects flying around. Miyoko did not know the name of them.  They seriously bothered Miyoko's concentration. This insect looks like a fly or bee when you look closely.  It is a familiar insect everywhere on the beach in Palau. It usually does not sting humans, but they do when they are surprised. This bug seems to be especially abundant today. They persistently flew herhair and arms. Miyoko was irritated and finally stood up. The cause must be that smoked fish.

    When she went under the tree where the smoked fish hung on the string, as she expected, the insects were flying all aroundthe fish. When Miyoko looked closely, thoseinsects appeared to be eating the smoked meat.

When she listened to, she actually heardenthusiastic munching sounds. Miyoko didn't know that these bugs were carnivorous. All smoked fish had been bitten into and there were numerous small holes.  Miyoko was amused to see the insects biting the meat, but soon discovered that there were small white dots all over on the fish meat. At first, shethought those were grains of sand blown by the wind, but while observing closely, she foundthe insects spawning on the meat while eating. The white dots were their eggs. Even if sheallows the insects to share Miyoko's smoked food, she hates to eat their eggs. As the days go by, the eggs would hatch and the maggots would crawl over the flesh.  That would beeven worse.

    "I cannot stand this," Miyoko mumbled under her breath.

    Miyoko went into the jungle to gathertwigs. She wanted to cover the smoked food with a lot of twigs. Despite many trees growing in jungle, it was difficult to find twigs with leaves that served this purpose. Miyoko walked around the jungle, and finally came to Michael's hut.

    The hut was still only a skeleton, but the pillars and crossbars have been reinforced and it has become more and more solid. It showed clearly a form of a house.  Michael is probably making the floor now. Many short tree stumps were set to support the floor, embedded in the sand.  Michael was nowhere to be seen.

    Around the hut, long bamboo stems werescattered nearby. Bamboo branches were perfect for Miyoko's immediate purpose. Miyoko collected bamboo leaves and returned with her arm-full. Then she completely covered the smoked fish with bamboo leaves. After this, the number of flying insects dropped sharply.