Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

186 OUT OF CAPTIVITYsame. None of us were saints by any stretch, and we certainly were notBuddhist monks who maintained our serenity at all times. We werepeople put in a shitty situation, and we sometimes behaved like shits.In the days after Tom and I had our little spat, we continued to battlewith Ingrid over territory and witness her unbelievable sense of privilege.On the day the FARC delivered mattresses to us, she got pissed offbecause the one they wanted her to have was baby blue and that colorwould show mud too easily. We were stunned. We’d been sleeping onbare ground, on boards, or on palm fronds for almost a year and thiswoman was doing a “Princess and the Pea” act.Later that day Tom was out of the hooch in the open area lookingfor a place to hang his hammock. He found a spot near the corner ofthe hooch and tied it off. I could see Ingrid and Lucho sitting on theirbench in the part of the yard that they’d staked a claim on. Tom wasnow in “their” space. The two of them got this look on their faces andthey started talking and giving the stink eye to Tom. Instead of goingup to him and dealing with it directly, they went inside the hooch. Theycame out with the sheets from their beds and hung them out on theclothesline so that they were flapping in Tom’s face.I had been sitting with Marc watching this develop, and I told Marc,“I know that the three of us haven’t been getting along. This has been atough stretch here, bro, but we’ve got to stick together on this one.”Ingrid and Lucho knew what was going on among the three of us.They sensed weakness, and Tom had waltzed into trouble like the sheepwho’d been separated from his flock. They figured he was easy pickingsat that point, and sure enough, they descended on him, with Ingrid tellinghim that he should have gotten Lucho’s approval before putting uphis hammock. Tom, being the good guy that he was and trying to getalong with everyone, started to reason with them.No matter what was going on between us, Marc and I needed to bethere for Tom. Stepping in, we explained to Ingrid and Lucho that noone had to ask permission to put up a hammock anywhere—especially