Long Time No Sea, page 13
I roll my eyes as he wonders out loud.
‘Clarky, we’re in Italy, they’re not exactly known for their pirate population, are they?’ Mike reasons. ‘Maybe she’s gone to the toilet.’
‘Drea?’ Clarky shouts out. ‘Drea!’
His voice gets more hysterical, but she doesn’t call back.
‘We need to form a search,’ he concludes.
Just when you think things can’t get any worse – it’s almost as though a shipwreck experience is not a very good idea. Funny that.
It’s strange, because even though the sun is shining and the weather is warm again, the island doesn’t have the same sparkle it did yesterday, it feels creepy, empty, dangerous.
‘Wh-what’s that?’ DJ blurts.
‘What?’ Maxi replies, panicked.
‘My S, the one I made from stones in the sand,’ he continues as he approaches it. ‘It… oh my God. It says DJ now. Who did that? That’s not funny.’
‘That really isn’t funny,’ Cam says as we all hurry over there.
‘Why would someone write my name?’ DJ asks, completely freaked out. ‘Wait a second…’
As we all approach the arrangement of stones, we realise that, just beyond them, further along on the sand, there’s a longer message.
The fire was my fault
‘The fire?’ DJ says. ‘What fire? The… wait…’
Oh, God. Ohhhh, no. Who has opened that can of worms? And why?
‘The fire at my house?’ DJ asks as he turns to us all. ‘Someone else started it?’
‘Okay, I think we all just need to calm down for a second,’ I reason, but DJ is incensed.
‘How can I calm down?’ DJ replies. ‘It’s obvious what’s going on here. This situation has got to someone, it’s made them crack, brought out their guilty conscience. Someone knows I didn’t start that fire – I never understood how I caused it, I put the fire I started out. There was no way it could’ve started again. I knew it. I knew it. Come on then, who started that fire? Who ruined my life?’
‘This is obviously someone’s idea of a practical joke,’ I point out, unable to resist a side glance at Clarky.
He frowns at me.
DJ’s parents were away at their caravan, the day we got our A level results, so DJ decided to throw a house party. His parents’ house was so cool, the perfect place for a party. Next to the main house they had a sort of granny flat. Downstairs there was a large double garage and his dad’s workshop and upstairs there was DJ’s bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room with a kitchen. Thankfully, it was next to the main house, but not joined on, or the entire house might have been destroyed too.
There was so much going on that night, but DJ had one goal, one thing motivating him to throw the party, and it wasn’t to celebrate his As, it was so that he and Maxi could finally have sex for the first time. Well, isn’t that why every teenager throws a house party?
The official story was that DJ lit a candle, trying to make things romantic, but then knocked it over and caught one of his curtains on fire. He says it was nothing, that he put it out, but Maxi being Maxi took this as a sign that they shouldn’t have sex and ran off. DJ ran after her. Next thing we all knew, the place was on fire and we were all running for our lives. DJ assumed the fire he caused had restarted somehow, but now it’s seeming like that’s not what happened. Someone else started it.
‘Right, I need to know where everyone was, when the fire broke out,’ DJ insists.
‘Come on, mate,’ Mike tells him, reaching out to comfort him, but DJ slaps his hand away.
‘Where were you, huh?’ he asks him.
Mike laughs awkwardly. ‘I don’t know, it was a party, I’d been drinking,’ he replies.
‘What about you?’ he asks Clarky. ‘Or you, Cam? Jas, where were you?’
‘I don’t know,’ I tell him, although that’s not strictly true. Well, it’s not true at all.
‘Someone here ruined my life,’ DJ says again.
‘Okay, listen, we all need to calm down,’ Maxi says, trying to be more like her usual self, but her voice still wobbling.
‘It didn’t ruin your life, though, did it?’ Clarky chimes in.
Oh, God, Clarky, not now.
‘Leave it, Clarky,’ Cam tells him, reading my mind.
‘Of course it did,’ DJ replies. ‘What are you talking about? I lost my girlfriend, I lost my friends because I wasn’t allowed to see any of you any more – I was grounded indefinitely, at eighteen, do you know how mortifying that is?’
‘No one can ground you at eighteen,’ Clarky reasons.
‘I burned half my parents’ house down – at least I thought I had – I did whatever they wanted,’ DJ replies. ‘They sent me to Catholic uni, for crying out loud. I lost everyone I knew, everything I’d worked for, I didn’t get to go to the uni I wanted. My life changed in every way it could.’
DJ’s parents were very religious so it made sense that, when they thought he’d caused a fire by throwing an out-of-control party behind their backs, they decided he needed some religious direction in his life to get him back on the straight and narrow. They made him go to one of his backup universities – a Catholic university, on the edge of a town on the outskirts of Leeds, miles from the city centre. I think they thought he would spend time in the chapel, miles away from anything fun, not really considering that it was a university like any other. More than anything, though, I think they just wanted to keep him away from us, from Maxi. If ever there was ammunition for parents to be able to warn their children about the very real dangers of sex then, boy, was that it.
‘Right, a uni where you met your business partner, or whatever,’ Clarky points out. ‘Who you made a packet with. So why are you complaining?’
DJ sits down on the floor and places his head in his hands.
The sun is beating down on us, I can feel sweat forming on my brow – I never thought I would miss the chilly weather we had last night, but it suddenly feels like keeping warm is always a lot easier than staying cool. I wonder how much sun cream we have, how long it will be before the hunger and thirst gets too much…
‘Jas, can I have a word?’ Cam says.
I nod, happy to be snapped from my thoughts.
‘I’ll be in the sea,’ Maxi says dramatically.
She strides into the water, like something out of a movie, and drops to her knees. She toys with the water, almost menacingly, as though she’s trying to cast a spell – hey, if she can part the sea, I’m all for it. I’ll do anything to get off this island.
‘How was last night?’ he asks me once we’re alone.
‘I don’t even know how to answer that,’ I say with a bemused laugh. ‘Fine, I suppose. About what I expected.’
‘It must be awkward,’ he says. ‘With Mike.’
‘Just a bit,’ I reply. ‘I suppose this would be awkward with anyone.’
‘Maybe we can rotate sleeping together,’ he suggests. Then he laughs. ‘You know what I mean. I don’t think I can do another night under the same blanket as Maxi and DJ. It was… odd. I felt like they were, I don’t know, snuggling? They weren’t still enough for my liking. At one point I had to clear my throat, to remind them I was there.’
‘Come on, we all know how much Maxi loves Rupert,’ I remind him.
‘Oh, no, I know,’ he replies. ‘But I guess old habits and all that. Anyway, that’s not why I called you over here. Look at this.’
I glance down at the picnic basket we brought with us yesterday. There are maybe five or six biscuits in the bottom of the bag, someone has had a good go at them, but the situation with the drink is even worse. All of the Lemonsoda cans are empty, discarded next to the picnic basket.
‘Well, that’s not good,’ I say pointlessly.
‘Maybe a biscuit each, if we’re lucky, and not a drop to drink,’ he replies. ‘Honestly, I didn’t expect this to go from nought to Lord of the Flies so quickly but I think we’re going to have a big problem on our hands when the others see this.’
‘Maxi really isn’t coping, is she?’ I say, nodding towards the ocean, where Maxi is doing some kind of bizarre dance. ‘And while I’m sure we all would have been absolutely fine with Clarky’s brilliant survival skills, now he’s all whipped up about Drea vanishing, I fear he’s not going to be as much use as we thought.’
‘Which was no use at all,’ Cam agrees. ‘But at least he was trying, keeping himself busy. What do you think has happened to Drea?’
‘I mean, wherever she’s gone, she’s taken her bag,’ I point out. ‘Everyone is going mad. DJ is beside himself.’
‘What was that message all about?’ he asks quietly.
‘I think he’s right,’ I say. ‘Someone’s guilty conscience got the better of them last night. To him, we’re all suspects.’
‘Who do you think it is?’ Cam asks.
I glance over at our friends.
‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ I reply.
‘What will you say, if he pushes you on where you were?’
I shrug. ‘Anything but the truth,’ I reply. ‘You?’
‘Same,’ he says. Then he smiles. ‘Funny, that we’re each other’s alibi.’
‘Oh yeah, I’m sure certain people here would be thrilled if they knew the truth,’ I say with a laugh.
Cam sighs. ‘Do we have to go back over there?’ he asks.
‘Unless you have a better idea,’ I tell him. ‘Come on.’
Clarky is pacing back and forth across the sand, murmuring to himself. He is understandably rattled by Drea’s disappearance, and obviously I feel terrible for him – and concerned for her – but he doesn’t seem to realise that he’s the reason we’re all in this mess.
I pull as much air into my lungs as I possibly can and then blow it all out again. I need to concentrate, to focus on what I can do to help because I can’t fall apart too. The problem with Maxi and DJ is that they’re so similar, both so in tune with their emotions, both struggling not to wear their heart on their sleeve. Cam and I, on the other hand, have years of experience when it comes to bottling things up, hiding how we feel for the greater good. And Mike, well, he’s always fancied himself as the daddy of the gang. He always tries to do what he can to look after everyone.
I feel like Clarky is being purposefully vague with the timeline but, as far as I can tell, we’ve got at least another two nights here before the boat will be coming back for us. So that’s the best part of three days and two nights. There is no way we’ll survive that. If the dehydration doesn’t get us, we’ll surely kill each other.
I make my way over to Maxi, stopping short of getting in the sea with her. I’m so thirsty, the water looks somehow so unappetising but so tempting to drink – but even I know that you don’t drink the salty sea water.
‘Maxi, let’s have a chat,’ I suggest. ‘Let’s make a plan, just us girls. You know what the boys are like, all charged up, thinking like men. We need to do what we used to do at school and work them like puppets without them realising.’
I smile but she’s unresponsive.
I glance back and can’t help but notice Mike and Cam walking off to the side, away from DJ. I wonder what they’re talking about. Cam is probably filling him in on the situation with the supplies – or lack thereof. My gosh, I never signed up for this. I know Clarky didn’t want a relaxing holiday but there’s a whole world between relaxing and the single most stressful experience of my potentially short life.
‘Hey, Maxi,’ I say quietly, wading into the water next to her. ‘Are you okay?’
Maxi looks up at me with tears in her eyes.
‘I’m not sure how much longer I can take this,’ she admits.
I wrap my arm around her and comfort her.
‘Life at the minute is not…’
Maxi’s voice trails off and her eyes widen.
‘What’s that?’ she asks me. ‘Is that… is that drums? Oh my God, is this it? Is this when I die?’
‘Hey, hey, calm down,’ I insist softly. ‘You’re just whipped up and paranoid and…’
Bloody hell, now I think I can hear drums.
I glance back at the boys again. Suddenly, they’re all scrambling, DJ is springing to his feet, joining Clarky, Cam and Mike. Mike is pointing at the rocks that surround us on three sides.
‘What?’ I call out.
‘We can hear something,’ Cam calls back. ‘Drums.’
‘Oh my God,’ Maxi cries as she realises we can all hear it, making it real.
‘Hey, come on, it’s okay, let’s go stand with the boys, they’ll keep us safe,’ I reassure her, sounding far more confident than I feel.
‘Wh-what’s that?’ Clarky asks, his voice wobbling. ‘Oh, shit, someone else is here, someone that wants to kill us. They’re battle drums, if ever I’ve heard them.’
‘You’ve never heard battle drums, soft lad,’ Mike tells him. ‘Come on, calm down.’
Maxi holds me tightly as we stand with the boys. I look to Mike for the answers.
‘What I’m going to do is I’m going to climb up the rocks – there’s a bit of a pathway – I’m going to peer over the top, and I’m going to see what I can see,’ he says.
‘Is that a good idea?’ Clarky asks.
‘I thought you were all for exploring the island,’ Cam reminds him.
‘Yeah, when I thought it was deserted,’ Clarky replies.
‘Be careful,’ I tell Mike.
He smiles, nods, then heads into the trees. It doesn’t take long before we see him, carefully making his way up the rocks, climbing all the way to the top. We watch as he peeps over, then he allows his head to stick up some more. Then, all at once, he climbs up and stands tall at the top.
‘Ha-haaa!’ we hear him shout. ‘Wooo!’
‘What is it?’ I shout up to him.
‘You guys are not going to believe what’s up here,’ he calls down to us. ‘Come on up, you have to see. DJ, Clarky, bring our things. I’ve found a better spot for us.’
The boys do as instructed, grabbing our belongings, before the four of us excitedly – but carefully – make our way through the trees and up the rocks to join him, to see what Mike can see that’s got him so giddy.
My head throbs from the exercise. Am I that unfit or is it a combination of hot sun and me not having anything to drink yet this morning? Hopefully it’s the latter, although I’m not sure how we’re going to go about getting something clean to drink. I don’t much fancy Clarky’s soil-purified water.
I don’t know what I’m expecting, when I look over the rocks – nothing but trees, mountains, stuff like that. Best-case scenario is that it’s a paradise, with a big lush waterfall, beautiful open spaces, and all the fruit trees we could hope to eat from, and drink from, I suppose, if they’re the kind you can get juice from – that would be the answer to all our problems.
But as I finally peer over, my jaw drops. Cam and I glance at each other, our eyes wide with amazement, then I look at Mike.
‘So, there’s that,’ he says casually.
‘Now we know what happened to Drea then,’ Clarky adds – I think he’s in shock.
Maxi grabs my arm and squeezes it tightly.
‘Tell me you can see that,’ she begs. ‘Please, God, tell me I’m not hallucinating.’
‘If you are then we all are,’ I practically laugh.
At the bottom of the rocks there is a sort of forest, not unlike the one on our side, just much bigger. Then, at the other side of the forest… oh my gosh, I still can’t believe I’m saying this… at the other side of the forest is what looks like an enormous holiday resort. It isn’t drums we can hear, it’s music, in the distance.
From up here, I can see a massive hotel complex, multiple swimming pools, beaches – there’s even a mini theme park on one side. Right as I’m looking at it, I notice one of those seats that they strap two people into, attached to elasticated ropes, where they fling you up high into the air. My gut response to something like that would usually be to say that’s the last thing on earth I would want to do but right now I’d probably go on it just to be able to sit on a chair. If they gave me a bottle of water and pizza, I’d sit on it all day.
‘Let’s go take a closer look,’ Mike says.
‘Let’s go eat something,’ Maxi adds.
DJ exhales deeply.
‘Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the fire,’ he warns us all. ‘But I do really need a drink.’
We share out carrying the items we have, not that we have much, and carefully make our way through the forest – something that would have been scary but now I know that there’s a resort at the other end of it, I’m not so worried. Thankfully, we don’t have far to go – somehow, I get the feeling the shipwreck experience might be in need of a new location.
‘Well, this explains why I got such a good deal on the shipwreck experience,’ Clarky moans.
‘Oh, who gives a shit,’ Maxi replies.
‘I’m just saying,’ he persists. ‘You can’t have an authentic shipwreck experience if there’s a hotel next to you.’
As we finally arrive at the resort after a brief walk none of us really had the energy for, we realise there are balloons and banners everywhere. Everything looks so clean and new.
‘I think it’s opening day,’ I point out.
‘Yep, that will be why it was so cheap then,’ Clarky says.
‘I do hope you’re going to put in a complaint,’ I reply sarcastically.
‘Oh, absolutely,’ he says, not picking up what I’m putting down at all.
‘Right, that’s it, I’m booking us some rooms,’ Maxi says, suddenly seeming like her old self again. There isn’t a glimmer of emotion or upset – even her posture is different. ‘We exhausted, we’re starving, the boat isn’t coming back for us until who knows when, and, frankly, some of you stink.’
I’m sure we all stink. The heat, the dry sea water on our skin, sleeping on the sand – I’m even picking sticks from my hair, since our walk through the forest. We definitely need showers.
‘We could stay here at least two nights,’ Clarky says excitedly.
‘I thought you wanted a shipwreck experience,’ I remind him.
