The Other Side of Nowhere (16 page)

We sat quietly. His reaction to my stupid prank with George on the yacht sort of made sense now. No wonder he was anti-surprises; only a few weeks ago his mum had surprised him big time, by making contact, by offering him a choice. It all made sense to me now, why he had been so desperate to go to the island. He probably just wanted to relax, to think it over, and maybe even to talk when the time was right.

A wave of guilt swept over me. I thought about what George had said to me. If I’d been a real friend I would have ‘heard’ Nick, even when he wasn’t saying anything, maybe especially when he wasn’t saying anything.

‘Nick … about what I said before, when we escaped –’

‘Forget it.’

‘It’s just –’

‘Johnno, it’s cool, mate. Don’t worry –’

‘But I do. I do worry.’ I realised the simple truth of it. ‘That’s what I do … I worry.’

Nick chuckled. ‘Well, that’s true, dude. You’ll make an awesome nanna one day.’

I grinned at his wind-up and then glugged down some more water. When I lowered the bottle, Nick’s tone was serious, decisive.

‘Johnno, you and me, we go about things a bit differently. But that doesn’t mean we see things differently. I’ve known Matt just about as long as you have. And, look, I know it’s not the same, him being your brother and all, but I’m not going to leave him, you know.’

‘So, what do we do?’

‘We’ve just got to wait here for George. I’m sure she’ll find her way back when it gets light. Then, when we’re all together, we can figure out what to do. But there’s nothing we can do right now, so we might as well try to get some rest. I reckon we’re gonna to need it.’

He got to his feet. ‘I’m going for a leak. Seriously, Johnno, try to get some sleep. You don’t have to worry about Matt, you know – he’s tougher than all of us put together.’

I got up, feeling tired but frustrated that we weren’t doing anything. But I figured Nick was probably right. He was certainly right about one thing: Matt was tough, and determined too.

I lay down in the tent and my mind drifted back to the time he and I were playing cricket in the backyard. We used to spend hours out there, bowling and batting and mimicking our favourite cricket commentators. And we’d make up names for ourselves like Aquil Keepittoyourself and Murali Smackyaintheheadagain.

This one time, Matt was batting and he was on a roll. I was so pissed about having to keep crawling into the bushes to find that bloody tennis ball. So when I saw an old leather ball hidden behind a pot I grabbed that instead.

On my next bowl, I covered the ball with my hand and ran, deliberately overstepping the crease and hurling it as hard as I could. It was a full toss. The ball flew high and as Matt swung to hit it the ball clipped the top edge of his bat and shot up into his head, catching him just above the eyebrow. He went down, blood pouring from the deep gash on his forehead.

Scared I’d really hurt him, I turned to call Mum. But Matt yelled at me to keep bowling. He went on to score another ten runs with blood streaming down his face before I managed to bowl him out. He’d spent the rest of the day in the emergency room, getting a dozen stitches in his head. Yep, Matty was tough all right. Tough and stupid, maybe. But definitely tough.

I slept fitfully. I kept waking at the slightest sound, and by the time the sky began to lighten I was wide awake. Nick woke up soon after, looking even worse than I felt. Our arms and legs were covered in scratches and bruises and caked in splotches of mud. I ran my fingers through my hair. It felt matted and was sticking up in spikes. I was tired, hungry and sore all over.

We took turns going for a swim and then sat hidden behind a tree at the top of the beach, waiting for George to return. At first we both kept a keen lookout, alert and expectant. But as the hours dragged, we grew bored and anxious.

Finally I couldn’t wait any longer. ‘She’s not coming. We’re just wasting time sitting here. We have to get back to Matt.’

‘And do what?’

Nick’s lack of enthusiasm made me mad. ‘I don’t know, but we have to try. We can’t just wait around and do nothing.’

Nick rested his head on his knees.

I realised that I desperately wanted him to come up with an idea and sweep me up in its genius. But deep down I knew he was probably feeling as useless as I was. ‘Okay, look,’ I said. ‘Let’s grab some stuff from the camp and then go see if we can find George. We’ll have to stick to the tree line though. We can’t just wander around in plain sight.’

Back at our camp, we pulled down the sheet, coiled the rope and shoved them both into Matt’s backpack along with a torch and Matt’s Swiss Army knife. All there was left to eat was half a banana, a couple of peaches at the bottom of a tin and a few scrapings of peanut butter. We refilled the Gatorade bottle with the last of the water from the barrel.

As we walked along the tree line, the sun started to get hot. Even in the half-shade of the trees it beat down on us. I was sweaty and uncomfortable, and my head started to ache. But it wasn’t just the sun making my head hurt. Random thoughts of Matt, George, water, food and home poured through my head in a vivid stream. I was so distracted that I barely registered a small, unmistakeable noise. The sound of a twig snapping. Nick reacted immediately though, diving into the trees and pulling me after him. I fell to my stomach behind a mangy bush.

Snap.

There it was again, only closer this time.

Nick scraped around in the dirt and dug out a good sized rock. He held it in his fist like a hand grenade.

‘George?’ he called in little more than a whisper.

No reply. I pushed up a little, partly to get a better view through the trees but mostly to be ready to run. Nick cleared his throat and this time almost barked her name.

A voice called back from the trees up ahead, small and cautious. ‘Nick?’

Nick punched me, grinning, and jumped to his feet. ‘Yep, it’s us. Come on out.’

No more than thirty metres in front of us, just on the edge of the tree line, a tangled mess of hair poked out from behind a thick trunk.

As soon as she spotted Nick, George beamed and ran towards him, flinging herself into his outstretched arms. ‘Oh god, I’m so happy to find you,’ she said, burying her head in Nick’s shoulder.

I hung back from them, feeling awkward. Of course, I was thrilled to see her safe, but I was also struggling with a mix of emotions at the sight of their embrace.

George looked up from Nick’s shoulder and she smiled broadly at me. Peeling herself away from Nick, she ran forward and smothered me in an enveloping hug. I squeezed her tight, feeling a lump rise in my throat.

When she stood back, grinning at both of us, I was surprised I had even recognised her. Her hair hung in matted dreadlocks. One side of her body was caked in drying mud. The skin that was visible under the dirt was covered in welts, scratches and bruises.

‘You’re really getting into this Robinson Crusoe thing,’ Nick commented with a wry smile.

George looked down at herself and then chuckled. ‘Looks worse than it is. But what about you guys? Are you okay?’

‘Pretty much,’ said Nick as I shrugged.

As amazing as it was to see George smiling and safe, I could feel a terrible sadness building inside me. It was like the three of us being together again only made Matt’s absence that much more noticeable.

‘George, did you see Matt? Is he okay?’

She reached out and clutched my hand. ‘Right, yeah. Look, honestly I don’t know,’ she said, sounding almost apologetic. ‘I saw the two of you running off down the beach without Matt. And I thought those guys would come after you. But then they didn’t. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them. They were shouting like crazy. But, Matt … I don’t know what happened to him. I didn’t hear him. I’m sorry, Johnno, I just don’t know.’

My eyes stung white hot, and the tears that had been building just spilled over.

George wrapped her arm around me as Nick stood back, watching. ‘Johnno,’ he said after a moment, so assertively that I looked up. ‘We’re going to get him. Now. Just as soon as George is ready to get moving again.’

We sat down at the edge of the sand. Nick passed George the water bottle. ‘So what happened to you? Nice escape plan by the way.’

George laughed, almost choking on the water. ‘I wish I could say it was a plan, but I had no idea. Definitely didn’t figure on the snake.’

‘What? A snake?’ I said.

‘Yep,’ George said, leaning back on her elbows. ‘It was enormous and, just, right there, staring at me like “who the hell are you?”. I totally freaked out,’ she said. ‘But then it gave me an idea. That maybe I could be a distraction.’

Nick grinned, looking impressed. ‘Well, it worked.’

‘Yeah, I wasn’t sure whether it had or not. I just bolted. There’s a sort of gully, muddy as anything, where the water runs down from the top of the cliff, I guess. I just stuck to that and went up and up. I was about a quarter of the way up when I saw you guys running.’

She paused to take a drink, and I found myself just staring at her in admiration. I seriously doubted I could have done any of that. I realised ruefully that hanging around with the incurably brave was never going to do wonders for my self-esteem.

George sat up hugging her knees. ‘It’s as flat as a pancake at the top of that cliff. I found a sort of path that goes right around the edge of it and had a good view of those guys’ camp. It was directly below me so I sat there for a bit, watching them. I didn’t see Matt, though.’

‘What were they doing?’ Nick asked.

George frowned, then shrugged. ‘Nothing, really. I mean they went in and out of the tents a few times. Then they’d sort of disappear for a while.’

‘Disappear?’ Nick questioned.

‘Well, not like vanish into thin air. But they’d kind of hang round the stream, chatting or whatever – lots of talking on the phone. But then sometimes I couldn’t see them.’ George looked like she was trying to remember. ‘They’d walk towards the cliff and then I couldn’t see them anymore.’

Nick was leaning forward, like he was hanging on every word. ‘Go on,’ he said eagerly.

‘Well, I couldn’t really see where they went,’ she said abruptly. ‘I mean I couldn’t lean over the edge of the cliff without falling.’

George took another sip of water and then frowned. ‘It was weird, though … sitting there on the top of the cliff. I could hear water. You know, like running water. I couldn’t work it out at first. I couldn’t see any, but it was loud. Like I was sitting right on it.’

‘How weird,’ I said.

‘Oh, yeah,’ George said suddenly, her eyes shining. ‘I forget to tell you the best bit!’

‘But wait, there’s more,’ teased Nick in a deep voice. ‘What else? Don’t tell me you found a set of steak knives?’

George looked from Nick’s face to mine, beaming. ‘Better than that. When I was looking around for the best way back, I went the wrong way up a path. And I found a whole house!’