“Dutch,” called Sweet
Mary rather plaintively. “My feet are sore.” Sweet Mary was back to normal and
feeling the pain. They had been walking for three hours now and she had come to
the end of her endurance.
“Righteous can carry
you,” said Dutch summarily.
“I don’t want to be
carried. I’ve had enough.” Sweet Mary simply stopped and sat down in the grass.
“I’d rather be eaten by these creatures or go back to jail but I don’t want to
do this anymore.”
Everyone could see that
she meant it. They stopped and waited to see what would happen next.
“I think I’ll join you,”
said Rose, and sat down beside her with a groan.
There was a hoot from
behind them as the creatures tried to urge them forward, but nobody moved. This
was the moment of truth. The creatures in front stopped and turned round to see
what the matter was. The leader surveyed the scene for a moment or two then
plodded painstakingly back to the group of humans, its claws clacking on the
ground as it walked. Everyone held their breath, wondering what it would do. When
it was within a yard of them it stopped and hooted.
“Yes alright. We know.
But we’re stopping for a while. We…are…tired,” enunciated Dutch as if the
creature would understand her that way. The creature stood, seemingly deliberating
what to do. Everyone, to tell the truth, was waiting for him to grab Dutch and
eat her. But to everyone’s relief the creatures went into a huddle and began
grumbling amongst themselves. They made a kind of coughing sound when they
talked to each other, as if they were clearing their throats, and their
delicate little hands danced in the air in front of them, their slender fingers
darting and weaving as if catching their ungracious grunts out of the air and moulding
them into meaning. One could almost tell what they were saying by watching
their hands.
“Ouch.” Sweet Mary was
touching her feet gingerly. They did look in a terrible state. Dutch felt a
pang of guilt for putting those pretty feet through such an ordeal. But
everyone was barefoot and blistered by now, the bio slippers having long since
disintegrated.
“I’m sorry Dutch, but I don’t think I can go
on. I’m just tired of walking and running.”
“That’s okay,” said
Dutch, sitting down next to her. “A few minutes isn’t going to make much
difference.”
“And I’m hungry. And
thirsty,” said Sweet Mary, now with tears in her eyes, “and I’m tired of
poo-ing in the bushes. I just want to go home.” Dutch was just about to put her
arms around her when……
“Ahram,” coughed the
leader loudly and finally. The conference between the creatures was over. The
leader left his huddle of fellows and made his plodding way back to the bunch
of humans. With great pomp and ceremony he hooted - very loudly.
“Yeah, yeah. Hoot away.
But you just gonna have to wait,” said Dutch, standing up. She and the creature
then proceeded to stare at each other like two boxers trying to make the other
back down. But neither gave an inch. What was going on in the creatures mind
they had no idea, but he took a long time to decide.
“Ahram,” he coughed and
pointed with his delicate hand at the not too distant forest. He cleared his
throat again and moved his arm up and down.
“I know,” said Dutch,
“but we’re tired.” Dutch pointed at herself then at the ground. “We stay here,”
she said. The two then continued their stalemate stare at one another.
Eventually the creature gave up the contest and shuffled off in his awkward
gait back to his group.
They coughed a bit more
between themselves then sat down on their meaty haunches. Dutch was rather
surprised and suspicious that they had backed off so easily. She watched and
waited, ready to see if they had a trick up their sleeves. Dutch didn’t like
being on the rack like this and their continual coughing was beginning to get
on her nerves. Then she had an idea. Confidently she walked over to them.
“Food,” she said,
pointing to her mouth. “We need food. And water,” she added.
“Ahram,” said the leader
and simply pointed at the forest again.
“Do you mean that
there’s food in the forest?” asked Dutch hopefully.
“Ahram,” said the
creature in reply and waited again.
Dutch gave up and came
and sat beside the others. There was a little more coughing amongst the
creatures and then one detached himself from the group and limped over to them.
They had sort-of noticed him before. He had a misshapen, stunted body and a
hunched back that nearly doubled him over. He also had a damaged leg that he
half dragged along as he walked, all in all a very unfortunate fellow who
aroused waves of sympathy from the two ladies. Dutch just eyed him suspiciously
as he hobbled up to the humans, clasping a jute bag in his hands. Was this
going to be good news or bad news? The creature might have been crippled but he
still looked dangerous – even to the point of wearing a sword. He coughed a
short message at them and handed Dutch the bag.
“’Ahram’ to you too,”
said Dutch, trying to approximate their coughing sound which elicited no
response whatsoever from the small guy.
“I suppose that’s as
good a name as any for them,” said Rose. “We can call them Ahram.”
“Sounds about right,”
said Angelo, “as long as they don’t call us ‘Yummy’ or something.”
“Now that’s not funny,”
said Rose, admonishing him severely.
“Thanks,” said Dutch, taking the bag from the
Ahram and opening it carefully in case it bit her.
“Manna,” she declared,
taking some and passing it around.
“Thank you,” said Dutch
again to the little fellow and gave him a forced smile. The creature coughed politely
and rejoined his friends. In the bag there was only a small handful of manna,
probably all they had by the looks of it, but it was most gratefully eaten.
“Our best chance is to
go with them. I believe their home is somewhere there,” Dutch waved vaguely at
the mountains. “I don’t think we should upset them too much. They might just
leave us here and go home…at best. At worst…well, I don’t think we have a
choice. We have to carry on.”
“You always say that,”
said Sweet Mary. “Well, this time I don’t feel like carrying on. Things are not
going to get better. They never do. They just get worse. We’ve lost the ship.
We’re stuck on this horrible planet with those horrible creatures and we don’t
have any food or water. There are no clothes, and I don’t have any make-up left.”
“I told you. It’ll get
better. If we….”
“No it won’t. And you’re
always being nasty to me. Ever since that prison escape you haven’t been the
same. Well I don’t want to go with you anymore. You say hurtful things.”
Everyone turned to look
at Dutch and see what she would say. Her face was white, contrite and silent.
She was shocked to see how badly Sweet Mary had taken her behaviour. Dutch had
a million excuses for it. She had been wholly preoccupied with escaping and
surviving, trying to keep them all free and alive. She had done what she had to
do. She knew she hadn’t been nice and polite all the time, but she didn’t
realize she had been so bad tempered.
She just knew that she got irritated with Sweet Mary’s ‘princess’ attitude
sometimes. But she was just trying to get them through against great odds.
“I’d rather die than
carry on like this. It’s no fun,” said Sweet Mary and turned her face away.
“You’ve been very hateful to me.”
“I’m sorry,” said Dutch.
“I know. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”
“Well, you can just stop
speaking to me altogether.” Everyone was surprised to hear such strong words
from Sweet Mary. “I don’t think I even like you anymore,” she said, and turned
her back.
Rose and Angelo looked
silently from Sweet Mary to Dutch and back again. No-one knew what to say, but
they all felt heartbroken for them. Sweet Mary didn’t want to speak, and Dutch
didn’t know what to say.
Then the very thing they
had feared, happened. The Ahram became angry. The first inkling of this was a
huge thumping foot thundering down within inches of the little group of humans
and gouging a great groove in the ground. As a show of strength this was a
winner. The creature raised his foot again and they all fell to their knees in
a supplicating gesture, hands held out in submission.
“It’s alright we’re
coming, we’re coming. Come on. Come on everyone…up,” cajoled Angelo.
The Ahram harrumphed and
snorted and hooted loud and long and by then everyone was on their feet and
eager to go. Righteous had scooped up Sweet Mary without her permission and the
whole group was on the move before they even knew it.
WHAT IS IN STORE FOR OUR LITTLE BAND OF EXPLORERS? AND WHAT AWAITS THEM IN THE JUNGLE?
