Page 55 of Lost In Kakadu

Revisiting the plane, he returned with a package that he unzipped, and with one swift movement a large colourful sheet billowed out.

“A parachute! Where did you find it?”

“Under a seat.”

He gathered the material and draped it over the string with measured precision. The result was a triangular room the size of a large toilet cubicle.

“Ta da!” He swept his hand toward it.

“That’s great. What is it?”

“It’s a change room. Now you can get dressed in peace.”

She brushed her hands over her filthy slacks. “That’s a lovely idea. Thank you.”

“And there’s these.” He held up a life jacket. “We can blow them up for pillows.”

He inflated the jacket and once he seemed happy with itssize handed it to her. She placed it behind her head and wriggled it into place. “Fantastic. So, what’s next?”

His eyes lit up. “I’m going to get something from the back half of the plane. Are you okay here?” He indicated to Charlie who hadn’t moved since they loaded him with Panadol.

“I’ll be fine.”

He marched into the thick bushes and quickly vanished from view. She turned back to the fire.

Other than the occasional hiss or pop from the burning logs, the silence was complete. She struggled with the lack of noise, even found it disturbing. It contributed to her loneliness.

With nothing to occupy her mind, it was difficult not to think about home. Her thoughts drifted to Krystal.

Oh god! I don’t know who she’d be staying with.

She didn’t even know who Krystal’s friends were. Her daughter was determined to remain secretive, and Abigail regretted she’d always been too busy to worry about her anyway.

Abigail’s usual week consisted of numerous social functions—the polo club, shopping, coffee with girlfriends, beauty treatments and her nail technician. She looked at her nails. It’d been two weeks since she last saw Helen and the damage showed. Her usually pristine nails were chipped beyond repair.

Helen will have a fit when I come in.

But if there was one thing Helen was good for, other than the perfect manicure, it was gossip. And Abigail would definitely have some decent gossip for her when she got back. Though Abigail never could decide if Helen did it blithely, or if she just enjoyed the consequences of spreading gossip.

Unfortunately, the last piece of gossip Abigail heard from Helen involved Spencer and one of Abigail’s best friends, Rachel. Of course, Helen had no idea who the man was that she was talking about. But as soon as she mentioned that the man gave Rachel weird trinkets, Abigail knew it was Spencer.

Spencer was always bringing her back ghastly pieces of jewellery from his jungle adventures. She looked around at the gnarled, disorderly branches surrounding her and huffed. Spencer never did understand why shedespised them.

A rustling in the bushes made her jump and she turned as Mackenzie stepped into the clearing with a stainless-steel toilet on his shoulder. His face blazed red.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “What are you doing with that?”

“What do you think? No reason why we can’t have a decent toilet.”

Abigail agreed. The dull throb in her abdomen increased in intensity each day and it was only a matter of time before she’d need to address that little situation. She really was grateful. “What can I do?”

“Well, first of all, we’ll need to dig a hole.”

Abigail groaned. Her hands still throbbed from yesterday’s digging.

“Don’t panic. It doesn’t have to be too big. We’ll move it around every couple of days.”

“Jesus! What are you talking about? You make it sound like you’ve given up hope of being rescued.”

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