Page 45 of Lost In Kakadu

“That’s far enough,” Mackenzie said between ragged breaths.

Abigail dropped the body and rubbed her hands vigorously on her filthy skirt, praying she would never touch a dead body again. Mackenzie went back to the side of the plane and placed his palms onto the curved metal. “Just place your hands like this, okay, and we’re going to push it over.”

She followed his lead.

“Ready?”

She nodded.

“Push,” he yelled. His arms stiffened and the veins in his neck bulged.

Abigail planted her feet and put her weight into it too.

The plane rolled away from them, but promptly rebounded back.

“Again,” he urged.

They rocked the plane back and forth. Each time it rolled just a fraction further over but then came straight back.

“Keep going,” Mackenzie yelled. The wreck teetered on an invisible precipice and Mackenzie ran under it to give it one last shove. Finally, with a loud crunch it completed the roll and the red painted tail now pointed back toward the sky.

“Yeah, we did it.” He wrapped his arms around her, panting with exhaustion.

Abigail leaned into his heaving chest and smiled as she listened to his pounding heart.

They went back inside the plane. The toilet door was wide open, and the toilet seat dangled beside the empty bowl. Mackenzie opened the small cupboards under the sink and removed the contents -- more toilet paper, hand towels and soap.

“Hey, a first aid kit!” Mackenzie picked up a small white bag markedwith a red cross and unzipped it to reveal an assortment of Band-Aids, ointments, gauze and bandages. He held up a packet of Panadol. “This is great. Charlie will need pain killers. He’s going to have one hell of a hangover.”

The toilet was secured to a square edged compartment. “The water must be behind here.” Mackenzie undid the screws with the army knife and lifted the front compartment away. The rubber lining squeaked as he wriggled it free.

“Yes! We have water. Grab the bottles.”

Abigail fetched the pack and handed the bottles one by one to Mackenzie.

“This is good. I’ll boil it up when we get back.” Mackenzie stuffed the bottles into the backpack. “And there’s enough water to fill these again.”

“I hope my friends never find out.”

“Find out what?” Mackenzie slung the heavy pack over his shoulder.

“That I drank toilet water.”

“They’ll just be happy you survived.”

“You don’t know my friends.”

Mackenzie shook his head. “I don’t think I want to.”

Abigail twisted her diamond ring, refusing to respond. As she followed behind Mackenzie, the heated air trapped within the dense foliage squeezed sweat from her pores.

Never before had she felt so disgusting.

Even her best friend Maxine wouldn’t recognise her, though Maxine never did miss much.

At last year’s polo tournament, Maxine was the first to notice Charlene was wearing the same dress she’d worn the previous year. The fact that the dress would’ve cost a fortune and that Charlene looked flawless in it didn’t matter. It became a huge scandal.

Abigail laughed out loud. “My friends would disown me if they saw me now.”

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