Page 31 of The Summer Island Swap
‘What?’
‘I told him you felt nervous about camping out in the wilds; that I knew you’d rather sleep close to someone who knew the ropes here – either him or Jackie and seeing as she isn’t on this excursion… Benedikt doesn’t mind at all.’
‘Amy. For God’s sake. He must think I’m a complete wuss. Of course I’m not that worried and when it comes to wildlife, you work for a vet and I’d be fine sharing with—’
She gave a sheepish smile. ‘Couldn’t help myself. You haven’t been in a relationship for forever.’
‘I’m not a charity,’ I said and threw my hands in the air.
‘But you won’t help yourself! I’ve tried to get you to register with an online dating site, but it’s work, work, work with you. So I intend to make it my job to bring the two of you together.’
‘Amy. We aren’t at school. This is worse than leaving a note in a locker.’
‘You’ll thank me, just you see,’ she said, firmly. ‘Time’s ticking. We’re only here for a month. I bet he’s a great kisser. And you’ve seen how gentle he is with Chatty, mark my words, he—’
‘If I agree to share a tent with him will you stop talking?’
She grinned.
I was still cringing half an hour later, once the small tents had been erected. We sat in a circle, lit up by our torches, eating the chicken and rice. The others chatted. I put on more insect repellent and passed it to Amy. She shook her head and gave a small sigh, saying not to fuss over her, she’d already reapplied it.
Day two. I had blisters. The pink trainers I’d been determined to wear were ruined. I had a bed mate I didn’t want and felt numb with tiredness.
I shook myself.Come on, Sarah. You’re made of stronger stuff than this. Remember that first day at Best Travel?I’d had no one that morning to tell me everything would go okay and wish me well. My send-off had been a simple glare from the landlady whom, I’d quickly learnt, saw tenants as necessary intruders. The bathroom tap had dripped loudly all night and I’d woken to find a cockroach on the bathroom wall. Yet I’d got through that first day. That first week. That first month.
I went to the loo in the bushes, crouching down, terrified ants in your pants was an actual thing. Then I headed back to the beach. Hugged Amy goodnight. Rick was already inside our tent. A mound of sand had formed in the corner. One of us must have accidentally kicked it on top of the ground sheet. Rick wanted to keep the tent unzipped so that we could enjoy the cooling sea breeze but I was too worried about mosquitoes. The result was I’d never run a higher temperature in my life.
‘Maybe we could just unzip it a tiny bit,’ I said to Rick.
A snore replied. I couldn’t even see his face as the Indiana Jones hat lay over it.
I heard Amy and Benedikt laughing but that was nothing compared to the sudden shriek that emanated from my mouth. Something had jumped up against the roof of the tent. Then again. I sat upright, clumsily turned on my torch, tore Rick’s hat off his face and shook his shoulder.
‘Sarah…? What’s the matter?’ He rubbed his eyes.
I jumped again. ‘What the hell is that?’ I went to crawl out of the tent but Rick held my shoulder and chuckled.
‘Don’t worry. We call them sand crickets. I haven’t been able to identify their exact species yet. The pesky little things only come out at night and are hard to catch.’
I directed the torch onto the mound of sand as he called to the others that everything was all right. It moved. A small creature’s head appeared and then it launched itself out and landed on top of my sleeping bag. Vigorously I shook my bedding.
‘What if it lands in my mouth?’
‘That’s never happened to me and I lead a couple of turtle excursions a week. Just chill.’
‘But—’
‘We need to rest and can’t do that if your torch is turned on.’
I paused. Perhaps it would be better if I just walked the beach for the next couple of hours. However, my head was thumping. What if they got into my ears? Or crawled into my sleeping bag? I tried to cheer myself up by imagining the horror on Jonas’s face when I told him all about it. This really was like my favourite celebrity jungle show, except there was no reward for enduring the challenge.
Somehow I got through the next few hours. We got up at midnight. Packed away the tents. Despite all the discomfort I took a moment to gaze into the night sky. Without the city glow or cloud, the sky looked like a pool of spilt black ink. We followed Rick with our buckets. He walked near to the water’s edge, looking for the turtle trails. Eventually he found some and followed them across the beach, up towards the forest area. They stopped at one point and Rick told us to gently dig down with our hands. My fingers curled around something smooth out of view.
I didn’t even worry about sand crickets as an unexpected wave of emotion washed over me. Gently I dug out the egg and held it in my hands. Inside it was the makings of an endangered animal. For a fleeting moment I understood what might appeal about volunteering here. You couldn’t put a price on this work. I’d thought Amy should invest her lottery win so that she’d reap the benefits of it in the future – but now I was starting to realise that’s exactly what shehaddone, looking at the bigger picture.
She and Benedikt also pulled out eggs in silence. We placed them in our buckets. Rick noted how many we’d collected. We drank water. Listened to lapping waves. Watched bats swoop across the sand. Felt the more intense warmth of sunrise approaching. Amy and Benedikt talked musicals. Rick said he wasn’t a fan but said how his brother, Lee, loved the theatre and when he worked back in England was always buying tickets for the two of them. Apparently, he thought Rick needed to get more culture into his life. With a sparkle in his eyes Rick grimaced at Amy and Benedikt who almost started a sand fight with him when he confessed to hatingWicked.
It was time to begin the long trek back to the site. I was careful not to trip, aware of just how precious the contents of the bucket were. I gripped the handle tightly even though it aggravated the angry blisters on my hands from the morning’s machete swiping. I winced.
