Page 20 of The Making of Jonty Bloom
Devan hauled him up, so that Jonty sprawled across it, both of them now being dragged out by the rip. But at least they were together, and on the board, slightly safer.
“Where did this fucking sea come from?” Devan growled.
“As the planet cooled…water vapour and other gases escaped from molten rocks into the atmosphere… Once the Earth’s surface had cooled… rain fell and kept falling.”
“Smart arse.”
“You noticed!”
Devan huffed. “The rip’s pulling us out to sea. We need to try to get back in at an angle.”
They fell into what felt like an endless pattern of kicking in one direction and getting pulled back again, or pulled under without making any progress.
Devan spat out a mouthful of water. “We need to try harder.”
“You want us to struggle against the unrelenting pull…panic when we don’t get anywhere…eventually succumb to exhaustion and drown.” Jonty paused. “Actually, not funny… Might still drown.”God, I’m tired.
“We’re not going to drown.”
“And here was I, thinking you were Mr Doom and Gloom.”
Devan rolled his silver-grey eyes. They were rather lovely.I don’t want to drown.
“Does anyone know you’re out here?” Devan asked.
“Mike who owns the shop… Don’t know how long…it will take him to notice I’m not surfing.”
Now caught in the centre of the rip, the waves had gone, but they were being swept further and further out.
“We can’t fight this,” Jonty said.Do not add the word Attraction.
Devan’s teeth were chattering. “You’re right. We need to save our energy. Though at this rate, we’ll end up in Norway.”
“I’ve never been to Norway, have you?” Jonty could feel himself getting colder and colder.
“Yes.”
“Then you’ll recognise it if we get there.”
“How far out are we?” Devan asked.
A long way.“We ought to pick out a couple of points on the shore…then we can check our position…see how far we’re moving.” Jonty was breathing heavily. “How about Mike’s shop…and that dark bit of rock…? Looks like a dinosaur’s cock.”
“A dinosaur’s cock? Did they have cocks? I don’t remember that bit inJurassic Park.”
Jonty had a fit of coughing. “Educational films, though… We now know dinosaurs will eat you…even while you’re taking a crap.”
Devan snorted. “Those films got virtually nothing right. The T-rex couldn’t run, because one foot had to be on the ground at all times, so no way could it outpace a jeep. It ate with a puncture-pull movement, not by grabbing and shaking its prey. As for cocks, there aren’t any fossilised ones, because dicks in the animal kingdom don’t have a bony component.”
“Wow! That’s the most you’ve said to me…without adding an insult.” Jonty’s teeth were chattering harder and harder. He was going to lose a filling in a minute.
“Only an idiot would think a film about dinosaurs would have everything right.”
The quick grin as Devan said that, slightly warmed Jonty’s freezing body, though not his toes. “How come you can speak in whole sentences…and I can barely breathe?”
“Stop talking. Just breathe.”
So for a while, Jonty managed to stay silent.
