فصل 12

Chapter twelve

Stonefish

‘I thought she’d be here by now,’ said Fatima.

Fatima, Sven and Taka were sitting in the restaurant together, looking out over the water. The sun had almost set and the moon was rising over the sea, round and full.

‘I expect she’s just gone back to the Centre without telling you,’ said Taka.

‘But how could she have got back? It’s too far to walk,’ said Fatima. She was worried. Perhaps she shouldn’t have left Joyce there on her own. ‘Maybe I should…’

Then they heard a sound from far away across the dark beach.

‘What’s that?’ asked Sven. They heard it again. Someone was screaming. Sven and Fatima looked at one another.

‘We’ll take the plane,’ said Fatima. ‘We might need it. And it’s got lights.’

But Taka was already out of his seat and running. He could only hear the sound of his own breath. He was a good runner but the sea was almost three hundred metres away and the soft sand made running difficult. But he knew that every second might count.

He had almost run past Joyce in the dark when he heard her crying. She was sitting half in and half out of the water, holding one leg.

‘Joyce. What’s happened?’ he asked.

But she didn’t seem to hear him. He bent over her and tried to lift her to her feet but she screamed. Very carefully, he picked her up in his arms and carried her a little way up the beach, then laid her down on the sand. He got down beside her. In the moonlight he could see that there was dark blood on the white shoe on her left foot. He felt the bottom of the shoe gently. There were four round holes. He suddenly felt frightened and angry.

‘You’ve stepped on a stonefish,’ he said. ‘You know all about the sea, and then you go out in shoes like this. Why weren’t you more careful?’

Joyce didn’t reply. Her eyes were closed and her whole body was shaking. Taka took off her shoe. Her foot was already starting to get bigger and he could see the four dark marks where the sharp poisonous spines on the stonefish’s back had gone deep into her foot. Taka felt her leg. The poison was already moving upwards. He spoke more to himself than to Joyce now.

‘Four holes. That’s a lot of poison. She could lose the leg - or worse. It needs something doing to it - fast. Where the hell are the other two?’

There was a low humming sound over by the restaurant. He looked up and saw a light coming nearer, about five metres above the ground. It landed on the soft sand a few metres away. Fatima called out of the window. ‘What’s the matter? What’s happened?’

‘It’s Joyce. She’s stepped on a stonefish,’ said Taka. ‘We need to do something for her now, then get her to hospital. Is there a medical pack in the plane?’

‘Yes - under your seat, Sven - but I don’t know if there’s anything for stonefish.’

Sven got out, holding a red box. Taka opened it. ‘Good. OK, there’s some useful stuff here… If I give her this, it should do something about the poison.’ He took out a small plastic bottle and checked it carefully, then opened up one end. He held the bottle against Joyce’s foot and pressed a small button. She didn’t move.

‘That should stop the poison. Now she needs to get to hospital fast.’

He picked her up and carried her to the plane, laying her carefully in the back. There was one place left in the front. ‘Do you want to come with us, Taka?’ asked Fatima.

‘No,’ said Taka. ‘You two go. I need a walk. And a drink. She’ll be OK with you.’

And as the little plane disappeared in the sky Taka walked across the moonlit beach back to the restaurant. ‘Why wasn’t she more careful?’ he asked himself again. But he felt more unhappy than angry.