Danny’s grip on Honor’s shoulder tightens as the boat rocks and Jeffers leaps into the water, holding his rucksack above his head.
Meg stands up next, clutching her belongings to her chest, and nervously stares down into the sea.
‘Hold your backpack up in the air as you jump!’ Jeffers shouts. ‘You don’t want to get your stuff wet.’
‘Duh,’ Danny says. He looks at Honor, expecting to see her smile, but there’s the weirdest look on her face – it’s like she’s gone completely blank behind the eyes.
‘Hey.’ He nudges her. ‘You OK? I thought you were looking forward to this.’
She shoots him a smile but it looks fake. ‘Yeah, I am.’
‘You thinking about what happened last night?’ he asks. It’s his fault that lad hit on her. He never should have left her alone in the pool, but nothing’s going to happen to her on the island. He’ll make sure of that.
Before Honor can answer, Meg jumps into the sea with a gasp and a splash, swiftly followed by Milo, who turns and offers a helping hand to Jessie. She shakes her head and, instead, hands him her bag then clambers over the side of the boat.
‘Oi, Jeffers,’ Danny shouts, waving at the diminutive figure trying, and failing, to relieve Anuman of the rope that’s attached to the front of the boat. ‘How about you help the girls with their bags instead of playing the big man. I think you’ve got your priorities a bit screwed up there, mate.’
He snaps back round as Honor mutters something and wriggles out of his grasp.
‘What was that?’
She looks at him defiantly. ‘Just leave him alone.’
Danny raises his eyebrows. He can never be sure when Honor’s genuinely annoyed with him or when she’s messing around. She’s good at switching her emotions on and off, it’s what makes her such a good actress. He went to see her in her school play in Brighton and couldn’t believe how easily she was able to transform herself into someone else. She wants to go to uni to study drama after school but she’s worried she’s not good enough. Danny’s pretty sure she is.
‘I’m not kidding, Danny,’ Honor says. ‘You really need to—’
The rest of her sentence is lost to the breeze as she launches herself over the side of the boat leaving her bag, and Danny, behind.
Chapter 3
JESSIE
I have never been anywhere more beautiful in my life. When the boat pulled up at the island I felt like I’d arrived in another world. The beach was a white sheet, pulled tight between two towering limestone hills cloaked in greenery. As I walked up the powdery sand towards the forest, the gentle lapping of the waves faded away and the air filled with the buzz of cicadas, the chirp of birds and the low whoop of monkeys. Paradise. The only thing spoiling it was us. Ever since we got off the boat Jefferson’s been buzzing around Anuman like a fly, commenting on what he’s doing and offering ‘helpful’ suggestions. He’s doing it now, while Anuman shows us which trees we need to chop down to make a shelter.
‘We need to avoid this, don’t we?’ Jeffers says, resting one hand on a tree trunk whilst awkwardly flicking through the pages of his book with the other. ‘Mai nhang. Termites love it, don’t they, Anuman?’
‘Yes, yes.’ Our guide nods politely and gestures for us to follow him further into the jungle. He told us in the boat that he’s sixty-one years old and, whilst his face is as lined as a walnut, he’s so strong and sprightly he could pass for a man twenty years younger.
Honor, walking to one side of me, has her eyes fixed on the ground as she takes tentative step after tentative step.
‘Spiders,’ she says, catching me looking. ‘Tarantulas, black widows, giant orbs and huntsmen.’ She chants the list as though casting a spell to keep them away.
I haven’t got a problem with spiders but even I shiver. I’m pretty sure there are snakes in Thailand too, and God knows what else. All I spotted back at the hotel was a couple of shy geckos and some brightly coloured birds, but we’re a long way from that clean, sanitized world now.
‘Don’t worry,’ Jefferson calls back. ‘The spiders here can’t kill you but bites might hurt and could become infected if they aren’t kept clean.’
‘Thanks,’ Honor mutters under her breath. ‘Really helpful.’
Danny, following behind us with Meg and Milo, gives a strange, forced laugh. I’m not sure what’s going on with him and Honor today but there’s a weird vibe between them. They’re not as touchy feely as they normally are, and when Honor jumped out of the boat before Danny, he looked really annoyed. I’m guessing it’s got something to do with what happened last night. Not that anyone has mentioned it to me, although Danny did mutter an awkward, ‘Thanks for looking after her,’ as we left the hotel this morning and piled into the taxi.
‘Dalbergia cochinchinensis,’ Jeffers says so loudly he makes me jump. He’s pointing at a weedy-looking tree with a thin trunk. ‘Thai rosewood. We can’t chop that down: it’s protected.’
‘Yes, yes.’ If Anuman is annoyed he doesn’t let on. ‘This,’ he says, resting his palm on a tree with a trunk the size of my thigh. ‘We chop this.’
‘That’s a—’ Jeffers begins then cries out in pain as Meg squeezes between me and Honor and cuffs the top of his head.
‘Seriously, Jeffers? Are you going to be like this all week?’
‘Like what?’ He stares at her in astonishment.
‘A know-it-all. Can’t you just let Anuman do his job? He is the expert.’
‘Yes but…’ As Jefferson hangs his head and stares at his feet I feel a pang of pity, then immediately feel annoyed with myself. When I woke up this morning I felt numb, like nothing could touch me, but when I confessed to Mum that I was having second thoughts about the trip she brought out the emotional big guns.
‘Tom would have loved an opportunity like this,’ she said as she perched on the edge of my bed. ‘You can’t not go, Jessica.’
Tom. T–o–m. Those three letters are my kryptonite.
‘Mum, don’t.’
‘Go on, Jessica. Do it for Tom. Go for him.’
As if I don’t feel guilty enough! I wanted to scream.
‘Jessie?’ A swift, sharp nudge in my bicep snaps me back into myself and the sweltering heat beneath the canopy of leaves. ‘Are you OK?’
Milo looks down at me, his dark brows knotted together. ‘You just made a weird noise.’
The others are all staring at me too. Oh God. What did I just do?
I clear my throat. ‘I’m fine… just um…’
I’m saved by the sound of a machete thwacking against wood. Anuman has started chopping down one of the trees. Within seconds it crashes to the ground and he hands the machete to Jeffers. He couldn’t look more pleased if he’d just been gifted a lifetime subscription to Preppers’ Monthly. An hour later, dripping with sweat and huffing and puffing, we drag the felled trees through the jungle and back towards the beach.
‘Here we set up camp,’ Anuman says, pointing to a small clearing among the trees. ‘There is a waterfall nearby for fresh water and we are near food source.’ He points upwards. There are coconuts high in the tree above us, and another tree with ripe coral-coloured mangos weighing down the branches, as well as a plant heavy with green bananas.