“Yeah.”
“I saw some of what happened with her over there.”
“You did?” Apparently, the low wall of bushes at the front of the latrine wasn’t as thick as I’d thought. I felt my face go hot. “What did you see?” I asked.
“Oh, her little strip show.”
“Ah.”
“She’s a beautiful girl, isn’t she?”
“Takes after you,” I said, which was more flattering to Connie than to Billie, and untrue.
“Bet she surprised you with that.”
“I’ll say.”
“She’s got spunk.”
“Yeah.”
“She sure knew how to get Wesley’s attention.”
And mine, I thought.
“She shouldn’t have slapped you, though.”
Billie had seen that, too. My face flamed up again. “Like you say, she’s got spunk.”
“She can be a real bitch, sometimes. But she’s a good kid. Under it all. You probably know that already.”
“Yeah,” I said.
Yeah, my ass.
“You just have to stand up for yourself. Don’t take any crap from her, you know?”
“Didn’t you see me punch her lights out?” I asked.
“You what?”
“It was an accident.”
“You mean you hit her?” Billie sounded concerned, but not angry.
“Weren’t you watching?” I asked.
“I must’ve been looking away when that happened. All of a sudden, I looked back again and Connie was on her back. I thought…”
“No, it wasn’t any act. I mean, it was supposed to be, but she walked right into my fist. She’s okay, though.” I looked. Connie was still spread out on the sand. “I bet she’s conscious by now. She knows better than to get up.”
“Well…”
“I’m sorry. It really was an accident. I would never hit her on purpose.”
“I hope not.”
“Honestly.”
“Okay.”
“I’d better get going,” I said. “I’ve been here way too long. Wesley’ll know something’s up.”
“Yeah.” She squeezed the backs of my legs, then took her hands away. “Kimberly’ll be at the regular place. Go slowly and keep your eyes open.”
“Okay. See you later.”
I stepped backward away from the latrine, hitched up my trunks a bit, then took the tomahawk out from under my arm and started walking toward the jungle.
I got more and more scared. It helped, though, to tell myself that Wesley might not even be there. For all we really knew, he could be miles away. Or maybe the dinghy had gone down with all hands aboard. Maybe he’d fallen off a cliff. Maybe he’d been dropped by an aneurism or a coronary. Maybe he’d run afoul of a man-eating critter, a poisonous snake, a headhunter, or Dr Moreau.
Endless ways he could’ve met a demise.
But I figured that he was probably lurking among the trees, watching my approach and fully intending to lay me to waste.
The only thing that kept me going was Kimberly.
Wishful thinking aside, she was probably in there lurking among the trees, watching my approach and fully intending to jump the bastard when he made the try for me.
Unless she’d already been jumped by him.
My legs were shaking pretty good, but I kept going.
I was half a dozen strides from the edge of the jungle when the whole deal went to hell.
A shout came from Thelma. “HELP!” she yelled. Then, “WHAT'S GOING ON?”
I turned around fast.
She was on her knees beside Connie’s sprawled body, her arms raised and spread out wide as if to show us all the size of her confusion and fear.
“RUPERT!”
She’d spotted me.
I flapped an arm, signaling her to stay put.
But she scurried to her feet and started running straight toward me.
I muttered a curse.
She was ruining everything.
I kept waving her back, but she kept coming, chugging closer, her bosom leading the way, her head thrown back. If her bra had broken during the charge, her leaping breasts would’ve torn open her blouse, whammed her in the face and probably knocked her over backward.
When she came to a halt in front of me, I considered whamming her in the face.
I’d like to have done it with my tomahawk.
But I don’t hit women.
Anyway, she didn’t know she was ruining everything. All she knew was that she’d woken up to find herself alone—and to find Connie unconscious and topless.
Wasn’t Thelma’s fault she went nuts.
Wasn’t her fault she’d wrecked our whole scheme.
Wasn’t her fault I suddenly hated her guts.
She staggered to a halt in front of me and stood there, huffing for breath, her mouth hanging open.
“What’s… going on?” she gasped out.
“I’ve gotta take a dump,” I said.
“What?”
“You know.”
“I don’t know. You’re… way over here. Connie’s out cold. What’s the matter with her?”
“I slugged her.”
“You what?”
“We had a fight.”
“A fight? What kind of a fight? How come she’s half-naked? Did you do that to her?”
“No!”
“Where’s Kimberry? Where’s Billie?”
“I don’t know.” Not exactly a lie. I wasn’t entirely sure where they were—mainly, I wondered why Billie hadn’t hopped out of the latrine to intercept Thelma.
Suddenly, I was worried about her.
“Billie!” I called. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Her voice came from the direction of the latrine. It didn’t sound joyful.
“You might as well come on out.”
A few moments later, Billie crawled out from between the dark, leafy walls. She stood up and walked slowly toward us, shaking her head.
Thelma said to her, “What is all this? What were you doing in there?”
“I was using the facility,” Billie explained. “Is that all right with you?”
Thelma’s mouth fell open. “It isn’t supposed to be used till tomorrow!”
