Samantha
Harsh morning sunlight burnt at the back of Samantha’s retinas as she stepped out of the aeroplane and clonked down the metal air stairs. Her body craved a Coca-Cola or sweets, or anything in fact that contained a strong hit of sugar. Oh, and a shower. She was pretty sure the tangy whiffs affronting her nose were emanating from her armpits and the damp area of her T-shirt, growing by the second in the heat.
Samantha understood the appeal of night flights – go to sleep in one country, sleep all night, and wake up in another country without wasting a day travelling – but it never worked out like that, or at least it didn’t for her. Sleep just wasn’t the same. The quality, the depth, the length of time before the ache in her neck forced her to wake and change position. She ducked her head and stared at her feet as Ben stepped in front of them, already on the runway filming their descent. There were times when Ben and his camera were nothing more than a blip on their horizon, but there were also times, like now, when the reflection of the black lens made her cheeks flush red and her stomach cringe.
Samantha glanced at Jaddi and Lizzie as they stepped through the glass doors and into the baggage-claim area. There was no mistaking the excitement at a new destination hovering between them, but it was tinged with something else. Something unspoken. The gut-wrenching reality that one month and one part of their trip was behind them. She could see it in the crease of Jaddi’s forehead and the way she kept glancing behind her, left and right, as if waiting for something bad to happen. Samantha felt it too.
Time had slowed on the Thai islands as they’d lounged in the sun, taken boat trips to remote coves, and snorkelled in an ocean as clear as tap water. A grey fog of exhaustion had clouded Samantha’s head in Vietnam, blocking out the sights of the trails. Only David was clear. His voice, his touch, it was all there, running on repeat inside her head, as if seeing Happy’s injuries had unleashed the memories from somewhere hidden inside her head, and she’d been stuck reliving them over and over.
Only during their weeks on the islands had the exhaustion released its hold on her. As if submerging herself into the depths of the turquoise ocean had cleansed her of the shock and anger from her final afternoon with David.
‘You OK, hon?’ Lizzie touched Samantha’s arm.
Samantha jumped back, startled by the touch. She mustered a short laugh. ‘Yes, sorry, I was miles away.’
‘You’ve been doing that a lot, you know.’ Lizzie frowned, her eyes scanning Samantha’s face. ‘Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?’
Samantha shook her head. ‘It’s tiredness, that’s all. I didn’t sleep properly on the plane.’ A heaviness spread over Samantha’s chest for the lie she’d told. But however much it hurt, upsetting Lizzie wouldn’t change what had happened.