It took thirty minutes to drive to the walking trail. I didn't care. I stared out the window as though I was interested in a bunch of boring trees stuck on red dirt and memorized the names of the fifty states of the United States of America. Yes, I'm clever, I know. But I had a way to help me remember. There are four states that begin with A, three states that begin with C and so on. The hard one is M, because there are eight. I remember them in alphabetical order because it makes it easier. Once I knew them all off by heart, I'd challenge Charlie to a competition. He thinks he's so good at geography, but I'd show him.
Trying to remember the fifty states didn't stop me thinking about crocs. Mom had showed me the walking trail on a map and some of it was close to a river. That meant one thing - crocs.
Just as I was remembering Agro with her jaws wide open, Charlie piped up from the back seat, "You know, in the Second World War, nine hundred and eighty Japanese soldiers were killed by saltwater crocs in Burma."
"Really?" I couldn't help sounding amazed. Charlie always came up with these incredible facts. Sometimes I thought he spent his nights looking up facts and figures while we slept. But the really weird thing was that he remembered everything. I wanted to ask all sorts of questions, like was it a mass attack? How many crocs to every soldier? Did anyone survive? But what I really wanted was to be able to know stuff, like he did. He was so good at remembering stuff and Mom and Dad and me weren't good at it at all. Now and again I still wondered if Charlie might be an alien.
Dad pulled into the parking lot. There were only four cars. Two of them were white LandCruisers, probably hired like ours. One of them was covered in red dust. Dad stared at it. I knew what he was thinking; he wanted our four-wheel drive to look like that because when you were in the bush your four-wheel drive should be covered in red dust.
But only four cars meant there were only a few people on the trail. That meant I was more likely to be eaten if there was a hungry croc lurking in the bush. But if Dad and Mom were in front, the croc would eat one of them. Yeah, that was a good plan, unless the croc came from behind. But that'd be okay if Charlie was walking behind me.
We made our way to the beginning of the trail. My plan worked for about three and a half minutes. Mom and Dad went ahead and Charlie was right behind me. Dad was in the middle of the trail, which wasn't good. If a croc were in the bush, it'd get Mom. That was bad. Dad might be better to play cricket with, but he couldn't cook. If Mom died, Charlie and me would starve to death. We'd have to move in with Nanna.
The problem was that Mom and Dad liked to read signs. We got to the first one and for ten seconds I pretended to be interested. It was about plants - plants were plants; who cared? Of course, I didn't really read it. Nothing could be that interesting when you're out in the middle of nowhere.
Charlie didn't even pretend to read it. He jabbed me in the ribs and said, "Come on."
What could I say? Charlie, this is really interesting; you should read it too. I had no choice. My life was in the hands of fate. I picked up a big stick - just in case. I'd take out the croc's eyes first. If it couldn't see me, I might have a chance.
Charlie spoke first. "This is boring; I wish we'd gone to the Gold Coast. We could've gone to all the theme parks."
I couldn't help reminding him, "You said you wanted to see Kak-my-du before global warming wrecked it."
He shrugged. "It's about as exciting as watching Dad's bald patch grow." He picked up a stone from the path. "Bet you I can throw further."
I hated the way Charlie always thought up games he'd win. He was two and a half years older than me and if he couldn't throw a stone further than me there was something wrong. But I couldn't say, Yeah, of course you can throw further. You're so good at everything, Charlie. I want to be just like you when I grow up. If I got just the right stone, nice and round, and he got one that was too flat or too light or too heavy, I might be able to throw further than him.
He beat me the first time, but then I beat him twice after that. He just picked up any old stone from the ground, whereas I searched for just the right one. The only problem was I had to do that without him realizing what I was doing. The next go, I threw my stone so far I couldn't see where it went.
"Where did it go?" I asked Charlie.
"In the river, I think."
"River!" Through the trees, I saw a brown ribbon with a fishing boat and two guys in it. Real casual, I said, "Do you think we're safe ... I mean ... wouldn't crocs live in that river?"
"Nah, they wouldn't let us walk here if it wasn't safe. And if there were crocs in that river, those two guys wouldn't be stupid enough to fish in such a small boat."
"Yeah, I guess." Now, Charlie was smart, I knew that. And he was always logical. Too logical, really. He drove me up the wall with his logic. But still, I felt better. I found another stone and bet him that I could hit the log up ahead.
He threw first. His stone didn't make it. Then I threw. "Got it," I yelled. My stone had hit right in the middle.
"Did not," yelled Charlie.
"Did so." I dropped my big stick and ran toward the log. Charlie was behind me. Then time slowed down. It was weird. First, I realized that the log didn't look exactly like a log. Then I saw a yellow eye open. Even then I didn't stop running toward it. My mind yelled to turn round and run back, but my legs just kept going forward. Then the croc's head jerked up. I screamed.
"MAAAX!" Charlie yelled from behind me. "RUN!"
That did it. I turned round and ran faster than I'd ever run in my life. I could hear the man-eating monster behind me. I caught up to Charlie. We ran side by side. I knew that I couldn't fall behind because the croc mightn't care that Charlie had more meat on him. It might be quite happy with just an afternoon snack.
But just as I was thinking how good I was to keep up with Charlie, I tripped in a hole. I screamed as I fell flat on my face. I WAS DEAD.
Then I felt Charlie pull me up by the arm. "Quick!" he screamed.
I jumped up and ran.
Charlie and me were side by side. We passed Mom and Dad.
"RUN!" Charlie yelled at them. "THERE'S A CROC!"
I didn't yell; I didn't have enough energy to do anything but run.
We reached the parking lot, ran to the LandCruiser, jumped onto the hood and up onto the roof. We sat in the middle holding our knees. Far out! Where were Mom and Dad? Charlie and me might be orphans any minute.