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IT WAS ONLY ABOUT FOUR in the afternoon. As we drove in, I could see there were still lots of kids in the pool. Crazy loons!
Mr Prior parked up and shut off the engine, then reached across to the glove box on my side. “Excuse me.”
He took out a big packet of Zanodol.
“Ah good, I thought I had some here.”
“Have you got a headache?” I asked anxiously.
“No, just a few twinges,” he said cheerfully, “I want to be on the safe side.”
We got out. I headed down into the camp to find Ms Loti and give her back her phone. I found her all right, but she was busy telling Marcus off for something. He, Jackson and Tully were standing under one of the verandahs near the pool, all looking very grumpy about something.
“There is no excuse, Marcus,” Ms Loti was saying, “What you were doing was quite disgusting and unacceptable in this school! Now go and get changed! All of you!”
The boys went off, grumbling.
I gave her the phone and said, “No luck. And the road is totally flooded. We’re stuck here.”
She seemed to wilt, but quickly stiffened up again. “Okay. We’ll deal with it if we have to. Everything will be better in the morning.”
There it was again, that prediction. I went off, really hoping she was going to be right. When I got to the bunkroom Jackson was still muttering angrily about the trouble he was in.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Lucy started it!”
“What?”
“Spitting water. She was just going crazy, like a machine, getting everyone! Then she got me right in the face so I did it back to her! Next thing everyone was doing it.” he flung his bathers into a corner with a splat, “Not fair!”
I said nothing. Just found my book and headed off to the main hall, figuring it had to be the driest place in the whole camp. It was.
#
STRAIGHT AFTER DINNER, more people started complaining about headaches. Ms Loti was running around like a headless chook dishing out sympathy and Zanodol like there was going to be no tomorrow. She finished her original packet and started on Mr Prior’s ‘mega-pack’.
There was supposed to have been a concert that night, but so many kids were off sick that it was cancelled. I saw the adults gathering together many times, discussing the situation with very serious faces. Time and again I saw Ms Loti step outside and try her phone. She came back in with that familiar look. No connection.
Mr Prior, looking rather grey, headed off in his RV once again. He was back thirty minutes later, which meant the road was still flooded.
So we had no connection by road, either.
Nothing was said to us kids, though. Everything was fine, officially. There was plenty of food, and loads of ice cream for pudding. By then I had no appetite but I still made myself eat. I don’t know why. Some sort of survival instinct, I suppose. Like those cavemen back in prehistoric times, filling up on ice cream whenever they could get it.
#
I THINK, BY TEN O’CLOCK that night, virtually everyone had had Zanodol. Even most of the adults. There were kids staggering off to bed left, right and centre, holding their heads and groaning. Even Lucy looked bad. She looked wild, her hair sticking out at right-angles from behind her ears. Even so she seemed determined to stay up late, lurking close to Ms Loti and supervising the distribution of Zanodol. At one point she turned to me, looking totally exhausted.
“Here, just take two of these.”
“No, I’m alright.”
For a moment I actually had the pills in my hand. Close up they looked like little pale green flying saucers. I went to pass them back to Ms Loti but Lucy intercepted them, making a small triumphant noise.
She sounded like one of those trained seals at Seaworld.
Close up I could see her hair. Usually Lucy had perfect hair, but now it was looking crazy. Then I saw why. There were these weird bumps sticking up from underneath. Horns or something.
I just gawped at her, dumbstruck.
Then I whispered to Ms Loti, “Look at Lucy’s head. It... it doesn’t look right.”
Ms Loti called Lucy over. “Let me see your hair, please. I just have to check you for bush ticks.”
Lucy came over, remarkably co-operative. I saw Ms Loti’s fingers go into her hair, then Ms Loti gasped aloud. “Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!”
“It’s just fine,” answered Lucy, pulling away and trying to tidy back her hair, “It’s just something that runs in my family. And oh it feels good to have them back again!”
As soon as Lucy had gone Ms Loti turned to me. “Nathan, go find Mr Prior! Get him up if he’s sleeping! He’s got to get her to the hospital!”
I ran.
The adults’s rooms were a little bit apart from the bunkrooms, set closest to the main hall. I knocked on the first door I came to. No answer. I crept in. “Mr Prior?”
The outside light was on. Inside I could see three occupied beds. Each sleeper was tossing about and groaning. There was another giant packet of Zanodol on the table, so I figured someone else in the camp had a supply too.
So did that mean they’d all taken an extra dose?
I found Mr Prior, but couldn’t wake him no matter what I tried. He was hot, and his hair was a mess. I couldn’t help it. I had to check just behind the ears. Were those bumps? I couldn’t tell, because I didn’t know what his head was like normally. But they sure did feel like bumps to me.
“Wake up!” I shouted to the sleepers, “Please would somebody wake up!”
No joy. The groaning continued.
I turned, then spotted Mr Prior’s keys on the table next to the Zanodol. “Well,” I said to myself, “It’s the next best thing.”
I hurried with them back to the big main room. Mr Loti, sitting with Lucy asleep across her lap, took one look at the keys and shook her head.
“No. I’m not driving at night. Not in someone else’s car.” She glanced outside, “The rain’s easing off. Lucy hasn’t got a fever. So I’m just going to put her to bed. Everything will be better in the morning.”
There it was again. That prophecy of doom.
I pocketed the keys and watched as she lifted Lucy and headed off towards the adult’s rooms. I slowly went back to my bunkroom. Everyone was asleep. There was a peculiar smell in the air, damp clothes and something else. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Fish?
Not possible.
The groaning was too much. I went out again, back along the walkway, past groaning room after groaning room. The only room I knew of that didn’t have sick people in was the second adults’ room. (Well; if you didn’t count Lucy, who seemed to be way past the groaning stage by then.)
I tiptoed in. Ms Loti was asleep in a chair, with Lucy on the bed beside her. In the light coming in from outside I could see those strange horns clearly now, for Lucy’s hair had fallen back.
Three horns on each side, like fingers, curling towards the front.
The smell of fish was stronger here.
Easing myself onto one of the spare beds I tried to rest. Sleep crept up on me for a while, then took me in one quick swallow.
Ah, oblivion. Delicious oblivion!