I’m glad for the shouting and stomping up on the pontoon. Neither the people nor Uncle Croc notices when I swim right under Licorice Stix and slide up onto her deck from the back. I catch my breath and cast off the rope. It was a good rope and I’m sad to leave it on the pontoon.
Licorice drifts out, and by the time the people on the pontoon figure out she’s not tied anymore it’s too far for them to jump, not that jumping is a good idea with a snapping croc on board.
I crank the sail and get Licorice moving out to sea, putting in some distance to make them give up chasing her along pontoons. As I swing her about to come back to the pontoon further up, a shout comes bouncing across the water.
‘There’s the boy!’
The engineering people is looking for him!
‘No!’ I yell. ‘That’s our boy. That boy is a boy of Cottage Hill and I’m taking him back!’
I pull the sails tighter and get Licorice skipping across the rolling sea. She hits the tops of the swell and slows then speeds, creaking and groaning like she’d rather be fishing.
The pontoon where Saleesi and Jag wait is heaving in the swell. Waves are swamping over it and the lights are swinging wildly. Starting along it in the swooping light is dark shapes, their steps wonky and staggering. More shouting.
‘You there! Come here!’
It’s not for sure they’ll even get to Jag and Saleesi with all that staggering, but anybody can drop to their hands and knees and crawl.
‘Jump!’ I yell. ‘Swim!’ But they won’t be going into that dark sea, neither of them. The shapes get closer and closer to them, and Licorice can’t close the gap fast enough. All this for nothing?
Saleesi backs up almost into the people wobbling down the pontoon and runs and leaps into the dark sea ahead of me, so sure that I can get to her, and then Jag follows! He’s not even ditched his belt with all the tools on!
I pull out a life ring on a rope and throw it out into the dark in their direction, screaming, ‘Grab a hold!’ Then I winch the boom to turn the sail about. In that turning time, that moment of slowness, if they can grab the ring then, I can winch them in.
But it’s dark out there. Light glints off water. Is it a head? I don’t know.
‘Do you have it?’ I yell into the dark. I can’t winch in before they both have it. Then Licorice’s hull bumps, lifts, and slides over something big. A fin cuts the water beside her in the swinging light from the pontoon. Uncle Croc crawls hard up against one hull, a rock invisible.
‘Grab the ring! I’m hauling it in!’ I scream, and wrap the rope around the winch.
I get it cranking as Licorice picks up speed again, making the winch grind and groan.
Behind me in a flash of light there’s a head and a shirt on the life ring. Let it be two people! Don’t let me leave one of them behind! How, though? How will Jag with his heavy tool belt and his knack for sinking, how will he grab anything? And what if the shark gets to them? Has she been trailing Licorice Stix, still upset about losing her croc meal and her pirate girl meal?
The life ring hits the back of the boat with a thud and flips up over the edge and onto the deck. I shut off the winch and run to the back of the boat.
Saleesi is there, clinging to the ladder, her shaved head round and shiny with water in the moonlight.
‘Saleesi!’ I scream. ‘We have to go back for Jag!’
Something rattles on the ladder, and Saleesi grunts. She’s hauling on a belt full of tools and it’s Jag, bent double, coughing and gasping.
I lean over and pull him up by the belt too and soon he’s lying on the deck, spewing water. Saleesi crawls in herself, spitting away the salt.
‘I’m sorry I pulled you in so quick,’ I say, ‘the shark is back!’
A yell carries across the water and the pontoon behind us lifts in the pools of light and drops and there’s splashes as people crash into the sea.
‘I think she’s busy right now,’ Saleesi says. ‘Let’s get out of here!’
I pull the sails tight again, trying to get away from the screams that bounce off giant hulls and the sea surface and chase us across the water.
‘So you got a trained croc and a trained shark?’ Saleesi asks.
‘No way!’ I say. ‘They’s jus’ doing what they do. And they’re unnaturally attracted to this boat!’
‘Well, I hope she gets fed, is all I can say!’ Saleesi says, which is a really horrible thing to think.
I feel guilty that the shark might bite someone, but that’s stupid. She’s not my shark. She’d jus’ as soon eat me if she could.
