The Beach

∨ The Beach ∧

58

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I dived off the waterfall that day, much to Jed’s surprise, and much to my surprise too. I hadn’t been planning it. We were standing on the cliff edge looking at the sunset, which was cloudless and very beautiful and deserved a moment’s reflection. Sometimes, with these cloudless evenings, the light played a strange trick. Instead of beams of brightness radiating out from the horizon, there were beams of darkness – in other words, the polarized image of a traditional sunset. At first glance you accepted the image, only vaguely aware that something about it was wrong. Then, as with Escher’s endless staircase, you suddenly realized it made no logical sense at all. Each time I saw this effect it intrigued me and I could always pass twenty quiet minutes, pleasantly confounded.

Jed had no better answers for the phenomenon than me, but he always gave it a try. ‘Shadows, cast by clouds hidden behind the horizon,’ he was arguing that night, when I tapped him on the arm and said, ‘Watch this.’ Then I toppled forwards. The next instant I was watching the cliff face rushing past me and feeling a distant sense of alarm that my legs were bent. Their displaced weight was turning me in the air, and I was in danger of landing on my back. I tried to straighten them and a moment later I hit the pool, where I spun through several violent underwater revolutions, lost all the air from my lungs, and drifted back to the surface.

Up on the cliff top I could see Jed watching me with his hands on his hips. He didn’t say anything, but I knew he disapproved. A little while later he snapped at me as we made our way from the waterfall pool to the camp, although it may also have had something to do with the song I was singing.

It was ‘I saw a mouse! Where? There on the stair. Where on the stair? Right there! A little mouse with clogs on, well I declare, going clip-clippity-clop on the stair, right there!’

‘Jesus, Richard!’ he said, as I looped the tune and began the chorus again. ‘What’s got into you?’

‘I’m singing,’ I replied breezily.

‘I know you are. Cut it out.’

‘You don’t know that song?’

‘No.’

‘You must know it. It’s famous.’

‘It’s the stupidest song I ever heard.’

I shrugged. I couldn’t deny it was a stupid song.

We walked in silence for a few minutes, me turning the tune over in my head and humming under my breath, then Jed said, ‘You know, you want to watch yourself, Richard.’ I didn’t know what he meant so I kept quiet, and a couple of seconds later he added, ‘You’re high.’

‘…High?’

‘Dope. High.’

‘I haven’t smoked a joint since last night.’

‘Exactly,’ he said with emphasis.

‘…You’re saying I should cut down on smoking dope?’

‘I’m saying dope’s got nothing to do with it.’ A branch was blocking our path and he held it aside until I passed him, then let the branch snap back. ‘That’s why you should watch yourself.’

I snorted dismissively. The way he was talking reminded me of his obscure references to blame on Ko Pha-Ngan. Sometimes Jed could be wilfully cryptic, and uncharitably I decided it had probably led to his alienated position in the beach life just as much as the awkward circumstances of his arrival. That, in turn, made me think of my own budding alienation.

‘Jed,’ I said, after a pause. ‘Do you think it would be OK if I told people about our run-in with the dope guard? It doesn’t involve Zeph and Sammy…’

‘Mmm.’

‘…See, I’m constantly being coy about what we ‘re doing up on the island. I sort of feel like this would be a chance for me to…’

‘Tell them,’ he interrupted. ‘No harm. It’s probably a good idea.’

‘Uh-huh?’

‘We don’t want it to seem like we’re hiding stuff from people.’

‘Great,’ I said, and started to whistle the first bars of the mouse song before catching myself.

♦

It was pitch-black back at the camp. What colour remained in the sky was entirely blocked out by the canopy ceiling. The only light came from candles through the open door of the longhouse and spatterings of red cigarette and joint butts, glowing in clusters around the clearing.

Although I was looking forward to telling my ex-detail about the sleeping dope guard, my first thought was food so I aimed straight for the kitchen hut. Every day Unhygienix wrapped a couple of portions in banana leaf for me and Jed, and made sure we got some of the choicest bits of fish. It was cold by the time we’d get to it, but I was usually too hungry to mind. That night I noticed Unhygienix had added papaya to the stew, which irritated me slightly as it meant Bugs had succeeded in tracking down my orchard.

After getting my parcel I walked around the clearing, joining the dots between the clusters of smokers, looking for my friends. Unusually, they were nowhere to be found, and nobody seemed to know where they were. Confused, I checked Keaty’s tent and then the longhouse, where I found Unhygienix, Cassie and Ella playing blackjack, and further up, Jesse writing in his diary.

‘Ah!’ said Unhygienix when he saw me, and pointed to my food. ‘What do you think?’

‘Of the stew?’

‘Yes. You notice the fruit? A good taste?’

‘Sure. Sweet and savoury. Very Thai.’

Unhygienix beamed. ‘You know what I did? I made some papaya juice and stewed it with the fish, but I only put in the flesh in the last two minutes, or it falls apart in the heat. So this way you have the taste and the texture.’

‘Ah.’

‘And, Richard, we can have this again, because Jean will plant the seeds and we will grow papaya in the garden. I am very pleased with this dish.’

‘You should be. It tastes really good. Well done.’

Unhygienix shook his head modestly. ‘You should be thanking Bugs.’

‘…Why’s that?’ I said suspiciously.

‘He discovered these papayas in the jungle.’

I choked on a fish bone. ‘Bugs did what?’

‘In the jungle, he found a whole orchard of papayas and monkeys.’

‘No he didn’t!’

‘Yes. Yesterday, he found this orchard.’

‘I found the fucking orchard! I found it a couple of weeks ago!’

‘…Really?’

‘Was Bugs saying he found it?’

‘…Uh…’

Cassie smiled. ‘Yes he was.’

‘That prick!’ In my temper I squeezed the banana leaf and some of the stew spilled on to the ground.

‘Careful,’ said Ella.

I frowned, suddenly aware I was making quite a scene. ‘Well, anyway…he’s lying.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Cassie chuckled, laying down a long run from a three to a black Jack. ‘We don’t doubt it.’

‘…Good.’

They went back to their game and I continued up the longhouse towards Jesse.

‘I heard,’ he said drily, as I approached. ‘Congratulations on finding the papayas.’

‘Yes, well, it isn’t a big thing. It just…’

‘Got on your nerves,’ he finished for me, and lowered his diary. ‘Course it did. Understood. Are you looking for Keaty?’

‘…Yeah.’ I nodded morosely. As a consequence of the papayas my mood had gone bad. ‘And the others. I can’t find them. I think they’ve all gone off together somewhere.’

‘Right. He left me a message to give you.’

‘Oh,’ I said, perking up a bit. ‘Let’s hear it.’

‘It was a note. I put it on your bed.’

I thanked him and jogged the rest of the way up the longhouse, keen to find out what was going on.

The note was folded on my pillow, and beside it was a rolled joint. It read ‘Smoke this quick! Phosphorescence! Keaty!’

I frowned. ‘Hey, Jesse,’ I called. ‘What does the note mean?’

I waited while he finished writing, then he looked up. ‘Dunno, mate. Didn’t read it. What’s it say?’

‘Phosphorescence. And it’s got a joint.’

‘Ah.’ Jesse waggled his pencil at me. ‘Phosphorescence!’

‘What is it?’

‘You don’t know?’

‘…No.’

He smiled. ‘Go down to the beach. You’ll see. And make sure you smoke that joint on the way.’