Thirst for Adventure

Chapter 23

‘What’s happening?’ Adious asked, rubbing her eyes.

‘They’ve taken Jessie,’ Leo shouted, about to lunge out after them but realising in frustration that he would have to put shoes on first. That took another maddening moment. Adious was making sounds of horror. Then she was stumbling past him, pulling on her boots as she ran.

‘Take the path,’ Leo gasped. ‘I think they went through the trees, so we might gain on them.’ He plunged forwards, behind Adious, who was the only other person he could see or hear. He was too desperate to feel anything. He caught up with Adious and they ran silently on together, for three or four minutes. Then they paused to listen. There was nothing. Then, perhaps, for a moment, there was something. A thump, quite a way to the right, and in front of them. They ran towards it and found a narrow animal track. Following it they came to an old fence and swung themselves heavily over it. Leo landed on all fours with a crumpling noise that sounded like the one they had heard just a few moments before. He was up and running again, travelling more easily now that the initial shock was over. In the distance, through the dark trees, he imagined he saw the glimmer of a lantern, but it was gone again quickly and he was not sure. As he ran on he began thinking of the terror that Jessie must be experiencing, and that forced him to find more speed and stamina. In front of him, grim and silent, ran the mother. Leo wondered as he went what he would do if and when he caught up with the attackers.

Sick fear churned in his stomach, as if he had eaten a mixture of porridge and rotting fruit. He could hear Adious’ breath start to come hard, louder, and with a pumping sound. He put his head down and ploughed on. His head began to roll from side to side and his arms were chopping down harder. A bird suddenly started up out of the dense dark grass beside the track, with a clatter of wings and a hollow series of short cries.

Unexpectedly they came to a road which was wide and well-made. They paused irresolute for a moment and then, without discussion, turned to the right and ran steadily along it. The change in surface and surroundings gave them a new burst of energy, which sustained them for perhaps twenty minutes.

The time came, however, when mental willpower was simply not enough. The body began to give out, in ways that could not be governed by the mind. The muscles at the backs of their legs contracted, and their steps became shorter and shorter. Cramps tore at their tortured limbs. Sweat poured down Leo’ face, and the constant flow of salt into his mouth made him feel sick. It ran into his eyes too, stinging them. He at last slowed to a walk, hating himself for his weakness, but Adious seemed glad of the excuse to stop running; they walked along quickly for a few minutes, hands on hips, gasping at the grudging air. Finally Adious stopped completely.

‘This is useless,’ she said. ‘We don’t even know if we’re going the right way.’

‘What do we do then?’ Leo asked miserably. There was no answer and he started trying to think objectively, to analyse the situation and work out the best strategy. Panic kept threatening to gum up his mind and he had to fight hard to muster some self-control.

‘It’ll be light in a few hours,’ he said at last, as calmly as possible. ‘We’d be better to rest and wait till then. We’ll be able to see, and we’ll still have some energy left. Besides, they’ll have to rest too, unless they’ve got horses, and if they’ve got horses they’ll already be over the hills and far away.’

They sagged onto the ground under a large tree and waited. It took some hours and they both dozed a little, although they would scarcely have thought it possible they could sleep. When it was light enough to distinguish the shapes of the trees from the grey sky, they rose without need of words, and began to move stiffly on their way. They walked a little, jogged a little, walked a little. Daylight continued to colour in the day. They followed the same road, for there seemed nothing else to do.

After about an hour they saw a man walking in the same direction as themselves. Carrying a spade and a bucket, he was clearly on his way to work. They ran up behind him, but he did not turn around until they were level with him, and even then he showed little interest, merely glancing at them.

‘Have you seen anyone with a little child?’ Leo begged. ‘A baby girl, dark hair, dark eyes?’ The man just kept walking, saying nothing, so that both Leo and Adious thought that he had not heard the question and might perhaps be deaf. But as they were about to speak again the man looked at them more searchingly. There was something surly about his expression and Leo inwardly quailed. But as the man took in their grimy, streaked faces and their desperate appearance, his face softened a little. He looked away and walked on but finally, after a fashion, answered their question.

‘You’re on the right road,’ he said gruffly.

Leo was about to ask more questions but Adious, perhaps sensing that they would get no more information here, was already running away. The boy quickly followed.

The morning took some time to settle into the pattern of weather that it would maintain for the rest of the day: cloudy and humid, white cloud becoming grey. Leo sweated, and struggled to keep going. As the morning wore on they both abandoned any attempt to run. Not knowing where they were going or what they were looking for they nevertheless could see no alternative to following the road.

Late in the morning they passed two girls sitting on a gate but the girls looked contemptuously at them and ignored their questions. The only relief came when they found a long fence overgrown with a vine that seemed to be some kind of wild tomato; it was heavily laden with fruit and the two ate ravenously. The vivid red tomatoes were the only things in the landscape that were growing strongly. Everything else was straggly and sour.

As they left the spot Adious found a handkerchief on the ground that she recognised at once as one that she had made for Jessie.

The discovery came at a crucial time. Somehow they had both ceased to understand the reality of what they were doing, of what was happening. The panic had never left them but it was becoming harder to remember that a successful end to the search would mean a reunion with Jessie. The frantic activity of the chase was obscuring its purpose. With a tangible clue in their hands they were infused with new energy and the search became focused again.

Quite late in the afternoon they came to a junction: not a true junction, because the road they were on was large and well-defined, whereas the track that joined it from the north-west was little-used. They had passed other such junctions before and ignored them, but this time for some reason they felt drawn to the narrow path, and stopped.

‘This way?’ Leo asked, raising his eyebrows. Adious nodded, and they took the path without any attempt to discuss their reasons. They jogged at a steady pace but with increasing nervousness as their field of vision decreased.

The track wound upwards for a long time. An occasional sob of weariness escaped Leo’ throat now, despite his best efforts to control himself. He was sweaty, staggering, scorched with heat and hunger. Ahead of him, grimly determined, was Adious, growing more morose with every passing hour. Leo spared a thought for whoever had taken Jessie, wondering how they would cope with the

vengeful mother. He felt fortified by the knowledge that she was with him.

Towards dusk they came to a hillock. Suddenly Adious stopped; so suddenly in fact that Leo ran into her back. It took only a moment for him to realise what had caught her attention: a thin trail of white smoke straggled up into the air, a steady wisp. They both stood and watched it for a moment, then moved on, keeping lower to the ground, and separating from each other a little. They nestled up to a ridge of granite-like rock that crocodiled along the top of the knoll.

The smoke came from a small fire that had just been lit. A lean dark boy, perhaps seventeen years old, was crouched over the fire, feeding it with pine-cones. Three or four men were sitting under trees around the clearing. A piece of canvas was slung between some trees, and under it sat two shabbily dressed women, scrawny and impassive. Beside them, apparently asleep, lay Jessie.

Leo was startled to feel Adious’ hand grip his arm and to hear a low growl of rage rumble from her throat. Leo had sensed as the day had progressed that he and Adious were drawing apart: intent upon the desperate search for her daughter she had seemed almost to forget his existence. And this had reminded him, for the first time in months, that he was not Jessie’s real father. Theirs were not bonds of blood, even though his links with this small family seemed to him to be unbreakable. Thus it was that Adious’ grip on his arm was a welcome one. Amongst other things, it was saying to him, ‘Hold me back. Restrain me. Don’t let me do anything hot-headed.’ She was telling him she was aware of Leo’ presence and that he was necessary to her.

They lay together for some time watching while darkness submerged the world. The people they were watching, perhaps thinking they had placed themselves beyond the risk of pursuit, seemed to have no plans to move on for the evening. Jessie awoke and cried. Her voice was a thin wail slipping through the air like smoke from the fire. One of the women breast-fed her, and Leo was awed at the black rage that filled Adious’ face at the sight. But once the feeding was over, the adults showed no further interest in the baby. Jessie lay still on the cloth that had been placed under her, though her eyes stayed open.

As they watched, Leo tried to formulate an ingenious plan to rescue the child. All he could think of, however, was the obvious: to slip in quietly when it was dark and carry Jessie away without causing any disturbance. But he felt that this plan was too vague, contained too many chances of going wrong. Whatever they did had to be foolproof, surely — the risks to Jessie were too great. At the back of his mind was the fear — or was it knowledge? — that there might be no foolproof plan. There were times when the safety, even the life itself, of every child hung in the balance. There were no guarantees, never had been, that every child would reach adult life easily or comfortably. The short life of Leo’ own sister was evidence of that.

There was little light left in the sky. Leo and Adious, the two watchers, slid back a short distance to discuss their approach. Could one of them create a diversion while the other crept up? Could they use force, with so many adults against them? Was some kind of bluff possible? They tried to assess each idea calmly, even as the suggestions grew wilder. Set fire to the canvas, to create a barrier between Jessie and the people? Throw sand in their eyes? Find a good long creeper and come swinging down out of the trees?