Page 41 of The Beach Holiday

THEN

I was just getting into the second chapter of the journal when an ear-piercing scream rang through the camp and into the cabin.

I stuffed the journal under my pillow. I didn’t know what to expect when I got outside but the scene that was unfolding in front of me was not one that I would have imagined.

Dancing around the fireplace, with just a loose piece of material wrapped around her chest that barely covered her buttocks and threatened to fall off any moment, was Ula.

In her hand was a large dead fish. It looked like a baby shark, and red gunge and guts was falling out of the fish from the belly where it had been sliced through the middle.

‘Jesus,’ Avril said and began walking towards Ula.

The women were standing around and it was Star, one of the mothers, who was screaming the loudest. I turned and saw Hester, who was approaching Ula with a big machete in her hand.

My God, Hester had some pent-up frustration.

Something I had only seen from Kali until now.

I knew Mary and some of the others were off spearfishing and so it was Precious of all people in the end who made it to Ula first, intercepting Hester and Avril on the way.

Hester looked taken back as Precious easily wrestled the machete off her.

Ula must not have put up any fight because she was taller and broader than any woman.

I had felt her strength from that one push in her hut earlier.

‘She needs to know who the boss is around here; she can’t keep showing up uninvited like this and trying to freak us all out with her weird ways,’ Precious said to anyone who could hear.

Ula let out a loud manic laugh and I shuddered at the noise.

Precious looked across the camp as Kali, Mary and a few others returned from spearfishing.

The women walked briskly across the camp and were next to Precious.

Between them, they began to try to manhandle Ula up and away from the camp.

But now suddenly, she began to demonstrate her strength.

She was like a sturdy Amazonian giant, and so a messy and undignified struggle ensued.

I had to turn my head away at one point as the piece of material that was tied under Ula’s shoulders rose up right around her waist and exposed the entire bottom half of her naked body.

‘Christ the Lord,’ came Hester’s voice. ‘That woman needs putting down.’

‘So much for the sisterhood,’ I shouted over to Hester, and I was sure she understood my dig as she shot me a wry smile.

I looked back over at Ula as she was carried away, kicking and screaming, but just before they made it out of the camp and onto the beach, presumably to deposit her back at her shack, Ula looked at me, her eyes brightened, and she grinned at me.

I let out a small laugh. Was that smile aimed at me?

It had to be, but why? Was she trying to tell me something?

It was as though a secret coded message had just slipped between us that no one else had picked up on.

I couldn’t for the life of me work out what it was that she was trying to convey in that smile.

But it felt good. Reading her journal, I felt as though I was going to get to know a lot more about Ula.

And I would slip it back into her hut before she had noticed it was even missing.

I glanced around self-consciously, wondering if anyone else had spotted it, or maybe they thought the smile was part of her madness.

But I didn’t think that. It was something in the way she looked directly at me and the subtlety of the smile.

It wasn’t the smile of a crazy woman; it also had knowledge hidden behind it.

It told me that she knew something. Once the camp had gotten over her outburst maybe I would make my way over there again, see what the whole thing was about and maybe she would be a bit more coherent this time.

Maybe she had been overwhelmed by my presence last time.

Perhaps she was so shocked to have seen someone in her cabin that she forgot how to act.

But for now, I would go back to the cabin, hibernate for a little while and get back to reading the notebook.

Hester was perched outside her cabin as I passed.

The young girl was cuddled up on her lap, the little boy next to her feet playing with the doll.

A flash of the doll’s blonde hair caught my eye, and I felt a tug in my gut.

I’d had an image of a woman in my mind, but reading Ula’s journal just now, could it be a coincidence that she had referred to a man called Deny?

I shook the infectious thought away because it could only trigger worse thoughts.

Thoughts of people dying on this island.

An island where people should be thriving. Somewhere I was trying to thrive.

I managed a friendly smile, but it wasn’t reciprocated by Hester. My opinions on Adi and now Ula had hit a nerve. It was interesting how I had expected the island to be full of well-rounded folk with nourished souls who would welcome the likes of Adi and Ula no matter the circumstances.

I left the camp and arrived back at my cabin.

As I went to walk up the steps to the hut, the first thing I noticed was the door was ajar.

Had I left in such a hurry that I’d forgotten to close it?

My thoughts turned to the notebook next.

I already felt it had some sacred value and as I took the final steps towards the pillow, I already knew what I would discover as I lifted it up.

I pulled the pillow to one side and looked at the empty space.

I instantly fell to my knees and scoured around by the bed and under it as well, but it was gone.

There was nowhere else in the room it could have been, and as I knew, the last place I had put it was under the pillow. I knew it had to have been taken.

Who had seen me come back with the journal? It couldn’t have been Ula; she wouldn’t have had time. Whoever it was had taken an opportunity when I had run outside, and whoever had taken it had been watching me.

I took myself out to the communal area; someone had started lunch, and there was a charred smell in the air, the sweet smell of onions frying.

Kali was sat near the campfire. She looked at me and I wondered if there was a message in her eyes for me.

Had she been the one in my hut just now?

She had been the one to drag Ula away; and that wouldn’t have left her much time to get in and out of my hut without me noticing.

Now, I was in Hester’s bad books, and with Kali’s looks never ceasing, I was starting to feel I was being judged – not only judged but watched as well.