Page 7 of The Cocky for Cody (Mulligan’s Mill)

Cody found some sleeping pills he sometimes used to help him sleep on his trips away, and it wasn’t long before I slipped into a slumber so deep I feared I might never wake up.

On the slippery slopes of unconsciousness, I slid into a nightmare in which I was being escorted by demons through the fires of hell, eventually leading me to the lair of the Devil.

Only it wasn’t Satan who ruled over the fiery pits of the netherworld.

“ Squark! ”

Perched on the top of a throne made of skulls—being fed grapes by an enslaved Cody who was clad in nothing but chains and a leather G-string—was none other than Kevin.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here,” the contemptible cocky cawed. “If it isn’t that slaggy scrubber from the United Skanks of America. It’s time to face your punishment, you troublesome trollop.”

“I’m troublesome? That’s rich coming from you! Now let me go, and unchain Cody too. He’s not your servant… although we’ll keep the leather outfit if it’s all the same to you.”

“Silence!” Kevin screeched. “You must pay the price for ever stepping inside my hallowed home, eating all my mangos and stealing my boyfriend from me. It’s time for you to burn! Burn, baby, burn!”

As flames rose all around me, the roar of the fire grew louder and louder, as Kevin’s evil cackle echoed through the burning recesses of hell.

Suddenly I sat bolt upright in bed, panting and gasping and shouting, “But I only had one mango! It was just the one! Help! Someone save us!”

Cody came rushing over from the kitchen. “Babe, babe. Calm down. It’s okay, you’re safe.”

My head spiraled for a moment or two before I realized where I was… in Cody’s bed… inside his shack. Daylight streamed through the open window that Kevin used as his entrance to the shack. I must have looked a little frightened as I scanned the rafters for my feathered foe.

“It’s okay, he’s not here,” Cody said. “I think he might be feeling a little embarrassed and ashamed about his behavior.”

“Kevin? Ashamed? Cody, he’s a bird, and a nasty one at that.”

“Well, whatever the reason, I haven’t seen him in days.”

“Days? Is that how long I’ve been asleep for?”

“Off and on, yeah. You’ve woken up a couple of times, long enough for me to feed you a little, although you’ve been pretty out of it. You kept mumbling about the Devil… and Kevin… and something about me in a leather G-string?”

I felt my face flush. “Haha. I must have been delirious.” I felt an itch on my shoulder and scratched my skin. Strange flakes fluttered onto the sheets, and only then did I notice what looked like grated cheese all over the bed. “What’s that?”

“Oh that? It’s just your skin scabbing up and shedding all over the sheets. I keep cleaning it up, but your skin just keeps peeling off.”

I gasped, horrified. “What? Oh my God, that’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever…” I scratched another itch, this time on my chest, then another on the scalp. Sure enough, dead skin fell all over the bed. I screamed. “That’s hideous! I’m hideous! I’m… I’m… I’m melting! ”

“Babe, you’re not melting! You’re gonna be fine. I know it’s kinda gross, but this is just the healing process. The dead skin is making way for new skin, that’s all.” He got up, poured a long, tall glass of water and returned to the bed. “Here, drink this. You’ll feel better.”

I gulped the water down, and he was right, I did feel better.

“Another day or so of rest and you’ll be good as new,” he told me. “Although I’m making one hard and fast rule for the rest of this trip.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re never leaving the shack again without lathering yourself in sunscreen first.”

“Agreed.”

For the next few days we did little but stay inside the shack, lazing in bed together—once my skin had stopped flaking off—and watching the sunset from the porch. Unfortunately my dick was out of action for the most part while it healed, but my mouth was still able to meet Cody’s needs.

Soon I began to get a little stir crazy and longed to venture out once more.

“Can we please do something today?” I begged. “I need to get out and do something .”

Cody looked at me strangely over his piece of toast and laughed. “ You? Wanna get out and do something? ”

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, it’s just that normally I have to drag you out to do something fun. I mean, you’re literally the poster boy for hermits all over the world.”

“Maybe your sense of adventure is finally rubbing off on me. Maybe part of you is rubbing off on me.”

He smirked. “Why don’t we just crawl back into bed and I’ll let another part of me rub onto you.”

“Down boy!” I grinned back. “I’m not talking about that kind of adventure. I’m talking about getting out and seeing this island of yours. Impress me. Amaze me. Immerse me in your Australian culture.”

“You mean, like seeing a koala up close and personal?”

I inhaled so deeply I almost swallowed my tongue. “Yes! Yes! That! Yes! There are koalas on this island?”

He laughed. “Yes there are koalas on this island. Most of Maggie is national park. We’ve got one of the biggest koala populations in the country.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” I paused to add, “And don’t worry, I’ll wear sunscreen… and a hat… and a long-sleeved shirt. I promise!”

The Forts Walk was a trail leading up to a peak overlooking the sea, popular with backpackers and hikers, although on that particular day we didn’t see another soul on the deserted track.

Cody explained that the fort had been built during the Second World War when the Coral Sea became a battleground between Japanese and Australian air and naval forces.

The three-mile track leading up to the fort had now become one of the best places to spot koalas in their natural habitat.

“Gosh, how did anyone build this track?” I was puffing and panting and had to lean against a nearby tree. The trail was rocky and steep, and how anyone had managed to lug the materials needed to build a fort at the top of this hill in the middle of the bush was beyond me.

“With great difficulty,” was Cody’s reply. Naturally he had barely broken a sweat, while I was dripping with perspiration beneath my wide-brimmed hat and long-sleeved shirt.

Suddenly his eyes caught something in the tree above me.

Instantly I panicked, thinking that Kevin had returned. “What is it? He’s back, isn’t he? That feathered devil is back!”

Cody held up a hand to calm me. “No! Shhhh! Keep still a moment.”

“Oh fuck! It’s not a drop bear, is it?”

“No. I told you they’re not real.” He pointed above me with a smile. “But that sure is.”

With a wary look on my face, I peered above me.

There, snuggled in the crook of a branch like a teddy bear no more than three feet above my head, was the cutest, cuddliest little critter I’d ever seen in my life, sleeping peacefully in the afternoon sun.

“A koala!” I gushed so softly the words came out as nothing more than a breath of wonder. “It’s a real-life koala! Look at that ball of fluff! He’s beautiful!”

“Shhhh! Don’t wake him. Stay calm and pass me your phone. I’ll take a photo of you standing beneath him.”

I was shaking with excitement when I passed my phone to Cody, who took a step back and snapped a picture of me and the koala asleep on the branch.

“That’s great, let me take another,” he said, eyes focused on the screen as he took another step back.

“Perfect. One more.” He took another step back.

He was getting precariously close to the shoulder of the track, the land sloping down steeply on either side of the trail.

“Cody, watch your step.”

He didn’t seem to hear me. “Aw, look at that cutie. And the koala looks pretty cuddly too,” he joked. “Just one more—”

But with one last step backward, the rocks beneath his feet gave way.

Cody’s arms flailed. “Woah!”

I raced toward him. “Cody!”

But before I could reach him, he lost his balance, setting off a small rockslide as he tumbled head over ass down the embankment on the side of the trail.

His shoulder slammed into a big old gum tree.

He ricocheted into an ant mound.

He toppled over the uneven terrain for another few meters and then—

I gasped as his head hit a rock, and there he lay, motionless, scuffed and bleeding.

“Cody!” I screamed, launching myself down the embankment as fast as I could, slipping and sliding on the rocks, through the long spiny grass, until I skidded to a halt beside him, trembling and panting with fear.

“Cody? Can you hear me?” I took his head in my hands, but there was no response. “Cody! Oh God, Cody!”

I lowered my ear to his lips and felt his warm, shallow breaths.

I looked around for my phone which was no longer in his hand.

I saw sunlight glinting off the screen of my cell phone a few meters back up the embankment and scrambled for it.

When I picked the phone up, I saw the screen was shattered, the phone lifeless and useless.

I slid back down to Cody and reached into the backpack which was still on his back. I fumbled for his phone, pulled it out, but realized I didn’t know his password. I held it to his face, placed his finger on it, but he hadn’t set the phone to facial or fingerprint recognition.

I was stranded without any way to call for help except—

“ Help! Somebody help! ”

Heaving for air I crawled back up to the track. I looked up and down and saw nobody.

“Help! We need help!” I continued to call as loud as I could, but my cries simply echoed away into the bush and vanished. The only creature that seemed to hear me was the koala in the tree who woke momentarily, gave me a lazy look, then decided to go back to sleep.

I thought about racing back down the trail for help, but then glanced at Cody lying unconscious in the grass, a sitting duck for snakes or spiders or scorpions or God only knew what else.

I couldn’t leave him alone.

But I didn’t know what else to do.