Through the Tiger's Eye (15 page)
Mum was awake but still a bit dopey and she kept yawning. Lucy decided to forget about the kids in the tunnel and do something really normal, like make her mum baked beans on toast. Ricardo tried to make Mum a cup of tea but left the kettle sitting in the sink with the plug in and the tap running and then decided to clean T-Tongue’s teeth and began chasing him up and down the hall. The kitchen flooded and Mum made him mop the floor. Then she suggested a bush walk.
‘Come on. It will be lovely in the rainforest. I haven’t explored this place properly and you kids know all about it. Where does that path go? Can you get past that big hole?’
Lucy led the way, detouring around the pit. She could see where the path started again on the other side but you had to bush-bash to get to it. They emerged above the pit, looking down into it. No sign of the tunnel. Phew. It still gave her a funny feeling in the stomach, though. Mum shuddered.
‘You kids haven’t been down there again, have you?’
‘No.’ Personal jinx.
They walked up the steep path, winding steadily into the rainforest. With each step the forest got cooler and darker. It smelt spicy, like those oils Mum burned in her room. The path zigzagged between enormous trees with twisted, tough bark, some hollow right through and big enough for a family picnic. Then the trees thinned out and changed. The new ones had smooth, red trunks and grew at crazy angles, like twisted bones, out of the rocks, straining towards the sky. There were great sandy rocks, some piled on top of each other, others hollowed out into caves big enough to camp in. They kept walking and the forest grew denser and darker.
‘Listen!’
Lucy could hear a gurgling, splashing sound, off to their left.
‘Can we look for it, Mum? I’m thirsty.’
They branched off, following the sound. Lucy ran ahead. After a short, steep climb, she squeezed through two large boulders and stood on a flat rock platform, with a tantalising glimpse of sunlight on water only a few steps away, just behind a boulder covered in green lichen. Lucy edged around it – and stopped just in time to avoid plunging off a roaring waterfall. She gazed down, a long way down, at a deep pool, with rocks and towering trees surrounding it like a fortress. She saw a narrow sliver of sandy beach on the closest side, where the creek formed an elbow. On the far side was a clearing big enough to play soccer in, though maybe not with a whole team.
It was a secret valley – you couldn’t see it from home and not from the road either.
Lucy heard Ricardo behind her.
‘It’s a waterfall,’ she said warningly.
‘Cool! I’m jumping!’
Mum grabbed him just in time. Then Lucy saw the way down: behind the towering boulder were a series of rocks like gigantic stepping stones, tumbling down to the sandy beach below. She picked her way down, the others behind her.
‘Well done, Lucy, this is fantastic!’
Mum splashed her face in the pool, exclaiming how clean it was. Then she threw herself down on the soft sand with arms outstretched and pronounced it ‘heavenly’.
Lucy and Ricardo waded into the pool. It got quite deep quickly. It was warm on top but icy-cold at their feet, and a few metres out it was way over their heads. After that hot climb it was like eating an icecream. They dived and splashed and then Ricardo dared Lucy to jump off the waterfall. Lucy turned and looked. How deep was the pool? She swam closer, until the spray was in her eyes and then dived as deep as she could. Cold closed like a vice, but she still couldn’t touch bottom. When she swam back up, still with her eyes closed, she heard her mother cry out ‘Lucy! Lucy!’ with a note of panic.
Opening her eyes, she realised why. She had surfaced behind the waterfall itself. She glanced behind her and saw a cave heading back a surprisingly long way, completely hidden by the curtain of water. She just had time to register a shaft of sunlight spearing down a hole in the rock platform above, revealing a sloping sandy floor well above water level, before her mother screamed again. She dived and swam under water, surfacing on the other side in time to see Mum wading into the pool, fully dressed.
‘Don’t do that to me! I thought you’d drowned.’
‘Just practising holding my breath for the swimming carnival,’ Lucy said blithely and dived again.
Surfacing behind the waterfall, she scrambled up into the cave and back towards the shaft of sunlight. The cave was much bigger than she’d first thought, big enough to camp in . . . in fact, she’d stumbled on the perfect place to hide an army of feral children.
She swam to the beach.
‘Got any food?’
Mum unpacked treats from Sydney: spicy Lebanese pastries, shish kebabs, Turkish delight and sweet baklava.
Everyone ate in contented silence.
Then Ricardo blew it.
‘Can we bring Dad here?’ he asked hopefully.
Lucy kicked him. Just mentioning Dad could make Mum mad these days.
There was a moment’s tense silence before Mum spoke.
‘You can bring him here, Ricardo, but it’s probably better if I don’t come.’ She didn’t sound mad, just sad. ‘We seem to fight all the time these days, even though we don’t want to. We’ll be friends again one day, I guess, but right now, we’re not.’
Ricardo looked thoughtful.
‘I had a fight with Leo, but it only lasted till lunchtime. Could you make up with Dad by tonight?’
Mum laughed and said she didn’t think they could make up properly by tonight, and adults often were just not as smart as kids, so their fights lasted longer . . . and no, she didn’t know why that was.
Lucy sat silently, kicking a rock, thinking about Carlos the Zombie. Why was he so rude? She couldn’t imagine ever being friends with him. But it didn’t mean she wouldn’t help the other kids. And now that she’d found the cave and the campsite, she
could
help them.
She plotted and planned as they scrambled back down the mountain, making a long list in her head. What did Dad pack when they went camping? They wouldn’t need a tent, but they would need sleeping bags, pillows, cooking things, matches, newspaper, plates, spoons, food . . . heaps of stuff. They were going to have to raid the old lady’s exploring collection again. They couldn’t until Mum went back to work tomorrow, but Lucy could sneak out tonight and tell the others her plan. This morning she hadn’t wanted to go back at all, but the secret place had changed everything. She could tell Pablo she had thought of something after all.
‘Is Grandma coming tomorrow?’ she asked.
‘Not until after lunch. You’ll be on your own from when I leave at eleven. Will you be OK for two hours? I don’t really like leaving you, I’m away so much, but you’re pretty sensible these days, Lucy – and Ricardo, you have to do what Lucy says.’
They had reached the path above the pit.
‘Even if she tells me to jump in that big hole?’
‘Lucy isn’t that silly,’ said Mum.
After dinner Lucy said she was going to read in bed. Mum made Ricardo go too. Lucy whispered, ‘We’ll hide the kids at the waterfall. We’ll sneak out tonight and tell them, then we’ll raid the old lady’s stuff tomorrow’.
Mum came in to say goodnight.
‘What happened in here?’ She sounded as if she’d just seen something gross at the hospital. ‘Actually, I don’t want to know. Just get it cleaned up in the morning. Goodnight.’
Ricardo fell asleep straight away but Lucy watched the candles flicker, and heard the music from Mum’s meditation tape drift down the hall. It was a goofy lady with an American accent telling you to imagine yourself by a river. Lucy thought it was better to jump in a real river, like today. That always felt good. But Mum was always sound asleep by the time the tape finished.
Lucy closed her own eyes and felt sleep wash over her.
Some time later, she opened her eyes and met the Tiger-cat’s golden gaze. She looked at her watch. Eleven p.m. Time to go. Lucy poked Ricardo but he wouldn’t wake up. Too bad. The Tiger-cat leapt out the window impatiently. Picking up T-Tongue, Lucy went softly down the hall and out into the moonlight.
Only when she landed in the pit did she realise she had left her torch behind. The Tiger-cat padded into the tunnel and Lucy knew she would have to feel her own way. Her stomach lurched as she stepped into the dark tunnel. Then she noticed something odd. She couldn’t actually
see
, but she seemed to sense where the walls were.
Lucy concentrated. It was as if some part of her mind was stretching like a piece of elastic, reaching out to find the way. It was like . . .
listening
. And she was
a hunter
again, alert and ready, like a cat. The feeling was even stronger than before.
Lucy knew she was at the door before her questioning hand slid along its wooden surface and grasped the handle. She walked in so quietly, she startled everyone. Three candles burned on the table. Everyone smiled at her in relief, except Carlos the Zombie, and Angel. Angel just looked at her out of those big dark eyes. She was sitting on Carlos’ knee. He was cuddling her. Poor thing. The Tiger-cat went straight up to Carlos and began rubbing against his legs. Traitor. Carlos smiled and stroked the Tiger-cat and little Angel giggled.
‘I have found somewhere to hide you and the other kids,’ announced Lucy proudly. ‘You’re going camping.’
‘Camping?’ said four voices at once.
‘Personal jinx,’ said Pablo and Rahel carefully, and Lucy laughed.
‘I have found a safe place up on the mountain.’ She gestured at the air above her head. ‘No one goes there and there’s lots of clean water and vitamin A, I mean D, and I’ve found a cave for you to sleep in and we’ll bring you food so the little kids can get strong. Then you will be ready to find your auntie and take Angel home . . .’ Her voice trailed off.
Angel climbed down and trotted over to Lucy with arms outstretched. Lucy picked her up, just as someone knocked at the door. Everyone else froze, then shrunk back into the shadows. When she opened the door, a gun was pointed at her head.
It was Ricardo, dressed up in his mini-Ninja costume, with his biggest Super Soaker aimed at Lucy’s forehead.
‘What did you go without me for?’
‘You were asleep, goofball.’
‘No, I wasn’t. I was awake all night.’
‘Well, how come you didn’t notice me go?’
Ricardo’s answer was to squeeze the trigger but Lucy, still holding Angel, ducked and Carlos copped a faceful.
‘Cool,’ thought Lucy, ducking and weaving around the cubby. But Angel was clinging to her neck, making a strange sound in her throat.
Ricardo tried again, but Rahel snuck up behind him, snatched the gun and threw it to Pablo.
‘Can’t you see you are scaring Angel,’ she scolded. ‘She thinks it is a real gun!’
Ricardo had the grace to look ashamed. ‘I didn’t mean to.’
‘Well, you did,’ Lucy said brusquely. ‘And I’m supposed to be looking after her. Her mum told me to, so cut it out!’
‘You have never met her mother,’ Carlos said scornfully, wiping water from his face with his sleeve.
‘I told you, I dreamt about her,’ Lucy protested, turning to Rahel for help. It came from an unexpected quarter.
‘Yeah. I dreamed about her too. And her mum said we had to babysit her. But I don’t think we get paid. That sucks!’
‘You suck, Ricardo!’ But Lucy was grateful for the interruption and for what Rahel said next in her quiet voice.
‘They speak the truth, Carlos. Remember what Lucy said the other day. She had information about Angel that she could not have known otherwise. She knew about her beautiful dress and about her mama. We must stop arguing and co-operate.’ Lucy wouldn’t have quite put it like that, but couldn’t agree more.
And so a council of war ensued. Everyone drew up a chair to the table and sat around the spluttering, smoking candles.
‘I think this campsite is the best place to go,’ said Lucy. ‘Mum knows about it, but she’s too busy to go up there without us, and we could always warn you in time and you could get into the cave. No one can see it from the road and, anyway, I think you have to go through our back yard to get there.’
Everyone thought about Lucy’s words for a minute and then Rahel made up her mind.
‘If it is safe we will go to this campsite in the morning,’ she said firmly, ‘We will prepare everything for the new ones, then, in the night we will return to the jungle and free them.’
No one said anything.
Lucy looked at their faces, shadowed in the candlelight. Suddenly, she’d had enough.
‘Look, I’m going back to bed. Mum doesn’t sleep as well as Grandma and she might wake up. Ricardo probably woke her up as he was leaving and she’s called the police already.’
‘I did not!’ said Ricardo, outraged.
But Lucy was already regretting the line about the police because everyone at the table was looking really tense.
‘Only kidding. Look, you guys should all get some sleep. Mum will go to work in the morning and we’ll get all the camping stuff together and fetch you. Come on, Ricardo. See you all later.’
She strode out the door. When Ricardo caught up she realised he had also forgotten the torch.
‘How did you get here without the torch?’