Captives by Tom Pow

Author:Tom Pow
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466874527
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

[PART TWO]

A SECRET RIVER

[CHAPTER 1]

don’t you like water?

It was as if someone had pushed the vegetation back to reveal clear water cupped in the heart of the forest. To Louise the pool had the intimacy of a secret.

Miguel and El Taino sat on the rim above it with their guns resting on their knees. Eduardo stripped down to his underpants and dived like a knife into the water. He surfaced and called up to them.

“Come on in. Cool down.”

The hostages all looked at one another uneasily and Miguel gestured that, Martin apart, they must go in the water.

“Come on. You see, you must,” Eduardo shouted again.

Louise noted how the light that filtered through the trees above made his hair shine like wet coal.

“What?” said Carol. “They expect us just to…?”

“Well,” said Jacques, rolling his broad shoulders, “that water does look inviting and—”

“Easy for you to say,” said Carol. “You’re not the one with three men staring at you.”

“Three?” said Jacques.

“Eduardo, Miguel, and El Taino.”

“Don’t we count?” said Tony.

“You know what?” said Melanie. “I don’t care any more. I need a wash and this looks like the best bet yet.”

“Right on!” said Louise and lifted her T-shirt over her head.

She felt a sudden excitement, the kind of excitement that makes you clumsy taking off your clothes when you’re in a race to be first in the pool or the ocean—all fingers and thumbs. But this wasn’t the pool or the beach. This was a waterhole in the middle of the jungle, God knew where. In phys. ed. changing rooms, when there were only girls present, Louise turned her back on everyone and curled her shoulders around breasts she feared might be too large—already becoming her mother’s daughter. Yet here she was, in front of a bunch of people who’d kidnapped her and threatened her life, just lifting her T-shirt off and stepping out of her shorts. She noted that Carol, at least, was still in her mental changing room, but the others were taking off their clothes less carefully and folding them roughly into small piles.

Then the awkwardness came.

If she’d been able to strip and dive straight into the clear water, it would have been fine; but she found herself instead poised on the lip of the bank, her arms instinctively crossed over her bra, seized by a fresh panic.

Around her, she heard the forest titter.

Eduardo grinned and beckoned her in. His skin was light brown—like caramels. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like water?”

“It’s not that…” said Louise.

“Don’t worry,” Eduardo called. “There’s nothing in the water that could harm you. We have no water snakes.”

“How disappointing,” said Jacques, as Louise hit the water and felt its coolness envelop her. She was soon aware of other, larger bodies beside her. Occasionally an arm or a leg would brush against her; a spray of water momentarily blinded her. But mostly she turned in the water, curled in on herself, and felt the water support her and grant her a temporary freedom.

“Aren’t you coming in

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