Hostage by Karen Tayleur

Author:Karen Tayleur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction/General
ISBN: 16627
Publisher: Black Dog Books
Published: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Hey Tully

Greetings from Bondi!

This is the best beach I have ever been to. That’s me surfing in the green shorts on the left. (ha ha) Remember swim lessons at Monbulk Pool? The swim teacher always said you could be in the Olympics one day, even though you never made it out of the second class. I would have given you a gold medal for splashing!

Have a great Christmas.

xxxx Roo

(If you want to write, please send via Laney)

26

Christmas Eve

Five minutes from the roadhouse, the road turned from a straight line to a series of dips and twists.

‘Faster!’ urged Tully, but Griffin slowed the car to move in a sinuous smooth line as he followed the marked strips down the middle of the road.

After a few wrong suggestions from Tully, they finally rounded a bend in the road. Chalky grey cliffs, fringed with scrubby trees, rose before them like a curtain.

‘It’s here,’ she said. ‘Turn right.’

Griffin pulled into a cleared section off the shoulder of the road and Tully thumped the door and left the car before the engine had stopped.

‘This is definitely it,’ she called out over her shoulder. ‘I can’t believe it’s still here.’

Griffin followed slowly with their makeshift lunch. A stick reared up as he stood on one end of it, and for a moment he thought it was a snake.

‘Jesus,’ he grumbled.

Just when it looked like the path became a dead-end, he heard a splash and followed the noise through a faint track in the scrub.

‘Tully?’

The scrub opened up to a cleared space and a narrow ledge overhanging a waterhole. Tall bulrushes lined the bank and narcissist saplings dipped towards the water. In the middle of the pool a set of concentric circles moved out in ever-widening ripples.

‘Tully?’ Griffin counted to thirty then thirty again. It had been at least a minute and a half since he’d first heard the splash. How long could a person hold their breath? ‘Tully!’ It was too long.

He threw the chips and drink to the ground, stepped out of this shoes and dived into the waterhole.

Griffin opened his eyes to a swirling mass of murky water as he grabbed wildly about him. Slimy reeds slid through his grasp and the darkness below him was impenetrable. He rose to the surface to grab a lungful of air, only to dive again and again. On his third ascent he broke the surface to see Tully looking down at him from the overhanging ledge. She was totally dry.

‘How is it?’ she asked.

‘I thought ... Jesus...’ A tremor shook him. ‘Didn’t you hear me? I thought—’

‘You thought I was in there? I threw a rock. Do you have all your clothes on? Where are the chips?’

Griffin hit the water, sending a spray in Tully’s direction.

‘You’d better hurry or you’ll miss out,’ she said, smiling.

Griffin swum lazily to the overhang. ‘Can you help me out?’ he asked.

Tully reached for his outstretched hand, realising too late his intent. ‘No!’ she cried, as he pulled her in with him. She dropped under the surface then immediately shot up like a cork out of a champagne bottle.

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