The Beaten Track by Louise Mangos

Author:Louise Mangos [Mangos, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781914480621
Publisher: Red Dog Associates
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

29

When I awoke, the sun was shining through the shutter of the bungalow, casting its stripes across my eyelids. I blinked hard and looked down at my body. I was still wearing the blouse I had put on for the beach party the previous night, but I was naked from the waist down. I scratched at a pair of mosquito bites on my elbow and cursed myself for not tucking in the net.

And then I knew. A crustiness on my inner thigh and a dull ache around my pelvis. When I acknowledged the vague burning between my legs, I was certain I’d had sex. The realisation made me blush. I looked around for signs of Kai’s presence, experiencing a tweak of alarm when I didn’t find any, not even a used condom. I blinked hard, trying to recall the evening. I wanted to remember every moment with Kai.

After I’d drunk some warm water from the bottle by my bed and visited the bathroom, I still couldn’t recall what had happened the night before. The last thing I remember was talking to Lee at the bar. I rubbed my eyes and smoothed the sheets on the mattress. I sat on the edge of the bed and combed my hair with my fingers. Could I have had a relapse of the dengue fever? No, this was different. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I couldn’t believe a few glasses of Mekong could do that.

When I had tidied both myself and the bungalow, I headed to the kitchen shelter where Mimu was preparing a late breakfast for a few people. The bonfire on the beach still smouldered. Vish was raking the sand around the bar. Lee was nowhere to be seen.

I recognised a few people sitting on the beach from last night’s party. It looked as though some of them had slept on the sand. Sleeping bags and sarongs were scattered in piles around them. I couldn’t see Kai.

To try and clear my head, I went back to the bungalow to change into my bikini. I waded into the bath-warm water of the bay and floated on my back between the gentle lines of surf. A wave lapped over my head. When I resurfaced, the soaking only served to make my temples ache and my eyes sting. Still no recall from the night before.

As I lay in the water, I studied the shoreline and the beach. I could see Kai’s bungalow, but it didn’t look like he was home. A sarong flapped in the breeze on the line strung under the overhang of his roof. I willed him to come out and see me. But it was late. He was probably already at the Tai Chi retreat giving a class.

I imagined him walking back along the trail, appearing above the beach next to my bungalow. I tried to think of the signs he might display to indicate he had slept with me last night. I licked the salt off my lips, and remembered I wasn’t wearing any sunscreen.

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