Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger

Author:Joseph Monninger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

IT WAS CLOSE TO sunset when a pony cart pulled into Freddy’s compound and the driver jumped out, yelling for the doctor. It didn’t make sense at first, then it sank in: they wanted Mary. Someone on the island had heard she was a doctor and they did not make the distinction between a physician and a Ph.D.

Freddy, inside and bent over a computer console with Lloyd, stepped out and asked the driver what he wanted.

The man spoke rapidly and pointed south toward Lombok. Freddy nodded.

“He says a boy has been bitten by a banded sea snake,” Freddy said. “They think so, anyway. The boy is unconscious but his friends report they were snorkeling and suddenly found themselves in a nesting area. One of them was bitten.”

“I’ll go,” Mary said.

She had been reading on the veranda. I had been in our room trying to find something interesting to say about Thoreau. It wasn’t fruitful.

“I’ll go with you,” Freddy said, “but they need to know you’re not a physician.”

Freddy spoke quickly to the driver. The driver nodded, but didn’t seem to care about the distinction for the time being.

I jumped up and went with them. We squeezed into the back of the janur. The driver—a solid looking man of about fifty, with graying hair and a few strands of beard extending from his chin—whipped the pony to get it moving. The pony trotted faster. The driver squeezed a small horn to make a squawk that scattered the people as we moved past. A number of people motioned for him to slow down, but the driver didn’t hesitate. He kept the pony moving at a good clip. The janur bounced along and knocked Freddy and me against the roof a dozen times.

“What do you know about sea snakes?” Freddy asked.

“I actually know a little bit,” Mary said. “They dry strike about seventy percent of the time. They have a lousy delivery system. If they do break the skin, they are about ten times more lethal than a rattlesnake. Nerve toxin. It will shut down the boy’s breathing. They’re related to cobras.”

“Do you know the boy?” I asked Freddy.

He shook his head and said, “I know the family. The driver is an uncle, I think.”

“Do they have antivenom in the infirmary?” Mary asked.

Freddy shook his head.

“It’s the same compound as tiger snakes in Australia, so it should be pretty common,” Mary said. “If you can call someone, it’s not that rare.”

“There’s no one really to call,” Freddy said.

“Well, we’ll do our best,” Mary said.

We arrived at a small thatched hut set back from the main road. A number of Indonesians clustered around the door. Two white chicks pecked at the ground in the middle of the road. A tabby cat watched them from the top of an earthen wall, its eyes lazy and predatory at the same time. A woman who sold chicken satay had set up a table on the other side of the street and did business with one hand while keeping her eye on the hut with the injured boy.

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