He gave her a few minutes and then he broke free from Cook and ran at Marco hard. He jumped on to his shoulders. At the same time Zheng bit down viciously on Marco’s hand as Cook raced to help his friend.
Marco yelled and dropped the box. Razi scooped it up and sprinted away. Zheng got away from Marco, only to be grabbed again by Cook.
Marco and Cook stopped and watched him run away, bemused. “What are the fools doing now?” said Marco. “They can’t get away without a boat. Idiots.”
Razi waded into the water and threw the box into the boat. He jumped in quickly as Shifa rowed off. “Zheng’s still caught,” he called to her. “We have to do something.”
They moved quickly round the island, enjoying seeing Marco and Cook’s enraged faces as they realised what was happening.
The men threw themselves and a protesting Zheng into their boat and gave chase.
“Take over, Razi,” said Shifa, jumping out of her seat.
Razi slid in and rowed hard, his arms moving like a machine, faster and faster.
“Give us Zheng,” Shifa yelled across the water. “And we’ll give you the box.”
Marco grimaced and pulled harder on his boat. Theirs was a modern contraption Razi had never seen in these parts. All sleek and smart, not like the traditional fishing boats Razi was used to, the ones his grandfather and great-grandfather had used before them. They made a terrible getaway vehicle.
Razi knew the men wouldn’t just hand Zheng over. He and Shifa would have to be very clever and sneaky. On the open seas Marco and Cook had everything over them. They were closing in all the time, Nathan’s little fishing boat just couldn’t keep far enough ahead of them.
Suddenly Marco’s boat bumped theirs hard, making them rock violently and nearly toppling Razi out. The box slid down towards the far end of the boat.
“Stop that!” shouted Shifa. “We said we’d give you the box. Just hand Zheng over.”
“Give us the box first,” said Marco, holding out his hands.
“No,” shouted Razi, rowing away from the men as their boat crept nearer. “Don’t do it, Shifa! They’re trying to trick us.”
Cook seemed to be tiring of holding down a wriggling Zheng. “Let’s get rid of this wastrel. He’s not worth the effort.”
Razi held his breath. They wouldn’t really do it, would they?
But to Razi’s utter shock and dismay Marco flicked a hand, and Cook threw Zheng overboard.
Zheng fell into the water with a surprised “Oh!”
Shifa and Razi were frozen with shock and just stared at the spot in the water where Zheng had disappeared.
Suddenly, from the depths, came a throb, throb, throb and a great gush of water showered the air. It was Maalu!
She gave Razi’s boat a friendly bump that shunted it backwards into Marco’s, knocking him off his feet. Marco swore and picked up a spade from the bottom of the boat, slapping it at Maalu to chase her away.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” Razi screamed.
Maalu keened in pain and disappeared below the surface.
Enraged, Razi grabbed his own spade, intending to beat Marco with it.
“How dare you, you monster!” yelled Shifa. Then Marco reached in and dragged her right out of the boat and into his.
Razi immediately threw the spade down and leaped after her. Nathan’s boat bobbed out from under him and began to float away.
Marco let go of Shifa and grabbed Razi. He picked up the spade he’d struck Maalu with and swung it at the boy. Shifa screamed and shoved the big man hard, sending him smacking down on to the deck.
Cook got up and cuffed Razi on his head. He held him down while Marco wrestled Shifa into a headlock. Shifa clawed at his arm but he was too strong.
“Where’s the dagger?” yelled Marco.
“Don’t hurt her!” screamed Razi. “It’s on the boat. Let her go!”
Cook and Marco looked to where Nathan’s boat was now drifting away into the blue distance.
Marco suddenly exploded in anger, spit flying all over the place. “YOU KIDS! You have brought me nothing but trouble.” He tightened his arm and Shifa spluttered. Razi yelled and kicked out at Cook as he struggled to free himself.
Shifa was in serious danger but she’d managed to pull something from her pocket. Razi couldn’t see what it was as he strained against Cook, kicking and screaming as he tried to reach her.
Suddenly Shifa clapped her hands over Marco’s face, and he let go of her and staggered back as if he’d been stung. He clutched at his throat and started wheezing loudly. Cook rushed to him, confused.
“You’ll be OK in a bit,” yelled Shifa, backing away and rubbing her neck. “Give it half an hour. Come on, Razi, we have a boat to catch.”
She grabbed her brother’s hand and together they jumped into the sea.
The two children watched as the men sped off after Nathan’s boat, Marco groaning and writhing in the back.
“Shifa!” Razi treaded water next to her. “Are you OK?”
“Yes, I’m fine!” sputtered Shifa. “We’ve got to get on our boat and find Zheng.”
“I’m here!” came a voice from behind them. Razi and Shifa gasped in amazement as Zheng swam up to them. “You two took your time,” he said. “I was beginning to think I’d have to save the day by myself. Look, they’re almost at the boat.”
“Good to see you too, Zheng,” said Razi, giving his friend a gentle thump on the shoulder.
Zheng beamed.
“Come on!” he cried, striking out after the men.
“What did you do to Marco?” shouted Razi, as he and Shifa began swimming after him.
“I had a prickly pear in my pocket. I noticed the other day he’s allergic,” Shifa panted. “Don’t worry, it’s not going to cause him any lasting damage.”
Razi couldn’t care less. Trust Shifa to worry about the health of a person who’d nearly killed her.
Zheng was swimming strongly but Nathan’s boat was still far out of reach. Razi and Shifa were way behind.
They were in deep trouble. They were literally in deep trouble.
Then they felt that now familiar rhythm from the deep again and Maalu appeared out of nowhere, gliding with speed through the water towards the men. As the children watched she slid directly under their boat and breached.
The children gasped as the boat flew up into the air and Maalu thwacked back into the ocean. Marco and Cook were thrown out like rag dolls and the boat smashed back into the sea with a massive thud. It landed well away from its capsized passengers.
Maalu had got her own revenge on Marco.
Razi was shaking in terror. What would happen to them now? Shifa looked ready to pass out. “We’ll be OK,” she said. “We need to be calm and think.”
Razi gulped. There was no land near enough to swim to. Both the boats were far out of reach. They were alone in the deep sea where fishermen rarely ventured.
Razi looked round suddenly. “Where’s Zheng?”
Shifa’s hair was plastered down over her face and she was shivering. “H-he was somewhere up ahead. I thought I saw a head before.”
But the sea around them was empty. All they could see was more and more water lapping endlessly around them. No sign of the two men either. All around was just blue sparkling sea, the sound of whale song and the splash of dolphins.
Razi plunged down into the ocean and looked about its blurred depths. Far below him on the seabed the corals reached up in tentacles of red and buds of thorny mauve. The hair on his back rose as a creepy sensation overwhelmed him. The ocean inside and outside was hauntingly lonely.
Maalu was coming towards them now, gliding through the water as if to see what they thought of her shenanigans with Marco.
Razi surfaced and called out, “Zheng!”
A few metres away Shifa was shouting for Zheng too.
Razi took a deep breath and plunged back under the surface. Opening his eyes again, he noticed a hazy, undulating shadow coming towards him.
He put out his hand. Krill. The little fish that whales ate. There was a massive shoal of them in front of him.
Then suddenly he was in middle of it.
The sea went dark as a huge shape blotted out the light. Maalu! A cold fear gripped him. She was thundering towards him, on her side and mouth wide open, scooping up the krill.
Razi froze in terror.
Whales don’t eat people. Whales don’t eat people. Whales don’t eat people! He repeated it over and over but she was coming towards him so fast he was hypnotised. What an end to his life! Maalu powered towards him and Razi felt her jaws close round his body and a crushing pain pressed down on his hips.
He was caught in the mouth of the largest animal ever.
The ocean and the sky were the same brilliant blue, both bleeding into each other and blending as one. Zheng felt the wind hum past him, cool and refreshing, as he flew through the water on the back of the whale. Someone was sitting behind him. He looked round and saw it was Shifa, laughing in glee as they skimmed through the waves.
Zheng looked around him in astonishment. This couldn’t be real. Sure, he’d been on a lot of adventures but this one was unparalleled. Even for him.
And where was Razi?
Something loomed up in front of them. Zheng squinted into the distance. Was that land? The whale dived down and Zheng grabbed its barnacled body as they plummeted into the depths, then everything went black again.
Zheng opened his eyes. It was evening and he was lying on a beach, sandy and wet. A wave came in and washed over his legs. The sun was setting over on the other side of the islet.
His chest felt full and heavy. Sand was in his hair, his face, his clothes. Even inside his mouth.
It took him a moment to realise where he was. The islet and cliff top looked bare and lonely.
“Razi! Shifa!” Zheng crawled up the beach and pulled himself up. Terror and grief tore through him at the memory of what had happened. What had he done to his friends?
There was a movement behind him and Zheng ran towards it. Shifa was lying on the beach too, even more sandy and woozy than he was. She sat up and tried to brush the sand out of her eyes.
Zheng knelt down at her side. Relief flooded through him.
“I’m OK,” she said, dusting off sand from her hair. “Where’s Razi?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Shifa got up and called out. “Razi?” She ran around the islet, calling his name. Zheng went up to the cliff to look, but both islet and sea were deserted.
He came down dejectedly. “Last I saw, he was…” Zheng couldn’t continue.
Shifa swallowed. A clump of sand fell off her bedragggled hair. “He was dangling out of the mouth of the whale.”
Zheng didn’t want to think about the rest.
“It must have been an accident,” she said. “Maalu’s so big and Razi’s so small she can’t have seen him in the middle of the krill. I thought I would go mad with screaming. I think I saw her spit him out but I feel like I passed out and now I don’t know what happened for sure.”
“I don’t know what happened to me either. Things went strange after that.”
Shifa walked through the beach and sat on the flat rock. She shook her head. “How did we get here?”
“You’ll never believe it,” said Zheng. “We came on the back of a whale.”
Razi woke up with a gasp when he slammed into something hard.
He was still in the ocean, but now he found himself clinging semi-consciously on to part of Marco’s boat. It was empty and battered but it was still afloat.
Razi hauled himself up and flopped down inside. Where was he, and what was going on? Suddenly everything came back to him and Razi started. Shifa! Where was she? Zheng!
He stared around him wildly. Nothing but empty ocean. Or was it?
“Shifa!” he yelled. “Zheng!”
There was an answering cry and Razi steered the boat straight to where it came from. To his surprise it was Cook, his clothes ballooning out around him.
Without a word Razi helped him into the boat. Cook clambered in heavily, almost pulling Razi back into the water in the process.
The man lay down, completely depleted. He seemed to be in a bad way. Razi ignored him and continued to shout for Shifa and Zheng. But the next person he came across was Marco.
He turned the boat and left him there as Marco called out to him. No way was he going to jeopardise his own life while he was looking for Shifa and Zheng.
Razi hadn’t gone more than a few metres before guilt overcame him. Shifa would never act like him. He went back for Marco and hoped he wouldn’t regret his actions.
But of course, once Marco was in the boat, he immediately turned it in the direction of Serendib, despite Razi’s protestations.
“Get away from me!” he yelled at Razi. His thick, muscular features were stony with rage and disappointment. “Unless you want me to throw you back in the water.”
Razi slumped back down. He couldn’t fight Marco alone. He stared into the water as the boat sped away and the tears fell as he realised there was no way he would ever find Shifa and Zheng now.
“Let’s take it one step at a time,” said Zheng. “This isn’t as bad as it looks.”
Shifa sighed. “Yes, I’m sure you’ve survived eight weeks on a desert island in the company of a scorpion, or were raised by polar bears for six months of your life, so this is nothing.”
Zheng was a bit put out by her dismissive tone. “You know, Shifa, I’m starting to get the feeling you don’t believe the things I say.”
Shifa ignored him and went to fill up the hole they’d dug earlier, so that the turtle’s rest wouldn’t be disturbed.
It was getting dark and Zheng knew they couldn’t do much now anyway.
“There’s a bit of shelter at the foot of the cliff,” said Shifa after a while. “And there’s some food we had to leave behind when we were escaping.”
Zheng trudged to the piece of ground surrounded by coconut trees where Shifa had spread out a waterproof sheet and was taking some food out of a round-bottomed cane basket.
She handed him some slabs of something he couldn’t identify but which tasted delicious.
“Listen, Zheng, I’m sorry about earlier,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be so dismissive of you. We have to work together if we want to survive.”
“I’d like that,” said Zheng, nodding. “I’m sorry I’ve annoyed you with my stories. It’s so tiresome to have led such an exciting life.”
Shifa burst out laughing. “Don’t worry, Zheng, and please never change.”
The stars twinkled overhead as the sound of the waves washed comfortingly around them. “I think Razi is very lucky to have a sister like you. It’s something I never had.”
Shifa smiled. She actually looked a little overcome. “You can consider me the sister you never had then. After all, you do irritate me like a true sibling.”
Zheng laughed. They went to sleep soon after the meal, curling up at either end of the sheltered ground.
His heart hurt him, but not with sadness. He thought he’d lost the only family he’d ever known, but it looked like it was always possible to find a new one.
Early the next morning Zheng was awoken by the sound of cormorants whistling and thrashing about in the water. It was still dark but a sliver of light was coming over the horizon. Shifa wasn’t there but he heard her moving about on the beach.
He was about to join her when his eyes fell on the few remaining supplies in the basket. Just a few slabs of sesame toffee remained next to a box of matches.
He went out to wash and stopped halfway.
A box of matches. They had matches in their basket. Still dry and perfectly usable.
Zheng shouted for Shifa. She was watching the leatherback shuffle up the beach again in its usual dawn ritual.
“Look what we have!” He ran out, shaking the box of matches. “And dry too. We could light a fire. Someone might
see it.”
“All the way here? Who’s going to see it here?”
Zheng shrugged. “It’s worth a try, don’t you think? Smoke rising from the middle of the sea? Someone might come check it out. A boat passing somewhere close by.”
Shifa smiled. “Come on.” She ran towards the cliff. “Let’s build it as high as possible.”
Zheng dragged some branches to the top of the cliff and Shifa arranged them carefully, set a match to them and, when the flame caught, she blew gently on it through a tube she’d made with a hollow coconut shell.
Soon a fire was roaring at the top of the cliff, and they stood back to admire it.
“Now what?” said Shifa, looking at the smoke rising into the sky.
“We wait,” said Zheng.
By afternoon they were still keeping the fire going but starting to lose hope. They were both beginning to think no one was going to rescue them but neither wanted to say it out loud.
“How long can we keep this up?” said Zheng, as he took up another batch of branches.
“As long as it takes.” Shifa looked towards the sea. There was nothing there now. The turtle was long gone and even the whales and dolphins had left for the day. “We need to get back home and find Razi.”
“Shifa,” said Zheng. He shuffled his feet in the hot sand. “There is the possibility you know, that Razi is, er…”
“No,” she said simply.
Zheng was about to say something when she interrupted.
“I don’t know how to explain it. Razi and I are twins. If-if he was dead, I’d know it.”
Zheng nodded. He didn’t understand the feeling but it felt true to him.
“What’s that?” said Shifa suddenly, getting off the rock and pointing into the distance.
“Where?” Zheng squinted but couldn’t see anything.
“There!” Shifa’s voice was trembling with excitement. She dashed to the cliff and climbed up.
Zheng got up to follow. Shifa screamed, and her words floated down to him.
“It’s a boat! It’s a boat, Zheng! Someone’s coming to get us.”
The Boy Who Met a Whale Page 8