One Endless Summer

by Laurie Ellingham

  They fell silent. Ben flicked off the switch on his camera and closed the digital screen

  ‘I’m sorry about your friend,’ he said.

  She shrugged. ‘Thanks. It was a long time ago.’

  ‘I’m sorry about your tumour too. It can’t be easy knowing you’re about to die.’

  Lizzie drew in a sharp breath, her head jerking to look at him. Her vision blurred. The colours of the sunrise now dancing across her eyes like an abstract replay.

  She nodded and stood up, scrunching her eyes shut for a second. ‘So what did you think of your first sunrise?’ she asked, hoping to guide the conversation back to safe territory before Ben saw the fear lurking beneath the surface of her skin. She’d seen what she’d come for. A sunrise so spectacular there weren’t the words to describe it, so why did she feel suddenly deflated? The high of the previous night was gone. Another night gone.

  ‘It was spectacular, I’ll give you that,’ Ben said. ‘But I’m not sure it was worth the hours in the back of that truck.’

  ‘Just as I suspected.’ She forced herself to smile. ‘Not human at all. Now, how about breakfast?’

  ‘Definitely,’ he said. ‘I could murder a fry-up, or some cereal or a croissant. Some toast would do. Anything really that isn’t noodles or rice. What are the chances, do you suppose?’

  ‘Slim to none, I’d guess.’ She smiled, her mood lifting.

  ‘Me too.’ He smirked. ‘Noodles it is then. Oh, and by the way, don’t go thinking you can use me as a human pillow again on the journey back.’

  Lizzie snorted as she looked at Ben and the mischief glinting in his eyes.

  ‘And there I was thinking it was you using me for warmth.’

  They laughed and fell into an easy stroll out of the temple grounds.

  CHAPTER 16

  Day 7

  Samantha

  The sky above the clearing was grey. Not the dark, mottled grey of the two elephants strolling across the land ten metres in front of them, but a light grey, the colour of the washed-out, cement, tower block Samantha had grown up in.

  Despite the cloud, or maybe because of it, the heat of the morning was bearing down on them as they waited to meet the owner of the Mondulkiri Project. Samantha fanned her hat towards her face, but it did nothing to cool the slick layer of moisture forming on her forehead.

  The trance-like exhaustion Samantha had felt when she’d scrambled down from the night bus and slid into an equally hot, equally loud, military-style old Land Rover two hours ago, had vanished. She had no doubt her fatigue would return soon enough, but for now her body raced with the nervous excitement of being in close proximity to such magnificent animals.

  The larger of the elephants turned in a slow arc and ambled towards them, her trunk swinging and snuffling against the grass. As she drew closer, her ears flapped back and forth, waving a greeting, or so it seemed to Samantha.

  Samantha reached for Lizzie’s hand, wrapping it in her own as the elephant drew closer. A smile touched Lizzie’s face before she looped her own free hand into Jaddi’s.

  ‘This … is … amazing,’ Lizzie whispered. ‘I’m so glad we’re here.’

  ‘Me too,’ Jaddi said.

  They stayed like that, their hands entwined, silent and waiting. It was a moment Samantha would remember forever.

  It wasn’t just the first elephant Samantha had been close too, but the first one she’d ever seen in real life, and they were so much larger than she’d imagined. All the years she’d lived in London, all the times she’d promised herself, this summer, this year, I’ll visit the zoo. And she never had. ‘Children go to the zoo,’ David had mocked when she’d asked him to take her as a birthday gift last year. ‘All those families and pushchairs, no thanks. Let’s enjoy a day with the papers on the riverbank somewhere, save the zoo for when we’ve got kids of our own.’

  In fairness, she hadn’t told him that she’d never been to a zoo, never seen the animals she knew only from television and books. Tigers, monkeys, penguins and so many more. It had been too ridiculous to voice; it still was. A twenty-nine-year-old woman living a tube ride away from one of the best zoos in the world and she’d never gone.

  When she was younger there’d been no thought on her mother’s part to take Samantha or her two older brothers to see animals, or anything else for that matter. There’d been no money for it, even if her mother had been struck by the idea. Samantha had been to plenty of farms though, tiptoeing around pens of cows and sheep with a clipboard and pencil, trying to avoid the squelchiest areas of mud because she didn’t own a pair of wellies. Some initiative with inner-city schools and forging a connection with rural life, because inner-city school children needed to see cows and sheep, it seemed, but not elephants. By the time Samantha had been old enough to have her own bank account and earn her own money from a weekend job at New Look, she’d been too hell-bent on saving for her A level books, university and escape to think about spending her wages on a day out to the zoo. Her mother had frittered every penny of her money away on nothing. Samantha hadn’t been about to risk making the same mistake.

  The smell was the same as the farm though, she thought, as the elephant stopped a metre in front of them, her ears still flapping but her trunk now still, and her black eyes watching them. One elephant was emitting the same musky manure odour as an entire field of cattle.

  ‘Hey there,’ Samantha cooed, holding out her empty palm as the huge bulk of the creature towered over them. Up close the elephant was as much dusty-orange as it was grey. The skin around her legs, trunk and eyes was ringed with lines, but the top of her head and back were smooth. The elephant lifted her trunk up and brushed its prickly nostrils against Samantha’s hand, covering it in warm slimy liquid. ‘Nice to meet you too.’ She laughed.

  ‘Hello, my Mondulkiri family friends,’ a short, dark-haired man said, stepping close to the elephant and rubbing the side of her face. ‘I am Chris, owner of Mondulkiri Elephant project. This is my son, Narith.’ Chris motioned to the teenage boy who’d collected them in the Land Rover from the nearby town. He was the same height as his father, with the same small nose and dimpled chin. ‘He will take you on trek today. He is your brother this week. Help him with his English, please, he is learning. In return he will show you how to care for our elephants.’

  The elephant began to nudge the end of her trunk against Chris’s body. He batted her away but pulled out a banana from a pocket in his trousers. The elephant circled it in her trunk before swinging it into her upturned mouth.

  ‘Thank you for agreeing to spending your next six days with us,’ Chris continued, his English accented with the same Southeast Asian tones she’d heard from the Cambodian natives they’d met. ‘There is lot of work to do this time of year. Today you will go on trek with two of our elephants, bond and clean them, see some of Cambodia’s beautiful jungle. Rest of week, lots of jobs to do. Fences to build. We have many more space for elephants. Ten more. Twenty. But no money. Elephants are big tourist business. We must pay for business if we want owners to give us their animals. Elephants are not free. Maybe people in your country watching this, maybe they like our Mondulkiri elephants. They give us money to buy more elephants.’ Chris smiled into Ben’s camera as he spoke. He had two teeth missing from the top row but his smile was wide and genuine.

  ‘Today you will take Happy –’ he patted the elephant’s neck ‘– and her friend Comvine for walk in jungle. Comvine is our youngest elephant. She is thirty years old. And Happy, she is our newest elephant. She has been with us only six months.’ Chris shook his head, his smile disappearing. ‘You see, her scars.’ Chris pointed to an area of deep, black grooves on the bottom of Happy’s front legs.

  Samantha’s stomach flipped as she stared at Happy’s injuries. How could someone harm such amazing creatures?

  ‘Happy came to us from Siem Reap. She worked giving tourists rides. All day, up and down. No water. She was very ill when she came here. One more day, maybe two, she d
ead. So you see, she is happy.’ Chris smiled, scratching an area behind Happy’s ear. ‘So I say bye bye now, and I see you in huts for dinner.’ Chris stepped over to his son and spoke in a fast Khmer dialect. Narith nodded before beckoning them to follow him.

  ‘Bath time.’ He turned and grinned at them.

  They followed Narith and the two elephants into an area with trees so dense that at first it seemed impossible to Samantha that humans could find a way through, let alone two wide elephants. But soon enough, they saw well-trodden elephant tracks leading them down a long slope.

  Birds called from the treetops above them. The sound was like the yelping city foxes Samantha could hear at night from their east London flat, but louder and with a pitch that pierced her eardrums. Twice Samantha looked up into the canopies and saw flashes of brown fur moving through the trees, keeping pace with them.

  They heard the water before they saw it. The pounding splatter of a waterfall and crickets so loud and in abundance that it sounded like a car alarm.

  Happy and Comvine picked up their pace as they reached the water, their legs thundering the ground as they broke into a trot, marching straight into the water, Happy veering to the left and Comvine to the right. They sunk down until only the top of their heads and backs were visible.

  ‘We clean like this,’ Narith said, wading into the water in his T-shirt and shorts and rubbing his hands against Comvine. She responded with a loud short trump. ‘You come.’ He beckoned to them.

  They dropped their packs, slid off their shoes, unhooked their microphones and stepped across the smooth slippery stones. Ankles, shins, knees, thighs, they waded into the cold water, then hesitated, lifting onto their tiptoes as the water skimmed their belly buttons.

  ‘We should just drop in,’ Jaddi said. ‘It won’t feel so cold after that.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Samantha said, ‘you first.’

  Just then Comvine blew her trunk again, shooting a spray of water into the air, and soaking the tops of their heads.

  ‘Ah.’ Lizzie laughed. ‘Might as well dunk now,’ she said before dropping into the water.

  Samantha did the same and swam the rest of the way to Happy, lying still and peaceful in the water.

  ‘Hey, Happy,’ she whispered, her feet finding the stony waterbed. Samantha’s hand quivered as she ran her fingers over Happy’s rough wet skin.

  Narith waded across to her and placed his hand over her fingers. ‘Like this,’ he said, pushing her hand harder against Happy’s body. ‘She likes it.’ He turned to the shore and waved at Ben. ‘I …’ Narith pointed at Ben’s camera and nodded.

  ‘He wants to hold the camera, Ben,’ Jaddi called out, ‘so you can come and join us. Stop being a cameraman for five minutes. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.’

  ‘Come on, Ben,’ Lizzie called, ‘you have to do this!’

  Ben smiled and moved the camera to Narith’s shoulder. ‘It’s heavy, isn’t it?’

  ‘Heavy, yes.’ Narith nodded, moving the camera up and down with him. ‘Very heavy.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Ben said, then dove below the surface, only reappearing when he reached Lizzie’s side.

  Jaddi grinned. ‘I can’t believe they just lie here for us.’

  ‘Like getting a massage, I guess,’ Ben said.

  Comvine curled her trunk over her head, showering herself with water, along with Ben, Lizzie and Jaddi in the process.

  Ben and Lizzie burst out laughing.

  ‘Hey, cut that out!’ Lizzie exclaimed.

  ‘Ben –’ Jaddi wiped the water from her face ‘– I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile so much.’

  He laughed. ‘It’s like you said. It’s once in a lifetime.’

  Samantha smiled at Comvine’s antics, but she was glad to have Happy all to herself as she worked her hands over the elephant’s body. It was the rip across Happy’s ear that broke her concentration, and stopped her dead.

  All at once, David intruded into her peace. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt his hand pressing the tape over her mouth, forcing it on hard, too hard. The iron bed creaking as he moved over her naked body, tugging at each of the restraints holding her spread-eagled to the bed … the beep of the video recorder and the sick feeling knotting in her stomach and the bile rising in her throat.

  Something brushed her shoulder, jolting her backwards, her eyes shooting open. She staggered before realising it was Happy’s trunk.

  As her eyes drew to the gashes and grooves that told the tragic story of Happy’s life, Samantha felt an inexplicable connection to the elephant, as if Happy could see the mental scars inside Samantha just as easily as Samantha could see Happy’s. As if Happy understood all too well the memories bombarding her head. Samantha ran her fingers over the jagged edges of the rip in the elephant’s ear and felt the pain as her own.

  Just like that, the veil dropped. She’d spent the past two weeks trying to convince herself that the man she loved, the man she’d planned to marry one day, wasn’t the same man that had treated her like that in his bedroom the day she’d left, but he was. And standing in the water, running her hands over the scars of the most magnificent animal Samantha had ever seen, she saw David, the real David, with a clarity that chilled her to the bone.

  The sing-song voice he used to sugar-coat the belittling remarks that chipped away at her. All of her. Is that really what you want to wear? Are you sure you want to eat all that? She’ll have the Caesar salad, won’t you, darling? It wasn’t just her looks or her body, but her mind and her friendship with Lizzie and Jaddi too. Doesn’t it bother you that Lizzie and Jaddi do so many things without you? Applying for a promotion? Really? Well, if you’re sure.

  How could she ever have loved someone who could hurt her in so many unspeakable ways?

  The realisation of what David had done, like a fist in her abdomen, forced the air right out of her lungs. Samantha spun away from Happy, the nausea building. She gagged and choked gasping to breathe.

  ‘Sam?’ Jaddi shouted. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Sam?’ Lizzie called, their voices drawing closer.

  Samantha heard the sound of water splashing as her friends moved towards her. She had to compose herself. She wasn’t ready to tell them. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

  ‘What happened?’ Jaddi asked, touching Samantha’s back.

  ‘I’m OK.’ Samantha swallowed hard as she spoke. ‘A bug flew into my mouth. I choked on it.’

  Jaddi laughed. ‘Is that all?’

  Samantha pulled herself upright, forcing away another wave of sickness.

  ‘Are you sure that’s all?’ Lizzie frowned. ‘You don’t look well.’

  ‘It was a big bug,’ she said with a meek smile.

  ‘We go now,’ Narith called from the edge.

  Samantha looked up, surprised to see Happy and Comvine already out of the water and Ben holding his camera once more. She waded to the edge and back to dry land, shivering, but not from cold. She looked down at her shorts and T-shirt, already starting to dry, misshapen and clinging to her skin.

  Samantha slipped on her shoes and pulled out her phone from her bag. One unread message blinked on her home screen: David: What are you up to today baby? Missing you xx

  With shaking hands she tapped out a reply: It’s over between us. I’m blocking your number. Don’t try to contact me.

  A red ‘message failed’ icon appeared on the screen. No signal. Damn!

  Samantha found David’s number in her contacts and pressed block. She deleted all the messages in her inbox and stuffed her phone back into her bag. As soon as they reached a place with signal again, David would get the message.

  The rose-tinted glasses, the veil – whatever it was that had clouded her judgement about David – had gone, and it was never coming back.

  Just then, Samantha felt a movement above her head. She looked up to find the long wrinkled trunk of Happy sniffing her hair before bringing her trunk down and running it over Samantha’s cheek. A sense of peac
e travelled over her.

  ‘She like you.’ Narith laughed as Samantha smiled and wiped away the slime from her face.

  ‘I like you too, Happy,’ she said, patting the elephant’s neck and pushing thoughts of David away. She knew she couldn’t ignore him forever, in her head, or in reality, but she wanted to try, for Lizzie and for herself. This was the trip of a lifetime for all of them and she wouldn’t let him take that away from her.

  CHAPTER 17

  Lizzie

  Lizzie steadied her feet, leant forward and stared over the rock edge. Then a smile stretched across her face. The water below was dark blue, almost black.

  ‘There has to be some kind of mistake,’ Samantha whispered, her eyes darting to the edge of the rock and to Narith. ‘Didn’t Chris say his son was still learning English? Surely he’s muddled his words and means we should look over the edge.’

  ‘You jump,’ Narith said for the second time, smiling the same wide smile as his father, but teeth intact, and pointing into the water. ‘It safe.’ Lizzie glanced over the edge one more time. The drop, twenty metres, maybe a little less, hadn’t seemed that far down as they’d followed the path along the cliff edge to the top. That was, until Narith had told them to jump off. Now it seemed like a very long way down. A buzz of excitement coursed through her body.

  She looked at Ben, positioned well back from the edge. His face behind the scope was one of amusement. She turned to the others and lowered her voice so as not to offend Narith. ‘Do you think he’s got his English in a muddle?’

  ‘Absolutely.’ Samantha nodded at the exact same moment Jaddi shook her head.

  ‘It’s cliff jumping.’ Jaddi grinned. ‘We have to do it. You heard him, it’s safe.’

  Samantha turned to Narith. ‘We,’ she said, pointing to herself and the others, ‘jump –’ she made a dive signal with her hands ‘– into the water.’