Ross River Fever

by Christopher Cummings

  “You’ll see when it’s finished,” Martin replied.

  “Is that what you are working on in your shed?” Andrew asked.

  Martin nodded but did not elaborate. “Go on. Be back for lunch.”

  Carmen arrived with Snoopy on a leash. The puppy was very excited and scampered around her, twisting the lead around her legs and making them all laugh. Still curious about Martin’s secret project Andrew followed the two girls outside. Snoopy led the way, his tail wagging, nose down, sniffing every smell in the street. The teenagers followed in a happy group, Andrew favouring his sore leg.

  They followed the walking track along the river bank upstream. This led across a small area of park and then along past more houses for several hundred metres and then across another small park to the footbridge over the flooded backwater at the Palmetum. The friends stopped on the bridge to look down at the tortoises. Andrew thought the backwater would be fun to explore in a canoe. From up on the footbridge he noted that it wound in under some trees at the Palmetum.

  They watched the tortoises for a while and discussed whether they were waiting for people to drop food or not. Andrew liked watching the tortoises but he was irritated by mosquitoes. He glanced down and discovered that several had begun to feast on his legs. He slapped at them and suggested they continue.

  The group resumed their walk. A hundred metres further on, at the point where the Palmetum gave way to the ‘Good Shepherd’ Hospice, they had to pick Snoopy up to escape the attentions of a large, black dog which came trotting along. Andrew picked up a stick in case the black dog became aggressive but it only sniffed and growled before continuing on.

  As Snoopy was lowered back to the grass Andrew’s attention was drawn to the other bank of the river by loud shouts. The friends were almost opposite the swimming pontoon at that point. He shaded his eyes to look. Running figures could be seen on the other bank.

  “It’s those urchins,” he commented. Even as he said this he saw more running figures:- the bullies! They were obviously chasing the urchins. Two of the bullies appeared on top of the bank on bikes: Jay and Troy. Forman and Shaun were on foot. The two on bikes quickly drew ahead and then turned to run down the bank ahead of the urchins, cutting them off.

  “Those damned bullies!” Andrew snorted, pointing to the chase across the river. He looked around for some way to intervene, but knew it was hopeless. They were two hundred metres downstream from the road bridges and it would take six or seven minutes to run across to the other bank.

  The bullies were plainly bent on catching the urchins and their angry shouts and obscenities carried clearly across the water. The urchins saw that they were cut-off and came to a standstill, in obvious fear and indecision.

  Carmen shook her head. “They’ll catch them,” she observed. “Ooh! I wish we could get over there!”

  The urchins could see they had no chance of escape along the bank. Rat turned and ran down to the edge of the water, even as Forman rushed in to grab at him. Rat plunged in fully clothed and began to swim. After a moment’s hesitation Toad and Maggot also dived in and began swimming. The bullies stopped on the river bank, shouting crude comments and threats.

  Andrew felt a twinge of concern. “Surely those kids aren’t going to try to swim right across here,” he muttered. It was well over a hundred metres and the water was thick with lilies and floating weed.

  “It certainly looks like it,” Carmen replied. She had a worried frown on her face and she bit her lip with anxiety. Rat was definitely heading straight across the river. The other two followed for a time, then slowed. All three had started out swimming overarm but they quickly tired and changed to breast stroke.

  Andrew watched as Forman gave instructions to Jay and Troy who both climbed on their bikes again and set off along the bank towards the road bridges. “I think those two are heading for here,” he observed. He felt his heart sink. That would mean more trouble and he was not in the mood for it.

  The three urchins stopped swimming about thirty metres from the far bank and began to tread water. Forman jeered at them, then peeled off his boots and T-shirt with the obvious intention of chasing them in the water. Rat turned and began swimming again. Reluctantly Toad and Maggot followed, their speed increasing as Forman waded in and set off after them.

  Andrew stood watching, wishing he could just walk away but knowing he could not. Turning to Letitia he said, “You’d better take Snoopy and head off home Letitia. There is liable to be a fight.”

  Letitia picked Snoopy up but was reluctant to leave. By then Troy and Jay were at the far end of the road bridge and the three urchins were in mid-stream.

  “That third boy is in trouble I think,” Carmen said. Andrew looked. It was true. Maggot was falling behind and floundering.

  “It’s a long swim,” Andrew agreed. “I hope they are alright.”

  “He isn’t,” Carmen replied. “Look. He has stopped swimming.”

  Even as she said this Maggot waved his arms and called to Rat and Toad, both of whom were now about twenty metres ahead of him.

  A frightened ‘help!’ carried across the water to the watching trio. Andrew felt his stomach contract. Without further thought he began peeling off his gym boots. Maggot was clearly in trouble. Forman was closest, being about thirty metres from him but Maggot was still struggling to get away from him.

  By then Maggot was just past half way. He cried out again, fear evident in his voice. He waved his arms, then just slipped from sight.

  Carmen gasped. “Oh my God! He’s gone under!” she cried. She also began tugging off her gym boots. Andrew felt sick with apprehension. He peeled off his shirt and shouted to Rat and Toad, pointing behind them. They were both struggling and obviously tiring and took no notice. Andrew shook his head in dismay, then ran down the bank and dived in.

  He struck the water flat in a racing dive so that he slid across the weeds and floating lilies. Even so he felt the slimy weeds snatch at his legs and arms. He began swimming as strongly as he could, keeping his head clear of the water to scan the surface for Maggot. Rat went puffing past him.

  “Your mate has gone under,” Andrew gasped as he swam past. Rat heard him and looked back but kept swimming. Toad simply ignored Andrew. He looked glassy-eyed from exhaustion and Andrew worried that he might not make it across either.

  As he powered on out through the weeds Andrew’s eyes scanned the surface anxiously but there was no sign of Maggot. At every stroke he hoped to see the boy’s head break surface but there was no sign of him. Only the splashing progress of Forman broke the surface. As he swam Andrew tried to memorise the place where Maggot had gone under but found he wasn’t sure. He began to feel frantic. Sick with dread at possibly being too late he kept swimming, aware that his own breath was already coming in hot gasps and that his arms were starting to feel heavy.

  It was at least fifty metres out to where he had last seen Maggot. As he drew close to where he thought he had last seen him Forman saw him and changed direction towards him, then stopped in puzzlement when he saw that he was not one of the urchins. His face curled into a sneer.

  “What are you up to Shitface?” Forman snarled across the water. For a moment Andrew thought he might have to fight with Forman in the water, which he feared would be a deadly process. He stopped swimming and gulped in air. “One of those kids has gone under. He must be just near you.”

  “Gone under?” Forman replied. He looked down, then around the surface of the river. Andrew did likewise. He saw that Rat had reached the bank and was climbing out. Toad was almost there and Carmen was down in the water reaching forward to help him.

  “He’s gone under! He’s drowning!” Andrew cried. A feeling of sick desperation swept through him and he pointed down. “He is here somewhere, drowning. Help me look for him.”

  A look of pure fear crossed Forman’s face. He swore and turned around, then started swimming back towards the far bank.

  “Come back! Help me look!” Andrew cried, but
he was gasping for breath and could only tread water for a moment. He looked frantically around but there was no sign of Maggot. Unsure of whether he was in the right place he turned and yelled to Carmen.

  “Am I in the right place?”

  “Yes. It was somewhere just near there,” Carmen yelled back. Andrew saw that Toad was now up on the bank and that Troy and Jay were pedalling towards them along the walkway. He ignored them. ‘They won’t give any trouble now,’ he decided. Instead he turned back to the murky water and looked down. There was no sign of bubbles or movement. After hesitating for a moment he took a deep breath and put his head underwater. He did not want to start swimming around under there as he could feel the weeds brushing at his legs and arms.

  A minute’s search convinced him it was hopeless. The water was so murky and dark and the area so large that he quickly realized he had little chance of finding the boy. The thought of Maggot drowning somewhere quite close while he could not help him made Andrew feel nauseous. It did not seem possible. Andrew kept looking around, hoping to see the boy’s head break surface at any moment, unable to accept the terrible reality.

  The dread made him more and more frantic in his efforts. He kept ducking under and even risked diving right down into the blackness till he encountered cold, slimy ooze. But it was no good. Each time he came up gasping and shivering, aware that he might now be in trouble himself. He realized his arms felt like lead and that his vision was going blurry. He was just aware enough to realize he had to use common sense.

  Reluctantly, and feeling sick at heart, Andrew stopped diving and lay floating on his back to rest and recover his breath. ‘A good five minutes must have elapsed by now,’ he thought. That calculation made him feel even sicker as he knew in his mind that the boy must now have drowned. But even so he was reluctant to give up. It was Carmen who insisted he come ashore.

  With slow strokes Andrew side stroked back to the bank, worrying that he might have tired himself too much. He realized he was in real peril so he concentrated on his breathing and swimming. It was an exhausted and utterly wretched boy who was helped up the bank by the two girls.

  The two urchins stood there shivering and looking wide-eyed with fear and disbelief. Of Troy and Jay there was no sign.

  Andrew slumped down and retched. “Sorry, I could.. couldn’t... f..find h.. h.. him,” he croaked.

  Carmen put her arms around him and tried to comfort him. “You did your best. It’s not your fault. It was those bullies.”

  The bullies! Where were they? Andrew raised his head. Forman was back on the other bank, walking quickly away with Shaun.

  “We.. we.. m.. must get help!” he croaked.

  “The Hospice. I’ll phone,” Carmen cried. She turned and ran up the bank. Letitia knelt and put her arms around Andrew. Snoopy snuffled at his ear and licked his face. Andrew stared at the river and shivered. Somewhere out there was Maggot.

  “I’ll go out and have another look,” he muttered. He could never remember feeling such utter helplessness and felt wretched.

  “No! You’ll end up drowning yourself,” Letitia insisted. She gripped him fiercely and refused to let him go. Andrew broke into a fit of shivering. He met Rat’s haunted eyes and shook his head.

  The urchin burst into tears. “What’ll we do?” he wailed.

  “Wait for the police,” Andrew replied. With a heavy heart he sat down. Letitia sat with him and put her arm around him. He drew Snoopy to him and gently stroked the puzzled pup’s fur. It just didn’t seem possible. One minute Maggot was there- the next he was gone- for ever!

  CHAPTER 14

  SHOCKS AND SURPRISES

  Andrew sat hunched on the wet grass, holding his knees against his chest. He watched the policemen in the rubber boat out in mid-stream as they searched for the body of the drowned boy. As he watched, his thoughts brooded on drowning and death. Once again the idea flitted through his mind that people said that drowning was a pleasant and easy way to die. He shook his head vigorously and muttered: “No!”

  He knew that was just a lie, a horrible lie. In his heart he knew that those frantic minutes of desperate struggle before that first awful intake of water into the bursting lungs would be nothing but terror and panic. There would be nothing peaceful or nice about it. He tried to imagine what those last terrible seconds might be like when the ghastly knowledge of impending death came to the desperately struggling boy; of the mind rebelling against the fearful reality of it; of that frantic moment of surrender when the bursting lungs could no longer be held and the cold water of death would be sucked in.

  Once again Andrew muttered and he shook his head. It wasn’t possible. Death wasn’t true. It couldn’t happen! How could a boy be there one minute and gone the next? He tried to imagine what death might be like, his mind revolted by the thought of the putrefying, cold, blue flesh down there in the water; of a rotting corpse in a coffin; of what, if anything, came after death.

  Andrew had never been strong on religion but he was now forced to confront the issue of his own mortality and he did not like it. His mind kept shying away from the fearful idea, but was then drawn insidiously back to it by some terrible power. He shivered and shook his head again. It was too horrible to contemplate.

  Carmen put her hand on his bare shoulder. He shivered again and she said: “Put your shirt on Andrew. You’ll get a chill.”

  Andrew mumbled yes but made no move to do so. His eyes were fixed on the police out on the river. A diver was sitting in the rubber boat with two other policemen and as Andrew watched he adjusted the regulator of his SCUBA set, then rolled backwards into the murky water. A rope trailed out behind him.

  ‘What a ghastly job!’ Andrew thought, his mind shrinking from the feeling of what it might be like to find a corpse down among the weeds, of what it might feel like to touch it and then drag it to the surface.

  Two other police stood on the river bank beside the brother and sister. One was Constable Fort. He and the other policemen had been the first to respond to Carmen’s phone call. In turn they had called their HQ and in response the men with the rubber boat had appeared after half an hour. They had driven to the north side of the river near the pontoon and launched the boat there as the vehicle access was better. The grisly search had now begun.

  Letitia had been very upset and Carmen had told her to take Snoopy home. She had left as soon as the police had arrived. Now she rejoined them, Martin hurrying along beside her. A quick explanation followed. Andrew looked up at her but could not bring himself to give a greeting. He felt too upset.

  Carmen draped his shirt over his shoulders and patted him again. “It’s alright Andrew. You did your best. It wasn’t your fault.”

  Andrew knew that but it did not stop him feeling dreadful. ‘If only I’d been able to find him in time!’ he brooded. In a sort of daze he slid his arms into the shirt and looked around. A dozen people were standing or sitting watching and more were arriving as word of the tragedy spread. The two urchins, Rat and Toad, stood beside the policemen. Both boys had looks of strained horror and disbelief on their faces.

  Constable Fort had already asked them for their version of what had happened. Carmen had indignantly insisted that it had been murder. “Those bullies caused it by chasing them into the river!” she said.

  Constable Fort made a wry face and replied: “You would never be able to prove that they intended to hurt them. They will just say it was only a game. I think it will be hard to prove it was anything but an unfortunate accident.”

  “Oh! But those bullies chase them all the time, and stand over them and bash them,” Carmen retorted angrily.

  “Maybe, but those boys have to complain and then stand up in court to give evidence; and that still wouldn’t prove that this was anything other than an accident.”

  “Well you must arrest them anyway,” Carmen insisted.

  “We will certainly take them in for questioning when we find them,” Constable Fort replied. “We will also want you kid
s to make a formal statement as well.”

  That was a deflating idea. Andrew made a face but accepted it as one of things they could not avoid. He slapped at a mosquito which had bitten his arm and shivered again. The police diver’s head had broken surface but only for a moment, before it vanished again. A raindrop landed on Andrew’s arm. It was cold and he shivered again. More raindrops fell, dappling the surface of the river and wetting them.

  Letitia grumbled. “Come on, let’s go home,” she said. She looked sickly white and was clearly upset. She did not say so but Andrew suspected that she did not want to be there when the boy's body was found. Nor did he really, although there was a dreadful fascination about it.

  Carmen agreed. “Yes. Let’s go. Come on Andrew. You will get sick if you get colder.”

  Constable Fort turned to them: “I will be along in a while to get a statement so don’t go off anywhere else please.”

  They agreed not to and stood up. Andrew buttoned up his shirt and started walking, his head turned to watch the diver at work. Letitia slipped her arm around his and pressed against him but he barely noticed. Carmen and Martin walked ahead of them. Another shower of rain swept along the river, heavier this time, so they hastened their steps. Soon the search boat was out of sight behind them. Andrew began to walk as fast as he could, oblivious to Letitia’s hurried steps as she tried to keep up.

  By the time they reached the Schipholl’s all were soaked through. Mrs Schipholl was still out but Martin led them around to the back and Letitia said: “Get out of your wet clothes and have a hot shower. I will dig out some dry clothes for you to wear. Andrew, you use this shower here. Carmen, go in to the house.”

  Andrew nodded dumbly. He was chilled through and shivering. Without protest he went into the shower at the back near the swimming pool. Martin went on into the house with his sister and Carmen. Only then did Andrew realize just how cold he was. He peeled off his wet clothes and adjusted the shower till it was steaming hot, then stepped into it.