The Beach

In this way I made my way along the beach, hopping, pausing, groaning, mashing up bad prints in frustration. My eyes were always pointed downwards, so I didn't realize I'd reached my friends until I was within a couple of metres of them.

'Are you going insane, Rich?' I heard Keaty say. 'If you are, tell us. It might mean you have better luck getting through to Karl.'

'I'm trying to make the perfect footprint,' I replied without raising my head. 'It's really difficult.'

Keaty laughed in a way that told me he was stoned. 'The perfect footprint, huh? Yeah, that's getting pretty close to insane. And more original than trying to draw the perfect circle.'

'Circle?'

'It's what mad people do.'

'Oh.' I stamped out my last effort and trudged over, disappointed to see that Francoise wasn't with them. 'Is that what Karl is doing?'

'Nope. He's too mad even for circles.'

'Actually,' Etienne interrupted, not about to join in with Keaty's flippant appraisal, 'Karl is not mad. He is en etat de choc.'

Keaty arched his eyebrows. 'Uh-huh. Just what I figured… Now maybe you could tell us what it means.'

'I do not know the correct English. It is why I said it in French.'

'That's helpful.'

'If you had intended to help, you would be taking Karl to Ko Pha-Ngan,' said Etienne stiffly, and stood up. 'And I am tired of arguing this with you. Excuse me, Richard. I am going back to camp. You will tell Francoise when she returns?'

'OK,' I replied uncomfortably. I'd obviously turned up in the middle of something, and I wasn't at all happy with the idea that my friends had been arguing. We had to stick together, even if Sal was going to be calling for a truce tomorrow.

Etienne began walking away. A couple of seconds later, Keaty turned to Gregorio and hissed, 'Why the fuck weren't you backing me up?'

Gregorio looked at his hands pensively. 'I do not know… I thought perhaps he was right.'

'He isn't right. How can he be right?'

'Hold on,' I said, first checking behind me to make sure that Etienne was out of earshot. 'Was Etienne being serious about Ko Pha-Ngan?'

Keaty nodded. His tiny dreadlocks were still short enough to stand bolt upright, and they seemed to accentuate his expression of incredulity. 'Dead serious. He's been saying it all day. Says he's going to bring it up with Sal.'

'But he must know we can't take him to Ko Pha-Ngan. What would we say? «Here's a friend of ours who's been attacked by a shark and had a nervous breakdown on our secret beach. Well, we'll be off then. See you…'»

'He thinks we could take him there and drop him off near Hat Rin.'

'That's nuts. Even if he didn't give everything away, how would we know he got looked after? There's a million fucked-up freaks over there. If someone saw him wasting away on the sand, they'd just ignore him.' I shook my head. 'No way. The best thing for Karl is for him to be here.'

'I've been telling that to Etienne all day. But wait, it gets worse. He wants to drop Sten off on Ko Pha-Ngan as well.'

'Sten? '

'Yep.'

'But he's dead! What would be the point of…'

'His family. Etienne thinks we have to let them know what's happened to their son. See, if we left them both on the beach then Karl would definitely be noticed and Sten's family would be contacted.'

I smiled in disbelief. 'Yeah, and meanwhile we'd definitely get discovered. We'd be finished. It's the worst idea I ever heard.'

'Tell me about it,' said Keaty. 'And while you're about it,' he added, pointing at Gregorio, 'tell him.'

Gregorio lay on his back to avoid our accusing stares. 'I only think we should think about what Etienne says. If Karl is not talking to any people here, maybe he will not talk to any people on Ko Pha-Ngan.'

'No,' said Keaty. 'He'll talk, eventually. And when he does, I'd rather he did it to us. Not some fucking Thai cop or Swedish shrink.'

I couldn't have put it better myself.

Whoosh, Boom, Zzz

After all the discussion about Karl, I decided I ought to go and see him myself. Or that's what I told Keaty and Gregorio. Really I was just interested in catching up with Francoise, whom I'd barely seen over the past few days. The main reasons were our different work details and the hectic circumstances, though I hadn't been very active in seeking her out. Following the misunderstood kiss, I'd been slightly wary of giving Etienne any reasons to be suspicious.

I found Francoise by Karl's hole, about four hundred metres further on from Keaty and Gregorio. Karl had dug the hole when he'd decamped to the beach. It wasn't much of a hole – thigh-high if he stood up, chest-deep if he sat down. More impressive was the shelter which Etienne and Keaty had rigged up. Because Karl refused to budge from his hole all through the day, they'd been worried about him getting sunstroke. They'd found three long palm branches and tied them against each other like a tepee. The gaps in the fronds wouldn't have stopped rain but they kept him in the shade.

I was expecting Francoise to be in a bad mood (as everyone else seemed to be) so I was happily surprised when she ran over and gave me a hug.

'Richard!' she said. 'Thank you! I have not thanked you yet! So, thank you!'

I paused.' …What for?'

'For helping me when I was sick. Really, you were so kind. I wanted to tell you before, but there was never a good chance. Always so much to do. We have to catch all the extra fish now, and then I stay with Karl, and often you are not back until late.'

'Francoise, don't give it another thought. It was nothing. Anyway, you did the same for me once.'

'Yes, with your fever.' She smiled, then looked at me straight in the eyes and suddenly the smile turned into a sly chuckle. 'You kissed me!'

My eyes flicked away. 'I thought you were sleeping…'

'I was. Etienne told me the next day.'

'Oh,' I said, mentally unleashing a stream of curses at Etienne's big mouth. 'Well… I hope you don't mind… It was sort of complicated…'

'Of course I do not mind! You know, when you were ill I also

kissed you.'

'…I was never completely sure if I dreamed that or not.'

'You did not dream it. And remember the next morning! You were so worried!'

I nodded, remembering my awkwardness and Francoise's Exocet-style questions extremely clearly.

'So tell me,' she said. 'Why do you say it was complicated?'

'Well… complicated is probably the wrong, uh… It wasn't like the kiss was… the kiss wasn't…' I stopped myself and started again. '…I'm not sure what Etienne told you, but he took the kiss the wrong way. I was kissing you because you were so sick, and there was so much other sickness around that once I'd started… it was kind of hard to stop.'

'How was Etienne taking it?'

'Whoosh,' I thought. 'Boom.'

'…Well, I guess he thought it was… you know…'

'A sexy kiss.'

'Mmm.'

Francoise laughed again. Then she leant over and planted a little kiss on my cheek. 'Was that a sexy kiss?'

'No,' I replied; only a small fib. 'Of course not.'

'So there is no problem. Not complicated.'

'I'm glad you understand.'

'Always,' she said. 'I always understand.'

For a moment we held each other's gaze, just long enough for it to acquire a mild resonance. It reminded me of other moments from months back, loaded exchanges on Ko Samui, our midnight conversation about the parallel worlds in the Milky Way. Then the moment was over, broken by Francoise as she turned to look at Karl.