Wild Fiction

‘They don’t speak a bloody word of English,’ he panted as he walked out of the water. ‘Rebecca, it’s time to make use of your language skills. I’m going to need you to translate. Are you ready for a swim?’
‘I’ll go with her,’ James said. ‘You take a rest. Was it a long swim?’
‘It’s a hell of a lot further than it looks,’ Conrad replied.
Rebecca and James set off toward the boats. Once there, they clung to one of them for a while before climbing on board. They shouted and beckoned to Conrad to join them. When Conrad reached the boat, the fishermen helped him on.
‘They’ll take us to a larger island called Caspatina,’ Rebecca said. ‘From there we can catch a ferry that takes us back to the mainland, apparently.’

Chapter 27

It was a day later when the ferry pulled into the dock in Belize City. Conrad was the first to spot Julius in the mass of hustlers that were touting their transport. He was trying to get their attention by waving his arms about - it worked.
‘Welcome back,’ he said with a wide smile. ‘You come back by ferry? You not hurt my boat. My boat it still okay, yes?’
‘How the hell did you know we were coming back on this ferry?’ Conrad asked grabbing him by the wide lapels on his button down shirt and pushing him back up against a wall.
‘Take it easy man. Take it easy. My brother, he work on fishing boat that take you off island. He tell me.’
Conrad let him go. ‘No your boat isn’t bloody all right. It’s at the bottom of the sea. The bastards hijacked us. Do you know anything about that?’
‘I know nothing.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us about the passage through the reef to get to the harbour? We almost sank on the way in.’
‘I never go to island. Island far away. Too far for people to go in one day. I never go. I know nothing.’
‘Take us to the airport,’ Conrad demanded. His face was bright red and he clenched his jaw tightly shut.
‘There no flight today. Next flight tomorrow. Today you stay here and relax.’