Hope of Earth (15 page)

Next day they did more, extending the line along the side of the path. Bry began to wonder, perversely, whether there was really a point to this hard labor; suppose no crocodile ever came again?

Then, late in the day, the crocodile returned. They had been nervously alert for it throughout. It had gotten the noose off its nose, and seemed as aggressive as ever.

Chip and Mina screamed and ran in different directions. Bry picked up the stake he had been about to start pounding and carried it toward the reptile. The creature was chasing Mina, who darted a desperate look at Bry and ran to the end of the line of posts, then dodged around them and ran on to the house.

The crocodile came to the posts and went up the other side, trying to move directly toward the girl. There was space between the posts, so it could track Mina, but not enough to let it pass through.

This gave Bry a notion. “Chip! Here to the fence!”

Chip, by this time far afield, came in. The two of them stood just opposite the crocodile, who couldn’t get at them. It lacked the wit to go around, so kept poking its nose into the spaces between stakes, and as quickly being balked. The tip of its snout was narrow enough to pass, but not its full head or body.

“Go away!” Chip cried, and picked up a handful of sand and flung it at the creature. The sand did no harm, but was very satisfying to throw.

Mina came out, realizing that they had found safety of a sort. She picked up a small stone and threw it through the fence. It bounced off the crocodile’s nose.

That set them all off. They heaved double handfuls of sand through, so much that it started piling up around the creature, at one time half burying its snout. But the crocodile couldn’t do anything about it, except go away—which, reluctantly, it did. It didn’t seem to occur to the creature that it could have come around the fence; once it headed for the water, it kept going. They had won their second engagement more handily and safely than their first—thanks to the partial fence.

That gave Bry an idea. “We don’t need to line the path both sides,” he said. “Just one side—and be on the other side.”

But they realized that this would not necessarily be easy to arrange. By chance the crocodile had come up on the side opposite to the one Mina had taken, but next time it might take the same side. How could they guarantee it would be on the wrong side?

They discussed it, and Chip came up with the answer: climb over the fence. But how could they do that quickly enough? The stakes were high enough so that getting over the fence was awkward. They thought of putting a pile of stones against it, that they could use to get high enough to step over it—but suppose the crocodile did the same?

But that idea turned out to be better than it had at first seemed. Suppose they put stones against one side—and not on the other? People could jump down from that height with no problem—but what about a crocodile? Accustomed to the level water, would it care to tumble off a high fence, to land snout-first? That seemed unlikely. But if it did, it would still surely take some time—time they could use to get clear. Or to cross back to the other side of the fence.

So they set up several piles of rocks, on both sides of the fence, but never right across from each other. Each was like a path leading nowhere, from one side or the other. Would it work? They would simply have to find out.

They resumed work on the fence, pounding stakes between sessions of foraging for food. They did not yet have the courage to try spear fishing again; they went to the water only to drink, and did that as a group, quickly, with two watching the sides while the third drank. But once they completed the fence, and knew that it worked—then maybe they would try for the fish again.

Several days later they had their chance. The fence was now much of the way toward the water, because they were getting better at it as they went. They went for a drink, because the labor made them thirsty, and Mina spied the crocodile. She screamed warning.

“Go on each side of the fence,” Bry said, and the two of them ran toward it. Then, just to make sure the crocodile gave chase, Bry threw sand at it.

The creature lunged out of the water, snapping at him. Bry backed away, retreating no farther than was expedient. He had his spear, but merely gestured with it; he had no intention of fighting the reptile if he didn’t have to.

It came after him, uncomfortably fast. Bry realized that it probably could outrun him, when it tried. He needed to get farther away from it. He turned and ran for one side of the fence, then paused. Both children made faces and rude noises at the crocodile, daring it to advance. And in a moment it did, going after Mina, the smallest and probably tastiest morsel. Chip, on the other side, made rude noises at it, but it ignored him for the moment.

Mina waited as long as she dared, then ran up the stone stile and paused. The crocodile was still coming. She jumped off to the other side, crying, “Wheee!” She landed in the sand, lost her balance, and fell, but was in no danger: the crocodile hadn’t even mounted the ramp.

They stood opposite it, teasing it, as before, but the creature seemed to be unable to figure out what the stiles were for. It tried to get at them through the fence, without any hope of success. When they moved up the fence, beyond the ramp Mina had used, the reptile scrambled over the base of the ramp to get around it, and came back to the fence.

“Crocodiles are stupid,” Chip said contemptuously.

“Yes,” Bry agreed. “But don’t go near it.” The boy nodded. Stupid did not mean safe.

The crocodile returned to the water, again not even trying to circle the fence. It seemed that they had found a good defense against it.

They kept working the following days, completing the fence, which stopped just short of the water’s edge. They made ramps at frequent intervals, so that they would never be far from one. And, as an afterthought, they made an extension across the path near the house, so that the crocodile could not ever get inside. They made ramps to cross it, but offset them so that it was still necessary to jump down, whichever way a person crossed. Just in case the reptile one day figured out how to use a ramp.

They remained alert, and that was just as well, because the crocodile did come again. They readily foiled it. “But remember,” Bry warned the others, fearing overconfidence. “If it ever gets hold of you, you’re done. The fence won’t help then.” They nodded, appreciating the point.

Now, with the menace of the crocodile somewhat abated, Bry was able to watch for his family’s boats again. He had fretted, privately, when he couldn’t do that, for fear they would row by and never know he was here.

They got up courage to try spear fishing again. Mina was on watch while the other two focused on the fish. Chip, his arm perhaps stronger after all the practice pounding support stakes, managed to spear a fish through the tail and pull it out of the water.

Then Mina cried out, making them both jump away from the water. But it wasn’t the crocodile. “Boat! Boat!” she exclaimed.

It couldn’t be Hugh and Anne returning, for only half a moon had passed. Bry had made marks on a wall of the shelter, one little line for each day, and a connecting line for each seven days. Four such larger units would signal the time for return. There were only two.

So it had to be the other. “My family!” he said. “You said they would come now.”

“Yes,” she agreed, remembering. “I must meet your sister.”

Who almost might be her natural mother. Because Mina had been saved from a dead place as a baby, about the time Flo had left her baby. Except that the places had been far separated. So it couldn’t be. Yet he couldn’t be certain in his doubt.

They waved, and the boat spied them and stroked in to shore. It was Dirk rowing, and Flo steering, and Lin searching from the prow. Trust his sister to spy him first!

The boat heaved part way up on the beach. Lin leaped out and ran lightly to embrace Bry. “I knew you were safe!” she said though her tears. “I just knew it!” Then she oriented on the children. “Well, hello,” she said over his shoulder.

“You must have become a man quite rapidly,” Dirk remarked, smiling.

Bry released Lin and turned. “These aren’t my children,” he said, embarrassed though he knew it was humor. “They are Chip and Mina, of Hugh and Anne’s family.” He turned back. “And this is my closest sister, Lin.”

Mina approached shyly. “You have the hand,” she said.

Lin’s left hand was closed into a fist, the way she normally kept it to conceal her deformity. She glanced at Bry.

“I never said,” Bry said hastily. “Mina—she just knows things. The spirits tell her.”

Lin extended her arm and opened her hand. Mina looked at the fingers, and nodded. “It’s a good hand,” she said.

Dirk and Flo came up behind Lin. Flo had Baby Flint, now one year old, in the harness on her back. Bry started to introduce them, but Mina launched herself into Flo’s embrace before he got the words out. “Why did you leave me?”

Flo’s mouth fell open. “Can it be?”

Mina wriggled free. “Look at my toes.” She stood on one foot, lifting her other foot with her hands.

Flo bent to look, and saw the birthmark between the toes. Astonished, she sat down in the sand. “My baby,” she breathed. “How—?”

“They found her in a dead place,” Bry said. “But it was near here. They have not been far south.”

“Then it can’t be,” Ho said. “Yet—”

“The hair, the eyes,” Dirk said. “They match yours. The cheekbones, the chin. She’s yours.”

Flo began to sob. Mina put her little arms around her, comfortingly. “Why did you leave me?” she repeated.

“I had no man,” Flo said. “I could not support you.
Now
I could, but then there was no way. So I left you. Then I changed my mind, and returned, but you were gone, and it was best. Since then I have thought of you every day, wondering, hoping—”

Bry was amazed. It was impossible, yet this did seem to be his sister’s child.

“Now you have one of your own,” Mina said.

“Yes.” Still sitting, Flo lifted him out of the pack and brought him around to the front. ‘This is Flint.”

“Hello, Flint,” Mina said solemnly.

Meanwhile Dirk was getting along with the other child, as he usually did. “What is that you have made, my good little man?”

“A fence,” Chip explained. “To keep out the crocodile.”

“There is a crocodile after you?”

“Yes. It comes almost every day. But we hide behind our fence.”

Dirk looked perplexed. “But suppose it comes on your side?”

“I’ll show you,” Chip said gleefully. “You be the crocodile.”

Dirk quickly got into the game. He put his hands down on the sand and lunged at the boy. Chip ran around the end of the fence. Dirk did a beautiful job of almost crashing headfirst into it. Then he paused, pondered a moment, and made his way around it to get on the boy’s side.

Chip ran up the nearest ramp and jumped over. Dirk came to the ramp, sniffed it, and then slowly climbed on it. He reached the top, peered over, and stopped. “I’d land on my snout,” he said.

“So would the crocodile,” Chip pointed out.

Dirk nodded gravely. “So it would. This is a good defense. But how did you make it?” He reached out and took hold of a post, pushing against it. “This is firm.”

Bry explained how they all had worked so hard on it.

“With your ribs bruised,” Dirk said, looking at him, seeing the way he favored that side. Dirk knew about bruised ribs.

“We had to get it done,” Bry said.

“So you did.” He seemed impressed.

“Where are your parents?” Lin asked Chip, and the boy explained about that.

Dirk looked at Flo. “We can’t take Bry yet; he hasn’t finished his commitment here. The other boat won’t be back for some time. We’d better camp here until the parents return.”

Flo nodded, looking at Bry. “We know what it’s like to survive without parents.”

“You can stay in our house,” Chip said eagerly. “There’s room.”

Flo and Dirk exchanged another glance. “They surely do have room,” Dirk said. “While the parents are away. Let’s use their house, and return what favors we may.”

So it was done. Dirk and Flo took the section where Hugh and Anne normally slept, and Lin found room at the edge, with the children scrambling to fashion a bed for her. It would be crowded, but could be managed.

Bry was much relieved. He hadn’t realized how much tension he had had, until it dissipated. He hadn’t known for sure that the rest of his family had survived, or that they would find him. It seemed that the boats had been carried far south, and the others had no idea where he had gone ashore—or if he had. He could tell by the way that Lin was letting go that §he had been under similar tension. Now it was all right, and all of them could relax.

The next morning Dirk got serious about return favors. “That crocodile—we are going to take care of it,” he said grimly.

They went about it methodically. The spear fishing that had been such an adventure for Bry and the children was inconsequential for Dirk; he quickly speared several fish, and cut them to pieces with his stone knife, and tossed the pieces back into the water. Before long that summoned the crocodile. Then Dirk stood back and let the children lure it out. When it was well up on the beach, Dirk cut it off from the water and went after it with two spears. The reptile that had been so bold against children found it another matter against a competent grown man who had killed crocodiles before. He poked it in the tail, and when it whirled around to snap at the spear, he poked it in the snout. He kept poking it, confusing it, until it stopped reacting and tried to charge him. Then he jammed the spear hard at its face, so that its own momentum added to the power of the thrust. Soon it had been stabbed through eye and belly, and was thrashing on the sand. Dirk looped its snout with a loop, and Bry held the rope taut while Dirk carved open the reptile’s throat with a stone blade. Slowly the beast died.

Then came the work of carving it up. Crocodile meat was good, and so was the tough hide; they were not going to waste any of it. By the end of the day sections of crocodile were hanging from the branches of nearby trees. They made a big fire and roasted enough for an excellent meal. They would dry as much of the remaining meat as possible in the sun, and keep it for Hugh and Anne to use when they returned.