“Mum! I’m home!” Georgia yelled, rushing into the living room before her best friend Kate who had come to tea.
“Oh hello darling! How was school?” her mum replied in her usual tone.
“Yeah, yeah, great. But guess what!” Safiyah rushed her words so much that her mother took a few moments to try and figure out what she had said.
“Wha-”
“We’re going on a Safari trip for school!”
“The whole world doesn’t need to know!” her best friend Kate pointed out as she strolled into the living room.
“That’s wonderful, darling. We all know how much you love nature and animals!” her mum started to natter on. “Did she tell you, Kate? She wants to become a zoo keeper when she’s older! Her father isn’t very pleased about it but I just tried to explain that if she…”
But the girls had left the room.
“She does like to go on doesn’t she!” Kate sighed walking out of the front door “I better go and start packing!”
“Yeah me too!” See you at the bus stop on Monday.” Georgia shut the door “This is gonna be the greatest trip of my life!”
Or so she thought.
*****
On the coach they slept, ate and chatted about celebrities and fashion. But most of all, they gossiped about their classmates! After three hours they arrived at the airport. They checked in, gave in their luggage and got a coffee. Ten minutes later they had to give their hand luggage in to be checked and had to walk through the metal detector. Then they choose their seats on the aeroplane and carried on with their conversations from the coach. Eventually, they arrived at the safari resort. They put their belongings away then went to sleep.
The next morning they were up and ready by eight o’clock. They clambered into the Jeeps (three to a Jeep) and Kate and Georgia were put with a boy called Charlie. So they set off seeking elephants, sneaking up on tigers and following trails of fresh poo. They became quite close to Charlie and even ate with him! On the third day of being at the safari the class went in a coach because they were only doing written work and the roads were wider where they were going.
Kate needed the toilet. Desperately. And there were no toilets around.
“Georgia…” she whispered “I need the toilet!”
“Well you’ll have to hold it!” she whispered back “There are no toilets around!”
“But I’m DESPERATE!!!” she said a little louder.
Georgia sighed. She looked around.
“Look there’s a hole over there.” Kate just looked at her blankly. Georgia grunted “Fine, I’ll come with you!” Georgia said slumping out of the coach.
“Hurry up Kate or the coach will go without us!” Georgia nagged.
“Don’t worry! Charlie will tell them to wait!”
Back at the coach they were moving but Charlie didn’t tell the driver to wait because he was worn out and was just dozing off into sleep.
“Okay, finished.” Kate stated feeling better “We can go back now.”
“Alleluia alleluia!!!” Georgia sang sarcastically.
“OMG!” Kate yelled.
“What?” Georgia snapped.
“WHERE THE HELL IS THE COACH!” Kate screamed.
“Oh you’re KIDDING ME!” Georgia cried. “You are so annoying!”
“What! Charlie didn’t stop the coach!” Kate defended herself.
“But it’s not Charlie’s responsibility! Is it? If could just hold your stupid wee we wouldn’t be in this mess would we! And it’s not like were still in Wimbledon and we can walk home… WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A JUNGLE IN AFRICA!!!” Georgia roared!
“Well you’re a supportive friend aren’t you!” Kate screeched.
Georgia smiled.
“Listen I’m sorry I was so hard on you. It wasn’t your fault. It was nobody’s fault.” Georgia said hugging Kate.
“Yeah, but right now we need to find a way out of here! Do you have your map in your bag? I have a compass.” Kate replied as they parted from their hug.
“Yeah I’ll go and get it.”
*****
“Well if the resort is there… and we went twenty-eight miles south west… then the nearest airport is seven miles east of us!” Kate mumbled as she looked at the map. Georgia was busy seeing how much of the necessities they had left.
“We should go back to the resort to get some more food and water first.” Georgia pointed out.
“GEORGIA!!!! OF COURSE WE COULD GO BACK BUT WERE NOT BECAUSE THE AIRPORT IS CLOSER BY ELEVEN MILES AND IF WE DID WE WOULDN’T BE IN ANY TROUBKE AT ALL!” Kate answered. Georgia made an ‘O’ with her lips.
“Well we probably have enough food to last us a couple of days. So are we gonna get going now?” Georgia asked.
“Yeah, we might as well.”
So they trekked off into the jungle for 2 hours before they had a rest.
“It’s getting dark now; we should eat and get some rest.” Kate announced.
“Okay. You set up the tent and I’ll make the fire.” The girls had rice pudding and went to sleep until 6am. In the morning they finished their left over rice pudding then had half a slice of warm bread each and put away the tent. They had hoped someone would see the smoke from their fire but nobody had come. So off they went again struggling with the weight of their bags with the heat of the sun beating down on their face. Georgia even fainted once while Kate suffered from sunstroke. They staggered on. They had travelled six miles now.
“Only 1 mile lef- ARGHH!!!”
“Georgia?!?!” Kate bawled.
“Help! Kate? Someone! Ouch! Help!”
Georgia! Where are you?” Kate was panicking like mad!
“Down here! Help please! Something is eating me! Help!” Georgia was practically crying now. Kate looked into the hole in which her greatest friend ever had fallen down. Their she was, covered in leeches. Suddenly Kate stopped hearing her friend’s screams of agony. All the times she had spent with her friend flashed trough her mind. The parties, picnics, the sleepovers. She remembered that people say that before you die your whole life flashes before you. But she was only seeing the parts of her life when she was with…
“Georgia” she whispered as she reached over to help Georgia.
“Wait” she thought “This is leeches we’re talking about! I might die… but then Georgia might die… Oh Gosh! What should I do?” But by the time she turned around to help Georgia she had gone. All that was left were some bones covered in leeches.
“No… No… NO!” She bellowed as she fell to the floor with misery. Was she too afraid to save her friend in case she died? Was she the worst friend ever; getting her lost and then… killing her? Kate thought about the answers as she trudged on for the last mile.
*****
When she arrived at the airport she was a little less depressed. She walked around looking at departure and arrival times when an important point popped up in her mind. How was she going to get back to England? Kate looked around. She sat on a chair and thought about how she could maybe stow away on an aeroplane to England. How would carry on with her normal life when she was the only person that new what had really happened? How would she get over the guilt? How could she go on knowing that she had not even tried to save Georgia’s life? She was a coward and she would never forget it.
*****
“Kate?” she was woken from her sleep by the soft, familiar voice of
Charlie.
“Charlie? Charlie! What are you doing here? Oh my gosh! Wait until Georgia finds out you’re her she’ll b-” but Kate stopped when she realised that Georgia was never going to find out that Charlie was there.
“She’ll what? And where is she anyway?” Charlie looked around. Kate hesitated.
“Uh… we had an argument. Yeah. Ur she… stormed off somewhere.”
“In the airport?” Charlie questioned.
“No in the jungle.” Kate answered.
“Oh. Well I’m so glad I found you!” He said as they hugged awkwardly.
“Yeah, me too. But how are we gonna get out of Africa?”
“Don’t worry! My mum is coming over to get us and we can go back on another plane.” Charlie sat down next to Kate “She will be here in five hours.”
“Oh thank you so much! So… ” Kate paused “what are we gonna do in that time?”
“Dunno” Charlie moved closer to Kate. She looked up at him as he was a couple of inches taller than her. They smiled. They moved so close their noses touched. Kate could smell Charlie’s sweet musky scent. Their lips touched. They kissed. Softly at first then quite passionately. Kate wanted to stop but she wouldn’t… she couldn’t. In fact they only stopped when a mother and her twin tree year-olds came along and they didn’t think they would want to see two teenagers kissing. Now it was awkward. They were silent for about an hour. Then Charlie went to the toilet and Kate got a drink. When they got back they only had 2 hours left until they could go home so they went to look at the shops and have some time on their own. Kate got a slice of cake while Charlie got a packet of crisps. Eventually Sarah (Charlie’s mum) found them sharing a milkshake and she hugged them both.
“Oh I’ve missed you!” She grinned “Come on now or we’ll miss our flight.” They checked in, Charlie gave in his luggage and they got on to the aeroplane. They slept the whole time because they were so exhausted and comfortable. Sarah did some tricky crosswords and word searches and had a small snack.
*****
When the aeroplane landed Kate started to walk away from the airport when she suddenly turned and ran to Charlie. He hugged her and she started to cry.
“What’s the matter?” He asked sympathetically.
“Charlie…” she whispered.
“Yeah…”
“Well… do… do you wanna run away with me?” she burst out.
“What?!?” he said in a loud whisper “Are you crazy?” Kate started to cry.
“Oh, I didn’t mean it!” he said rolling his eyes.
“No! It’s just that… well…” she paused. Could she trust him?
“Of course I can!” she thought to herself. “He came all the way to the airport and called his mum over just for me! I think I can trust him!”
“Georgia didn’t really run off she fell in a ditch and was eaten by leeches. And it’s all my fault because I needed the toilet so she waited then the coach left and I didn’t help her because I was afraid of dying myself!” Kate said so loudly that Sarah started to wonder what they were talking about.
“Wow, wow! Brain overload!” Charlie joked but Kate didn’t laugh. “Listen, it can’t be all your fault! I mean of course your not gonna give your hand to someone covered in leeches! And you needed the toilet! That’s hardly your fault!”
“But it is my fault! I know it!” Kate moaned. “So what do you say?” Charlie looked puzzled then remembered.
“Come on, that’s hardly a reason to run away! You’ll get over it!”
“You know,” Kate started to turn around “I always thought you were more sensitive that that!” She turned completely when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Where are you going?” Charlie asked.
“I’m running away!”
“You can’t go on your own!” He sighed “Okay! Fine1 I’ll come with you. But you have to let me go home first.”
“Okay. Tomorrow at four A.M.! Meet me outside my house.” So they went home and prepared for the long journey ahead.
*****
“Where are we gonna go?” Kate asked nervously.
“Urm… we could go to a BNB?” Charlie suggested.
“Okay let’s go.” They travelled on the train until they got to the Deforest and asked to stay at a small Bed and Breakfast Hotel that they found. It belonged to an old lady and she warmly welcomed them in. They stayed there for a month and considered getting a job so they could pay for the rent and the lady agreed to let them buy the flat in the end. One day when they got home they turned the television on to relax, and watched the news. And as Kate watched the screen she started to sit up.
“Charlie!” she shook him and he sat up.
“What?”
“They’ve sent a search party for us!”
There was a knock at the door.
“There’s someone to see you dearies.” The old lady called.
Charlie opened the door and shut it again.
“It’s them!”
“Oh my gosh! What are we gonna say to them! I can’t tell them what happened to Georgia! I can’t tell them why I ran away!” Kate cried “Help!”
“Well my mum is a social worker. She can change our names and stuff and only she and one other person will know.” Charlie suggested.
“Who?”
“Your mum…” Kate thought about it.
“Do I have to tell them what happened to Georgia?” Charlie nodded. It was silent.
“Okay. Fine. I’ll do it. Open the door.” So awkwardly she faced her parents and slowly told them what happened to Georgia. She started to cry. They hugged her.
“Listen darling.” Her mum said reassuringly “It wasn’t your fault! It was nobody’s fault! It’s okay. Don’t cry!”
*****
“Sophie, can you pass me the butter please.”
“Yes, mummy.” Her daughter replied. Twenty years later, Kate was now Alice and Charlie was now Jack. They had got married and bought a big house in the country. They had two daughters and often visited their parents who had completely forgotten who Katherine Fisher and Charles Guffik were.
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