She wasn’t sure if she was crying, it was hard to tell when the rain was so strong and she was so wet, but she had closed her eyes when someone laid a hand on her arm and it made her jump.
‘Hey, girl, you shouldn’t be here,’ said the owner of the hand, a tall man of indecipherable age. ‘Follow me.’
Cass didn’t hesitate. He gave her a walking stick and, aided by this, she slipped and slid through the mud behind him until they got into the forest where itwasn’t quite so wet. Then she followed him through the forest into a clearing. In the clearing, surprisingly, was quite a large house. Although she didn’t stop to look, she had the impression that the house was halfway up a mountain. She caught a glimpse of the forest over a ravine. It was shelter.
He opened a door and she followed him inside. In front of them were some steps. At the bottom of the steps, it seemed, was a party: music, people, light, and an atmosphere that did not seem suitable for breakfast time in the middle of a storm.
An older man got up as she arrived. ‘Welcome to the hurricane bunker. Take the weight off. Garvin?’ he shouted and the music stopped. ‘We have a guest! And she’s wet!’
Someone threw a towel in her direction, and she did her best to dry herself. While she did this, she looked around. There was more than just one family, she realised, but the light from the camping lamps made it hard to see how many there were.
‘The neighbours come when there’s a hurricane. We have this big room, cut out of the rock,’ someone explained. ‘It’s storage most of the time, but when there’s a hurricane—’
‘It’s a party house!’ said a young woman.
Cass began to take in her surroundings. Across the room, just in front of Cass, there was an older couple, three or four grown men, some teenagers, a couple of women and some little children. There was even a dog. It was crowded but they’d taken her in.
She was introduced to her new companions. Therewas Irma, wife of Garvin, who was the oldest of the men. There were two sons, Sammy and Usain, who was the one who had rescued her, and there was a very pretty young woman, the wife of one of the sons. But Garvin and Irma seemed to be the senior couple, and the hosts.
After accepting some cocoa-tea (made over a camping gas stove) and some bananas, Cass began to feel better. She sat on the floor next to Usain. All the time she kept one hand on her bag.
‘What I want to know,’ she asked him, ‘is how on earth you knew I was there? I would almost certainly have died if you hadn’t rescued me.’
‘You were lucky, girl. I was fixing a shutter before the hurricane really hit when I saw the vehicle on the road, way down below where I was. I knew when it would reach here and thought I’d check to see if it had got that far. Not the day to go driving.’
‘I know!’ said Cass. ‘And believe me, it was not my choice. Had I known I was travelling with a madman I wouldn’t have gone.’ She stopped. She had known, really, that Austin was unstable – certainly erratic. Why had she got in his pick-up when she knew it wasn’t safe? To get Bastian’s work into the competition on time. She sighed. She’d risked her life for something that now wouldn’t happen.
‘So you wanted to get away real bad?’ asked Usain. ‘From Bastian’s house?’ He seemed incredulous.
‘How did you know where I’d come from?’ she began and then subsided. Of course he knew. Everyone knew everything about everyone on Dominica, it seemed.‘Not because I don’t like Bastian,’ she said. ‘I think he’s amazing.’
‘I don’t think there’s a person on the island who doesn’t feel grateful to him for some reason.’
‘I know,’ said Cass. ‘Which is why I was so desperate to help him.’
‘Runnin’ away with a man in a pick-up may not be the best way of doing that.’
She laughed. ‘I know. I really shouldn’t have gone with him. But he was blackmailing me – well – not actually … he wanted me because he …’ It was all so garbled and ridiculous-sounding that she stopped trying to explain. ‘Austin didn’t believe there’d be another hurricane so soon after the last one.’ She groaned. ‘I am such a fool.’
She thought of Bastian’s house, people going about their business and finding her notes. They would be cursing her, she realised. They’d be glad that Austin had gone, but they would have wanted her to be sensible and stay.
‘Stop lecturing the girl!’ said one of the women. ‘Let me show you the “facilities”,’ she went on. ‘Best to use it early in the day as it’ll only smell worse as the day goes on.’
The facilities consisted of a tiny room lit by a camping light. There was a chemical toilet, a plastic bowl and a container of water. There was even a mirror pinned to the wall.
Frightened of what she might find, Cass freed her daypack from her waistband and looked inside. It was all pretty much as she hoped it would be, and she felta surge of relief. She washed her face as well as she could when she saw how muddy it was. The cool water against her skin was soothing.
‘Relax a little,’ said Usain as she sat back down with the others.
‘I feel such an idiot—’
‘We all do foolish things, especially if the heart is involved. Calm down, breathe: we’ve got hours to spend together.’
‘I didn’t run away with Austin because I loved him!’ Cass said urgently. ‘Anything but.’
‘Chill, girl,’ he said.
‘The boys wanted to start on the rum,’ said one of the young women. ‘I said not until lunchtime.’
