“No. A formal kimono with obi. They’re back there somewhere. Can’t run in them.”~
Pete said irritably, “Stop the chatter. We got to get out of here.” He grabbed my hair, kissed me. “Who cares what you taste like? Get moving!”
So we did, staying in the woods and getting farther from the landing boat. But it quickly became clear that Tilly had a sprained ankle and was becoming more crippled each step. Pete grumbled again.
“When you broke for it, Tilly was only halfway down the gangway from the first-class deck. So she jumped and made abad landing. Til, you’re clumsy.”
“It’s these damn Nip shoes; they give no support. Pete, take the kid and get moving; the busies won’t do anything to me.”
“Like hell,” Pete said bitterly. “We three are in it together all the way. Right, MissÄ Right, Friday?”
“Hell, yes! `One for all, all for one!’ Take her right side, Pete; I’ll take this side.”
We did pretty well as a five-legged race, not making fast time but nevertheless putting more bush between us and pursuit. Somewhat later Pete wanted to take her piggyback. I stopped us. “Let’s listen.”
No sound of pursuit. Nothing but the strange sounds of a strange forest. Birdcalls? I wasn’t sure. The place was a curious mix of friendly and outr‚Ägrass that wasn’t quite grass, trees that seemed to be left over from another geological epoch, chlorophyll that was heavily streaked with redÄor was this autumn? How cold would it be tonight? It didn’t seem smart to go looking for people for the next three days, in view of the ship’s schedule. We could last that long without food or waterÄbut suppose it froze?
“All right,” I said. “Piggyback. But we take turns.”
“Friday! You can’t carry me.”
“I carried Pete last night. Tell her, Pete. You think I can’t handle a little Japanese doll like you?”
“Japanese doll, my sore feet. I’m as American as you are.”
“More so, probably. Because I’m not very. Tell you later. Climb aboard.”
I carried her about fifty meters, then Pete carried her about two hundred, and so on, that being Pete’s notion of fifty-fifty. After an hour of this we came to a roadÄjust a track through the bush, but you could see marks of wheels and horses’ hooves. To the left the road went away from the landing boat and the town, so we went left, with Shizuko walking again but leaning quite a lot on Pete.
We came to a farmhouse. Perhaps we should have ducked around it but by then I wanted a drink of water more than I yearned to be totally safe, and I wanted to strap Tilly’s ankle before it got bigger than her head.
There was an older woman, gray-haired, very neat and prim, sitting in a rocking chair on the front veranda, knitting. She looked up as we got closer, motioned to us to come up to the house. “I’m Mrs. Dundas,” she said. “You’re from the ship?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I’m Friday Jones and this is Matilda Jackson and this is our friend Pete.”
“Pete Roberts, ma’am.”
“Come sit down, all of you. You’ll forgive me if I don’t get up; my back is not what it used to be. You’re refugees, are you not? You’ve jumped ship?”
(Bite the bullet. But be ready to duck.) “Yes. We are.”
“Of course. About half the jumpers wind up first with us. Well, according to this morning’s wireless you’ll need to hide out at least three days. You’re welcome here and we enjoy visitors. Of course you are entitled to go straight to the transient barracks; the ship authorities can’t touch you there. But they can make you miserable with their endless lawyer arguments. You can decide after dinner. Right now, would you like a nice cup of tea?”
“Yes!” I agreed.
“Good. Malcolm! Oh, Malcooom!”
“What, Mum?”
“Put the kettle on!”
“What?”
“The billy!” Mrs. Dundas added, to Tilly, “Child, what have you done to your foot?”
“I think I sprained it, ma’am.”
“You certainly did! YouÄFriday is your name?Ägo find Malcolm, tell him I want the biggest dishpan filled with cracked ice. Then you can fetch tea, if you will, while Malcolm cracks ice. And you, sirÄMr. RobertsÄyou can help me out of this chair because there are more things we’ll need for this poor child’s foot. Must strap it after we get the swelling down. And youÄMatildaÄare you allergic to aspirin?”