The twins lips were split and bleeding. Their throats seared with each breath and the desert sun burned their skin like minuscule ants under the rays of a mammoth magnifying glass.
The deep cut on Fred’s leg had turned crusty black and he had no energy to wave away the hundreds of flies that were digging in and feasting on the blood. Mis, almost delirious with hunger, lay panting in the hot red sand. Dying of thirst, starving, abandoned in the desert. How could their mother do this to them?
Then Mis saw something. It was coming straight at them. A dot, shimmering, coming from inside the sun itself.
‘Fred look.’
They staggered to their feet, leaning against each other.
He squinted. His glasses were long gone. (Their mother had confiscated them right at the beginning). He saw nothing but a shimmering shadow. It came closer, slowly, but straight at them.
‘What is it?’
‘I don’t know,’ croaked Mis in a whisper, ‘but is seems like, like it’s a… I think it’s… a person? On a horse. No it’s… Is it a camel? It is a camel! A cowboy on a camel? Out here?’
The figure drifted closer, then suddenly the shimmer clarified and transformed. It was a young man, radiant, with skin as black as a velvet night and a smile like a thousand diamonds. He wore a dusty Akubra hat and his silky, black curls tickled down around his shoulders and waved lightly in the breeze. He wore a pale blue t-shirt with ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ on the front in bold, reflecting the desert glare. ‘Nirvana,’ it said underneath.
The twins froze like the giant termite mounds surrounding them. Not that they had the energy to move.
‘Hi’, he said. ‘My name’s Les, and this…’ he scratched the camel’s neck and it snorted and blinked through its long eyelashes ‘…is Quasimodo. You guys look a bit lost. What are you doing wandering around out here?’
Mis didn’t even try to close her mouth. The flies crowded around the edges and danced and circled and climbed inside.
‘You guys need a drink?’ Les reached behind his saddle and threw a water bottle down to Fred.
Fred caught it and twisted the lid, nodding gratefully.
Les clicked his tongue a few times and squeezed his legs against the camel, leaning forwards over its long hairy neck.
‘Down buddy,’ he whispered in its ear. Quasimodo grunted again and dropped onto its backward folding knees then rocked forward. Les slid to the ground and scruffed behind the animal’s ear affectionately. He brushed his hat and a cloud of dust enveloped him like a halo.
‘Mis.’ Fred nudged her. ‘Close your mouth. You look like a clown.’
Mis closed her mouth and spat out the more adventurous flies. What was this apparition? Was she hallucinating? Was he real? Had their mother anything to do with this?
‘Misy!’ Fred pushed the water bottle into her hands. She took a sip, never taking her eyes off the apparition, but grateful to get rid of the bitter taste of the flies.
‘What you guys doing out here? You lost?’ He smiled like a thousand suns.
Mis nodded at the beautiful teenager. He must be about 14, she thought.
‘Um.’ Fred tried. ‘It’s, ah, complicated.’
‘Well you look like you could do with some tucka. You guys hungry? Grandma said you would be.’
‘Wha?’ Said Mis.
‘She sent me to find you.’
The twins stared at each other and back at Les.
‘How? What? How did she know we were here?’ said Fred.
‘You were making such a bloody racket.’
Misy’s eyes widened momentarily, then closed to a squint again against the heat and dust and more damned flies.
‘Said she could spot you ten miles away. We both could.’
‘Wha?’ said Mis.
‘You sent the birds up. Like bush telephone. And the dust. She’s been tracking you for a week without even leaving the camp. What you doing out here? You’ve been going in circles. This lady could kill you if you’re not careful.’
‘Lady? You mean your Gran? Is she going to kill us? Why?’ Fred straightened, and winced at the pain in his leg.
‘Not Gran, you galah, the desert, the earth, she’s not an easy lady to live with if you don’t treat her nicely.’ He winked at Mis who turned an even brighter shade of red through her badly sunburnt cheeks.
‘Gran said to bring you back to camp for a good feed.’
Fred looked at Mis.
‘Is she going to eat us?’ He asked.
Les laughed like thunder and earthquakes and rainbows.
The twins breathed again and almost managed a smile.
‘Come. Ever ridden on a camel? It’s ok. Quasimodo won’t bite, well not me at least.’ He grinned at Fred. ‘He might spit sometimes but not usually at you, unless you are extra lucky of course. I found him in the desert as a pup and raised him. He was only about a week old. I have looked after him ever since. He is as gentle and kind as old Quasimodo himself in Notre Dame. (He said Notre Dame in a French accent).
Les bowed and took Misy’s hand to help her up onto the camel.
She still hadn’t said a word apart from ‘Wha?’.
‘Um, I don’t mean to be rude,’ said Les, once Mis was safely up on Quasimodo ‘but why are you wearing kangaroo skins? You look like you are from the stone age. Don’t get me wrong, they look really good and will keep you warm at night. Are you living out some Neanderthal reality tv fantasy or something?’
‘Um’ Mis finally spoke. It’s complicated like Fred said. It’s a sort of um game that Clio, I mean Mum makes us play. Well it’s not really a game it’s more like ..’
‘Clio? Like the Greek Muse of History?’
‘Wha?’ Missy’s mouth dropped open again as Quasimodo stood up with his hind legs first. She nearly fell forward and then the animal pushed up on his front legs as well. Mis straightened and pulled the skin down over her leg a bit more. ’How do you know about Clio?’ She asked.
‘I love Greek Mythology, studied it since I was a kid.’
‘Wha?’
‘I even taught myself to speak Greek. Calimero. How are you?’ (He said it in Greek) He led Quasimodo forward.
‘Wha?’
‘Misy what has gotten into you?’ Fred picked up a dry kangaroo poo and threw it at her leg. ‘You sound like a crow. Wha wha wha wha wha. Have you forgotten how to speak?’
She didn’t even hear him. She sat mesmerised by the apparition.
‘Why did you learn Greek? And how? All the way out here in the Australian desert?’ she asked, becoming aware of herself again.
‘Oh, I have loads of books, I love them, look. Today it’s…’ He pulled out a dog eared copy of Wuthering Heights. ‘ See. Books are awesome. Oh and this one.’ The Mayor of Casterbridge came out of the other pocket, wrapped in leather. ‘A spare, just in case,’ he said tucking them away. ‘I never leave home without at least two. Especially English classics. I love them. ‘
‘Why English Classics?’
‘Because it’s always raining there, of course, and here…’ He swept his hand across the burning red desert vista… he grinned. ‘And besides, I don’t live out here all the time. Only on school holidays. And when there’s important business. I’m at school in town most of the time. Hey, enough about me, how do you like the view from up there our Radiant Red Sun Goddess with Golden locks?’
Mis blushed a deeper shade and tore her eyes away from the Greek god. She drank in the sight in front of her. The view from up top was amazing. Low bushes in every direction like a red beach covered with miniature cocktail-style umbrellas in soft green. And wavy hills shimmering in the distance. She turned to the magnificent young man again and he gave her a cheeky smile.
Mis pulled the kangaroo skin she wore as a dress around her and frowned down at her mud covered, scratched, sunburned legs and blistered, blackened, burning feet with broken toenails.
‘We must look a fright.’ She grinned. ‘The world has turned into a dream and this is how we have all appeared.’
‘More like a nightmare’, added Fred under his breath.
‘God I’m hungry!’ She suddenly yelled. ‘Where can we find some food around here?’
‘Your wish is my command!’ He ran into the scrub and pulled a few pink berries off a low bush. ‘Here.’ He handed them up to Mis.
They were the same as the ones the Twins had found in the leaf in the middle of the path earlier. Tart, tangy and refreshing. Pink on the outside, white on the inside.
‘Did you bring us the berries before? Did you put them out for us? Was it you? Is that how? Have you been following us all this time?’ She stuffed the berries into her mouth.
Les just smiled and passed a handful to Fred.
‘These berries are good. Make your lips go red, but taste good. And sweet. The Spanish would say ‘more sweet than the gentle breeze that plays in the almond blossom in spring.’ (He said it in Spanish then translated to English).
Mis nearly fell off the camel.
‘You speak Spanish as well? What are you? How many languages do you speak?’
Les laughed his ringing chime and both kids smiled. You couldn’t help it when someone laughed like that no matter how hungry and exhausted you were. It was like when the smell of hot bread makes your mouth water - only the laughter spread across your face and made your eyes twinkle.
‘I love learning languages. The more you speak, the more friends you can meet. That’s what I say.’
‘Clio is going to love you.’ Fred said with a grin and limped through the hot red sand.
‘Are you alright to walk? Les asked (in English).
‘Yeah, I’m fine, just worn out. I feel like we have been lost and starving for weeks.’
‘That looks like a nasty cut.’
Fred nodded.
‘You want to wear my hat?’ You are probably heat stressed. Have you got a headache? Do you feel a bit dreamy?’
The twins nodded in unison at the apparition. At least Mis had finally closed her mouth.
‘Come. Let’s get you both to camp and into the shade. A good feed and a long drink and you will be as right as rain in no time. After that we can talk about what the blazers you are doing out here wandering in the desert on your own.’