Level Four. Part Four : 'Jemma' By Clair Wright

Seamus keeps his hand in the small of my back, guiding me back along the path. I wish he wouldn’t. I can feel the sweat running down between my shoulder blades, and I’m embarrassed by my sticky, dusty state. In fact, embarrassed is what I’m feeling generally, I realise with a jolt, as we follow Charlie’s back pack bobbing ahead of us. I’m more embarrassed than worried, despite Charlie hinting that something dreadful has happened to Clive. Embarrassed, and angry. How could Clive draw attention to us like this? As if it wasn’t bad enough already. Seamus keeps glancing at me. I keep my eyes firmly ahead, but he’s persistent.

“Jemma, I’m sure Clive’s fine,” he says, panting a little. We are out of the shelter of the trees again, and the sun is piercing hot.  I nod. He has to be alright. The alternatives are too awful. Seamus puts his hand on my shoulder, turning me towards him a little. He drops his voice low.

“You don’t think he’s, well, gone off somewhere, do you?” he glances over his shoulder, but Julie, Pam and Diana are a good twenty metres behind us.

“What do you mean?” I hiss back. I shrug his hand away, feeling my scalp prickle with humiliation.

“Look, I don’t like to pry, but things seem a bit, you know, rocky between you guys. I just wondered…”

“Well don’t!” I snap.  I pick up my pace to get away him.

“If you need to talk….” I hear him call after me. I don’t look back. 

This trip was supposed to be about wilderness, some time away from everything. Now it feels as though I’m in a goldfish bowl. I round a cluster of scrubby trees and find Charlie and Michael, rucksacks at their feet, holding their phones towards the sky.

“Still no signal,” says Charlie. “Bloody foreign networks. Any joy on yours?”

“Nope,” says Michael.  He turns to me. “What network are you with?”

I pull out my phone, but the screen is blank. I stare at it, then remember I forgot to plug it in last night.  I’d barely had the energy to get undressed after another humdinger of a row.

Charlie snorts. “Brilliant! Bloody brilliant! The one person your bloody husband is bound to try and call, and your phone is dead! Bloody brilliant!”

“Go easy, will you?” says Michael, but I can tell he thinks I’m stupid too.

I can feel the tears prickling, and I turn away to get my water bottle out of my rucksack.  Seamus catches us up, crouching next to me.

“Hey! Come on, it’ll be okay.” He looks up at Charlie. “Have you said something to her? Can’t you see she’s upset?”

“Why don’t you make yourself useful, Mr Lover-Boy? Have you got any signal?”

Seamus springs to his feet and lunges at Charlie. Michael grabs his arm.

“For God’s sake! Can we all calm down? Seamus, your phone?” Seamus pulls it from his pocket and shakes his head.  He sits down on a rock, a little way away with his back to us. Diana, Pam and Julie come puffing up the path. Pam and Julie exchange concerned glances when they see me. I pretend to search in my rucksack to avoid eye contact. Diana sinks down and takes long, deep slugs from her water bottle. She sloshes some into her palm and splashes her face.

Charlie calls over. “Don’t waste your water like that! We could be out here for ages yet.” Diana scowls at him.

“How much further do you think we should go?” asks Pam. “How long have we been walking? Ten, fifteen minutes? Shouldn’t we have found them by now?”

Charlie seems to have appointed himself the leader of the group. “You’re assuming they are still close to the trail.  They could have left the route, in which case we might not see them.”

“Then what the hell are we doing?” explodes Diana. “I knew we should have stayed put, like Natasha said. What’s the point of having a guide if you ignore her?”

“Diana’s right,” says Pam.” We could be wandering around in circles for hours at this rate!”

Michael steps forward, palms out in a conciliatory gesture. “Look everyone, we weren’t trying to find Clive and Natasha; we were trying to get a phone signal to call for help. Now, has anyone got a signal?" Everyone shakes their heads.

“We stay together, we press on. We find a phone signal,” Charlie says. Michael nods.

We are close to the ridge now. The hot wind is whipping up dust. It’s stinging my eyes and drying my mouth. I look back the way we’ve come, to the shady trees below us.

“I’m going back,” I blurt out.  “You do what you like, but I’m going back.” I start off back down the trail towards the trees.

“No! Jemma! We should stay together!” calls Julie. I pretend I don’t hear. I need to get away from Charlie’s sneering and Pam and Julie’s silent sympathetic glances.  I need to get away from all of them.

Then I hear hurried steps in the dust. I glance around. It’s Seamus, and behind him, on the ridge, Charlie is laughing.