Shallow Breath

56

Maya




‘Don’t panic,’ Jackson hisses in Maya’s ear. ‘Just come with me.’

He pulls her into the darkness of the forest, her bare feet stinging as she steps on needle-sharp branches and rocks. He doesn’t release her until they are completely hidden.

‘Get dressed, quickly,’ he whispers, pulling things out of a bag.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘Maya, there’s no time to explain. If you want to escape, you need to do what I say.’

Bewildered, she lets him help her out of her wetsuit. He takes it away as she changes into her clothes, and she sees him hide it behind the rocks.

‘Right, follow me,’ he says, ‘and keep up.’

They set off in the grey light, through the tall, crowded tree trunks. As she runs, she’s glad he’s brought her shoes as her painful feet wouldn’t have coped. She hurries after him, eyes fixed on the bag slung over his shoulder, bouncing up and down. He glances behind regularly to make sure she’s still close.

They eventually reach a white car hidden in a thicket of trees.

‘Get in the back and keep your head down,’ Jackson says.

Once they are inside, he puts on a baseball cap before he starts the car.

‘Jackson –’

‘Not yet,’ he says. ‘Don’t talk yet. Just keep down.’

She lies on the seat, the vinyl sticking to her cheek. As they set off, she can still smell the sea in her hair. At first, the car jolts slowly over rough terrain, but then she hears the indicator, and as the road becomes smooth they speed up. From her position she can make out Jackson’s profile between the gaps in the seats, his expression solemn as he stares unflinchingly ahead.

‘Jackson, where are we going?’ she hisses, after what seems like an hour but is probably far less.

‘Osaka. You’re booked on a flight in ten hours. Let’s pray we get there as I can’t read any of these bloody road signs.’

‘I’m booked on a flight? What about you, Jackson? Where the hell are the others?’

He doesn’t answer for a moment. ‘They’re not coming.’

She sits upright in shock. ‘What the hell do you mean?’

‘Get down!’ he hisses. And when she has ducked out of view again, he says, ‘They never intended to come back.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Kate explained it all to me. If they just save a few dolphins, the show is over quickly and there’s not much of a fuss. But if they get caught, the judicial process will keep attention fixed on Taiji for weeks, probably months, possibly years. And that’s what they need most of all – to focus everyone’s attention on what’s happening. The real danger is when people start to forget.’



‘What about Mum?’

‘I think Desi’s resigned to a similar fate.’

‘But I thought you were going with her?’

Jackson keeps his eyes on the road. ‘We had to make a choice. If I’d gone with her, I couldn’t have got you.’

‘Jackson! We have to go back! Why wasn’t I told about this part of the plan?’

‘You weren’t told because everyone agrees that there’s no need for you to experience a Japanese jail. And they all knew that you wouldn’t desert them, if you were given the choice. We don’t think they’ll be looking for you now they have the others. They won’t realise there was anyone else involved – at least not straight away. I’ll go and find out what’s happened when you’re safely on a plane. No arguments – I promised Des I’d do this, and I intend to keep my word.’

‘What about my passport?’

‘Kate packed up everything for you. We’re not stopping until we get there.’

Much of the rest of the journey passes in a blur of tears. When they get closer to the city, Jackson hands her a map, and she keeps her mind occupied trying to decipher the route. Only once they spot the airport signs do they begin to talk again.

‘Won’t you get in trouble, when you go back?’

‘I don’t know. Hopefully not.’

‘If you see them, will you tell them …’ She pauses, trying to figure out what she wants to say. ‘Will you tell them thank you?’

‘I promise.’

‘And will you let me know how many dolphins got away? God, I pray they all got away. That we didn’t do this for nothing.’

‘Whatever happens, Maya, it wasn’t for nothing,’ Jackson replies.

When they pull up outside the terminal, he grabs the bag from the rear seat. ‘It’s probably best I don’t come in with you. Everything you need is in there. I’d go and freshen up a bit before you approach the desk if I were you.’

‘Okay, thanks,’ she says, taking the bag.

‘I think your mum and Kate both put things in there for you,’ he says as he hugs her. ‘Call Pete when you’re home, okay? Tell him what’s happened. He’ll look out for you. I won’t leave until I’m sure you’re safely on the plane. I’ll park, then come and watch you from a distance until you go through to board.’

Maya gets out quickly. It’s all she can do not to race after the car as it drives off. Instead, she hurries inside the terminal and follows the directions to the bathrooms. She washes herself and brushes her hair, and then walks briskly towards the check-in line. She wants to get this over with as fast as possible.

As she goes through the gate, she is a bundle of nerves, but the officials are polite and pleasant. She keeps her eyes on the doorways in the departure lounge, half-expecting uniformed officers to appear. But there is nothing.

She has to breathe heavily to stifle her sobs as she boards the plane, shielding her emotions for those she is leaving behind. Those who loved her enough to ensure her freedom. Not until the plane has taken off, flying away from the sprawling city at sunset, does she hunt in the bag to find what Desi and Kate have left for her.

She discovers a plastic bag and opens it up. Inside is a small, brown, wooden elephant. ‘Take good care of her for me,’ says the note. ‘Her name is Mwana.’ Then she spots her mother’s handwriting on hotel stationery. She has written two words: ‘No regrets.’ A black outline drawing above it shows a smiling dolphin leaping high over the letters.

Maya looks out of the plane window again, but they have travelled too high to see anything except a darkening bed of cloud. As they soar through the sky, she watches the light fade until her view is the same colour she had swum through twelve hours earlier. And while her body flies, her mind returns to the depths of the ocean, to where it all began.