Someone answered.
I didn’t dare try to twist around to see who it was. I didn’t dare move at all. Because this was it … I was sliding over the edge… and we would both slither down to the crocodiles awaiting us at the bottom …
I both felt and heard running footsteps. I shouted again. I was desperate now, because I was going. … I could feel myself going … I was slipping through the mud. Leon was shouting at me to let go. I was just shouting. Because whoever was coming was going to be just half a second too late to save us …
An arm seized Leon. On the other side of me, another arm reached down for him. The overwhelming weight was gone. I wriggled backwards to give them room to hoist him up.
They were two slaves. Skinny but muscular. Naked apart from their loincloths. They hauled him up and out, no problem at all, and we all sat, muddy and breathless in the warm evening sun and looked at each other.
We had no money to give them. We owned nothing but the clothes that we now didn’t have the strength to stand up in. We had no words with which to thank them, but there’s a universal sign language. We place our hands over our hearts and bowed our heads. They smiled and bowed theirs. Then they picked up their bundles and departed. Just like that.
We helped each other up and stumbled back to the pod. To have our first argument.
First things first, however. We jumped. I was surprised we got away with it. We were both so coated in Egyptian mud that the computer might well have decided that we were wearing enough of Egypt to constitute a foreign object and refused to jump. However, it didn’t and we jumped away.
I had no idea where to, but at least it was quiet. Or it was until we got there.
We were tired, overwrought, and hurt, so all in all, a great time for a sensible discussion in which both participants could calmly and quietly state their point of view in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance and respect.
Leon opened the batting.
‘I told you to go back to the pod. Why don’t you ever do as you’re told?’
‘Why should I? You tell me to do such stupid things.’
‘Hanging around to pull me out of a ditch I could perfectly easily have climbed out of is more than stupid.’
‘Oh, really? You could have got yourself out of that?’
‘Obviously.’
It was vitally important that at least one of us should stay calm. We didn’t argue often, but whenever we did, Things Were Said and People Got Hurt. I should have said something conciliatory but I never got the chance.
‘What is the point of me trying to keep you safe if you do stupid things like that?’
‘Says the idiot who fell in a ditch.’
‘I didn’t see it.’
‘It’s twenty feet wide, for God’s sake. Are you blind as well?’
‘As well as what? No, don’t bother answering that.’
Just as well he said that. I had a long list prepared. I closed my mouth. Sadly, he didn’t notice my restraint.
‘Just tell me what on earth you thought you were doing.’
‘I was rescuing you.’
‘And while you’re doing that the Time Police grab you and I lose you all over again.’
‘Well, I’d already lost you. You were seconds from drowning in the mud. Or being eaten by crocodiles. Or found by the Time Police. But none of that happened. Because we pulled you out.’
‘Why can’t you understand? You could have handed yourself to them on a plate. They’d have grabbed you, left me for crocodile fodder, and that would have been the end of both of us.’
‘No it wouldn’t. I’m sneaky and resourceful. I always have a cunning plan.’
‘Which in this case, apparently, was to get yourself killed.’
‘No I wouldn’t. They keep using their sound gun thing …’
‘Their sonic pulse weapons …’
‘Yes – so they obviously want us alive. If they’d caught us – which they didn’t – the worst that could have happened was that they would have taken us prisoner. The point I’m making is that we would have been alive and if you’re alive then anything is possible. It’s being dead that limits your options.’
We were shouting now.
He slapped the console in frustration. ‘You don’t know that. I could have lost you. Again. Why can’t you understand?’
I was waving my arms around. ‘Of course I understand. Who better? Why do you think I wouldn’t let go? Why can’t you understand – I won’t lose you again.’