Rob Ewing - The Last of Us

After twenty seconds of revving Duncan turns off the engine. Nobody talks: we’re still amazed by the churn, by the petrol smell – which reminds me so much of adults that I want it turned on again right away.

Duncan jumps out and wades over to us, then grabs Calum Ian by the neck and rubs his head, then goes around to shake all our hands, including mine and Mairi’s, even though Mairi tries to hide.

‘It’s going to work,’ he says. ‘It’s bloody well going to work, it is!’

Then Calum Ian comes back from the shed with two orange bundles.

‘Life vests. We’ve only two. Which is all we should use because we tried the boat already. Result: it took me fine. It took Duncan fine. But it took me and Duncan together: not so fine.’

He takes off his backpack, then ties on one of the life vests. ‘’Course we never tried with three or four or five.’ He throws the other life vest at Alex. ‘I bet you any money that it doesn’t work.’

To prove him wrong we begin to try right away.

Duncan gets in first, then Alex. They steady the boat, then Calum Ian gets in as well.

Elizabeth goes to sit inside too: but she’s too much. So we go back to Alex, with just the MacNeil brothers alongside.

The boat sags in the middle, though not very bad. It folds when a wave comes past, but stays high.

Calum Ian pulls the string for the motor. He pushes the boat off with his unfolded paddle, then they go out a short way, just as far as the start of the pier and back.

He shuts off the engine as the boat returns. The fold is there in the boat’s middle.

Alex climbs out as soon as he’s near the shallows.

He looks frightened, relieved to be back on land.

Calum Ian looks around for the eye of everyone like he won the argument.

‘Any more proof? Two’s the most that can go.’

Nobody gets a surprise when he next makes his claim for who the two should be.

‘We’re the only ones who know. Me and Duncan. We’ve got fishing in the family, in the blood, me and my brother. Has anyone else got fishing in the blood? Thought not. So it has to be us.’

‘It isn’t just about fishing,’ Alex says. ‘It’s also that you want to leave on your own – and leave us all behind.’

Calum Ian stands close to him, looking down.

‘ Can a-rithist sin? Do any of you know how to sail? No. Did you go out with Uncle Frank? No. Anybody know how to steer or go up over waves? No.’

‘You want to leave. Now that you know your dad isn’t coming. That’s why.’

‘ Shut your face , Bonus Features – don’t you ever talk bad on my dad’s name, ever.’

‘You’re forcing. You can’t force. We can be free to make any of our own choices. That’s the rule of freedom.’

‘And I said shut it . Unless you want some of what that one there deserves: keep your trap buttoned.’

He’s pointing at me: like I’m the one deserving.

Elizabeth doesn’t seem to want to use her age or better argument to stand up for us. But instead she just asks, ‘Will you leave from here?’

Calum Ian finds a stick to draw a map on the sand: putting an X for our village, a circle for the nearest island.

‘Except the closest place to leave from our island is Ard Mhor,’ she tells him. ‘And that’s back next to Mairi’s village. Back on the north shore.’

‘So we keep it short. Short as possible. Duncan and me go around the island first with the rib. It’ll take us: an hour? We’ll stick close to shore. Then on the other side we’ll meet you – here.’ He scratches boxes for houses, then another X in the sand. ‘The ferry slip, Ard Mhor. We fill up, do the main journey. Maybe two at a time?’

Elizabeth counts us up.

‘We’d have to go back, come back. It would take how many—? Four, five turns?’

‘Give me a bloody better idea.’

‘I don’t have a better idea. It seems to be you with all the better ideas, all of the time.’

‘That’s because I’ve got the brains. Brains are better than teamwork in any situation you can think of.’

Calum Ian waits for her to disagree with his saying. When she doesn’t, he goes on, ‘So you fed up with me taking the lead? Someone has to. Or is it something to do with that pair – the one who doesn’t talk and the one who pulls knives—’

‘I will need to go in the boat.’

He never expected Elizabeth to say that.

Neither did we.

Elizabeth now points at the fat wrap of bandaging she has put around her ankle.

‘I can’t walk. Or I can: but not very far.’

His mouth drops into an O when she undoes the wrapping to show what’s underneath.

‘How did—’

‘You did it. With the dart.’

Now bits of her skin are broken. Drops of yellow are coming from blisters. Her leg went fat, swollen.

He looks long at what she’s got, like he’s working out what to do, what it changes. What he did.

‘You can stay here.’

‘You bloody well owe me. There was poison put on the dart, wasn’t there? Wasn’t there? Don’t you even try to say there wasn’t.’

He looks for the right saying back in the smoke-dirt on his T-shirt, without finding any.

‘You could wait… Wait here. We take Alex. You could wait here with—’

‘ I – need – medicine. I don’t want to die. You’ve made me ill, so now you bloody owe me.’

Her face falls, crumples. It’s the worst ever to see Elizabeth look this way: worse than anything, because I need her to be the one who’s strong.

Calum Ian stands at the edge of the water beside the boat. He presses both hands on it, testing the air inside. Maybe hoping it’ll turn out to be fuller than he thought.

‘It’s tough, but I need to go with my brother,’ he finally says. ‘We’re a team, the both of us. We were brought up to be a team.’ Then he looks again at her leg: and thinking once more says: ‘I could do you a favour.’

‘Don’t talk to me about favours. You owe me.’

‘A deal, then.’

‘The deal is: you take me.’

‘Or the deal is: one of us takes you. Then at the other side it’s me and Duncan. We leave together, and go to the next island to find help, fast as we can, for Alex.’

‘The deal is everyone sticks together.’

‘Then you and Alex get sick. Because we can’t all leave. Somebody has to stay, the boat won’t take everyone. And it needs a strong person to go looking for help – and a strong person to sail it back. Are you strong?’

Elizabeth can’t think of an answer. I notice her hair is damp, with sweat coming off her forehead.

‘Then at the other side we look for medicine.’ Calum Ian holds his hand out. ‘We already know there’s none here. Deal?’

She doesn’t say if it is or not. She just shrugs, which Calum Ian takes for a yes.

‘So Duncan can sail with you.’ Now he turns to us. ‘Which makes it me and the kids. Isn’t that right, kids?’

Now he has surprised us. Nobody shows a sign of agreeing. I look at Elizabeth for guidance, for what she thinks, but she doesn’t seem to want to make any more arguments.

‘Why do you want us?’ Alex asks.

‘It isn’t that I want you, not one bit. It’s that you’ve got me . Duncan gets his shot with the boat first: fine. He goes first. But then it’s me for the main crossing. That’s what you’re getting.’

More on purpose he puts out his hand, and gets Elizabeth to shake it: ‘I take the kids. OK? End of story.’

Then to us: ‘We’ll go as a team. Isn’t that right, kids? Who wants to walk with me? With their Uncle Calum Ian?’

We don’t say: Yes please.

‘ Nach thu tna toilichte? ’ he does thumbs-up. ‘That’s right! We’ll all get there first, we’ll beat them. All of us the one big friendly team. What’s going to work?’