The Cuckoo Colloquium

20 - Dim

At first, Dim thought the rain was a good thing.

When time came to clear camp, however, and follow the waterway north in search of the main river, which would lead them back to Cuckoo Camp, they were still waiting for the rain to stop.

Some five hours later, he frowned from his little nook underneath some low-hanging banana palms-The downpour seemed relentless.

When the rain kept on a full ten hours later, pelting them in furious, relentless sheets, the anxiety turned to panic- They should be heading toward higher ground!

He popped up from under his banana palm and looked around. His tourists had crammed three each into the hammocks, and they weren't supposed to do that; the hammocks held two people only, and they weren't all that great at keeping the water out.

He could barely see, but he knew that the high ground had shrunk. The river had risen during the night at a bewildering speed. Even though they had placed the hammocks on a rise in the riverbed, it wasn't nearly high enough.

Dim's face suddenly darkened: He had made a big mistake! - With this rain they'd all be swallowed up in no time!

He had to rouse them immediately, but, oh, what was the English word that meant too much water?

"Waters, waters!" he shouted, "too much waters!"

"Tell us about it," someone groaned from the first hammock.

"Do turn it off now," someone asked as if Dim were some weather god.

"We goes higher, higher now!"

They grumbled like lazy dogs. Nobody was getting up, nobody was moving! Dim sloshed ten meters over to the other hammock, the water now up to his ankles.

"Waters too much! We leave now!"

"We're all soaked in here!"

"I'm starving!"

Nobody understood that it was better to be alive and soaked, alive and starving.

'Oh, what's the word for 'suddenly, too much water'?'

He looked upwards and the assailing rain stung his face like a thousand angry bees. His visibility was so bad he couldn't see his feet ... Of course, he couldn't see his feet-The water was up past his ankles now!

When Dim got back to the first hammock, all that remained was a black sea of churning water. They were gone-The hammock had been swept off with the river's current!

Oh, this was bad - Angry water everywhere!

He collapsed in a worn heap, but then jumped up again, as if shocked by a cattle prod, and snatched what supplies he could.

Wading back to the second hammock, he tore it open and stuck his face inside like an insane devil.

"Is it flooding?" Pete asked.

Flooding! - Yes, that was the word! "Yes, flooding, flooding, flooding, you go high now or you drown!"

"Why didn't you say so?"

The last Dim saw of Pete, Pinky Bell and Windy, they were finally scrambling for higher ground. He had no time to help them-he had to find the others!

He waded up to his knees into the furious waters, his vision still shrouded by the torrent, though sometimes it eased and he could see farther. He heard a scream down river, and if he used his bowler hat to shield his eyes from the deluge, he could see something bobbing in the current.