“Sssmmtng sss o’ver ther” Twix vaguely indicates 110 degrees of a circle with a flaccidly outstretched pointed finger. He looks both pleased with himself at his power of observation and a bit impatient that we should know his intent. The callow youth managed to polish off a bottle of rum stolen from the galley in the middle of a storm, I guess he deserves credit for being able to keep it down after being jostled by nature’s grandest efforts, ejaculated from ship to sea and then from sea to (thank the gods) sandy beach.
Twix turns as though to set off in a direction. Either the effects of rum or being at sea have rendered his legs inoperable. He belly flops into the golden sand. His face, firmly planted in sand, he waves his arm over his head and yells “Fllow meh”. And appears to lose consciousness.
Heflam barely notices. He is looking at a welt on his forearm which is growing by the second. “Huh… just swatted that a minute ago. That’s not good”.
The normally talkative and genial fellow simply stares.
And the bump grows.
“Did I mention that I have a few allergies?” Heflam murmurs.
“Peanuts. I can’t eat peanuts. I tried a peanut liquor once, that was ok… but the actual peanuts make me swell… just like this welt actually”. Heflam's eyes never leave the welt as he talks. I think he is -staring- it into being bigger.
“Watch this” he says. The welt is now about the size of a walnut.
It pops. Literally it makes a small popping noise.
It oozes.
If I wasn’t so exhausted, I would definitely vomit.
Heflam seems non-plussed and he starts to pat down Twix’s clothes. “See if that rum bottle is still… aha!”
Sure enough, Twix’s bottle is crammed in the front of his pants. It is empty save for a few drops… which Heflam sprinkles on his pustule after rinsing it in the stream.
“Its either that or piss on it” he says. “I reckon I’ll have to do that later if we get more of those buggers. You might want to watch out for them… they have a rainbow thorax and sound like a small symphony while they fly.”
I nod.
I survey.
It would seem that Twix was actually trying to point out an object up the beach… possibly from the ship. Good lad.
‘Cloth and household goods’, I was told… but to be honest I didn’t really care… until now.
“I’m going to go have a look at…” I start to say to Heflam. As I turn to talk to him, he is already walking toward the object.
I double step to catch up. I figure Twix can wait till we return… he isn’t going anywhere.
