page34 (1/2)

‘Watch out!’

The teenager was back He caught her elbow and yanked her to the side of the path just as another horse and cart rattled past at full speed It almost struck her

‘Thank you, I’m fine’

She picked up her fallen sunglasses She wanted to tell him she could take care of herself but she refrained He was only being chivalrous and she had been caught off-guard She hadn’t slept in almost two days

Frazzled and sweating, she wheeled all her worldly belongings along the thick, dusty, potholed concrete that constituted a street

Street food vendors werestraws into coconuts Girls were swigging beer, pedalling bicycles in bikinis The salty air was already clinging to her forehead No one else offered to help her but that was OK She’d done this before, in worse places She just hadn’t iined the island would be this crowded

Through the jet lag she remembered that she’d come in on a tourist boat, to the tourist side of Gili Indah The MAC was on the west side That part of the island was exclusive territory—just for patients and staff She couldn’t wait to dive into a swi pool She just had to wait until tomorrow

Mila was about to hail the approaching horse and cart when a noise from the shorein the waves

Squinting through the throng, her eyes fell on a girl a few metres behind the speedboat She saw the yellow dive boat she’d seen before, fro must have happened

‘Snake!’ Gabby screamed ‘It bit me! Ow, it hurts! Sebastian, help!’

‘OKit’s OK Let’s get you back to shore’

Sebastian looped an ar his head in all directions, looking at the shallows Where was the snake?

One ht next to hi over in her half-undone wetsuit

He rab for her mask and fins before they were swept out of reach, and threw theroup

‘There it is!’ Gabby sounded horrified

He followed her pointing finger to the thin, yellow and black stripy body of a sea snake It wriggled past hi for the deep beyond the reef

Sebastian tried to wade faster Gabby’s face had turned pale She wasn’tthis up

‘Where did it bite you?’ He kept his voice controlled, not wanting to panic her Her head was heavier every time it landed on his shoulder

‘Onnow, barely able to breathe

‘Ketut!’ he yelled

Gabby’s legs seeht her before she could fall and lowered her gently to her back on the sand She hi to clutch at his arm Her face was almost white

A frenzy of people crowded around So the scene with their cameras

‘Get back,’ he ordered gruffly, as the fae of contempt for this kind of privacy invasion consuain

But so over

‘I’m a doctor—how can I help?’

The lady in red from the boat The British tourist It was definitely herthe woo Speechless, he watched as she dropped to her knees

‘Snake bite,’ she noted out loud, before he could explain She put a hand to Gabby’s ankle

‘Yeow!’ Gabby clarip

Easing her fingers away, he helped his new partner adjust the bitten leg and support it on an upturned rock