Chapter 32
Day 29
We are up very early and waiting outside our tent by 9:30 a.m. for the doctor to drive us to town. The villagers stopped with their rituals around midnight and will resume this morning. The doctor drives up to the tent about 10 minutes later and is pleased to see we are ready to go. We are getting in his car when I notice the Chief standing under the tree in the center of the village. He is holding one hand in the air saying goodbye. I raise my hand and wave back. I get in the car, and we drive away.
The town is about six miles away, but it will take probably 20 minutes to get there because the terrain is bumpy. It is a small town with a pub, a small grocery store, and a hotel. The rest of the town appears to be housing for the townspeople. The doctor invites us to his office so we can use the phone.
I am dialing Geoff’s number so fast, I have to hang up and try again because I missed a number. The phone rings a few times and then I hear, “Hello?”
“Geoff, it’s Kobi.”
“What? Are you serious? Kobi, where are you? What happened?”
“I’m fine. Derrick, Dane, and our pilot, Henderson are all fine. We will tell you all about it when we get there. We are in this small village northeast of Lake Gregory. Do you know it?”
“Yes, I know right where you are. I’ll send a helicopter to pick you guys up. There is a helicopter charter company in Fitzroy Crossing, WA. I have used them before once or twice. Give me a number for you and I’ll call you back after I get a good estimated time of arrival for the copter.”
I give Geoff the number of the doctor’s office and hang up. Since we have to wait anyway, I ask the doctor to have a look at my wrist and Henderson’s head. He looks at my wrist and decides to do an x-ray. The x-ray shows that the wrist is indeed broken, but has been set perfectly and should heal just fine. He does want to put my wrist in a cast while it is healing. I told him what Chief Kanuti did to my wrist the other night and he didn’t seem surprised at all.
He removes the bandages from Henderson’s head and is pleased to see the cut has already started healing together. He removes the dirty butterfly stitches, cleans up the cut, and places fresh butterfly stitches over the cut. It is healing nicely. Danes face is fine. All of the blistering is gone and just a faint redness remains. We offer to pay the doctor for his services, but he insists not. I guess
that is his way of thanking me for saving the young girl from the crocodile.
The phone rings, and the doctor motions for me to go ahead and pick up the receiver. It is Geoff. He has chartered a helicopter to take us to Halls Creek airport. A CDC jet will pick us up there and fly us to Darwin because it is about 750 kilometers away. The chopper will be here in about two hours. That is great. I can’t wait to get back to the lab and catch up with everyone. We decide to go to the cafe for a cup of tea and a pastry. There is a sign hanging on the outside of the cafe advertising breakfast, so why not have some while we are waiting. They also have finger food type bar snacks, but it’s too early for that.
I am on my second cup of tea and have finished my muffin, when I hear the helicopter fly overhead. I ask the waitress where we should go to meet the copter, and she directs us to a landing pad behind the hotel. We pay the tab and start walking. I can hear the engines winding down, so I know he has landed. We walk behind the hotel and see the pilot exiting the helicopter. He walks over to us and asks if we are the customers waiting to be taken to Hall’s Creek. We nod and climb aboard the helicopter.
We land at Halls Creek Airport and see the CDC jet waiting for us on the tarmac already. We thank the helicopter pilot, climb aboard the plane, and take off. This time I am riding in the back, and so is Henderson. Surprisingly, we are not nervous at all about flying again after having just crashed a plane similar to this one. It was a freak accident, and we know it.
The flight to Darwin is a quick one and before I know it, we are descending for landing into Darwin International. I am looking out the window, just like I did almost a month ago, with an entirely different perspective on life. I can’t believe what has happened since we last saw Darwin from the air. I see Derrick looking out of the window and I know he is thinking the same thing. Squeak! We are on the ground and taxiing off the runway headed for the terminal. I know Geoff will be waiting for us and I can’t wait to see him.
As we pull up to the terminal, there’s Geoff standing outside on the red carpet with his hands in his pocket. We depart the airplane and Geoff walks up to us and firmly shakes Derrick’s hand, then Dane’s, then Henderson’s. I am the lucky one, I got a hug. We are walking back toward the terminal when the entrance door opens and outs walks Cole. As he gets close, I see he has Buddy on his shoulder. I can’t believe he is out of the lab. I run up to him and give him a long hug, and of course I start crying.
“I can’t believe it! Look at you! You look great! Who is that on your shoulder?”
“Thanks, it’s good to see you guys too. Buddy missed you too. You had us all worried to death. What happened to your wrist?”
“Nothing really, it’s just broken. It will be fine. Are you cured?”
“Yes, I am. The parasite is completely dead, and I suppose my body will eventually dispose of the unwanted dead matter--hopefully. We do a complete blood and parasite count daily, and the parasite numbers are decreasing, so I know the body is getting rid of it. We will fill you in on all the details tomorrow.”
Geoff walks us through the terminal to the van he has waiting in the parking lot. “Welcome back, guys. I know you want to get the details tonight about what we have been doing since you left, but I must insist that you go to the hotel and rest. It is late anyway and I need to get Cole back to the lab. He will be staying with us until the parasite is completely out of his system. Stolz, Sevi, and Evan have been given the antidote too, but we aren’t sure if they are going to make it or not. I’ll catch you up in the morning. Rest and sleep late in the morning. Henderson, do you have a place in town where I can drop you off?”
“Thank you, I appreciate the offer, but I have a car here, so I will drive home tonight.”
I look at Henderson and say, “Thank you for everything. I am going to miss you. You know, if you want to meet us for breakfast in the morning…”
Before I can finish, he interrupts me and says, “Not tomorrow morning, Kobi. I want to see my little girl and take her to school. May I call you after I drop her off?” he says.
“Of course! Why don’t you come to the lab and I’ll show you what’s going on and you can meet Trevor and Nicola. I don’t have a phone, but here is Derrick’s number. I’ll see you tomorrow.” We hug each other tight, and I feel like I have made a new friend for life!
Geoff drops us off at the hotel and says, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Derrick and I plop down on the bed completely exhausted--too tired to even take a bath. We did manage to get up and change into something suitable for sleeping. Luckily, we had most of our clothes still here in the room. We didn’t need to take everything with us when we went to Perth earlier. We went straight to sleep.