Guy managed to put the frame and the hammock together and was lying lazily, reading a book. He was off duty this morning and enjoyed it. In the afternoon he planned to do some administration and see some patients at the hospital.
Jackie came by and asked laughing: "Was this what you were so secretive about?"
He looked annoyed at her, still a little sulky about not managing to hang the thing between trees and certainly not planning to tell her about that. "I wasn't secretive..."
"Oh no, you weren't ," she said as an understatement, and walked away.
xxx
Johnno landed the plane at ten minutes to three, but Len was already there to pick them up.
"Before we go back to the house I really must talk to you all for a moment," Len said.
'Here it comes,' Geoff thought. And Kate and Johnno looked at him with expressions that said: so you were right.
"That guy who is with us..."
Geoff sighed relieved; it was not Hannah he wanted to talk about.
"...turned out to be David's twin brother."
They all held their breath.
"You mean our David?" Geoff asked while looking at Kate. He clearly remembered the dream she had had. Kate looked back at him with a confused expression on her face.
Len nodded. "When I first saw him I almost fainted with astonishment. Like two peas in a pot! Hannah even called him David, that's what made him ask about his brother." Len sighed. "Although he slept most of the time, we told him about David saving our lives... And then... he looked so... happy... so... proud of his brother. We didn't have the heart to tell him... We don't know how ill he is; what if he can't stand the shock?"
Geoff gave Len a little pat on the back. "Let's go to the house first."
Silently they climbed into the car, all trying to prepare for the sight they were going to see.
When they arrived at the property Hannah just came out. "He woke up again," Hannah said, and to Len: "Did you tell them?"
He put his arm around his wife and said: "Yes, love."
Geoff, not losing his professionality, went into the house. Kate followed him with some hesitation, leaving Johnno, Hannah and Len by themselves on the veranda.
Geoff entered the living-room, trying hard to keep his composure at the too familiar sight of the young man on the couch. Still, he couldn't quite stop his breath from catching in his throat as he shook hands with him. Oh my, Len was right... It was like looking into David's eyes!
But Joss grimaced at the handshake. And fortunately that gave Geoff the opening he needed for a talk.
"Does shaking hands hurt you?" he asked.
Joss nodded.
"Hannah told us you have been ill," Geoff mentioned.
"Yes, it was the Ross River virus and I have been ill for over a month. When I left up north, I thought I had completely recuperated, although I still felt a little flulike. It seems like this is still the same."
After Geoff examined him he said: "I think you are right about that. You know we can't do anything for you but give you some anti-inflammatories and painkillers?"
"I'll just have to wait until the virus has done its job then, right?" Joss asked. "I try to refrain from taking medicines as much as possible, you see."
"Okay. But remember the possibility," Geoff said.
"So you are colleagues of my brother, I understood," Joss said. "Is there a chance to run into him here in the neighbourhood? I silently hoped it was he who would come here today."
Geoff and Kate looked at each other.
"No chance," Geoff sighed. "He is not working here with us anymore."
"Oh?" Joss said, longing to know more.
"Joss," Kate said, pulling Geoff aside a little. She took Joss's hand in hers. "Joss, David is not working here anymore, because he's had an accident."
Joss looked a little confused at Kate, and then at Geoff. "Accident? What accident?" Joss tried to sit up in his sudden distress, but Kate pushed him back. "Is he...?"
Kate and Geoff nodded.
"Tell me about it... what happened... Was someone with him...?" he inquired bewildered.
"He was sitting with some guy, who had broken a leg, somewhere halfway a cliff..." Geoff quietly started to tell him. "We flew in there to get them out of there. Somehow, the stretcher we let down got stuck behind some rocks. David lowered himself with a rope and tried to loosen it."
"We told him to be careful, but he said it was no problem because he was a climber," Kate said.
Despite the situation, Joss smiled a little. "We were already doing that when we were only eight years old!"
They looked at him with compassion.
"He couldn't get the stretcher to loosen right away..." Geoff continued the story, "...and trying to shake it loose he lost his grip and fell down the cliff... I went down there... but there was nothing I could do anymore."
During the silence that fell afterward, Geoff asked the others to come in. But Johnno just came in, shook hands with Joss and immediately left the room again.
After another silence Hannah said: "I'll make some tea." And she left the room, too.
In the kitchen she saw Johnno sitting at the table, head in his hands.
"Are you okay?" Hannah asked compassionately.
He looked up. "Yeah... I´m alright... But... I was there... when... and this man really looks the same, it's almost scary... Len prepared us, but still..."
She nodded. And they both sat down, waiting for the kettle to boil.
When Hannah came in again with the tea, Johnno had gathered his composure enough to come back in again with her. Hannah passed the tea around, and everyone drank in silence.
After a while Joss said softly: "Now I understand."
Everybody looked at him for an explanation.
"I felt that drive to go south," he said. "It must have been about the same time he died. Almost at the same time I fell ill. But that drive grew more and more urgent, so when I thought I had recovered enough to travel I left right away."
"I think you left a little too early," Geoff said.
"No," Joss said, "just in time! If I hadn't fallen ill again, I wouldn't have met you, and who knows how long I would have gone on searching for what caused this drive!"
He closed his eyes saying with a deep sigh: "I must have known it."
Geoff gestured at the others in the room to leave Joss alone for a moment and come to the kitchen to talk. And as Kate loosened her hand from Joss's to follow them, a flash of pain crossed his face. She looked at him with compassion. Poor man...
"We will take him to hospital with us," Geoff said when they all had gathered in the kitchen. "If he is just as pigheaded as his brother, he doesn't go to bed when he needs to and jumps out of it without given permission."
"Yes," Johnno said with a faint grin, "except when we organize a party for him..."
"Even then," Geoff replied smiling, "Guy told me he was running around the hospital all night."
"Will he be alright?" Hannah asked going back to serious things.
"Yes, Hannah," Geoff said. "He told us it´s the Ross River virus he's got, and even though for some people it takes a lot of time to get over it, everybody recovers. But this is a healthy young man who just overstressed himself a little. I think he will be on his feet again in a few days."
"Please keep us informed," Hannah begged.
And Geoff nodded.
During the flight back to the Crossing, with Joss lying on the stretcher, Geoff and Kate couldn't help remembering how they sat there with David that other day. It made them feel really bad.