Philip was totally relaxed when the boat started swaying side-to-side. He thought the river’s waves were just picking up a little life. Then he heard a clear thud of something hitting into the boat. Something big.

Philip jumped up and stared in horror at the crocodile. It was now circling the boat. What’s a crocodile doing here? Philip screamed in his head. The creature submerged under the water, but it repeatedly catapulted itself against the small boat. Philip was losing his balance against the force. He needed to get out of here. So he grabbed his paddles, and started heading in the direction he had came from.

However his attempt was feeble at best.

When Philip was going to push the paddles up, a strong force kept the one in his right hand down. A tug-of-war started, and there was no give from the crocodile’s end. If Philip would be going nowhere if he didn’t have both paddles. With his life at stake, Philip put his whole strength into pulling for the paddle. “You motherfucker!” He cursed, as his face was dripping with sweat.

Then, just like that, he won the paddle from his enemy. Having no time for celebrating, Phil tried to go straight back to paddling. But again, the crocodile snapped its jaws on his paddle. Only this time, to Philip’s horror, it snapped the paddle in two. When the crocodile had let go before, it was just playing with him.

*

Alison was exhausted by her heart continuously racing. She’d felt nervous about Philip walking into dangerous territory as if she was his own mother. Her own son was his age, and raising him here, there were plenty of times Alison had that fear of him never coming home. To tempt Philip to not stray too far, she had offered to cook him his favourite lunch. She had held back her gawk when he chose something as expensive as a sirloin steak. Fine, whatever, as long as he comes back.

She had the homemade chips ready at their agreed time. Meanwhile, the seasoned steak was sat at the ready next to the pan. She wanted to wait to see Philip before cooking the meat. He was late. The butterflies in her stomach got worse as minutes turned into hours. She could only chew the inside of her cheek as she waited. Her husband Murray radioed the police and their friends to ask them to keep an eye out for their guest, but no one saw a single hair. It was a sleepless night for the two of them.

Alison didn’t know how she did it, but like they agreed on, as they always agreed, the couple until 10am check-out time before using the master key to check Philip’s room. Maybe he’d left without telling them. Opening the door only confirmed her fears. Philip’s stuff was still there. He’d had intended on coming back, but something bad had stopped him.

“It’s happened again,” Alison whispered.

“The fool,” Murray sighed. He put his arms around his wife, wishing to stop her tears. It was his duty to protect his family, but it never got easy having to deal with the missing travellers. He felt powerless, as he stared at Philip’s possessions.