The Secret Path by Karen Swan (summer beach reads TXT) 📕

back the forest for their profits, they don’t care about saving the planet.’

‘Mmm. I guess this is the problem, isn’t it?’ Dev said. ‘These high-minded ideals of preserving the forests, protecting wildlife, reducing carbon emissions – they come with the best intentions, but for the guy on the ground who’s lost his livelihood . . .’ he shrugged. ‘It’s a kick in the teeth.’

‘Yes. Some people have been very unhappy.’

Tara watched Jed. She knew him too well. He was a born diplomat, careful with his words, but she knew that often the truth lay in his silences. There was something he wasn’t telling them. Or rather, her.

‘At least you’re on the right side of the fence,’ Dev continued. ‘Holly told me you and your family are very important to Tara’s family.’

Jed smiled, glancing at Tara almost shyly. ‘Well, that is good to hear. They are very important to us. We feel honoured to work for them.’

‘What is it your father does exactly?’

‘For the moment, he is based at the rangers’ lodge in the middle of the park. He manages the rangers. It is a varied job – maintaining boundaries, catching poachers, illegal farmers.’ He gave an amused laugh. ‘He caught one of the villages illegally trying to build a road not so long ago. It would have run across one of the main breeding areas for jaguarondi, which are endangered, of course.’

‘Oh dear.’

‘Yes. So he is very busy. And of course there has been much to do to get ready for the handover.’

‘It sounds a mammoth task,’ Dev sympathized. ‘And here you are, looking after us and bringing us to waterfalls!’

‘I caught the long straw, for sure!’ Jed laughed. ‘But it is important, making sure you are happy.’

‘Jed, I’m not sure I’ve ever been happier,’ Holly murmured, lying down to bask on a warm rock, her eyes already closing.

‘Does your wife work?’ Dev asked.

‘She does. She is a teacher in our village.’

Tara frowned. ‘Village? But I thought you lived in Puerto Viejo?’

‘Not anymore. You see? Much has changed since your last visit. My wife is Indigena – she is of the Bribri. They live past Manzanillo, in the mountains.’

‘But I thought . . . do you mean you travel over here, every day?’

‘Only when your family is here. Otherwise I help my father, usually at the rangers’ base station.’ He smiled, seeing her expression. ‘It is not a problem for me to come to the beach, T-t.’

Tara said nothing, but she knew that journeys here weren’t like they were at home. It wasn’t a matter of hopping on buses or trains, of walking down roads or even through fields. This was a land of tropical forests – rainforests, cloud forests, dry forests. Moving even ten metres could be a challenge in some parts. To get to the beach in time for her family to wake up every day, he must be leaving his home well before dawn.

‘Wouldn’t it be easier to stay in town in the week and go home at weekends?’

‘Easier? Yes,’ he grinned. ‘But for my wife left with the babies? Believe me, my life is easier if I am there too.’

‘Oh I hear you!’ Dev nodded. ‘And amen to that.’

Jed chuckled, understanding the joke as Holly looked on with a mock-peeved expression. His smile faded. ‘. . . Sadly our second boy is sick. It takes two of us to be there at night. One to look after him, and one to look after the others.’

Tara frowned. Something in Jed’s tone of voice, his altered speech pattern, put her on high alert. ‘Sick how?’

‘Bad stomach pain. Fevers. He cannot eat. His skin itches all the time.’

‘Any joint pains? Swellings?’ Holly asked, turning her head on the rock, a deep frown on her brow. Briefly, her gaze met Tara’s.

‘Yes. In his hands. And a lot of nosebleeds.’

‘Nosebleeds?’ Tara echoed.

‘Is he jaundiced? Have his bloods been taken?’ Holly pressed, propping herself up on her elbows.

Jed looked taken aback by the rapid-fire questions, but Tara knew exactly where her friend was heading.

‘Has he seen a doctor, Jed?’ she asked gently.

‘The Awa is treating him.’

‘Awa?’ Holly echoed.

He reached for the word in English. ‘The shaman. The doctor in town will not visit the village, and anyway my boy is too weak to travel. It is safer to keep him at home.’

Holly and Tara shared a knowing look. If he was too weak to travel, that was proof alone that he needed to be in a hospital. Tara’s gaze slid over to Dev and Jimmy. This was their trip of a lifetime; it had been one thing helping out at the clinic for a couple of hours, but Holly couldn’t start trekking cross-country on a busman’s holiday.

‘Jed, would you allow me to take a look at him?’ she asked, treading carefully.

He blinked, looking suddenly nervous. ‘Thank you, but it is not necessary. The Awa is treating him.’

‘Of course. And I respect that. What does the Awa say is wrong with him?’

‘That he has the spider sickness.’

‘Spider sickness.’

‘The sickness is a thread that goes through the veins and around the body, like a spider walking on a web.’

‘Right, yes, of course.’ Tara plastered a smile on her face; she had never heard a potential case of hepatitis being called that before. ‘Well, would you let me take a quick look at him anyway? Just to offer a second opinion. I would like to help if I can. You always do so much for my family, it would be the least I could do.’

Jed hesitated, the fearful parent suddenly visible in his happy-go-lucky face.

‘Please. Whatever I might recommend would be entirely for you and Sarita to decide if it was what you wanted,’ she added. ‘There would be no pressure from me. He’s your son.’

‘. . . Okay,’ he said finally.

‘Great. What’s his name?’

‘Paco.’

‘Paco, lovely.’ She kept her voice deliberately calm, her cadence slow. ‘So then, maybe I could travel back with you tonight?’

‘Tonight?’

‘Mm-hmm,’ she said casually, hoping he wouldn’t be alarmed by her urgency.

There was a hesitation. ‘But it would be very dark. You would not