Welcome to Day 8 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:
'Wildlife Encounters'
Here’s a fictionalised version of a real experience… (apart from the ending) that I wrote for a flash fiction competition.
ZINGING THE ZAMBEZI IN ZAMBIA
The hippos wallowed in the shallows like a chaos of bruises.
“In the unlikely event of capsize from a hippo attack, use
the boat as a shield and swim to the bank,” said Scott.
“I’m a rotten swimmer,” said Georgie.
“Just think ‘crocodiles’. Trust me, you’ll ‘zing’.”
Georgie tugged her bulky, ill-fitting lifejacket. If they
capsized, she wouldn’t be ‘zinging’ anywhere. At least a crocodile might have
trouble pulling her underwater in a death roll, she thought sourly.
Scott cut the engine. “Ready to catch some tigers?”
Sunbathing crocs slithered with silky swiftness into the water and hippos grunted warnings if they drifted too close.
Georgie hooked a tiger fish. It leapt out of the water in a luminescent flash of orange and pink. The line went slack.
“Lost him!”
In the excitement, they didn’t notice the boat’s position. A
shockingly loud snort alerted them. A hippo was porpoising through the water at
a speed that chilled Georgie’s blood. Scott dived for the ignition key.
The engine screamed and died. There was a sickening thud.
Georgie lay on the bank coughing up water. She didn’t know
how she had managed to navigate the mighty Zambezi but she certainly had
‘zinged’.
See you on Monday – I’m heading west. Can you guess
where and what the next animal will be?
As I mentioned yesterday, I've been away but will be back this afternoon, when I'll catch up with you.
If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE
