“It’s nothing,” Thato stammered. “We must stay very still.”

Any minute now he expected to be discovered. Thato couldn’t believe how silly he had been getting on the aeroplane. Were the two of them going to be killed because of his mad, crazy desire to fly?

He wanted nothing more than to be back in George with his family. He didn’t care if he never saw an aeroplane again as long as he lived.

He sat there, not breathing for a few seconds. He tried to think of what to do. Doing anything foolish now would cost him and Mildred their lives. But he had to see what they were up to. He peered out of the small window and saw them standing a distance away from the plane.

For sure these men were dangerous. They wouldn’t think anything of shooting two teenagers. They would probably laugh when they did it. He could still hear them talking. “You can see there’s no one about, Kane. This is a deserted area. There’s not a car or a building in sight.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Kane said. “But just in case, I’ll keep this handy.”

He looked down at the gun in his right hand as he spoke.

The men started walking further away from the aeroplane, then a short distance later, they stopped. They didn’t look back. They stood staring at a huge termite mound. Thato watched them, wondering what they were up to.

The next moment Kane’s partner put his hands in his pockets and dug out some packages. Thato didn’t know what his name was – Kane had not once addressed him using his name.

The man who had the packages walked up to the termite mound. He put the packages into a small hole at the bottom of the termite mound. It was a very good hiding place. When the man moved his hand away, the packages could not be seen.

Thato knew he had to get off the aeroplane with Mildred – now! He grabbed her hand and started walking slowly up the aisle to the door. He never took his eyes off the men. If they happened to turn around, he wanted to be ready to crawl behind a seat.

He had just made it to the door when his heart jumped into his throat. The man who had been hiding the packages stood up. Thato was positive he was going to turn around and see them. But the man bent down and picked up some rocks.

“I’ll mark the ground here with rocks,” he said.

“That’s a good idea,” his friend ‘Kane’ answered. The two men laughed again.

Thato sneaked to the door, and first he helped Mildred climb down the steps. If the men turned around, they would not see them. The aeroplane would block their view. He could see that it had landed on a long, straight, dirt road. The man had certainly picked a good place to hide whatever was in the packages. Thato wondered again what they were hiding.

He noticed some bushes at the side of the road. Quickly, holding tightly onto Mildred’s hand he ran across the road and crouched down behind the bushes.

He had made it! He had gotten Mildred safely off the aeroplane.

But Thato had something else to worry about. Where was he? How would he get himself and Mildred home?

From his hiding place behind the bushes, Thato could see the men clearly. They seemed very pleased with themselves.

“We won’t have much trouble finding this place again,” Kane said.

Thato could see what he meant. He had been too busy trying to escape before, but suddenly Thato noticed the shape of the termite mound. It was shaped like a giraffe. He smiled to himself. Yes, that and the rocks would make the place easy to find again.

The men turned around and started walking towards the aeroplane. At the door they stopped and looked back.

“I’m going to eat a huge steak at the Stage Door restaurant tonight,” Kane said.

The other man patted him on the shoulder. “We’re both going to eat well at the Stage Door tonight! We’ve got something to celebrate!”

“That’s right! Something to celebrate!” Kane laughed. “Let’s get going before somebody comes along the road and spots us,” he added.

Thato and Mildred watched the aeroplane taking off. They were so close that it sounded very loud and the ground shook.

“Stage Door,” Thato kept repeating to himself. He wondered where it was.

As the aeroplane climbed into the sky, Thato and Mildred climbed out of their hiding place. He looked at his watch. It was almost one thirty.

“We’ll have to find a police station,” he said to Mildred. “There’s no other way of getting home. The police will know what to do.”

Thato looked up and down the road. He had no idea which direction to walk in. As far as his eye could see, there wasn’t a person or a building in sight. All he could see were bushes and sand.

Thato stood thinking for a while. He knew he should stay on the road in case a car came past. He knew which way the plane had gone, so he decided to walk the other way. He hoped he would come across some people soon. Perhaps they would be able to tell him where the nearest police station was.

Now that the worst of the danger had passed, both teenagers were thirsty and very hungry. They knew they had to keep walking, but it was hard going.

“I can smell smoke in the air,” Thato tried to reassure Mildred. They had walked quite a distance. “That means there must be people around somewhere.”

Mildred nodded her head. She never once blamed Thato for getting them into this impossible situation.

Were they going to die out here on this abandoned stretch of road? They walked further on, but they saw nobody. Not even one car went past. They grew hotter, thirstier, and very tired.

***

Tell us what you think: Should Thato and Mildred have stayed on the aeroplane and taken their chance of not being caught?