The Repossession (6 page)

Genie stood up and promptly sat back down again.

She didn’t seem to have any balance.

‘You’re not well,’ Rian said, concerned. ‘You have to eat, though.’

She made a greater effort and moved over to the chair by the table. Something was clouding her mind, she felt dizzy, but Rian was right about the food, it smelled delicious and she needed it. Rian opened the cabin door to cool the room down and Genie inhaled the fresh air as it rushed in and rustled papers. She wrinkled her nose. ‘Going to rain, Ri. Close it again. I can smell it.’

He was standing by the door a moment, amazed at how black it was and how silent. There was no breeze at all now, no sound. As if the birds and creatures were holding their breath. It was uncanny, eerie.

Suddenly an enormous crack of thunder and simultaneous lightning forked right across the river. It lit up the whole world for a fraction of time. A second later the rain fell. Not just any rain, it was as if the whole Pacific Ocean had been scooped up and dropped from the sky. Rian slammed the door closed as it thundered down, drumming on the roof with a deafening roar.

Genie grinned. ‘I said it would rain.’

Rian laughed. ‘Hell, yeah. You ever hear anything that loud before?’

They just listened to the pounding rain and started eating. Somehow the thunder, lightning and heavy downpour made the whole place more special, as if the storm was just for them.

‘Tastes good, Ri.’

‘Send a letter to Ragu and tell them.’

‘I wish I could cook. Can’t even boil pasta. Last time I made anything it was oatmeal when my mother had the flu. Best forty-eight hours of my life. She couldn’t move. I was nine, I think. She stayed in bed for two whole days and I could watch TV, eat what I liked and . . .’ She sighed.

‘I should have run away then.’

Another crack of lightning outside, filling the whole cabin with an intense brilliance. The thunder instantly rolled in on top of them, shaking the whole boat. They

exchanged glances, a little afraid – they’d never experienced a storm this loud.

‘I blame climate change,’ Rian stated, then laughed.

‘Glad we’re in this old tub. It’s ninety years old or more and the steel’s thicker than a tank.’

Genie drank some of the apple juice Rian had provided.

She stretched out a hand to squeeze his. ‘Ri?’

‘Yeah?’

‘I know why I’m leaving Spurlake. But why are you?

I mean, you don’t have to. Not for me. Don’t want you to ruin your life for me. You wanted to go to university and everything. I’m not worth it, honest. Might never be worth anything.’

Rian blinked, slightly hurt, but saw she was trying to give him a way out. Genie was like that. He understood she was trying not to be selfish.

The rain grew heavier, the noise intensified on the roof; some water was leaking down one wall. Rian thought about trying to stop it, but it would dry once the rain eased off. Nothing was designed to withstand this much rain.

‘The day I realized I couldn’t see you this summer, I made a decision, Genie. I was going to get you out of there. No matter what. I knew if I got you out, then we’d have to go some place to be safe where she couldn’t get

to you. You won’t be safe till you’re eighteen.’

‘She won’t . . .’ Genie began, but Rian shook his head.

‘I can finish high school somewhere else. Hell, we aren’t stupid, Gen. We’re in the top five per cent of students in our year. We can pass the test anytime. My dad took out a university fund when I was a kid and it’s all paid up.

I can access it when I’m nineteen and it will pay all my tuition. So don’t feel guilty. I want to be with you. You’re worth the world to me.’

‘But your mother relies on you so much. You know she does.’

‘She can rely on Mr Yates. Mr Yates is sooo wonderful.

She tells me how great he is every day. She won’t miss me one bit. I promise, and I’m not a child. I made this decision and we’re going through with it.’

Genie sat back in her chair and took a deep breath.

‘Wow, Mister. You must have been thinking about this stuff for a while.’

‘And you weren’t?’

Genie smiled, finishing up her pasta. ‘I was going to kill myself if you didn’t come and rescue me by the end of summer. I had it all worked out. Half starved myself to death already. It was a plan, right?’

Rian pulled a face. ‘Sucky plan. Glad I got there first.’

‘Me too.’ Genie drank off her juice and slammed the

glass down on the table. ‘Me too.’ Suddenly the room was going around. ‘Ri?’

‘What?’

‘I feel sick. I haven’t eaten so much food in a month.’

‘Don’t you dare . . .’

But she ran for the toilet. It was all going to come up.

Nothing in the world was going to stop it.

‘Sorry,’ she bleated, between bouts of nausea. ‘Sorry.’

A few minutes later, she lay down on the bed, feeling guilty. He’d been such a sweetie for cooking for her and she’d ruined it by throwing up. This whole thing was doomed. He’d get tired of her fast. She knew it. He’d get moody and one day, without warning, he’d be gone, back to his home and she wouldn’t blame him one bit.

Not one bit.

She watched him cleaning up and being ‘sensible’, wondering how exactly she scored him and why he stuck with her, knowing that she was a bunch of problems. He saw she was watching and flashed her a smile. It struck her like a missile, lifted her one, two metres off the bed.

He could still smile at her. What was it about his smile that made her feel so light, so happy? She didn’t deserve it, didn’t deserve to be loved at all.

Rian busied himself cleaning up. You didn’t live with someone in a wheelchair any length of time without

learning you had to clean up ‘accidents’ and say nothing.

He was still in shock about how ill Genie looked. He believed her when she said she’d tried to starve herself to death. They’d done horrible things to her. She’d tell him when she was ready. All he knew was that this was his decision. They had to protect each other, forever. That was the plan. It wasn’t going to be easy. How many kids ran away with nothing and survived? Where were all the other kids who’d gone missing this summer? Tunis said they were living in city doorways, pan-handling for food, maybe even prostituting themselves to eat. No one really knew what happened to any of them, they never called home. Well, if determination was worth anything, they’d make it.

‘It’s getting colder,’ Genie remarked. ‘You feel it?’

Rian thought about it and sensed she was right. ‘Maybe it’s because we’re below the waterline?’

Genie crawled off the bed and went into the tiny bathroom again. Glad he had cleaned it and guilty all over again she hadn’t been able to help. ‘Got to brush my teeth.’

‘Yeah. You want anything?’

Now she had moved, Genie discovered she needed to pee as well. Suddenly shy, she shut the door. First time she had ever peed so close to a boy. She shrugged. He’d

heard her puke her heart out; he wasn’t going to be embarrassed she had to pee.

‘I’m OK. Really,’ Genie told him, looking up at a faded 1973 Canadian Tire calendar on the door. She remembered something suddenly. ‘Ri, you ever hear of a kid called Anwar? He was in a class I went to.’

Rian frowned. Third time that name had come up tonight. ‘What about him?’

‘Promise you won’t freak out on me?’

Rian smiled. ‘I won’t.’

‘I was staring at my wall. Earlier, before you came.

Suddenly his face appeared and he was staring at me and he said, “
You’re next
”.’

Rian said nothing for a moment.

Genie didn’t like the silence. ‘See. You
are
freaked. I knew I shouldn’t have told you.’

He sat on the end of the bed looking at the closed door. ‘Anwar went missing today. Ran away. It was on the news. You must have heard it on the news.’

Genie pursed her lips. ‘News is forbidden in my house, remember? I haven’t heard anything or spoken to a single normal sane human all summer.’ She flushed and went to wash her face and hands.

‘Well. We already know you’re kinda spooky. And, well he was right, yeah?’ Rian was saying. ‘You
were
next.’

Genie thought about that. She found a toothbrush and put the paste on it. ‘Well yeah, but . . .’ She had been next, but instinctively she didn’t think that was what Anwar meant. Couldn’t exactly say why. Poor kid. She wondered why he’d run.

The rain fell even harder then. She thought of Anwar out there in this rain and felt really bad for him.

Rian was lying on the bed with his shoes off when she came back. He smiled when he saw her. She blushed.

No reason. Suddenly shy.

‘Don’t look so scared. This is me. Mr Knight in Shining Armour.’

She laughed and jumped on the bed, curled up beside him. ‘You
are
my knight in shining armour. Always will be, Ri.’ She looked up and he kissed her. She felt the familiar tingle and it spread out right across her body, head to toe. She felt his arms go around her, pull her closer, her lips burned under his touch . . .

She saw it then. A wall crashing down. Saw them gasping for breath, seconds from death. It was so vivid she must have cried out. Rian was looking at her with astonishment.

‘What? What did I do?’ Rian asked.

Genie was trembling. ‘It’s bad. Something coming. I

don’t understand. We’re in danger, Ri. Terrible danger.

It’s real close.’

At that precise moment the rain stopped, as suddenly as it had begun. The silence was sharp, uncomfortable, uncanny. They both heard the bells at the same time, felt the ropes straining as the old boat moved. The boat was like a rock out in this water. Hadn’t moved, except up and down with the water levels.

Rian reluctantly extricated himself from her arms and sat up. ‘I’d better check.’

Genie rolled over to the corner, grabbed her bunny.

Rian saw her do it and smiled. ‘Bunny’s not going to save you.’

Genie pulled a zip down in the bunny’s back and pulled out some cash. ‘This is everything I ever saved.’ She stuffed it down her pants. ‘If we have to run, I’m ready.’

Rian was astonished, but impressed. He went to inspect the outside. The bells were down by the landing and they were installed to warn of gales, but strangely he couldn’t hear any wind.

Genie was getting clothes together. They’d be running soon. The danger was coming and she didn’t understand what it was, but experience told her to heed the warnings well.

Rian went to the hatch and flung it open. Outside was

still, water dripped from the canopy, but it had certainly stopped raining. He could even see some stars as the clouds parted. The ropes strained again and he looked down at the water. It was moving fast. As fast as the spring melt. No way it should be going this fast in summer.

He squinted as he looked upriver towards town. As he did so he could hear a noise, akin to thunder, but steady and growing louder all the time.

Genie popped up beside him with his backpack.

‘What is it?’

Suddenly he understood exactly what it was.

‘Hell, Genie. Flash flood. It’s a flash flood!’

And now he didn’t know if it was safer to ride it out in the boat or run for high ground. But there was no high ground nearby. This was the widest part of the river. Any flash flood would just roll in and . . .

‘Close the door. Fasten it,’ Genie told him. ‘This boat’s been here ninety years. You said so. It can survive this.’

Rian wasn’t so sure. Wasn’t sure of anything any more.

A wall of water was coming downriver and there was no way they could outrun it. No way.

‘Inside,’ Genie yelled. ‘Now.’

Her guess was as good as any. He followed her back inside and pulled the old oak doors shut. They weren’t by

any means watertight, but they were tough and could withstand some force.

‘Genie, check the portholes. Screw them shut. Close cupboard doors.’

Genie was on it, running from cabin to cabin to check the windows. Only one was slightly open and there was no way she could tighten the brass fittings. It was stuck fast. Water would get in for sure.

They could hear it roaring now. There’d be debris, trees, logs, boats, anything that got in its way would be coming round that bend and on top of them in seconds.

Rian followed her, grabbed her arm and dragged her to the stern, trying to figure out where the safest place would be.

Genie clung on. Not shaking now. She’d already seen the danger. She already knew what was going to happen.

Her job now was to get Rian through it.

‘We’ll be fine. Just never let me go, Ri. Never let me go.’

The noise was deafening and then they were flying through the air, crashing against the bulkhead as a whole tree smashed through the upper structure and ripped away the roof. A wall of water crashed down, scoured out everything in there and Rian and Genie were scooped up, sucked in and spat out, joining everything

else that tumbled in the debris of the first wave.

Genie felt something scrape her arm. Rian was hit hard by something as they somersaulted, breathless, swallowing water, desperate to hang on to each other, stay as one as they flowed along with the torrent.

‘Got to grab a log,’ Rian yelled. ‘We’ll go under if we—’

They went under as the water turned, sluiced by rocks in a different direction. Genie clung to Rian, he to her, both hardly able to see anything. Another huge tree crashed into the water ahead as the riverbank gave way and the water piled up behind it momentarily. Rian lunged for a branch and got a hold. Genie emerged, gasping for breath, and grabbed a branch. This river wasn’t stopping for any tree, the surge of cold river water continued to swirl and churn. The tree began to roll.

‘Let go, let go,’ Rian shouted to Genie, but she was gone already.

‘Genie? GENIE?’

He let the current take him again. He had to find her.

The speed of the water was amazing. Now he was desperate. ‘GENIE?’

Genie was spinning as the water propelled her ahead.

She couldn’t believe they were separated and she knew that if she didn’t get something solid to hold on to real