Watery Graves (4 page)

Her mother gulped. A weird sound escaped her lips. “I really don’t want to be.”

“What did Kristian say?”

“He’s going to deal with it.”

“See. No need to worry. Kristian’s got it. He’s good at making sure things go just the way they are supposed to. Maya just needs a doctor.”

Chapter Six

The sun had risen when Kristian woke Emmy and Ingrid. “No chores this morning girls. Pancakes for breakfast,” he called up the stairs of their loft bedroom. The door to the cabin slapped closed.

Emmy sat up.

She watched her mother blink and stretch, then curl onto her side. Both of them gazed out the round window at the far end of the room. It felt like their room was perched high in the treetops. A flock of parakeets screeched up a frenzy as it flew by.

Emmy leant down and kissed her mother’s shoulder, inhaling the scent of vanilla on her skin, faded during the night. “Pancakes Mum. See
, Kristian made pancakes.”

“I didn’t sleep.”

“I know.” 

*

Once the bucket was full, Emmy and Sebastian helped themselves to some of the ripest strawberries and blueberries. Their tongues were purple. Sebastian took a fistful of strawberries and crammed them in his mouth. “Ha you e’er he’r’ a s’aw’erry ki’?” he mumbled.

“Huh?”

He chewed and swallowed some of the fruit. “Have you ever heard of a strawberry kiss?”

“No.”

He grabbed her shirt sleeve and pulled her to him. Juice dribbled down his chin. “Do you want one?”

“No,” she squealed, pushing his face away.

“One day you will,” he said, bending down to pick up the bucket.  He reached out to her with his other hand. At first she placed her hand in his but then she shoved him away.

Sebastian and Emmy made it back into the kitchen just as Kristian flipped the last pancake. Ingrid had beaten the cream into peaks. Maya took the bucket from Sebastian and rinsed the fruit.

As they sat around the table, Emmy noticed the dark circles under everyone’s eyes and wondered if hers were the same. The mood was subdued but the pancakes helped lighten things. It was a good way to start a crappy day.

*

At the gate, Emmy and Sebastian waved off their parents. As the dust settled in their wake, they dashed to the cabins.

“Make beds and sweep floors,” shouted Emmy.

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen. Dishes and a mop,” Sebastian shouted back.

“Windows are dirty too.”

“I hate windows.”

“Maya hates them when they’re dirty.”

“I’ll do the one in their bedroom then. Just in case she wants to come home and rest,” Sebastian offered.

Emmy tripped over a pothole, and slowed down to a walk
. “Yeah, she loves to watch the river from the bed. She saw a fox come down for a drink the other day.”

“What else needs doing?”

“The vegies. Composting the garden.”

Sebastian veered towards his bedroom. “And we need to pick some more fruit.”

“Grapes?” Emmy asked, as she leapt up the stairs onto the porch of her bedroom cabin.

“Not today,” he called back over his shoulder. “Apples.”

“What about school work?”

Sebastian stopped and turned back to her. He screwed up his face.

“You’re right,” she said. “There’s
way
too much to do.”

*

Exhausted, Emmy and Sebastian sat under a tree near the kitchen cabin in clear view of the river and the gravel road. Maya, Kristian and Ingrid should return at any time. Sebastian had found a newspaper under Kristian’s pillow. It was nice to read one that hadn’t been pulled apart, ripped or stained with beetroot.  

The article Emmy was interested in was on the front page. “There it is again,” she said.

Sebastian read over her shoulder. “This is big news in Mercy Falls.”

Emmy’s attention was caught on the phrases,
Walking home with boys alone, Drinking, Too much make up, Clothes too tight, Most of the texts in her phone from young males.
“They’re so judging her.”

“Boys will be boys,” Sebastian said.

“What? It’s a boy thing to do that? Would you do that? You’re a boy…”

“What? No. I’m reading a line. Someone gave a statement on behalf of the boys.”

“Who would say that?”

“One of their mothers.”

“This town is so mean. A girl has been raped. It’s a problem for girls to worry about. I worry about it.”

“Nothing like that will ever happen to you.”

“I would hate everyone talking about me like this.”

“You are so obsessed.”

Emmy shoved the paper away. “I’m not. I just wanted to see what happens. That’s the thing with the news. They report on it and we as readers can follow it.”

“Mum is sick.”

“She’s going to be okay, Sebastian.”

“If you live in a world where all you have to worry about is picking strawberries, eating pancakes, making beds and sweeping floors.”

“Yes Sebastian that is the world we live in. It’s real for us.”

“This is real. Mum’s really sick. There’s nothing to think about in our world. We just do things. Mindless things to forget what’s really going on.”

“No we do them because it’s our life. It’s the way we live.”

“And then you get all interested in some stupid horrible thing that has the town buzzing and you’re no different to all them. Gossip. Gossip and more gossip. That poor girl is probably a big mess and yes life would be pretty hard for her right now. But talking about it is just another way to block out Mum.”

“I’m always thinking about Maya, Sebastian. Always.” Emmy tried to change the subject. “They’ll be here soon.”

It didn’t work.

“Mum is sick.”

“Maya’s going to be okay. I know she is. They’re in town finding out what is wrong and doctors will know what to do.”

“Really?”

Emmy held his gaze, not wanting to be the first to let it drop. Yet
, when Sebastian looked away first, it didn’t make her feel any better.

They heard the van before they saw it.

Sebastian reached for the discarded paper. Its edges flicked in the slight breeze. He folded it and stashed it in a crevice. “Did you know boys can be raped too? Did it say anything about how males can be raped in your little old dictionary?” He pulled Emmy to her feet.

She wasn’t sure if he was teasing her or being sensible. But underneath the sentiment she knew it was his way of apologising
. “I’m reading the newspaper not the dictionary.”

“All I can say is that your dictionary might need a little updating.”

“It’s not the point.” Emmy whacked him on the arm, just because it felt good
.
“Bottom line, a girl was violated and it was wrong.”

The two of them sauntered towards the approaching dust trail.

“It sounds like a big deal is being made out of something. Things like this don’t happen in Mercy Falls, but lots of gossip does. I say stop thinking about it.”

“I can’t help it.”

“Try. Otherwise you’re no different to all the people flapping their gums in town.”

“I’m not like them.”

“Do you go on about it with Libby?”

Emmy shrugged her shoulders
. “Not really. I usually just do lots of listening.”

“Just as bad as gossiping.”

“If it happens to one girl in town, it can happen to anyone.”

Sebastian shook his head. “The other day you said you should stop reading papers. And I now fully agree. You can’t handle the news.”

“I can so.”

As they walked up the slope, Emmy averted her eyes. She could tell Sebastian was measuring her up, working her out.

“No you can’t,” he said.

“Yes I can.”

“Nope. Obsessing big time.”

Emmy sucked in her cheeks
. “At Libby’s I read papers all the time. I see the TV and other things you’ve never seen. I can handle more than you think. I’ve seen more than you have.” She had Libby Bexley as a friend. She visited the Bexley family whenever she wanted. It was a sore point for Sebastian. It was her best trump card in these kinds of arguments.

“But we’ve never experienced any of that stuff you see on
TV for ourselves, have we?” Sebastian said, digging his fists in his pockets. “We don’t really know what it’s like to be out in the world. And you won’t go out there because you think all of that stuff could happen to you.”

“I don’t.”

“You do.”

“I don’t, Sebastian.”

“It’s not healthy.”

“It’s better reading about it than going through it ourselves.”

“I think it’s time we get out more.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“Mum’s pushing for it, you know. For us to spend more time out there.”

“Maya? No way.”

“That’s why we’ve been going down on market days. One step at a time.”

“No way.”

“Come on. What would our life be like if we were up here for our whole lives?”

“No way.”

They pulled up at the gravel road side in between the entry to the kitchen cabin and the bedroom cabin Sebastian shared with Maya and Kristian.

“So now do you see we’re just talking about this crap to avoid thinking about what’s really going on here?”

Emmy nodded, but then shook her head. “It’s not crap. But I’d rather be worrying about it than your mum.”

“You said it’s all going to be fine.”

Kristian beeped the horn as he pulled up beside them.

“So how is she?” Sebastian shouted to his father over the engine.

“Everything’s under control.” Kristian grinned, stepping out of the van.

Emmy could see through the false cheer. She immediately felt bad for being preoccupied with someone other than her own family. She left Sebastian and Kristian to help Maya, turning to her own mother for clues to what news they had to report. All Emmy could see were darker rings under her eyes. “You look tired, Mum.”

“It’s been a big day, Em,” Ingrid murmured in her ear.

“What did the doctor say about you both?”

“I’m fine. They say everything seems normal. But we’ll get Maya’s results in a day or so. It was just a check-up for me. A blood test and that was it.”

Emmy turned to Maya.

“They sent me to the hospital for tests,” Maya said. “I’m going back to the doctor’s in a few days for the results and maybe more tests. They poked and prodded, I can tell you.”

“They didn’t waste any time,” Sebastian mumbled.

Ingrid rubbed Emmy’s arm. “It’s okay, Em. Everything will work out. It always does for us.”

Emmy raised her eyebrows.

“Well, it has since we’ve been up here,” Ingrid added.

*

Under the lamplight, in their sitting room below the loft bedroom, Emmy sat with Ingrid. Their books were open in their laps but neither of them was reading.

“I don’t think I can sleep tonight,” Ingrid said.

“You said she was going to be okay. It’ll work out.”

Ingrid’s voice shook
. “If I lose her, Em…”

“You’re not going to lose her.”

“I don’t know if I can take it.”

“The doctors’ll know what to do.”

“The week my parents drowned, she was the only one who knew how to handle things.”

Emmy shifted in her seat, reaching for a cushion, trying to get comfortable.

“She’s not dying,” she said in an effort to curtail the story of her grandparents, hoping her mother wouldn’t go into details. It was so ominous the way she pictured her grandfather’s dead body caught in the ropes and dragging behind his fishing boat through town. Her grandmother was found a week later according to gossip, left wandering the streets, drunk and grieving, only to be found face down in the shallows of the river.

Ingrid pulled the hair back off her face and sighed
. “If it wasn’t for Maya, we wouldn’t have this life.”

“No one else is going to die, Mum.”

“Can you imagine waking up and having breakfast and then oops there’s no milk. And everyone will be like
Where’s Maya? Out with the goats? Nope, She’s dead, remember?
”

“I’ll milk the goats from now on,” Emmy offered.

Ingrid shook her head, and rubbed her face, as though erasing the thoughts, “You were right in the first place, Em. They’ll work out what’s wrong and give her some treatment or something.”

“That’s right. Doctors know a lot.”

“Yes, they do.” Ingrid shook her head. “But I think today, they could tell just by looking at her that doing tests were a waste of time. They know what it is. They know how sick she is.”