Watery Graves (5 page)

Chapter Seven

Emmy scrambled up the hill. At the fence, she turned back, spotting Kristian and Sebastian herding the goats, Duchess, Daisy and Deeny, to new pasture. The goats weren’t just good for milk and cheese. They kept the grass down especially in the wet season when it grew thicker than a shag pile carpet. But it’d been a long time since the rain. In the dry times, Kristian and Sebastian kept the goats on the move so the paddocks didn’t turn to dust. She felt a stab of guilt for not getting up early enough to milk them again that morning.

“Kristian!” she yelled.

Both he and Sebastian looked up.

“I’m going to Libby’s.”

Kristian tapped his watch, and shouted, “One hour.”

Emmy nodded and ducked under the wire fence into the Bexleys’ back paddock.

*

Emmy bounced up the stained wooden stairs of the Bexleys’ log cabin. It was the place she always went to when she needed a change, a break from Sebastian, or someone different to talk to. But with Maya sick, it became a place to forget things. The door was open. She knocked on the frame and poked her head in.

“Em
, come in.”

She stepped in. Her smile barely tweaked at the corners of her mouth.

Libby’s older twin sisters were in the family room. Matilda was on the couch sketching. Cassidy was listening to a strange instrumental CD, and sat with an iPad. Emmy could never get used to seeing them in their school uniform. She eyed them off, each dressed the same. The only signs of individuality were in their socks and hair bands. It made her conscious of her loose fitting red velvet tunic, a hand me down from someone in town. Emmy hoped the girls hadn’t seen anyone in the outfit before.

“Hey buddy
,” Cassidy greeted Emmy, then turned to call out, “Libby!”

Libby stepped out from behind the wall dividing the kitchen from the lounge, holding two bowls of cake. “I’m just here, Doofus. Hey Em. Want some cake?” She placed a bowl down beside each of her sisters.

Emmy nodded.

“Come in here, Em,” Mrs Bexley called. “You saved me from the wrath of my daughters.”

“What wrath Mum?” Cassidy quipped. “There’s no wrath.”

Emmy let Libby drag her into the kitchen.

“What’s wrath?” Emmy whispered.

“Never you mind, Emmy,” Mrs Bexley said. “If you want I can send you home with some of this gorgeous cake, and I’ll make you a round of
Vegemite sandwiches.”

Emmy eyed the chocolate cake, but craved the sandwiches. She could never work out if it was the way Mrs Bexley made them or the store bought bread and butter that made them taste so good. Sandwiches made at home were never like the ones at the Bexleys
’.

“I’d love the sandwiches.”

“I knew you would.” Mrs Bexley smiled.

“Coon Can 500?” Libby said, clearing a pile of ironing off the dining table.

They sat together. Emmy shuffled the pack of cards and dealt the first hand, the way Mr Bexley had taught them when they were five.

“So what
, now that Emmy’s here the subject is dropped?” Cassidy asked, incredulous.

“Don’t worry about it Cass,” Matilda said. “Mum will cave.”

Mrs Bexley lifted her head out of the fridge. “I will not cave.”

“I can go home if you all need to talk. I don’t mean to interrupt.”

Libby shook her head and shuffled the cards in her hand. “Don’t go anywhere. This is just getting interesting.”

Emmy didn’t know if she meant the card game or the discussion.

“We have lived our whole lives for an eighteenth. And we want a party in that paddock with a band,” Cassidy stated.

“And alcohol,” Matilda teased.

“Not helping Matilda,” Cassidy said.

“I don’t like what I’m hearing about that poor girl,” Mrs Bexley argued. “No one has stepped up to take responsibility. Nobody knows what has really gone on. I’m sure I wouldn’t want anything like that happening on my doorstep.”

“Exactly. What if nothing’s happened? She’s not talking,” Cassidy argued.

“I think that’s the point Cassidy.
Julie Green is not only not talking about that night, she’s not talking, period,” Libby argued.

“Go Libby
,” Matilda grinned.

“Shut up both of you,” Cassidy snapped.

Mrs Bexley placed the first round of sandwiches beside Emmy. “I’ll make you another round love,” she whispered.

Emmy grinned. Mrs Bexley knew the way to her heart. “Are you sure I shouldn’t go?”

Mrs Bexley shook her head. “They’ll get past this soon.”

The instant Emmy bit into the sandwich she was happy with her choice.

“You have to admit Julie’s been weird lately. Everyone’s raving about it on Facebook,” Libby said, laying out three Queens. “She hangs out at the river on her own. She doesn’t speak to anyone at school. Just stares into space most of the time. I’ve seen her do it.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,
Libby.” Cassidy shot her sister a look that suggested she not say another word. In silent communication, the Bexley girls glared at each other.

Caught up in the dramatics, Emmy didn’t notice that Libby had picked up a card and thrown another out. She gripped her cards, so tight she accidentally creased the Ace and King of spades.

Libby nudged her. “Your turn, Em.”

“I’m having a party Mum,” Cassidy said, “and Matilda wants one too even though she’s not doing much to help right now. You’re way outvoted.”

Matilda leant forward and waved a hand in the air, sarcastically getting her sister’s attention. “Cassidy, I’m not getting all shitty about something that’s going to blow over. It’s not a big deal. Let the people gossip, they get it out of their system and life goes on. We’re having an eighteenth. Send out the invites.”

Mrs Bexley shook her head at Libby and Emmy
. “Can you girls believe what I’m up against?”

But Cassidy wasn’t finished
. “I’d be fighting this with us Lib. If we don’t have a party when we’re eighteen, you don’t either.”

“I’m not saying you aren’t having some kind of celebration,” Mrs Bexley said. “I am saying that you will be choosing your friends carefully. Only girls from your immediate group. There’s a limit of five each.”

“And only girls?” asked Cassidy. “Not happening, Mum.”

“Can I invite a friend?” Libby asked.

“If it’s a girl,” Matilda laughed.

“Mum
.”

Mrs Bexley served up another round of sandwiches to Emmy.

Matilda leaned over a dish at the side of the couch to sharpen her pencil. “Let it go Cass.”

A breeze made the curtains dance. High raked ceilings gave a sense of space and freedom, yet it was a safe place. Even when they were caught up in an argument.

Cassidy flicked the stereo off and lunged towards the TV remote. “Don’t talk to me. I need space.”

Emmy found it hard to concentrate on the game with the
TV on. Her attention was constantly drawn to it. Shampoo commercials were just as interesting as the cartoons. Libby picked up a card and laid her hand down scoring for the first time and ending the game in one move.

Everything at the Bexleys
’ had warmth to it. The girls were always comfortable doing their own thing together. Even when there was an argument they all stayed in the same room.

Libby tapped her pencil against her teeth, “Your score is 79. I’m 60. You want another hand?”

Emmy looked at her watch. “Yep. But I’ve got to keep an eye on the time. I told Kristian I’d be an hour.”

Chapter Eight

“When I woke up this morning I thought Maya was standing over me. She was wearing a beautiful white dress and she glowed.” The kitchen table wobbled with Emmy’s efforts to shade the map.

Sebastian stared at her, his top lip curled. “What?”

She leant back and stretched. “But when I fully opened my eyes I realised it was a dream. But I really believe the message was Maya is protected by white light, the purest light ever.”

“I don’t want to hear about your dreams anymore.”

“I find them comforting. That’s all I meant.”

Sebastian scratched away at his maths book. He jabbed at the calculator, rubbed out the pencilled numbers and tried again.

Emmy went back to her shading. Her whole body ached with the effort and there didn’t seem much point in it at all.

He checked the answers and she could tell when they were wrong. His fingers tore at his curls in frustration. Emmy reached over and closed his books, stacking his calculator, pencil and rubber on top.

He shook his head
. “I’m going for a walk Em.”

“I can’t handle this today either.” She swung her legs over the bench seat. “I’ll come with you.”

“I need some head space.”

Her heart began to pound. “Okay.”

His eyes dipped. “I’m sorry.”

He filled a glass at the sink and gulped it down.

“I didn’t mean to be annoying. I was just sharing.”

“You weren’t annoying. I’m just annoyed.”

She closed her eyes to think about that. But it didn’t make much sense to her. She pressed her lips together to stop from asking for clarification.

“Em. It’s okay. Be good. Study. You need it for the rest of your life, here, in these cabins.”

Her mouth opened and closed.

“Stop trying to make me feel good. That’s all you do. Try to make people see how great life is. It’s not right now. There’s nothing you can say. I can’t get away from it. There’s sickness that we know nothing about and have no control over. We’re all crowded into this little world we’ve created. It’s supposed to be some kind of utopia. But all we do all day is stare at Mum and wonder what to do. We’re here all the time.”

“I like it here,” she mumbled.

“Well, here is where my mother is dying.”

“We don’t know that.”

“Open your eyes Emmy
. Maya is living her last days and we’re watching it.”

The blow felt physical. It felt like he’d just hurled a brick at her. But they were only words.

Sebastian rinsed his glass in the sink. He walked to the door.

“Where are you going exactly?”

He paused.

She wanted him to look at her.

“I mean, if anyone asks.”

“It’s better you don’t know.”

“I made plans to meet with Libby at the lookout later. At four.”

He looked at his watch. “I’ll drop in and say hi, maybe.”

“Please don’t go far,” she said. “Stay away from the river.”

But Sebastian was gone, the door clicking closed behind him.

Emmy looked down at her map. She’d coloured an area green that was supposed to be blue. She shoved it away. The silence of the room brought a prickle to her spine. She listened to the buzz of the fridge until it shuddered to a stop and then the only sound was the ticking clock.

Emmy stood up and went to the window just in time to see Sebastian disappear over the path to Libby’s place in the top paddock.

She ran outside. The door closed too loudly behind her. She stopped. There was a brief moment where she questioned what she was doing. But she knew she didn’t want to be alone and she didn’t want to go see Maya and Ingrid. And Kristian was in the cellar. She followed Sebastian.

The path crunched under her feet when she didn’t want it to. So she risked snakes and stepped into the long dry grass at the side. Quietly but with speed, she lunged forward. As she neared the top of the rise she lowered in the grass and crept along.

Way down the slope, Sebastian had made considerable ground. He was on the Bexleys’ property, pacing their empty paddock. Their cottage, fronted by rose gardens, nestled in the hillside overlooking a valley. It looked as though it was alive. The front door was open and the windows were wide with the curtains pulled back. The 4WD was parked out front. She would love to go there but she hadn’t told anyone where she was.

Emmy looked back down at their own cabins. Three of them spread out, made complete by grapevines knitting their way down the hillside and vegie patches lined with a thriving crop of tomatoes and spinach. Over to the side, the shed and the cellar seemed silent though Kristian was in there working. All it would take was for Ingrid to slip out of Maya’s room and into the kitchen cabin.

The last they all needed was more stress.

She stood slowly
. Sebastian had moved. The pacing had stopped. He was striding towards the Bexleys’.

Emmy jumped to her feet and took the last steps over the rise, trotting down the other side in full view.

Sebastian looked furtively over his shoulder, his fists jammed in his pockets.

She froze.

He stopped. He was just near the front steps to the porch. He turned slowly to face her.

She took several long strides down the path, not worried about the noise now. Instead, there was the problem of what she would say to him.

Sebastian took a step back and shook his head at her, waving her away.

She paused.

He broke into a light run down the side of the house, out of sight.

Emmy backed up the slope aiming to get to the top again, but not wanting to take her eyes off the Bexleys
’ house, searching him out.

As she moved higher, the view widened. Paddocks behind the house opened up. There was Sebastian jogging down the bumpy dirt road through their property. He leapt over the bigger ruts. High at the top of the slope, she sat down and watched him.

She was safe and within view of home.

He didn’t turn back.

The road led down to the river, right where it wound back around the lookout.  But she wasn’t able to watch him.

Behind her, Ingrid and Maya walked out of the bedroom cabin and head
ed for the kitchen.

Emmy stood and bolted down the hill, not caring about noise now. She jumped over the gate and kept running.

Ingrid flew out of the kitchen door as she clambered down the last of the potholes. She forced herself to walk, and look casual. It took all her effort to stop her chest heaving.

“Emmy
!” Ingrid called out.

“I’m here Mum,” Emmy said
, casually.

“Oh
. Hi.”

Emmy walked to the doorway, dreading any questions about Sebastian.

“How’s that map coming along?”

“I’m a bit over it. I might do some maths or something.”

Ingrid held the door open for them. “Where’s Sebastian?” she asked as they stepped inside.

Emmy’s heart thudded. She nodded to his books
. “He got sick of study and left to find something else to do.”

Maya was making some tea. Ingrid took over from her immediately, nudging her away.

“That boy of ours is more of an outdoors kind of guy,” Maya said, and her eyes sparkled.

“Like his
dad.”

“That’s probably where he is,” Emmy suggested, focusing on digging out her books from the shelf. “I’d say at a guess,” she said absently.

Ingrid placed a cup of green tea in front of her. The clock was still ticking and the fridge was buzzing. It was another forty-five minutes until four.

Maya, Ingrid and Kristian would be heading to town soon to find out the news.

*

With her book tucked under her arm, Emmy wandered up the path through the trees. When she broke through at
the lookout, she stopped. Sebastian and her best friend Libby lay side by side on the checked rug. She stood back and watched them. It was hard for her to walk any closer.

While reading, it was Libby’s turn at drawing her fingers around Sebastian’s back. His book lay discarded in the grass. From the angle Emmy stood she could see his eyes were closed and a contented smile pulled at his lips. It was hard to work out exactly what made it difficult to intrude, but knew she couldn’t leave them there together like that.

“Hey,” Emmy said, as she forced herself forward. She tried to mask her confusion with a grin. “I’m in the middle.”

Sebastian laughed
as if nothing had happened earlier, making space for her and reaching for his book. “You’re always in the middle.”

Libby yawned and rolled onto her back. She held her book up against the sun. “Whatever makes you feel good, Em.”

“Being with you two, that’s what,” Emmy said, nestling in between them and jabbing each of them in the ribs. On her back, she shared a cushion with Libby, propping her book against her bent legs.

Emmy read one line and then read it again, making it to the end of the paragraph before realising she had no idea what she had been reading. She kept one eye on Sebastian and noticed that he wasn’t turning any pages either.

Emmy shut the book. “This is ridiculous.”

“What you being in the middle all the time?” Libby laughed. “I mean, it’s not like Sebastian isn’t able to control himself around me.”

“Huh?” Sebastian said, lifting himself onto his elbows. He looked at them both, then flopped back. “I can’t read either.”

“Do you care to share? What’s going on?” Libby asked.

“I’m sure he’s already told you,” Emmy said.

Libby and Sebastian exchanged glances.

Libby raised her eyebrows.

“About Maya being sick?”

Emmy wondered if that’s all they’d talked about. Did he talk to Libby about her? How much she drove him crazy? Had they met earlier than four?

She looked at Sebastian, he shook his head slightly.

“What? I knew somebody was,” Libby said.

Sebastian propped himself on his side. “Really?”

“How?” Emmy asked, believing she knew the answer.

“Rumour has it that Maya, Ingrid and Kristian were seen going to the doctor
’s. But some said they were at the hospital. You don’t know what to believe.”

“Both rumours were probably true. I think they ended up going to both places,” Sebastian said.

“How stupid am I not to realise that seeing them all down in Mercy Falls wouldn’t start the rumour mill?” Emmy moaned. “Mum hasn’t been down there for years.”

“You’re so busy thinking about other town gossip to realise your own family has taken over top billing,” Sebastian teased.

He sounded as if he was back to normal, but she didn’t feel normal around him. Not without talking. And not with Libby there.

“How sick is she?” Libby asked.

Emmy shrugged. “How sick do you think she is, Sebastian?”

“I don’t know. Why ask me?”

“Well, I’ve got no idea either,” Emmy admitted. “Mum seems to bounce from hopeful to hopeless every second. But she seems to be spending more time at hopeless. What do they think in town Lib? How sick do they think she is?”

“No one would know who was sick. All of them go for the appointments. And there’s doctor patient confidentiality.”

Emmy’s jaw dropped. “Listen to you, Sebastian. And I’m the one hooked on a dictionary. You sound like an encyclopaedia.”

Libby sat up. “Everyone’s talking about Maya, Sebastian. They can tell by looking at her that she’s not well.”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” Emmy argued.

She felt them both look at her.

“Em, the fact that everyone could work out that Mum was the sick one just by appearances means she’s not looking good,” Sebastian said.

“What sort of sick?” Libby asked.

“They don’t really know,” Emmy said.

“They think it’s cancer,” Sebastian said. “But I know there’s a lot that can be done these days. Miracles happen all the time. This one woman she died, and went to heaven and came back completely healed. The doctors can’t explain it.”

“Have you been sneaking into Kristian’s office again?” Emmy asked.

Sebastian shook his head
. “He took me in there. We couldn’t sleep. We went in there and googled.” 

Emmy raised both eyebrows
. “Googled? See? No different to my dictionary.”

“Well it is a little different,” Libby said.

Emmy stared Sebastian down. Libby was taking his side now. She was supposed to be her friend.

“Never mind,” Sebastian said.

“So what do the doctors think?” Libby asked.

“Nothing, we don’t even know if its cancer for sure,” Sebastian said.

“But that’s what everyone thinks it is,” Emmy said.