SORROW WOODS, page 8
had a poo?”
I cough and glance up at Serena to find her smirking at me. “No Elodie, I’ve not had a poo.”
Elodie puts her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes at me. “Are you sure? You were
gone ages!”
“I’m sure,” I say, sitting at the table and pulling the map close to me.
“Well,” she says, climbing up onto the seat next to me, “if you did poo, I hope you cleaned
the toilet out. If you leave poo in there, it smells and all the flies come.”
I try to block out the images that are flashing through my mind and shrug. “Good thing I
didn’t poo then, isn’t it?”
“Can we please stop saying poo?” Serena asks, sounding annoyed.
Elodie and I both look up at Serena and start laughing.
“It’s not funny,” she says, “we’re about to eat.”
“What are we eating anyway?” I ask.
Serena glances towards the stove, which is really more like the type of a gas ring that I use
when I go camping. “Scrambled eggs,” she sighs.
“No toast?” shrieks Elodie.
“The bread is stale, Elodie. Mamma said she is bringing some more back.”
Bread doesn’t last more than a few days, I think, which makes me wonder what they eat and
how they store stuff.
“What did you have to eat last night?” I ask.
“Fish,” grunts Elodie as he shoots Serena a distasteful look.
Serena huffs and places three plates down onto the table. “Elodie always moans about fish,”
she informs me. “We didn’t just have fish. We also had rice, potatoes, carrots, and onions.”
So they have balanced meals; that’s good at least. “Sound nice. Was it fresh fish?”
Elodie nods. “We caught it from the lake a few days ago and Serena said we couldn’t save it
any longer so we had to eat it, even though we’d had it for two nights running.”
I smile and glance up at Serena, who shakes her head. I can tell that she’s still not sure about
me, but that doesn’t matter. I’m sure I’ll soon change her mind.
The eggs are nice. Even if I hadn’t had known they were only just collected, then I certainly
would know now. They taste fresher, and the yolk is darker and tastier than the eggs that I eat at home.
“So where’s this lake?” I ask, trying not to eat too quickly.
“It’s over by the creek,” says Elodie. “We’re gonna go there later. Do you wanna come with
us?”
I nod. “Are you going to fish?”
Serena laughs. “Not today. If we did, I would have to listen to Elodie complain about fish for
dinner the rest of the week. We’re swimming.”
I don’t know what lake they’re talking about and I don’t know where the creek is, but the
thought of swimming in fresh water with them makes me impatient to get there. I polish off my
plate and gulp down the remaining black tea in my mug.
“That was delicious. Thanks,” I say with complete sincerity.
“You’re welcome.” Serena stands and gathers the plates in her hands before walking out the
front door.
“Where is she going?” I ask Elodie.
“To wash them,” she says, looking at me as if I should already know that. She pulls the map
back in front of us. “So, tell me what you know.”
And that’s exactly what I do.
Four hours later, when the sun is at its highest in the sky and all of my bodily fluids have been sweated out of me, I find myself hiking up a mountain behind Serena, whilst trying not to constantly stare at her toned backside. The trees are scarce up here now, and I still have no idea where it is that we’re going.
After breakfast, I spent an hour telling Elodie and Serena where in the world we live. I told
them about the different ways people go about their days. I still can’t believe that they have no idea how normal people live. What sort of person keeps children hidden away like this? Unfortunately, I know exactly what sort of person does that.
“We’re here,” says Elodie, interrupting my thoughts. She pulls all of her clothes off until
she’s standing in nothing but her faded grey knickers.
I look around and see nothing but the valley below us and the sky above us.
“What do you mean we’re here? I thought we were going to the lake?” I ask, confused.
Serena smiles and peels her black sundress over her head. I wasn’t expecting her to do that,
which is why I don’t avert my eyes. Underneath her black, strappy dress, she is wearing a tiny black crop top and a pair of black knickers. She pulls off her shoes and stands stock still, staring at me.
“You’re not going into the water like that are you?” she asks, not answering my questions.
My eyes are travelling all over her body. I can’t believe the way it looks, as if she goes to the gym every single day. It’s not manly muscle but slender, womanly curves and defined muscles that
stare back at me. I look down at my clothes and shrug. I pull my jeans and socks off, peeling my t-shirt off over my head. I leave my boxers on.
“Are you going to tell me where this lake is?” I ask again.
Serena wraps her fingers around my wrist and pulls me across the rocky ground until we’re
at the very top of the mountain. I step forward and see a huge body of water below me. I look back at Serena and feel my heart jump into my throat when I see Elodie sprinting past us, launching
herself off the side of the mountain. Serena laughs.
“You’re not too scared to jump into a little lake, are you?” she teases.
I shake my head but don’t look at her. I’m too busy watching Elodie plummet through the
sky before slicing through the water. I don’t breathe for the entire four seconds that Elodie is under the water, not until her head bobs up and I see her hand waving at us.
“Come on, wimpy boy.”
I turn back around and watch as Serena does exactly the same as Elodie, except instead of
just jumping, she dives cleanly through the air. She’s only under the water for two seconds before she bursts back through the surface and grins at me. I don’t know how far the drop is, but it’s more than I’ve ever jumped before.
Still, I can’t stay here so I take four steps back and run as fast as my body will carry me off the edge. The warm air whips across my skin as I drop through the sky. The water is getting closer and closer to my feet. I can’t remember what to do. Do I point my toes? Yes, I must or else I’ll break my feet. Should my arms be close to my side? I have just enough time to make myself as streamlined as possible before I feel the coolness of water on the tip of my toes.
My whole body plunges into the freezing cold water, stealing my breath away. I kick hard until
my head surfaces, and then I pant and cough the breath back in my lungs. The shock of going from
boiling hot to freezing cold is too much. My chest aches and my eyes sting.
“There he is,” says Serena, laughing as she swims up to me. “Are you alright?”
I nod and cough. “I think so,” I rasp.
“He’s not like us,” says Elodie with a grin. “He’s not used to it.”
Serena treads water directly in front of me. The water drips off her hair and down her face. I
want to touch her and see what her skin feels like in the water. Before I can reach out to her, she kicks out and swims away from me.
I shake my head, sending droplets of water flying out around me. I shouldn’t be thinking
about her like that anyway. I keep forgetting that I’m supposed to hate her. I rub my face with my hands and spin around to see where they’re swimming to, but I can’t see anything except water.
“Where are we going?” I ask, trying to keep up with them. I’ve never met anyone else in my
life that can swim or run as fast as these two.
“To land,” says Serena. “Keep up, wimpy boy.”
I wish she wouldn’t call me that. She wouldn’t think I was a wimpy boy if she knew all of the
horrible shit I’ve done over the years. My parents certainly wouldn’t call me a wimpy boy. I think about my Dad and what he would say if he could see me now. I smile as I think about the look on his face. Maybe he’d change his opinion of me. Maybe he wouldn’t. Either way, I don’t think I really
care.
My watch tells me that we’ve been swimming for over two hours. I think back to my swim sessions
at school when I used to be able to swim a mile in an hour. Despite the fact that I’m going faster than ever before, Serena is still miles ahead of me. I can feel my muscles aching, even though I’ve had years of soccer and track training. No wonder Serena has a body like an athlete.
When we finally arrive on land, we walk for ten minutes until we find a pool of water that
Serena says we can drink from. I flop down and gulp it as if it’ll run out. When my belly is full and I can’t physically drink any more, I lie down on top of the dry grass, staring at the water that’s
sparkling against Serena’s skin. She turns her head, snaps her sparkling green eyes onto me, and
smiles. I think she’s slowly starting to melt my cold, hard heart.
Serena
I don’t know why he’s here or where he’s come from, but I don’t think I care either. I was testing him by taking him up the mountain. I wanted to see if he was here for himself or here for us and he
passed my test.
I turn and smile at Kaiden, who is lying on the grass beside me. I can see him looking at me
and I wonder if it’s because I’m nothing like the girls that he’s talked about who live near him.
Apparently, they wear their hair in different styles and wear make-up that makes them look older, hiding any spots that they have on their faces. They wear clothes and shoes that sound completely different than ours. The way he described them, I wanted to be one of those girls, to be pretty and attend school, where you learn new things and have lots of friends.
“Are you ready to walk back?” I ask him.
He leans up and squints at me. “Walk back to where?”
I nod towards the mountain in the distance. “We have to get our clothes.”
His eyes widen and I have to really try to not laugh in his face. “You’re going to make me
walk back up there after I just swam all that way?”
I glance at Elodie who frowns at Kaiden.
“What else were you planning on doing all day?” she asks him.
He huffs and flops back down onto his back. “People should come out here that are training
for a triathlon or something.”
Elodie looks up. “What’s a triathlon?”
Kaiden groans but I can tell he’s not really cross. He stands up and starts walking towards the
mountain, muttering something to himself. I roll my eyes at Elodie as we both get up to follow him.
Elodie squeezes my hand and then runs off to walk beside Kaiden.
I smile at her. I can’t believe the way she’s taken to Kaiden so easily. It’s like we’ve known him all of our lives. I probably shouldn’t have trusted him, but there’s something about him that makes me want to be near him. He hasn’t complained about Elodie and of the many questions that she’s
asked him, and he’s appeared to answer them honestly. It’s like he wants to teach us about his way of life and in return, he’s learning ours, just like he promised he would do.
By the time we get back home, Kaiden’s face is as red as the tomatoes we grow. As soon as I
see our house, I make a run for it and grab the biggest barrel of water that I can find. I unscrew the top off it and push it into Kaiden’s arms. Elodie stands beside me looking worried.
“What’s the matter with his face?” she asks.
“He’s just hot. Go inside, please,” I tell her. She huffs but does as she’s told without
question.
“Drink,” I order, turning back to Kaiden.
He makes a face and slowly pulls the water toward his mouth. I guess we must be used to
this a bit more than he is. We regularly go hours without water in this heat and don’t think anything about it. We don’t seem to get thirsty or feel dizzy, but looking at Kaiden now, I think we may have overestimated how much a person could take that isn’t accustomed to it. He drinks loads and wants to drink more, but I take it away from him.
“You can’t drink too much at one time,” I say. “You’ll have to pace yourself.” I push him
towards the shade of the veranda and direct him to the seat we made out of tree trunks just last
year. “Sit here,” I say, “I’ll fetch you some fruit.”
He doesn’t say anything. He just flops down onto the seat and closes his eyes. I run around
to the side of the outhouse where we keep our pots. Then I pluck some strawberries from off the
plant and an apple from the small tree that sits on its own in the middle of the dry grass. When I get back to him, he’s asleep.
I bite a strawberry in half and rub it along his lips. His pink tongue skims across his lips, making them look wet. I stare at him closely, noticing that his eyelashes are longer than any I’ve ever seen before. The tip of his hair is wet from sweat and sticks against his sunburnt forehead. His lips are full and now stained red from the fruit.
I want to touch him. I want to feel with my hands what a boy’s face feels like. Is his skin really as soft as it looks? What does the dark stubble feel like that’s splashed across the bottom half of his face? I lift my hand up. My fingers are literally seconds away from touching him when his eyes flutter open. He blinks quickly, trying to pull my face into focus and then smiles at me.
“Did I fall asleep?” he asks, looking a little dazed and confused.
I nod and hand him the fruit that I collected. “You did. I think your blood sugar is running
low. You need to eat some fruit and then you can drink some more water afterwards.”
He takes the fruit from me and throws a whole strawberry into his mouth. “How do you
know about blood sugars anyway?”
I smile and stand up. “I have a medical encyclopaedia. I’ve probably read it cover to cover
about five times.”
He shuffles in his seat until he’s sitting upright and smiles. “I never realised you could learn
so much from books. You’re lucky to have them.”
“I know,” I say. “I’m really lucky.”
He makes a face. I want to ask him what that face meant but I can’t. The words don’t form
properly in my mouth.
“I’m gonna go and get our dinner. Elodie will keep an eye on you,” I tell him.
He looks at his watch. “I didn’t realise it was so late. I can’t believe we were out there all
day.”
I walk into the kitchen and grab my knife, putting it into my leather sling. I throw it over my
shoulder and head out across the dusty ground.
“Where is she going with that knife?” I hear him ask Elodie.
“To get our dinner,” she replies. “What did you think she was doing with it?”
I don’t hear his reply. I’m too busy smiling about our new friend and thinking about which
chicken I’m going to throttle to bother listening any harder.
As I climb the steps, Kaiden’s eyes run all over my legs and hands that are covered in blood. He raises his eyebrows at me.
“Still sitting in that same seat, huh?” I ask.
He nods. “Chasing chickens again, huh?” He nods down towards the headless chicken that
I’m holding by its feet.
I grin. “I hope you’re not a vegetarian.”
He smiles back, revealing his perfect, pearly white teeth. “Nope, I’m definitely a carnivore
and will certainly need some meat tonight, considering the distance you’ve made me walk and swim
today.”
I want to laugh. What we walked and swam today was nothing compared to what we usually
do. Maybe these city boys need some educating of their own, I think, as I step into the house. I grab my bucket and walk back outside, sitting next to Kaiden. Just being close to him makes me feel calm and I realise that I haven’t even thought about my Mother once today.
I lift my knife up and chop through the chicken in one quick move.
“That’s gross,” says Kaiden.
I’m not sure what that word means but by the look on his face, it means he doesn’t like it. I
look down at my feathered and blood covered hands and shrug. “It’s what I have to do. If we don’t kill, pluck, and cut it, then we can’t eat it.”
He nods. “I guess you’re right. I just haven’t ever seen my dinner being made in this way
