The Road to Winter (20 page)

‘How far is Ray's?' Kas asks.

‘It will take us a couple of hours. We'll have to get Yogi out to Ray's, anyway—we can't hide him in town. I think I should go and scout around first. Chances are Ramage's men have tracked us. We'll have to be careful. We don't want to lead them to Ray's. My guess is they'll have camped up near the hayshed. It'll be safer to travel after dark so we can rest up until then. Sound like a plan?'

‘Sounds like a plan,' Kas says.

‘Finn.' Willow finally speaks up. ‘When will Mummy and Daddy be coming?'

Kas exchanges a glance with me and puts her arm around Willow. ‘Soon,' she says. ‘You've got to be brave until they get here. Can you do that?'

‘How long for?'

‘I don't know, sweetie. But I'm sure they're going to come as soon as they can.'

Kas pulls Willow closer.

‘They'll be okay, Wils. Don't worry.'

I spend the morning checking around town, jumping fences and slipping through gates to get down near the river. The rest of town looks just like it has for the last two years, with the shops burnt out, the petrol station with its big yellow Shell sign and grass eating its way up through cracks in the roads.

My last stop is the platform above the river mouth. I need
to see the ocean again. The wind is onshore and the waves small, but the big stretch of beach pulls at me like a magnet.

I make my way along the top of the dunes for about a hundred metres, double-checking that it's clear, then I wind my way down to the beach. In the last of tea tree before the sand, I strip off my clothes and boots and run full pelt into the water.

It's so cold I'm sure my balls are up around my ears, but it's also the best feeling. I can taste the salt in my mouth and feel the water rushing over me.

I stand up in waist-deep water on the sandbar and dive under the waves as they jack up and throw themselves at me. Then I swim out further, to the unbroken waves. I turn and kick with the first one and feel myself being lifted and thrown towards the beach. It's like wrestling with an old friend, tumbling underneath then coming up for air.

I enjoy the walk back in familiar surroundings, knowing the sounds of it, the lie of the land. I know I can outsmart anyone coming into my territory, trick them into thinking I'm going one way, then double back to watch them get confused. It's only a small town, but it's big enough to hide in.

As I cross Parker Street something catches my eye, something out of place. Over in the corner of a vacant block there's a lump on the ground. It looks like a body.

I slip through the gate in the paling fence, which gives me enough cover to get close. I don't want to think about the possibility of it being Rose.

I peek over the top of the fence. It's a man, lying on his
back. His hair and beard are matted with dirt and leaves. In the middle of his chest is a knife buried to its handle.

I climb to the top of the fence, drop into the vacant lot and crawl over to the body. I say body, because I'm pretty sure he's been dead for a while. His face is white behind his beard and when I touch his arm it's stiff and cold. I don't recognise him, but then, with their long hair and beards, the Wilders all look alike.

Something strikes me as familiar, though. The knife. It's out of my kitchen. The familiar adrenaline courses through me.

I turn away, take the knife by the handle and draw it out of his chest. There is a squeaking, gurgling sound that I never want to hear again. I can't look at his face with its blank stare any longer, so I heave him over onto his side, then onto his stomach. It's only when he settles in the grass again that I see the arrow, its shaft broken off, its head lodged in the back of his thigh. It's one of my arrows.

My heart gives a leap as I realise it must have been Rose who shot him. I don't want to think of her stabbing him in the chest, but I conjure up the image of her chasing him and shooting the arrow into his leg, bringing him down.

It doesn't seem decent to leave him here in the paddock, but I've got no choice. It only takes me a couple of minutes to reach the backyard, where I give a whistle.

Kas appears on the porch and waves me in. I decide not to tell her about the man.

‘You hair's wet,' she says as soon as I step into the kitchen.

‘I went for a quick swim.'

‘In the ocean?'

‘Yeah.'

‘Is it safe?'

‘Why?'

‘Why'd you reckon? We could do with a wash too, couldn't we Wils,' she says.

‘You can wash here. We've got water; the sea's freezing.'

‘The sun's coming out. It'll be warmer this afternoon.'

‘We can't take the risk. We've made it this far; we don't want to blow it now.'

‘What? So it's okay for you to have a swim, but not us? Is that what you're saying? What if we just decide to go, anyway?'

‘You don't know the beach. You don't know where it's safe to swim.'

‘But…' She hesitates and looks around the room.

‘What?'

‘It's gonna sound stupid.'

‘Try me.'

‘I've never been to the beach.'

I can hardly believe what she's saying.

‘You mean, never?'

She shakes her head.

‘How's that possible. Didn't you ever go on holidays?'

‘I'm a Siley, remember. The furthest we ever went with Stan and Beth was into Longley. That was it.'

‘What about before you were sent to the farm?'

‘I only remember bits of the boat trip. We were kept below decks. It stank of diesel and I was sick the whole time.'

It's a stupid risk to take, but I do want to show them the beach, especially since Kas's never seen one.

‘Maybe we could walk out to the point,' I say. ‘There are some rock pools tucked around the corner that you can't see from the main beach. I could take my snorkelling gear and maybe grab some abalone or even a cray. We could take them out to Ray. He'd love that.'

A smile spreads across Kas's face.

‘But first we'll have to get ourselves organised for tonight,' I say.

We spend the rest of the morning preparing to leave. I tie two hessian sacks together to make saddlebags we can throw over Yogi, while Kas goes through Mum's clothes and stuffs a selection into my old schoolbag.

While she's in the bedroom with Willow, I clean the knife I found in the Wilder's chest and put it back in the drawer. It's going to be hard to use it again without thinking of where it's been.

Rowdy has been getting more active, following me around the house since I got back from the beach. I'm starting to think he had been hungry more than anything. He hasn't lost the limp, but he seems to be getting some of his strength back. Still, I'm not going to risk taking him with us to the beach. He needs to rest up for tonight.

Lunch is beans again and two new eggs I find in the nest. Hopefully we'll have fish for dinner. Outside, the sun is now high and the wind has eased off.

Rowdy isn't happy about being left behind in the house so I leave some scraps in his bowl to keep him busy. Kas has pulled on an old skirt of Mum's and limps along behind me with the bag of clean clothes. Willow sticks close by.

I avoid the paddock with the body by taking a detour and coming out higher on Parker Street. There's a track that follows the cliff tops. We could walk around the beach to the point, but that'd leave us too exposed. Up here we're still in the cover of the tea tree and low stringybarks.

‘Finn!'

Kas has stopped at a gap in the trees and is looking out at the ocean.

‘It's beautiful!'

She has her arms outstretched and the wind coming off the sea blows her hair off her face.

‘You didn't tell me it was so big! And the colour… It's like nothing I've ever seen before.'

I can't help smiling. ‘It's a bit chopped up today. You should see it when the offshore's blowing and the sets are lining up.'

She looks at me, bewildered. ‘I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds amazing.'

‘I'll explain later,' I say, taking her arm and pulling her along. ‘We don't have time now.'

The rock pools are like big potholes in the reef when it's exposed at low tide, deep and perfectly clear. We walk out to the rock shelf. Kas keeps stopping to pick up shells, kelp and cuttlefish. She runs her finger around the rim of an abalone shell.

I show her and Willow the safest pool to swim in, then I
strip off to my shorts, take my snorkel, mask and catch bag, and drop off the ledge into deep water. It's colder out here than back in the bay and straightaway I regret not bringing my wetsuit. The swell is bigger than I would like too, but it's not breaking over the reef.

I wait on the surface to get my breath, then dive. There is a blue down here different from up on the surface—it presses in on you and darkens as you go deeper. The sun filters down in shafts but eventually they're swallowed by the blue too.

I know exactly where I'll find abalone. I unsheathe the knife and dive down a couple of metres. Dad showed me years ago how to slide the knife in under them and twist it to lever them off the rock. I have to come back up a few times for air, but before too long I've got eight good-sized ones.

I surface and start to climb out of the water.

‘Stay there,' Kas shouts when I clamber back up onto the reef. ‘Willow and me aren't ready yet.'

Their heads and shoulders are poking out of the rock pool.

‘Turn around,' Kas calls. ‘We have to get dressed.'

I sit on the edge of the shelf and look back along the coast to where Red Rock juts out in the distance. If Rose followed the map she would have travelled that way to Ray's. Tonight can't come fast enough—we need to get out there and make sure she's safe. I sneak a quick look to see if they're ready. Kas, who is leaning over to help Willow out of the water, just has a singlet and a pair of undies on. They stick to her wet skin and the sun catches on the water dripping from her hair onto her back and legs. As she lowers Willow down on the
rocks, she sees me staring.

‘You perving, Finn?' she says. I can hear a snigger in her voice. I look away.

Next thing I know she's squatting down beside me, close enough for her hair to be touching my shoulder.

‘The water's so salty!' she says. ‘But it feels amazing. I love it.'

She puts her hand on my arm. Her skin is cold enough to spread goosebumps along my wrist.

‘What you got?' she asks.

I try to act natural, even though all I can think about is her body next me, dripping wet, and her breasts pushing against her singlet.

‘Um…a heap of abs.'

I open the bag for her. Kas calls Willow over to have a look.

‘Come on,' I say. ‘We'd better head back.'

The sun is getting low and the wind has dropped away. Kas walks in front while I piggyback Willow, who's too tired now not to accept a ride.

‘Stop looking at my bum,' Kas says without turning around.

Willow giggles. I wonder how Kas even knew.

We make it home just as the sky is starting to darken. We creep along, but there's no sign of movement in the yard except for Yogi's big silhouette. He lifts his head to check us out then goes back to munching the grass.

Rowdy is waiting by the door to greet us. Willow pats him, and he follows her into the lounge room. The house is quiet, just Kas and me tiptoeing around each other, and the sound
of Willow talking to Rowdy. The room seems small all of a sudden and I'm aware of Kas in the space, the way she moves, the way her hair falls over her face when she leans forwards. It's like we're doing some sort of weird dance, trying to avoid each other but not really wanting to. I empty the abs into the sink and run some water over them.

When she's next to me again our shoulders touch.

‘We have to eat these while they're fresh,' I say, grabbing a knife. ‘I'll show you how to shell them. The trick is to get them out without cutting your hand off.'

I slide the blade under the soft flesh and scrape it along the inside edge of the shell. The first one comes away easily.

Kas has a go, but she can't get the blade in deep enough so I put my hand over hers and push it in, then flick the flesh out. She laughs when she pushes too hard on the next one and it flies off and lands on the floor. Even when we're finished, I don't want to move. I like being here, close to her. I steal glances at her while she's not looking. Her skin is perfectly smooth and she has this habit of sliding her tongue along her lips to moisten them.

‘Next step,' I say. ‘Belt the shit out of them.'

‘What are you saying? You're an idiot!' She's laughing again.

‘Serious,' I say. ‘You've got to hit them with a hammer to make them tender. Otherwise you can't eat them. Come on.'

I scoop the abs into a bucket with a bit of water and take them out to the shed. Kas follows, still thinking I'm having her on. I put them on the bench and hit them hard and fast with the hammer, one at a time. Dad and I did this for
years without me ever thinking how strange it looked.

‘We'll cook them now,' I say. ‘We need to cut them into strips and fry them.'

Kas leans back against the bench, the last of the light catching her bare shoulders. She's still wearing the too-big singlet and all I want to do is reach out and touch her.

‘You know,' she says, ‘I'd been wondering how you survived here on your own for so long. I thought you must have made it up—that there was someone else here, an adult, that helped you. But you're pretty clever. And it's all stuff I don't know anything about.'

‘You mean you thought I was lying?'

‘No. I just thought…'

‘What?'

‘That you exaggerated things.'

‘Well, now you know,' I say.