Authors: Kelli Bradicich
Chapter Three
At the water’s edge, mud squelched between Emmy’s toes. It smothered her feet and crippled her steps. Mercy River was flat, slow moving. It had been that way for a while. Moss grew on the pylons of the footbridge below dirty watermarks from the days when the river ran higher and faster.
Everyone was with her, calling instructions, checking the river, offering support from the bank. She tuned them out and slipped into the water. The only way for her to cope with this kind of fear was to
focus on what was real around her. Waist deep, the cotton shorts and tank top sucked at her fair skin accentuating curves. As she bent down, the ends of her dark wavy hair floated on the water. She pinched her nose, closed her eyes and dipped back. When she emerged, she took a breath. Tiny rivulets streaked her face and trickled down her spine.
“Wait for Kristian.” Ingrid’s voice always rose and fell weirdly when tensions were high.
Emmy shivered and clasped her arms close to her body. She turned to face her mother who was perched a little higher on the hillside below a rim of rocks that lined the river in better times. Ingrid’s clothes and jewellery glinted in the sun.
Emmy sloshed closer to the bank. “I’m okay Mum. The river’s calm,” she said, not believing her own words.
On the other side of the river, Kristian paddled on the raft, checking for submerged debris. Sebastian stretched out beside his father on a surfboard in the same search for danger. Water from their last dive dribbled down their short tight curls, like droplets on duck feathers. Sebastian’s face, a younger version of Kristian’s, tightened with concentration.
Emmy caught Sebastian’s eye and smiled. It was a mask of bravery, a cover for her thumping heart. He was responsible for this swimming lesson. If he hadn’t dragged her on his stupid adventure, none of this would have to happen. Sebastian said something to his father and nodded his head towards the shore before paddling back to her.
“I’m fine,” Emmy shouted to him, waving him back. “Check the water for me.”
Sebastian shook his head and kept paddling.
“Is there a problem?” she asked as he drew closer.
“No, it’s clear. You can see right to the bottom. No branches. It’s still deep enough to swim over the rocks.”
Maya waded out to them. “Sit up a little higher in the water, Emmy. Your mum’s having an absolute heart attack up there.”
The layers in Maya’s skirt changed colour as it swished through the water. The thread in her gypsy blouse glittered gold. Best friends, Maya and Ingrid shared clothes and the same hairstyle that brought out Maya’s gaunt frame highlighted the pink in Ingrid’s cheeks. Years ago they’d looked alike. Age changed them.
Maya’s jewellery jangled like chimes as she reached for Emmy’s hair. Squeezing it, she tied it back into a bun, “Don’t want you to get tangled in anything. Your mother would never forgive me.”
The swimming lessons were Maya’s idea. They’d begun before Emmy was old enough to remember and long before the worries about drowning overtook her mind. But fear was contagious.
“Mum will never get used to this, will she?” Emmy half-joked.
“Don’t make fun of her, Em. Let her feel how she feels. I hope you’ll never understand what it’s like to lose everyone you love to a watery death. You’re lucky it happened before you were born.”
“I know. I know.” Emmy waved her away and looked down at her submerged feet and wiggled her toes. She had never met any of her dead relatives but sensed their presence in the river. Opaque images swam in the waters below. No one else saw them. Kristian was too old to notice them and Sebastian too young and preoccupied to bother looking. Ingrid never came close enough to the water and Maya waded in the shallows.
Aware of the pounding in her chest as panic welled inside her, Emmy staggered, eager to break free from the muddy clasp and get to shore, dragging Sebastian with her. Emmy edged towards dry ground, determined not to let the river get its chance to take her that day. But the mud held her back.
“Em?”
Emmy’s fingers slipped out of Sebastian’s. Maya stopped her, pulling her close. “Let any anxiety go. It’s not as real as you think. It’s just a sensation in your body. Clear your mind. Whatever is, is,” Maya whispered into Emmy’s ear.
Emmy fought the desire to run, to disappear among the trees, leaving a trail of wet footsteps and clothes, wild, pulling her long hair free, but she knew that if fear took over she would never swim again, just like her mother.
“You ready, Em?” Kristian called, drawing her thoughts away from the mountain and back to the river. “It’s all clear.”
“Nothing has ever happened to you.” Maya rubbed her back. “We all just need to know that you can swim should there ever be a need someday. Take some deep breaths. Remember, you’ve done it all before.”
When Kristian was close enough, he threw her the life float attached to his raft by rope. Maya stepped back and Sebastian guided it to the side. It was there for Ingrid’s peace of mind. She couldn’t remember ever reaching for it.
“You ready?” Kristian asked.
She gave him a slow nod and dived in. The water stroked her skin, like loving fingers of the ghosts who swam through it. When she pushed everything aside, she relished in the tranquil
lity of the water. With one long even stroke after another, she pulled herself through the water with ease.
Kristian and Sebastian paddled alongside her. The rope remained slack. From the depths, a dull booming sound grew louder evolving into a barking dog. Above the water the hush of airy open spaces of the mountain world taunted her on each breath. Among the reeds, translucent upturned faces of dead relatives offered solemn support.
*
“If it’s okay with everyone, Emmy and I might head to our cabin a little earlier tonight,” Ingrid said, wiping the kitchen table.
“It’s fine,” Maya said. “Go for it.”
“We haven’t finished cleaning up. We can’t leave them with all these dishes,” Emmy said, picking up a tea towel.
“Get it over with,” Sebastian whispered in her ear.
It sent a shiver down her spine. Not his words. The whispering, his breath at her neck. She pressed her shoulder to her ear.
“I love washing up Em.” Kristian smiled, holding up two sudsy hands. “It gets my nails clean.”
“Yuk, Kristian,” Maya moaned, flicking him with a towel.
Emmy took one more look at Sebastian before Ingrid pulled her out the door. “Ow Mum.”
Ingrid let go. “Sorry, but we need to talk.”
Emmy knew how it was. She had been watching her mother all day. Her face was tight and twitchy. It was a sign her mum was on some inner rant. And it didn’t take a genius to work out what was on her mind.
As soon as they were alone together in the sitting room of their bedroom cabin, Emmy tried to soften the blow. “I’m sorry Mum. I know I messed up.”
Ingrid was lighting the candles. She was so aggressive with the matches they kept blowing out before she could get the flame to the wick, “Messed up? What makes you think you’ve messed up?”
“Oh God. Don’t make me say it please.”
“Do you want me to follow you around all day like you’re three?”
Emmy knew to keep her answers short. “No.”
“Of course not. But I will if that’s what it takes.”
“You don’t have to.”
“You know what? You would have your uncle still alive today, if he hadn’t snuck away from me to ride the rapids in the flood. All for a stupid dare, listening to other kids and not doing what he knew was the right thing. I was supposed to be looking after him but he took off. How do you think that makes me feel?”
Emmy opened her mouth to speak but Ingrid wasn’t finished.
“His little body was impaled on a log and carried way down the river. I don’t know whether he was killed instantly or what. I don’t want to think about him stabbed right through, flailing around, drowning, the log rolling, fighting for one stupid breath. All the kids smart enough not to get in the river watched him die.”
“Please Mum,” Emmy begged quietly. She hated it when her
mum got graphic.
“Well, that’s what I was thinking today. It’s stuck in my memory on replay. And you brought it all back.”
“There hasn’t been a flood in years. The river is so low and slow it barely moves.”
“You took off and all my mind could think about was the day that Pete died. The river may as well have been raging.”
Emmy took the matchbox from Ingrid and lit the candle first try. “I wasn’t near the water.” She went to light the others.
“He was only eight.”
“I’m sixteen, Mum. You’ve told me my whole life not to go near the river on my own.”
“And what you did today Emmy, it wasn’t smart. Crossing the footbridge.”
Emmy saw her mother swipe at her cheeks. She was crying. “I feel bad Mum.”
“I want you to.”
Emmy shook her head. Short answers weren’t working. “If you’re so scared about drowning, why live beside a river? I don’t get it,” she blurted out.
Her mother’s lips pressed together. Red marks splashed across her cheeks as though she had been slapped. All
were signs she was caught up in the heat of panic.
Emmy lowered her gaze to the candle between them
. “I’m sorry Mum, really I am.”
“Freak accidents with that river left me completely alone. I had nobody. No one.” Ingrid jabbed her finger at the open window. “The world can be crazy and frightening when you’re left in it all alone, Emmy. I didn’t even know how to pay a bill. Worse, I didn’t have money to pay one. All I had was a part time job in a fruit shop. I was just a kid. I was pregnant. And your
dad had just died. What would you do if that happened to you?”
“I’m not sure I would go and live by the river that killed my family if I thought I could be the next to die.”
“Maya was all I had left in the whole world. When your father drowned, she came down to the house to see me. I hadn’t left it in days. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t eat. She packed my bag and took me away.”
“I don’t know what I would do if you all died and left me here alone,” Emmy mumbled, willing for her to stop with the insults and accusations, and the stories of hopelessness and death.
“Yeah well, anything is possible. Don’t think it can’t happen.”
But it wasn’t enough to appease Ingrid. Emmy wasn’t sure if her mother could hear her. She watched helplessly as she stomped up the stairs to their loft bedroom. “Back then, there was nothing here. Nothing but tents. I went from being holed up in my bed at home to a bed in a tent beside this river. But I had Maya and Kristian. I was with them. I had someone. Don’t judge me until you’ve been there.”
“I get it Mum, I really do,” Emmy pleaded.
Ingrid stopped on the top landing. “Don’t tell me you understand. Today, you couldn’t even think past yourself.”
“It wasn’t like that Mum.” Emmy stepped forward, but Ingrid waved her back. “I do understand. I couldn’t live down in Mercy Falls on my own now and I don’t even have a baby to look after.”
Ingrid stared down at her. Her lips pressed tight again. She nodded. But she said nothing leaving the room.
“Mum?” Emmy called.
She heard the bed springs squeak. “We just lit these candles and now you’re going to bed? Don’t you want to hang out for a bit? Read maybe?”
Emmy perched herself on the edge of her favourite arm chair. It was a relief to no longer be arguing. But the silence was harder to handle. She raised her voice. “Sebastian always says friendship is thicker than blood. I get why you came here. And who would want to leave these mountains?”
Ingrid stayed quiet.
Emmy watched the flames of the candles dance a little in the slight night breeze. One of them had blown out. When she couldn’t handle it any more she snuffed the rest of them and crept up the stairs. In the dark, she could make out the shape of her mother, wrapped tight in the sheet and clutching a pillow.
Emmy curled up behind her.
“You are the only blood relative I have left in this world. Don’t ever scare me like that again. I lost my brother to a stupid dare. I lost my father to a drunken fishing trip, and when she couldn’t cope I lost my mother to suicide. That left me pretty much on my own. But I had your dad until I had to watch him drown in that same stupid river. I don’t want to add your story to it.”
“You won’t have to.”
“The people in town used to whisper about our family being cursed. They all thought I was out of my mind coming up here. And you do too by the sound of it.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy.”
“I survived all that. But I wouldn’t survive if you drowned too.”
“I won’t go near the water alone, Mum. You need to know that. I never want to make you mad at me. Please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad. I’m petrified of losing you.”
Chapter Four
Kristian hated it when they swung on the gate but it helped Emmy and Sebastian pass the time, while they waited for him to come back from Mercy Falls.
“Ingrid went crazy mother on me last night,” Emmy said.
“I can believe it. I’m surprised she made it through the day.”
“Thanks for the support. It was all because of you.”
“There was nothing I could say to stop Ingrid going off. You just needed to let her get it off her chest.”
“I let her down. From now on, I don’t care what you get up to. Don’t bring me in on it.”
“Maya and Kristian gave me a good talking to, don’t worry.”
“A good talki
ng to versus crazy mother. Hmmm. What would you choose? I’d rather sleep in your bed than mine.”
“Really?”
“Shut up. I meant swapping beds.”
“Come on, you may as well. Think of all those town people down there gossiping about us living in some sex-crazed cult up here. May as well do it.”
“It’s all about sex for you, isn’t it?”
He grinned. “Some days it is, Emmy. Some days it is.”
It satisfied Emmy to see Sebastian’s knuckles turn white as he clung onto the metal gate bracing himself. She loved the power. She ran with it, slamming it shut. It jarred him, but wasn’t hard enough to send him sprawling to the ground as he’d managed to do to her only seconds ago.
“Again,” he yelled, still holding tight.
Emmy unlatched the gate and drew it back to the fence. With as much strength as she could muster, she hurled it forward. Sebastian sailed through the air, eyes closing with the wind in his face. A low rumble came up the mountain road. Emmy heard it first and left him swinging.
She broke into a run, scoring a massive head start. Her skirt twisted around her legs. The strap of her mother’s cotton top slipped down her shoulder.
Behind her, Sebastian pounded down the dirt track, in loud even thumps. She ran harder. The wind blew her hair off her face. She heard Sebastian thrashing behind her, sensing the gap closing.
“The front seat is mine
!” he shouted as he drew alongside her, his strides longer than hers.
The van emerged through the trees with Kristian behind the wheel. It chugged and rolled to a stop.
Sebastian pulled out in front of her, tempting Emmy to grab his shirt and yank him backwards. Instead, she gave in, slowing to a walk, then a stroll, clutching at the pain stabbing at her side.
Sebastian reached the van first, gallantly holding the front door open. “It’s yours.”
“But you won.”
“I always win.” He flexed one of his arms, muscle pumped high. “I may be younger but I’ll always be stronger.”
“All brawn, no brain, Squirt.”
Emmy watched Sebastian climb into the back seat. He sat beside a sack of wholemeal flour with crates of wine at his feet, exchanging a wry smile with his father in the rear view mirror. She considered climbing into the back with him so it felt like they were even, neither of them winning and no big
favour given out.
“Climb in, Emmy.” Kristian leant over and patted the front passenger seat. “He’s being gracious.”
She pressed her lips together and scrambled in beside Kristian, shifting the newspaper onto her lap, burying her feet among packets of tofu, jars of honey and bottles of balsamic vinegar.
“He’ll never give up trying to impress you
.” Kristian winked.
Pretending not to hear him Emmy glanced down at the paper, flipping it over to read the headlines. Kristian snatched it away and tucked it beside his seat, tutting under his breath. “Nothing good in there,
sweetie. You’re better off not knowing.”
They putted through the gate and along the dirt track, pulling up at the kitchen cabin.
Arms loaded, they hauled the shopping inside and dumped everything on the table. Maya and Ingrid dropped their towels and dishcloths and delved into the bags, pulling out groceries and taking stock of new art materials they wanted for the wine labels.
“The wine quota’s all sold,” Kristian announced. “Three days into the week. We’re on top.”
“Thank God for the women in this town,” Maya grinned.
“Yeah. We’d have no chance if you had to sell that wine to their husbands,” added Ingrid.
“Are you girls questioning my quality skills in sales?” Kristian joked.
“Dad, I think Ingrid and Mum are saying that you have a charm that women would die for.” Sebastian grinned, leaning back on the table folding his arms and nodding like a know-it-all.
“Yuk. You don’t think that they think those women are chatting Kristian up so that they can come up here and be another wife, do you?” Emmy groaned.
Kristian pulled her to him
. “Let them think whatever they need to Emmy. Don’t let the town-talk worry you.”
Emmy wriggled free
. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s all right for you stud,” Maya teased. “They think you have two women at your beck and call. The girls want to be with you and the guys want to be you.”
Kristian kissed her. “Sounds nice to me. Helps with sales.”
“I hate being weird,” Emmy said.
They all looked at her.
“I really, really do,” she added.
“We’re not weird,” Kristian said. “We know what goes on up here. That’s what’s important.”
“But nobody else does.”
*
Emmy swept the vegetable scraps into the bucket. With a furtive glance at Sebastian, engrossed in his model plane at the kitchen table, she walked towards the door humming and swinging the bucket at her side.
“Don’t be long with that bucket, Em,” Ingrid said. “We need it for the rest of these scraps.”
“I won’t.”
As Emmy stepped out the door, she met Sebastian’s gaze. He had stopped working on his model plane. She had his attention.
*
At the compost heap, Emmy began to scrape aside the grass clippings. Minutes later, Sebastian joined her, starting at the opposite end. The long crates of compost were almost overflowing.
“Go check the strawberry drums,” Emmy said.
“No. You. I hate those things.”
“So you aren’t
that big and strong after all,” Emmy smirked, making a move toward the strawberries.
But Sebastian pushed past her and got there first.
She left him to search through the vegetable scraps and went back to dig through a mix of grass clippings and manure.
“
Bingo,” Sebastian cheered.
“Shhh
.”
“Bingo,” he whispered, holding up a section of a newspaper.
Emmy rushed to his side and began rummaging through the other drums. Together, they gathered as much of the old news that they could find.
“Tell Mum and Ingrid, I’ve gone up to the lookout. I’ll go sort it out.”
“Is that where you’re really going?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Just checking.”
“Follow me when you can but don’t make it obvious.”
With the pages clutched to his chest, Sebastian ran up the hillside to the path heading through the trees. The lookout was high on the hill at the north bend of the river.
Emmy returned to the kitchen, strolling through the door, swinging the empty bucket on one finger. She sat down to her study, waiting for the next opportunity to leave.
*
G
eography! Emmy grabbed clumps of hair at her temples and surveyed the pages of notes spread around her. All places she would never visit. Her mother rinsed a rag at the sink and began wiping the table. “Do you need any help?”
“It’s about rivers.”
Ingrid paused.
Maya cleared her throat and sidled over to check on the hot pot.
Emmy held her breath.
“Oh,” her mother replied.
Ingrid scrubbed at an imaginary stain on her apron. Emmy dropped the last pile of notes on the table. There was only one thing to do, read about weather patterns, erosion, and climate change until she understood it.
When Ingrid plonked down on the bench seat beside her, Emmy was jarred out of her work. She looked up and followed her mother’s gaze. Maya was staring down into the red wine and vegetable stew, seemingly mesmerised by the gathering steam.
“You okay?” Ingrid asked.
Startled, Maya’s face came to life, “Yeah. Just tired. The flu.”
“Go have a sleep then. We’re on top of everything here.”
Emmy held her breath for the eternity it took for Maya to lift the wooden spoon out of the pot, tap it on the rim and lay it on the spoon holder beside the stove. “I think I might.”
Emmy and Ingrid watched Maya leave before turning to each other.
“We don’t get the flu up here,” Ingrid said as though she had to catch herself
. She shifted in the seat and smiled. “She’s been working hard.”
“Yeah,” Emmy replied, looking back at the words she’d written on her notebook only moments before. They no longer made sense. All she wanted to do was leave. “I don’t feel like studying.”
“Maya’s going to be all right.”
It took Emmy by surprise
. “I know. You said she’s been working hard. I just didn’t feel like studying. Can I go see what Sebastian’s up to?”
“One hour. Then I want both of you back in here.”
“I’ll tell him.”
“And stay inside the grounds. Don’t go near that river.”
Emmy rushed for the door.
*
By the time Emmy had made it to the hilltop, Sebastian had put the newspaper in some sort of order and was lost in its pages. There was a glimmer in his eyes as he looked up at her. He loved anything to do with the outside world. He loved it so much, it scared her.
“I think some of it’s the local paper and the rest is from last Sunday.”
“So we didn’t find the whole lot?”
“We haven’t read any of it, I’m sure.” Sebastian pointed to a front page headline. “Take a look at this. There’s been trouble in town.”
“In Mercy Falls?”
“
Boys, Girls and Parties Don’t Mix,
” he read.
Emmy skimmed through the article. “So what exactly are they saying?”
“I think the boys got drunk, maybe, and hurt a girl by the sound of it.”
Emmy read over his shoulder, “So why are they pointing out all the things she did wrong?” Emmy asked, looking at the article more closely.
Sebastian shrugged. “No names are mentioned. They seem to be talking more about the alcohol.”
“Why bother putting it on the front page?”
“It’s news for Mercy Falls. It gives everyone down there a chance to make things up, read between the lines. And take a look at this,” Sebastian flipped through to the middle, “all these emails have been sent in to the paper. The people have a lot to say.”
Emmy read some of the lines he was pointing to. “Huh? That poor girl.”
“Yep. It’s like a lynching.”
“Oh my God.” Emmy read out loud, “Some girls need to be aware of the messages they’re sending boys. They can’t say yes, yes, yes to them at a party and then when they wake up the next day, say no, no, no, I didn’t want that. Sobriety can bring out the shame in anyone. But then it
’s too late to backtrack.”
“People think that bad things don’t happen here
.” Sebastian looked at Emmy from under his furrowed brow.
“Well, not in a long, long time,” she corrected. “I think this might be an exaggeration.”
“I don’t know Em. City life’s catching up with us.”
Sebastian rolled onto his back folding the paper back to the puzzles page. She started reading the article from the beginning.
Sexual Assault? Rape?
Words like that were mentioned again and again. It stuck in her mind. She handed back the pages of the local paper.
“I don’t get why you keep begging to go down to the village and be a part of it. I hate going down there on market day. Kristian is making us do it more and more, have you noticed?” she said.
He shrugged. “Life is out there to be lived, Emmy.”
“Life is easier up here if you ask me.”
Flipping through the pages of the old Sunday paper she absorbed the headlines, curious enough to want to read but desperate to know what was on the next page.
Body Found in Bushland…Child Missing, Feared Dead…Family Slaughter for Drug Debts…Midnight Intruder…Husband Remanded in Custody…Pregnant Wife Body Recovered, Husband Faces Charges…Ice: A Demonic Drug…Kitten Tortured…Deadly Flu Strain Claims Seven…
“Has Maya got the flu?” she asked.
Sebastian shrugged. “Has she been down to the village?”
Emmy thought about it. “Not for a while.” She bit her lip and considered not saying anything more, but gave in. Sebastian could always be so practical when she had something on her mind. “She’s tired all the time, and she’s so skinny.”