Page 155 of The Vanishing Place
I got close a couple of times. I found one house just days after the family had moved on. And I got into fights with people who knew things but wouldn’t talk. The guy from the park, the one who broke Lewis’s ribs, had been one of your grandfather’s earlyfollowers. I recognized him from Hokitika. But by then, the family was long gone, and the guy knew nothing.
Once, Dinah managed to get a note to me. Just seven words: “He has me shut up. Help me.”It tore me apart. Then for years I thought she was dead. When Adam (Asher then) turned up at the hut, I didn’t recognize him. His eyes, they weren’t like that when he was younger. It wasn’t until he’d left us that I worked it out. Then, when he came back, something in me snapped. I thought Dinah was dead because of him. I thought I’d lost her. But it was you who found her in the end, Effie. It was you who brought her back to me.
Dinah is here with me now. She’s watching me from a chair by the window. The day the police released her name, and your sister’s, I got on a bus, and I don’t think I fully breathed again until Dinah took my hand.
She’s been through a lot, as you know, and her mind and body are tired. But she’s here, alive, with me. And one day, if or when you’re ready, we would like to tell you our full story. Your story.
Over the years, I’ve imagined a thousand lives for you. All of them happy. I needed that. I needed you to be happy.
I’m sorry I wasn’t a better dad. I’ve got more sorries in me than I can count, Effie. But I want to try. I want to try and do better.To deserve you.
Love, Dad
P.S. There’s one other person who can give you answers—if you want them. Ask June about Lily.
When Effie lowered the letter, there was no air left in her.
She lifted the photograph—a boy laughing as a girl kissed his cheek—and turned it over.To the boy who tried to save my life. Under the faded sentence, her dad had scribbled a short note.
Dinah found this at the hut. Us as kids. She wanted you to have it.
“What is it?” asked Lewis.
Effie stared at her dad’s words, the photo shaking in her fingers, unable to look away.
“Effie?” Lewis placed his hand on hers.
She wiped her face. She didn’t know when she had started crying.Oh, Dad. Then she looked at Lewis. “My dad…he…”
But she wasn’t ready. It was too big.
Lewis frowned. “Are you okay?”
Dinah. Peter. Adam.
She was related to all of them.
“I think I need a minute with her,” said Effie.
Lewis released her hand and smiled. “She’s on the deck.”
Then Effie got up from the table, clutching her dad’s words to her chest, not quite ready to share him with Lewis. There was someone else who needed Dad first.
New Zealand
Effie pushed thefront door open and stepped out onto the deck. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was just a blanket of endless space, so blue it almost looked purple. Tears misted her eyes, but she walked toward the swinging porch chair with a smile on her face.
She was sitting in the shade with her back to Effie, her eyes locked on the horizon.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” said Tia. “This country of ours.”
She turned, her movements still slow, still painful, but every time Effie looked into her sister’s eyes, she saw the flicker of light. Of life. Every day, a little bit of her came back.
“Come.” Tia patted the spot next to her. “Sit. It was too noisy in there for me.”
The bullet from Daniel’s gun had ripped through Tia’s stomach, diaphragm, and left lung, and she’d spent two weeks in hospital. But it was the beating—the force of Daniel’s fists and feet—that had caused her to lose consciousness that night. After two follow-ups, she’d finally been discharged; the appointments with the therapist, however, were ongoing.
“It’s easier to breathe out here,” said Tia.
