Page 25 of The Vanishing Place
“On the Spot?”
“Yes. It was late, and I tried to get Jonathon on the phone, but he wasn’t answering so—”
“Dad broke in.” Effie frowned.
“Well, yes.” June looked almost guilty. “But he needed stuff for the baby. And I’m sure he left money.”
“Then what?”
“Then we headed back here. Your dad can’t have slept for more than a couple of hours. We set off at 6 a.m., and I drove us out to the falls. Then we took your family’s tinnie across the river and walked in.”
“And Dad dug a hole for Mum.”
“Yes,” she said softly. She moved her hand across the sofa toward Effie’s leg. “Then he buried your mum.”
For a long moment, it was quiet.
“Thanks,” said Effie eventually. “For the lolly cake.”
Then she got up and walked toward the bedroom nook.
Two more days passed before Effie asked June another question, when they were hanging nappies to dry outside.
“Why did Dad leave us?”
June paused, her arms reaching up to the line, then she turned.
“Oh, baby girl.”
She dropped the linen back into the basket and took a step toward Effie. Then June hugged her. Effie froze, keeping her arms glued to her sides as the warmth and the pressure and the smell of perfume wrapped her up.
“Your dad has his own secrets, sweetie.” June swallowed, like she was trying not to cry, then she pulled away. “Things that make this even harder for him. Things that make everything harder for him.”
Effie snorted and scuffed at the ground with her foot. “Dad saidit was his dream,” she muttered, “to live in the bush, away from everything. Just him and Mum and his stupid vegetable garden.”
“You don’t like it here?”
Effie shrugged. “Mum said the world was changing too much, with phones and TV and the internet, and all that other modern crap. Mum wanted to live like Heidi, you know, the weird girl who liked goats.”
June smiled. “I loved that story.”
“It’s a stupid story. No kid can be that good all the time.”
“True.”
“And I like TV.” Effie picked at her sleeves. “Do you think Dad’s a good man?”
“Yes.” June stepped closer and held Effie’s shoulders, their faces level. “Yes. Your dad is a good man, and don’t you believe anyone who says otherwise.”
Effie looked at her, at her wrinkled eyes and her white hair, and wanted to believe her. But Lewis was her best friend—her only friend—and Effie couldn’t un-remember what he’d told her.
She couldn’t forget the otherwise thing that Lewis had said.
2025
Effie rolled overin the single bed and checked her phone. It was almost 6 a.m. She’d slept right through. There was just one new message from Blair.
Be safe. Rimu sends kisses. x
