Page 83 of The Vanishing Place
“Lewis, it’s freezing.” Effie reached out for him. “Aiden was—”
He flinched and pulled away. “Go away,” he said. “Just go home, Effie.”
“Lewis?” She stood there, not understanding.
“I don’t want you here,” he said, without looking at her.
“But—”
“Go home!” he shouted. “Go back to June’s.”
“You’ll freeze,” said Effie, her words shaky. “You should come back.” She reached for his hand. “Please.”
But Lewis shoved her away, hard, his new muscles strong and untested, and Effie stumbled back, her twelve-year-old self nothing but air to a fifteen-year-old boy. Her heel caught on a piece of driftwood and she landed with a hard thud. The salt water seeped into her shorts, and her butt bone throbbed.
For a second she just sat there, looking up at him, seeing him differently. The strength and anger in him.Just like Dad. Seeing the adult growing beneath his skin.
“Effie.” Lewis rushed forward, offering his hand. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean…”
He pulled her up, his eyes swollen from crying, and started brushing the sand from her. The right side of his face was an explosion of purple and blue. There was no white to his right eye, just a pool of blood.
“Your eye,” said Effie.
Lewis jerked back, turning his head away. “I didn’t want you to see.”
“What happened?”
“It was my dad,” he said eventually, his voice wobbling. “He came to visit me and Nan last night.” Lewis wiped a hand across his mouth. “Hitched here with some hunter.”
Effie couldn’t look away.
Lewis shifted from one foot to the other. “Dad likes to drink.”
“I thought your dad died in a car crash?”
“My stepdad.”
She hesitated. “I never thought about you having another dad.”
Lewis gave a sad smile.
“Where does he live?”
“Greymouth, I think.”
“Why was he…”
Lewis shrugged. “Money.”
Effie didn’t understand. She’d never had money, never really known what it did.
“Apparently,” said Lewis, “Nan didn’t have enough.”
Effie frowned. “Is he still…”
“Nah.” Lewis shook his head. “He’s gone.”
She glanced at the ground, her toes peeking out of the sand, and thought about telling Lewis about the anger inside her dad. About the sting of his palm across her face. About living with someone who scared her sometimes. About what Asher had said.
