Page 62 of The Vanishing Place
When it went silent, she ran out and sprinted to the hut, to Dad’s bedroom. She squeezed under the bed and lifted up the loose floorboard. Then she dashed back to the toilet, her fingers gripped around the prized box of pads.
—
A couple of days later, Effie woke early to find a small plastic bag next to her head. Inside were ten ginger teabags and a folded piece of paper. Effie took the note out, careful not to wake Tia, then opened it.
I grew up with an older sister.
She said that ginger helped.
Effie threw the bag across the room, and it hit the wall with a soft thud. What sort of creep snuck into someone’s bedroom when they were sleeping? She turned over and closed her eyes.
But that afternoon, when everyone was out in the garden, she made herself two cups of tea and gulped them down as fast as she could.
Within a few hours, the cramps had eased.
—
Dad hadn’t smiled all morning.
The darkness had crept into his cheeks and eyes, too heavy to lift. So Effie made Tia take the boys out onto the deck for lunch while Dad ate alone inside.
Effie walked around to the garden, looking for Asher. She couldn’t let him see Dad today. She spotted Asher hunched near the vegetable garden, probably overwatering something, and walked over with her arms crossed.
“Are you ever going to leave?” she asked.
He looked up as she approached, showing his blue-eye side. He was hammering nails into a plank of old wood, fixing one of the cages.
“Morning to you too.” He smiled.
“You’ve been here like six weeks.” She scuffed at the dirt with her foot. “Isn’t there, like, anyone out there who can stand you?”
“You don’t like me much, do you?”
“Not much to like.”
Asher sucked on his thumb, his finger disappearing into the circle of yellow beard. Cage fixing was a horrible job; the splinters were a bitch. It was probably why Dad got him to do it.
“Was it something that I did?”
Effie shrugged. “I don’t care what you do.”
“Your siblings seem to think I’m okay.”
“Well then.” Effie let out an exaggerated puff of air and clapped her hands twice. “Gold star for you. My baby brothers find you more interesting than a tree.”
Asher smiled at that. No shock there.
“And Tia?”
“She’s nine. And you’re nineteen. Bit sick, don’t you think?”
“I’m just looking out for her. Playing kid games and searching for fairies.”
“Said every pedophile ever.”
Asher didn’t rise to it, didn’t even frown. He just picked up another nail. Dad would have lost it.
Effie sat on a stump, ignoring him, hoping the splinters hurt his fingers.
