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And then there were the good days Sitting in the back roo on to each other after a hot and spoilt day, untightening their tensions with a bottle of wine The air drifting in fro, the sound carrying all the way from the park
Eleanor leant forward to pour herself another glass of wine, reaching back to rest a hand on his knee I was scared though, she said quietly, I really didn't knohere he'd gone He sat forward, looking over at the photograph of her father, listening to her story of being lost on the heath one su his glass of wine and passing it to her He lifted the he it flat against her skin
So where was he hiding? he asked
Out on the moor, her father on the top of the rise, his taut outline silhouetted against the raw blue sky She watched hi his breath, and then she crouched down to peer into the heather, looking at a crack in the hard grey rock, wondering how deep it went, trying to squeeze her hand into the gap She stayed there for a few rowth's shade, and then she stood up Hold up now! she called, brushing the dirt from her knees and her hands
Her father's silhouette had disappeared Everything seemed suddenly very quiet The faint huzz of the insects, the occasional pop of a gorse pod in the midday heat, the distant crashes fron of life besides her own anxious breathing
She ran to the top of the rise and looked but he wasn't anywhere Maybe he'd sat down soht Maybe he'd fallen asleep and that's why he couldn't hear her shouting Or maybe this was him vanished for ever, like Bill's dad did that tiot lost at sea She wondered if she'd be okay to find her way home She wondered if herhi her head frons of life All she saere butterflies, pure white ones and red-brown ones, lifting and falling and tu across the heather All she heard were the insects, her breathing, her feet kicking the dry sand along the track
She remembered when the teacher told the class about Bill's dad Bill sat scowling, like it didn't matter to him, like it was no bother and if anyone wanted to say otherwise they'd have hi teeks when they found him on the tideline down at Cammachmore, and they wouldn't let Bill look at him But he said that didn't bother him, what difference did itlike that, for weeks and weeks and weeks
She hadn't got very far when she stopped and called out again Her sst the heather and the bracken She stood and turned and looked all around her, clenching her fists and trying hard not to be very close to tears Maybe if she went back now and told someone, they could fetch up a whole lot of ht out across the heather, like when the beaters sent the birds up for the guns Hesomewhere with a turned ankle, and she'd never find hi until it was dark It'd be too late then, maybe
She heard so behind her and before she could turn around there was a pair of thick strong ar her into the air, the sky sprawling dizzily away, his laughter gasping into the back of her neck She tried to pull away but he was holding too tightly That was a good one, eh Ellie? he said Had you wondering there, didn't I? She didn't say anything He let go of her and shewith her back to hi on the track a few feet ahere it rab hold of her She felt like rushing over and sta with it all the way to the sea, throwing it in and watching it fill ater and sink beneath the surface But she didn't She just glared at it, hotly, her eyes stinging a little Probably she got soht
You alright petal? he asked I didn't frighten you, did I? She didn't say anything, but rubbed the corner of her eye roughly with the bony heel of her hand She heard hiet behind her She heard the snap and hiss of a h he always arette Aye well, I'm here now, he said quietly
David watched Eleanor carefully while she told him the story; how it had see silence and wondered where he'd got to and if she should go for help, how he'd suddenly leapt out behind her, laughing, and lifted her up into the air I told hi
He lifted her T-shirt higher and pressed his ainst the warm expanse of her back Don't stop, he said It was so rare for her to talk like that, even tonorth of the border; and especially not in that way, theout around the words He didn't knohy she'd brought it up then, why she'd rushed upstairs to find the rarely opened packet of photographs she kept at the bottoered by the heat of the day perhaps, or by the voices of children playing out in the streets So comfort blanket those pills provided A littleher talk like that, with the slow evening closing in outside, with her leg lifted up on to his lap and his fingers clis sees see about their fas that don't
She stacked the photographs back up on the mantelpiece, and opened another bottle, and they waited for the taut closeness of the air to break into rain And as the first fat drops slapped on to the path outside she put her glass down on the table, took his out of his hand, and leant over to kiss him She stood up, a little unsteadily, and pushed her skirt to the floor
Hey, she said So, do you want to, her voice trailing off as though she'd forgotten how to put it, what to do, and she lowered her head to look down at herself
He s at his belt and his trouser buttons, and he said do I want to what? She cla across hiainst his hip, leaving a bruise