Too Many Secrets

by Adele Broadbent

  I peered through the closest window. The glass was grubby and I couldn’t see clearly. I cupped my hands around my face, squashing my nose on the glass.

  ‘Becs! Where are you?’ called Nick. ‘You haven’t finished your wall.’

  ‘Go away, Nick,’ I grumbled to myself, squinting to see into the room. It was huge and empty.

  ‘Becs!’ she called again.

  Would she ever stop following me? I searched for somewhere to hide. Just long enough so she’d get sick of looking. Mark had done too good a job of clearing scrub and the nearest cover was the implement shed. I ran towards it.

  ‘Becs!’ Nick’s voice came from the same direction! I shot off to the right, to a low shed attached to the barn.

  In a rush to escape Nick, I ran straight in. ‘Ooof!’ I crashed into something. Someone! We landed on the dirt floor in a heap. I looked straight into the dark eyes I’d seen in the tree house.

  Chapter 21—The boy

  I sprang to my feet. When I realized who it was, my heart leapt like a deer. It was strange to be so close after watching her for days.

  I glanced at the doorway then back again, straight into the red girl’s eyes. Wide, green eyes. Ready to run, I shuffled closer to the door.

  ‘Becs! Where are you?’ came a voice from outside.

  I must have jumped. The red girl whispered, ‘It’s OK. It’s only Nick. My stepsister.’

  Sister? Wasn’t the little one a boy?

  ‘Please don’t go,’ whispered the red girl, her gaze darting to the doorway. ‘Just stay put for a sec and Nick will go away. You don’t want her to see you, do you?’ She peered around the doorframe. ‘Go away, you little pain,’ she muttered.

  Her sister called out again, this time further away. ‘Good,’ mumbled the red girl as she turned back to me. I held her stare, willing my heartbeat to slow down, wanting to tell her and her family to leave. But when she moved across the doorway, my heart jumped again. I was trapped.

  Again she saw my reaction. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. But she didn’t move. ‘I’m not going to hurt you. Please don’t go. Look, I’m moving away from the door.’ She stepped sideways. ‘Just tell me your name.’

  I said nothing.

  ‘My name is Becs. But you probably already know with Nick yelling it all over the place.’ She smiled. ‘Go on, tell me. I can’t keep thinking of you as “the boy”.’

  ‘Isaiah,’ I blurted.

  ‘Isaiah…Herrick?’ she asked.

  I nodded, then realized what I’d done. I could have bitten off my tongue. Oscar would be furious if he knew I’d told someone. Especially this townie who had come with her family and upset everything.

  ‘I’m sorry we’re in your house,’ she said, as if reading my mind. ‘I’m sorry I found your tree house. I’ll never get Nick out of it now, though.’

  I scowled. Had she tricked me into telling my name?

  ‘Where are you sleeping now? What do you eat?’

  Too many questions. I had to get away. Hide. I edged closer to the door.

  ‘If you need anything, I can get it for you. I haven’t dobbed you in,’ she said quickly. ‘Told on you, I mean.’

  I shook my head and leapt through the doorway.

  Chapter 22—Becs

  He ran faster than one of the cockroaches in the long drop. Gone in a millisecond. I stared out at the bush. Isaiah. Weird name, but I was right. He was the runaway. His eyes. So intense.

  Hang on—why was he in our shed? Had he been watching us all along?

  I wandered back to the house, rapidly scanning my memory for any slip-ups I might have made after a shower or leaving the long drop. Now that I knew he’d been out in the bush…Ooo, it was creepy.

  ‘Here she is!’ called Mum when she saw me. ‘What are you playing at? There’s a lot of work to do and you’re off skiving.’

  ‘You sound like Oscar, Mum.’

  ‘Enough backchat from you, young lady. Why didn’t you answer Nick when she was calling you?’

  I glared at Nick standing safely behind Mum. She poked her tongue out then grinned. ‘Thanks, Nicola,’ I said. ‘I owe you one.’ Bull’s-eye! Nick’s grin vanished when I used her proper name.

  ‘I wasn’t skiving, Mum,’ I said. ‘I went to have a look in the windows around the back. Mark’s taking too long.’

  ‘Well, the more we work together on this,’ said Mum, ‘the faster we’ll get things done. You’re the one so keen to leave.’

  Not wrong there.

  ‘Go and see if Mark needs any help.’

  I trudged off, rolling my eyes. It wasn’t fair. I’d been working my butt off. I take five minutes off and the world was coming to an end. Give me a break.

  I found Mark attacking more bushes with his huge pair of bright yellow loppers. ‘Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Becs,’ he said. ‘Will madam be so kind as to rake up what I’ve chopped so far?’

  Ha ha. Not. I snatched up the rake from the ground and stomped through the clippings. Between Isaiah creeping around, Nick dobbing me in, Mum giving me a bollocking for nothing and Mark dragging us all out here in the first place, I didn’t know which one I was maddest at. For the next couple of hours I took out my frustration on the never-ending pile of clippings Mark made and dragged them round the front of the house to be burnt. I kept glancing at the bush surrounding us. Was Isaiah still watching?

  Chapter 23—Becs

  I was still mad the next morning. I’d been quite proud of my efforts at Herrick House, not to mention putting up with no phone or power. So what does Mum do? She stomps all over that. I’d decided overnight that I wasn’t working on Herrick House for a bit. I was taking time off. Yeah, I know. The sooner we finished it, the sooner we went home—but that seemed so far away, one day wasn’t going to make much difference.

  Straight after my shower, I was off. I looked at my watch.

  8.45 a.m. What day was it? Monday? What would Suz, Lexi and Caro be doing right now? I pictured my friends at school, giggling when Brad and Drew walked past them in the main quad. We’d done the same thing almost every morning for the last term. Suz and Drew really liked each other but were both too chicken to say anything. Suddenly my eyes stung with tears and I was glad no-one was around to see. I gazed down the track, hearing nothing but birdcalls and the wind in the tops of the pine trees. I would’ve given anything to hear my friends babbling away about nothing for a while. I plopped down on the tree branch seat I’d found on the first day and wiped my eyes.

  How come they hadn’t written back? They should’ve got my letters and I’d written the return address on the back. It had only been two weeks and already felt like two years. How would I survive eight months? I sat and blubbered into my sweatshirt. How sad was that?

  ‘Are you all right?’

  I jerked up, quickly rubbing my eyes. Had Mark followed me? When I looked around I saw Isaiah on the track.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he repeated.

  ‘Have you been spying on me?’ I demanded. ‘Are you following me? You’re creeping me out! Do you know it’s illegal to stalk someone.’

  He stared. ‘Why are you so angry all the time?’ His eyes, huge in his thin face, were full of worry. Like I was something to be pitied.

  ‘How would you know? You have been spying on me, haven’t you?’

  ‘I don’t have to,’ he said quietly. ‘I can hear you through the bush.’

  Was I really that loud? I wiped my eyes again.

  ‘Why are you crying?’

  ‘Well, who wouldn’t be? The birds screech at you. There are giant bugs everywhere. We’ve got no power and there is no-one to talk to. I hate it here.’

  ‘Why don’t you leave then.’ It wasn’t a question.

  I leapt up, ready to give him the ‘Becs special’. I was queen of the hissy fit and I was all fired up to prove it. ‘Don’t you think I would if I could?’ I yelled.

  Isaiah immediately put his hands over his ears, turned and vanished into t
he bush.

  Can you believe it? I threw my hands up in the air and stormed off. I didn’t care if I never saw him again. Crazy weirdo greenie.

  Chapter 24—Becs

  After I calmed down again, I dawdled back to the shack. I knew my eyes would be puffy and red but I didn’t care. I wanted Mum to see. Just to make her feel stink for being so awful.

  ‘There you are,’ she called as I crossed the clearing. Wait for it, I thought, expecting another bollocking about skiving off.

  ‘Would you like a cuppa?’ Mum asked.

  ‘Um, yes please,’ I answered, following her inside. What was going on?

  When Mum passed me a mug of tea with a huge cinnamon doughnut, I really got worried. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Mum. ‘We just thought it would be nice for us all to have a day off if we felt like it. Mark and Nick have gone to the house for a bit and they’ll be back for lunch.’ She sat across from me at the table with her cup. ‘Someone from the correspondence school is going to be in the area this afternoon and would like to meet you and Nick and go over the work. We could meet them in town?’

  I groaned. I’d hoped they’d forgotten about it. ‘No thanks, Mum.’ I sipped my tea.

  ‘Mark thought you might like to ring your friends afterwards. You could use the shop phone.’

  ‘Really? Oh, Mum, that’d be the best.’ I shot round the table and gave her a hug. ‘I’m sorry I’ve been a cow, Mum. I just miss home and school and my mates.’

  ‘I know,’ said Mum. ‘We know how difficult it’s been for you and you have been working hard. As soon as we can get some of the rooms sorted out at the house, we can move in and maybe invite your friends to stay?’

  ‘All of them? Really?’ I gave her another hug. ‘That’d be awesome.’

  ‘It’ll give you something to look forward to,’ Mum said with a smile, ‘instead of erupting every five minutes.’

  I opened my mouth to defend myself, then thought of Isaiah. He was right. I was always going ballistic lately. I shut my mouth and smiled. Mum looked surprised. She got up and poured another cuppa. ‘Do you still think we tricked you into coming out here?’

  I shrugged. ‘It’s going to take a lot longer than Mark said.’

  ‘But even if it does, going to Ascot High late is still better than not going at all.’

  She was right. I didn’t like it much, but it was true. I finished my tea and put the cup on the bench. ‘Thanks, Mum.’ I gave her a hug. ‘I’m going to make the most of my day off and read a new book I brought with me.’

  By the time I’d grabbed my book and a hat from the bedroom, Mum had put a snack together in a bag for me. ‘Take your time. You don’t have to come back for lunch if you don’t want to.’

  That’s the Mum I was used to. I took off before Nick returned and wanted to come with me. I might even see Isaiah. Maybe I should say I was sorry. Maybe.

  Chapter 25—Becs

  I lay in bed that night thinking about our trip into town. The correspondence lady was OK, I suppose. She explained the work packs and what we had to do. I wasn’t really concentrating, and just nodded a lot. I was too busy thinking about what I was going to say to my friends when I rang. I shouldn’t have worried. The calls didn’t go how I expected. I rang Lexi first but no-one was home. When I rang Caro she was on her way out and couldn’t talk, and Suz’s mum told me she was out with Drew. I couldn’t believe it! She’d spent months liking him and as soon as I leave they start going out. Things seemed so different already. It was like another life. I pulled my sheet up over my head and lay there thinking about when I could ring them again, before finally falling asleep.

  We all got back to work on the house. Nick worked with Mark outside most days, which suited me fine. The same rules still stood about Nick not wandering around in the bush alone and she still thought I shouldn’t be alone either. Mark had told her to give me some space (when he knew I was close to chucking a fit about it), but she didn’t take much notice.

  Whether it was because Nick was my shadow or Isaiah was avoiding me, I didn’t see him again for over a week. I wanted to talk to him again. This time I wouldn’t go bananas.

  One afternoon, I lay in the shade with Mum’s homemade lemonade. Yeah, I know. We were turning into right country bumpkins. It had been stuffy and hot sanding panels in the house, and it was nice to get some fresh air.

  I closed my eyes and listened to the birds. They were beginning to sound familiar. Someone whispered my name. It made me jump, but I made sure no-one was watching before I looked behind me. Isaiah stood a couple of metres away. He grinned when I gave a little wave. ‘Wait there,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back in a sec.’

  I raced off to tell Mum I was going for a walk but would be back in fifteen minutes. She was pleased I even told her, so I knew she wouldn’t come looking for me this time.

  As calmly as I could, I wandered back over, picked up my drink bottle and stepped into the cover of the bush.

  Isaiah beckoned to me to follow, then loped off through the trees. Where was he going? I followed at an easy jog. All the trekking back and forth to the shack and working at the house must have been good for me. I didn’t end up bent double, gasping for air like I had when we’d first arrived.

  He took me down a path I hadn’t seen before, then stopped and waited for me. When I caught up, he led me into a small clearing. I gasped. ‘Oh, wow!’

  Chapter 26—Becs

  Ahundred monarch butterflies flitted through the air. They danced around our heads as we stood in the centre of a perfect circle of trees. There were dozens more butterflies hanging off the branches and leaves.

  ‘What is this place?’ I whispered. ‘I’ve never seen so many butterflies.’

  ‘Do you like them?’ said Isaiah.

  I gazed upwards. ‘They’re awesome.’

  ‘Monarch butterflies are insects,’ he said softly. ‘You said you did not like bugs.’

  I stared at him. At first I didn’t know what he was on about. But I remembered what I’d said the last time I saw him.

  His face was serious. ‘I thought if you saw insects that you like, you wouldn’t cry any more.’

  I looked away, back up at the butterflies. Can you believe it? This weird boy who didn’t even know me was trying to make me feel better. ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘This is really cool. I’m sorry I gave you an earful last time.’

  He walked over to the edge of the clearing. ‘My mother loves butterflies. She planted all these swan plants, always making sure they had enough food.’

  When I looked closer, I saw that the sides of the clearing were a wall of plants, with dozens more chrysalises hanging from them. ‘Why are they called swan plants? I’ve always wondered but was too chicken to ask.’

  Isaiah touched one of the light-green, golf ball-sized seedpods. ‘See the way the pod grows? The green stem is the neck of the swan and the pod is the body.’

  I nodded. ‘Oh yeah. I see.’ I watched him put his finger next to a butterfly so it stepped onto his hand. He still looked so serious. ‘I miss her.’

  ‘Your mum?’ I touched his elbow. Just for a moment. ‘So why didn’t you go with her? How could your own mother leave you behind?’ I instantly regretted it.

  His shoulders slumped, and as he dropped his hand the butterfly fluttered into the air. ‘Many reasons,’ he said, hanging his head. ‘Mostly my papa.’

  ‘Did he…’ I began. It wasn’t a normal question to ask someone, but this wasn’t a normal place either. ‘Did he hit you?’

  ‘Sometimes. But that is not why I left.’

  A zillion questions whizzed through my head. All the questions I wanted to ask since the first time I saw him.

  Chapter 27—Becs

  Do you live in the bush?’ Duh. Dumb question, Becs. ‘I mean, where do you sleep? What do you eat?’ I knew he took off the last time I asked questions, but I still wanted to know.

  He lifted his head and frowned as if trying to decide whether or
not to tell me. ‘Why haven’t you told anyone about me?’ he finally asked. ‘Oscar says you will tell.’

  ‘Oscar? The old guy?’

  Isaiah nodded.

  ‘You live with Oscar?’ I asked. ‘That grumpy old git?’

  Isaiah thrust out his chin. ‘Oscar is not what you say! He is kind. He looks out for me.’

  I held my hands up. ‘Whoa, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. It’s just that he seems a bit…angry.’

  ‘Like you?’ said Isaiah.

  ‘Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.’ I smiled and he seemed to relax a little. ‘So your parents left you with Oscar and he never told anyone.’

  ‘No. I chose to leave my family. Oscar knew nothing of it until they had gone.’ He frowned again, staring at the butterflies. ‘Why have you not told anyone about me?’

  ‘That’s more Nick’s style, not mine,’ I said. ‘You’ve been the most interesting thing since we got here. I’ve been trying to figure it all out since the guy at the shop told us about you.’ I wasn’t going to tell him it’d been to spite my mum when I thought she’d tricked me. He’d probably disappear again.

  ‘I tried to make you leave.’

  ‘I knew it! It was you who trashed our stuff on the first day. You wrecked the pump.’

  ‘I didn’t wreck it. I disassembled it and took some of the parts. I was going to repair it when you left.’

  ‘But we didn’t leave.’ I was almost proud of us staying. ‘You realize you wrecked about three of my tops and my best skirt?’

  ‘You took my home! You changed everything, coming here with your family.’

  It had been my favourite skirt, but it wasn’t like I was going to wear it again any time soon, and compared to his home (even if it was only the shack), I didn’t have much of an argument. ‘OK. Good point. I’m sorry. I’m not stoked about being here either.’