Sliver Moon Bay: The Looking
Page 14
I’m going to miss you, Lilian. I really am.
71
Hours go by and I’m left alone, put to bed in a strange room. On the other side of the door, strange noises fill the space out there. Amy’s shuffling about, putting on her pyjamas across the hallway. I’m guessing she is. I don’t know. I don’t know her routine, what she does when the family goes to bed. It’s really none of my business. I am exhausted. Inside my head, everything’s sorted. It’s clear to me what I ought to do.
I don’t think there’s much left for me here. In all honesty, it wouldn’t be too bad if my turn came. Look at it from my perspective; I’ve really only got Fairy left. I love her; however. She’s not reliable. I don’t have control over her. And believe you me, I’ve tried. But she’s no Lilian. She’s strong. So if I stay, I’ll be mostly alone.
This is, more or less, what I said to Amy. Didn’t mention Fairy, of course. She wouldn’t have understood what I was on about, obviously.
Course, straight away, she seized on the lonely bit. We were in her study; me lying on the couch under the open window and her facing me, sat in a chair, looking concerned. Really out of her depth, she was, but who wouldn’t be, thrown into this situation?
‘Sarah, I can only imagine how very difficult this is for you. I want you to know that you can always count on me. And Josh. We are here to help you…’ she trailed off, kind of embarrassed, the poor thing. I know I should have said something kind, something to make her feel better but I was tired. I just couldn’t be bothered to think about anything else but my own fucked up life. So for a while, we both remained quiet. I was listening to the ocean.
‘Do you need anything, Sarah?’
Well, duh… but what can you do about it, huh?
‘I’m fine, Miss.’
‘Amy. You can call me Amy if you want to.’
‘Okay. Amy.’
We grimace at each other. I suspect Amy wants to be here as much as I do. But she’s a trooper. A battler, that’s what she is.
‘I need to ask you one thing, honey. Do you have any idea where your dad might be?’
I shake my head. ‘We haven’t heard from him for months.’
Amy nods. ‘I know. But I don’t want you to worry, honey. Josh is going to find him.’
‘I don’t think my dad wants to be found.’
Amy shrugs. ‘Well... we’ll find him and bring him back. You can count on it.’
I don’t want to count on it. But I’m not telling her that. It’s none of her business. So I just nod, like I’m on board. There’s not much else to say.
After a while Amy leaves. It’s late and we should all try to get some sleep, is what Amy says at the door. It’s like she doesn’t know how to relate so she’s saying things people usually say in the movies. Ah, well. At least she’s trying hard; confused and unsure of what to do she’s saying all these foolish things. It shows she’s a genuinely caring person cause if she weren’t, she’d have prepared a better speech. I feel like telling her that she’s doing a good job but of course, I say no such thing.
She shuts the door.
I lay in the dark and cry. It is surreal, how it’s all turned out. As if anything could be worse than this. First Starling, then Chris, and now Lilian. They’ve all gone away. So where does that leave me?
I cry and cry until my head hurts. My temples are pounding. And it’s hot in the room. I sit up and lean out of the window.
The night out there is cooler. A big fat pale marble moon sits in the middle of a star studded sky, looking down at the ocean washing the Earth clean under its watchful eye.
It is a beautiful night.
The ocean below me is calm. A silver streak of moonlight shimmers across its surface, expanding, contracting, endlessly shifting shape. It is beautiful to be alive on a night like this.
72
I stayed up watching the ocean. I thought about my family, Fairy, all the promises I ever made, to me, to Lilian, to Chris and Starling. I made a new resolution. I intend to make good on all of them, for all of our sakes. Just watch me.
End of Part 1
Sliver Moon Bay: The Finding concludes the story started in Sliver Moon Bay: The Looking.
Available to download from Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores
Sliver Moon Bay
The Finding
A novel by Ivana Hrubá
Sliver Moon Bay: The Finding © Ivana Hrubả 2015
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or used in any form or manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews and critical articles.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All events described herein are imaginary, including settings and characters. Any similarity to real persons, entities, or companies is purely coincidental and not intended to represent real living persons. Real brand names, company names, names of public personalities or real people may be employed for credibility because they are part of our culture and everyday lives. Regardless of context, their use is meant neither as endorsement nor criticism: such names are used fictitiously without intent to describe their actual conduct or value. All other names, products or brands are inventions of the author’s imagination. The author and the publisher of this work, its distributors, retailers, wholesalers and assigns disclaims any liability or responsibility for how this work is interpreted by its readers. The author and the publisher assume no responsibility for factual errors, inaccuracies, or omissions.
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading Sliver Moon Bay: The Looking. Your review of this story posted online will be much appreciated.
Cheers, Ivana
About the author:
Ivana Hrubá is a lovely, lovely girl and a writer of some “notable” talent, the sum of which will be, just for your entertainment, very modestly noted here. Specializing in writing bold, quirky and outrageously entertaining fiction, Ivana is what we call an undiscovered gem, an exotic island waiting to be explored or, as some people say, a territory best left uncharted.
Ivana devised her first novel at the tender age of twelve when she was but a wee little girl wearing out her brother's hand-me-downs, chasing the geese off the village green in her native Czech Republic which was then under communist rule. Filled with poultry and very long sentences, Ivana's idyllic childhood came to an abrupt end in 1983 when she and her family crossed the Alps on foot to seek a new life free of communists and their blasted queues. After a year spent frolicking in a West German refugee camp, the family finally had a gutful of that sort of adventure and settled in Australia in 1984 where they've been living it up ever since.
Betraying not a glimmer of thought in her deep-set wandering eyes, the author treads a fine line between profound stupidity and misunderstood genius…
— — —
Discover other titles by Ivana Hrubá at Smashwords, Amazon and elsewhere on the net.
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Sliver Moon Bay: The Looking © Ivana Hrubả 2015
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or used in any form or manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews and critical articles.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All events described herein are imaginary, including settings and characters. Any similarity to real persons, entities, or companies is purely coincidental and not intended to represent real living persons. Real brand names, company names, names of public personalities or real people may be employed for credibility because they are part of our culture and everyday lives. Regardless of context, their use is meant neither as endorsement nor criticism: such names are used fictitiously without intent to describe their actual conduct or value. All other names, products or brands are inventions of the author’s imagination. The author and the publisher of this work, its distributors, retailers, wholesalers and assigns disclaims any liability or
responsibility for how this work is interpreted by its readers. The author and the publisher assume no responsibility for factual errors, inaccuracies, or omissions.
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