Diana Gittins
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An extract from Routes
Chapter Fifteen
I am totally utterly alone. Eve has gone. Norman has gone. I don’t even know the name of the place where I am. I’m sitting near the edge of a river with a line of trees nearby that are black as ink with strange grey shapes where the moonlight hits the branches.
Leaves rustle.
Is somebody coming? I hold my breath and wait.
A twig snaps. My heart pounds and I strain to see into the night and listen.
Everything looks different. Everything sounds different.
Night has a strange smell, a blend of damp and grass and musty things a bit like mushrooms.
Something creaks. Is someone behind the tree?
Something plops in the water. I shiver and stare at the shadows. It’s like another world.
A frantic squeak not far away, maybe a mouse in trouble.
I don’t know how long I sit here waiting, watching, listening. Things creak, stir, rustle, but nobody emerges from behind the trees or across the field.
A swish and a flap and out of the branches of the tree above my head a silhouette of wings soars in the moonlight. An owl! I guess the noises must be animals and birds. I hope so.
Overhead the sky is covered in stars and there’s a haze round the moon. It’s an odd shape, like a football that’s half deflated. What’s weird is how even though I’m lost in the middle of nowhere, a place I can’t even name, it’s still the same sky and stars.
My heart goes slower and my body cools down. I shiver. I am so cold, but if I go to get my jacket out of the rucksack somebody could see me or hear me.
I wait. My teeth chatter.
I can’t bear it any longer and I reach for the rucksack, pull out my jacket and put it on. Nothing happens. As I warm up I think about what I could do. I could ring up Sunita or Mum on my mobile, ‘cos I’ve still got it, but if I do that they’ll know where I am and I’ll have to go back. I could go into the town and give myself up to the police. And be sent home to Dad? No way! No matter how scary it is here, it’s not half as scary as the idea of having to go back.
Another squeak and a scuffle in the nearby bushes.
The longer I sit here the more it seems, hey, this is freaky, but it’s night and it’s in the countryside and there are animals here and animals are okay.
When I think about animals I think again of Norman. Where is he? Will I ever see him again? When I remember the first night he came to me and how he climbed on my shoulders in the field of cabbages under the stars a lump rises in my throat. I can’t bear to think he’s gone forever. But cats look after themselves and I guess now I have to be like a cat and look after myself as best I can and trust Norman will be able to look after himself too. I hope he hasn’t been run over. I hope he finds a good home. I’m going to miss him so much.
Somehow I’ve got to sort this out by myself.
If Eve were here she’d say to get on with it, treat it as an adventure.
I stand up and hoik the rucksack on to my shoulders. I’m not at all sleepy and I think I should get further away from the town. A path runs along the riverbank and if I take that in the direction away from where the glow of the town is, maybe I’ll find somewhere to rest later.