The crows landed behind Isabella and Lucas. A flicker of silver had caught their attention. The crows took it in turns moving the item with their beaks until it fell into a hole. Their squawking increased, each annoyed with each other, flicking debris at the item until it was covered, as if they didn’t want anyone or anything else to have it.
Bella looked at her phone. Still no signal. They reached a clearing and looked towards a higher hill. There was a tower at the top of the hill. There were people moving around the tower, their yellow jackets contrasting against the greenery.
“Wonder if there are problems with that tower? Or maybe it’s a maintenance crew. It might be too much of a hike to get over there to them. Maybe that’s why we don’t have a signal.”
“You may be right, Bella. But the view is great. We may as well head back, and see if we can get a lift into town. Maybe I can sneak over to your Grandpa’s property and borrow the jalopy.’
“Not sure about that, Lucas. I’m sure there’ll still be people hanging around.”
“Well, let’s go spy.”
There was another track that came off the path they were on. They paused. This track wasn’t as well-worn as the main track. Isabella needed to see things like landmarks to give her direction and seeing no landmarks, staying on the main track helped her keep her sense of direction. She was dreading what she knew was coming.
“I think we should take this track, Bella. It’s heading in the direction of you Grandpa’s house.”
Here it was. “How do you know, Lucas?”
Lucas stared at her. “I got lost once, Isabella. When I was younger. It was in bush similar to this but I learned something that day. We have an innate sense of direction, but it can be hampered by anxiety and panic. It’s like we have an internal compass but we need to trust it. So once I calmed myself down, I found my way home. ”
Lucas continued to amaze Isabella. From top-notch comedian to a serious man.
“That almost sounds spiritual, Lucas.”
“Maybe it is. But since then I’ve had a healthy respect for my sense of direction. Anyway, I believe this track will take us in the right direction unless it deviates somewhere along the line.”
Isabella waved her arm in the direction of the new track. “After you, you deviant person.”
She smiled as Lucas gave her a strange look. She felt a twinge in her head. Medicine time? This adventure had side-tracked her from thinking about her medication. She seemed to be thinking okay.
“You would’ve got on well with my mum. She would’ve told you that a sense of direction is tied in with the brain, something to do with spatial mapping, grid cells in the brain.”
“There ya go. That must be what I used but you need to get rid of the fog caused by panic to access the cells. All pretty deep stuff, hey?”
Lucas looked as if he was going to say something else but turned and started heading down the track.
Lucas was focused. Isabella missed her Mum and Dad. Dad would have got on well with Lucas. No spatial mapping with Dad. He’d push the trees out of the way to make the way clear for his darling wife, just like Lucas was doing for her.
Isabella was so caught up in her thoughts she walked into the back of a stationary Lucas. He turned to make sure she was okay.
“Oops, sorry. Not paying attention.”
“No probs.” Lucas pointed. “There’s the house. Looks like we’re coming in from the back. Wonder what he used that small wooden shed for? Let’s go look.”
Lucas walked around the side of the shed. He paused. Looked at Isabella and pointed back towards the bushes. “Go there.”
Isabella went back and stood in amongst the bushes. Things were quiet. The quieter things were, the more things she could hear. There was a noise, a creaking noise. But it stopped. Now voices coming from a distance away. She looked around and saw smoke billowing up through the trees. There was another house up from where they were. People must be talking and their voices were carried by the slight breeze. She registered that in case she needed to seek out others to help them.
Another creak came out of the timber shed. Lucas looked over towards Isabella. Creak. He turned back and moved towards the noise. At the corner of the shed he looked down. What was he looking at? Maybe footprints in the muddy grass?
Creak.
It was the door. Slightly ajar. Isabella watched him walk into the shed. She thought of shadows and darkness.
36 – Prophecies and moths
PERDU SAT SIPPING A HOT CUP OF TEA. The man had invited her back to his shack to wait for Isabella’s return. There was no hesitation on her part.
She could see the bright glow of a fine bed of coals in the pot-belly as the man had opened the stove and was poking the coals to generate some heat. He didn’t care about his appearance. He may as well have just thrown on a potato sack. Suppose you get like this out here in the bush.
She stared at the books scattered on the messy coffee table. She looked around—it wasn’t just the coffee table. They were scattered everywhere.
“You been here long?” Perdu asked as she reached for one of the books. She stared at the man. He was obviously nervous. Unlikely that a woman of her class had ever graced this place before. She shook at the thought of what she might be sitting on, if the dust on the shelves were any indication. Even the curtains looked like they have been feeding the moths for years. She returned her attention to the book in her hand. The cover had people flying up into the air.
“Been here a few years.’ He picked up a piece of wood and placed it in the stove. “They shouldn’t be too much longer.”
The moths and cockroaches must have thrown a party when this man set up abode. My I’m a nasty thing.
“That’s okay. No hurry. I’m enjoying your company.” She looked down at the book again and started flicking through the pages. Christian garbage.
“Do you believe this stuff?”
The man coughed. “Still working that out. My ex went religious on me and I’m trying to work out why she went that way. I’ve got a bit interested in what Christians call end times. You know, the Nostradamus-type stuff.”
“I have a vague recollection of Nostradamus. A French prophet, if my memory serves me correct. Whose prophecies were mostly misinterpreted.” Ava thought she felt something crawling on her seat. She sat up and checked. It was nothing but her mind.
“Yeah.”
“What do the Christians say is meant to happen?” Perdu couldn’t believe she was engaging in dialogue with this man. She shook her head, hoping thoughts of bugs and things would scatter away.