As Seffy poked the sizzling meat in the dish over the fire, Trixie proudly informed her that she had acquired: A Mother's Love by Keyla Hillshire; One Summer's Day by Jaxon Copper; Elize's Fairy-tale by Frankia Mountbatten; Lusy and the Moon by Hugh Lormont; and Rudi's Guide to Using the GC826-F Jeep, by Rudi Johansson. Seffy had winced as Trixie, oblivious as she faced the cave entrance, had called out Elize's Fairy-tale. She knew that one from her younger years.
Raquel Martara, Seffy's mother, was long dead. Seffy was past grieving now. But Seffy remembered one of the last memories she had of her mother. Raquel, Seffy, Seffy's siblings Maria and Jesús, and Seffy's father Marcos, all curled up in their flat in London. The heating hadn't been on – they could only ever afford that on the coldest nights – but Seffy was warm. Raquel, Seffy's head on her lap her free arm around Maria, had read the whole thing to them. She'd even done the voices and the actions. As the videogram in her mind played, far better quality and colour than any Seffy had seen, she heard herself and her siblings giggling at the funny parts, gasping at the scary and groaning at the terrible jokes that littered the book. Looking back, Seffy was almost certain that Elize's Fairy-tale didn't contain any of the jokes that Raquel had told with such conviction. Times had always been hard, but those jokes always made little Seffy's day that bit brighter.
You sentimental bastard, Seffy reprimanded herself. They're all dead and you're meant to be cooking. Bad timing.
The meat hadn't suffered due to Seffy's quick daydream. Sweet aromas drifted through the cave as thinly sliced protein and canned plantain fried together. Seffy's stomach growled in anticipation.
YOU ARE READING
Josefine
Ciencia FicciónJosefine Belda Martara and her cousin Beatrix live in a world in which stock is worth more than any human life. Seffy, a cold-blooded murderer, couldn't really care less, but when she finds herself caught up in the biggest event of the century, she...
