DEADLY CHOICE | D.Dixon

The quarry

We've been at this camp just outside the city for the past week. I don't really know anyone here since all I've really been doing is walking around the woods and climbing trees. The only person other than momma and my Daddy that I've talked to is Dale when he gave me some stale chips.

My mom's talking to Lori and carol right now, laughing and smiling. I know she's faking it but it still hurts that literal strangers are able to make her at least a little happy and I'm not enough.

My dad's gone off huntin' with who I found out to be Merle, the guy he was gettin' pissed at on the highway. Every time dad gets back from huntin' he acts really weird, like he's actually really happy. Maybe they play games while they're hunting or something. My dad once tried teaching me how to hunt but when I couldn't figure it out so he got pissed and gave up on me.

I've never had friends but there's actually people who seem nice at this camp so maybe I'll make a friend! Only problem is—I don't know how to talk to anyone. Maybe they'll like a drawing? Well I'm absolute shit at drawing but it's still fun. It's meant to be fun, not a skill to Aquire or something you do because you need to, it's something you want to do.

In art at school we were taught that art was meant to be a use of our creativity. Though that same teacher also told us to try harder and to not make the sun blue which honestly ruins the point. I wish our sun was blue.

I'm sitting in a tree, my legs dangling off the side, my hands gripping the cold branch beneath me. I like to watch people from here when I've got nothing to do. A little blonde girl called Sophia, Carol and Ed's daughter is sitting outside her blue tent. Her nose, eyes and cheeks were red and puffy with snot and tears running down her face.

I should ask if she's okay, but she's friends with Carl and I don't like him. I decide to be nice and jump down from the tree. I slowly manoeuvre through people until I reach her tent. I tapped her on the shoulder as I looked down at her sitting on the ground bawling.

"You okay Sophia?" I ask quietly, my voice shaky and nervous.

She looks up at me and wipes her face before standing up. She was older than me so she was about 6 inches taller than me which made me a little scared of her at first until she gave me a green crayon after mine broke. In that moment I decided she was okay.

"Yeah. My dad's just a little mad at me. It's fine though." She excused. I was pretty shit at telling of people were lying but she definitely was.

I looked around the camp where everyone did different thing and nodded my head. I hurried away and kept my eyes on my feet which ended up being a mistake when I bumped into Shane. Shit. He was a cop and my parents didn't like cops so neither did I. He had a big nose anyway. Does that mean he lies a lot? I mean he's definitely lying to himself when he looks in the mirror and still leaves the house looking like a pile of shit. I knew it was unfair to judge people but he was mean. Really mean, or at least to me.

"Sorry, sir." I said and looked at him, fear in my eyes.

"It's alright. Now go ahead and have fun, don't just sit around." He encouraged. Wow Pinocchio's being nice. That's what I'm calling him now, Pinocchio. I nodded my head and ran off. My momma was helping out with the washing. She had her sleeves rolled up to her elbows and you could see the bruison her wrists from dad but none of the other women looked like they were saying anything. If they did then I'd get dragged in and my daddy would get in a real lotta trouble.

It was getting dark and I didn't want dinner so I was gonna just go to bed early. Maybe my dad'll be glad I'm asleep instead 'a nagging him straight as he gets back from hunting with Merle. I ran over to my family's camp set up and crawled into my small purple tent. I had some washi tape around the doorway and some random coloured ribbons tied around the ends of the top rod.