Bad Moon

Chapter Six

I must have fallen asleep 'cause the next thing I remember was warmth stroking the side of my face. I turned over on my back to find my room filled with sunlight, but it did nothing to make me feel better. Then I remembered the caves.

I changed my dress and went to the kitchen. Ma weren't nowhere around, she must have gone to town early. I made something to eat, figuring that Pa was in the barn and Nathan wandering around somewhere. I put some apples in my pocket and went back to my room for the candy bar. Nathan couldn't be far away, he'd promised me. I crept around to the back of the barn and took a look, but Pa weren't in there. No one had said he was going away again, last I heard he was going to be home for a few days.

A sudden feeling of loneliness swept over me and I called Nathan. He heard me after the third call and came skulking around from the back of the house, looking like a little kid who'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He was chewing one of Ma's carrots and looked all sheepish like he expected me to tick him off. Eating one of Ma's carrots was only part of the problem, Pa was the bigger half. Right now I wanted to get away from the house so I could think. I walked towards the fields knowing we'd have to cross the woods to get to where Nathan said the caves were.

When he caught up with me I asked him where Pa was.

'He had something special to do, said for me to look out for you and Ma. He'll be gone best part of a week, maybe longer, depends how it goes.'

'How what goes?' I asked.

'Don't know, Pa never said.'

'Yeah, and I bet Pa never said for you to look out for us neither. Pa knows I don't need no looking after, and if I did he wouldn't leave you to do it.'

Nathan's face dropped and I could have kicked myself. Why couldn't I hold my tongue? We had been walking for over an hour when I asked Nathan if he knew where we were going.

'It aint much further, about another hour.'

We walked for longer than that and I became convinced that he didn't know the way. We had passed my tree a while back and I knew where my lunch box was now. It might as well stay there; I wouldn't be needing it no more. That made me think of a lot of things I suddenly felt too old for, like Ma telling me what's best for me and Pa trying to teach me things, like he really cared. Ma was always going on about learning to talk right so I could make a good place for myself in the world, but it was all a load of shit, them feeding me human meat, turning me into some kind of animal.

I'd heard in school about tribes in the jungle doing it and somehow that seemed all right, that was their way of life and they didn't know no better, but Pa did. I felt angry with him, but loved him too, so I pushed the anger aside and told myself I would find a way to stop him and Ma and get us back the way we used to be.

I didn't recognise this part of the woods and the ground was steeper. It was another half an hour before we came to a clearing. My heart seemed to lift inside my chest as if it had suddenly become lighter. There was blue skies above me, but I was beginning to feel a little lost, like I should've left a trail behind me. Nathan kept on walking, but the clearing held me with its beauty. The ragged clouds in the sky looked whiter than I'd ever noticed and the grass seemed longer and greener. It swayed gently in the breeze and somehow whispered a welcome.

Just ahead of me stood the mountain, almost reclaimed by the shrubs and small trees that grew everywhere, trying to cover it. I could just make out small openings in the rock in neat rows, about two yards apart, one above the other. Many of the openings were almost covered by strange green plants that I'd not seen before.