Savages

3: Tunnels

It was Brock that found her. He didn't come into the cave, just stood in the entrance and called uncertainly, Judit? Are you in there?

She couldn't see his features, just a dark silhouette in the sun, but his skinny, slightly stooped height and wild mop of curls were unmistakable.

"I'm here," she shouted back after just a beat. "I'm coming."

She sat for a moment in the still gloom, breathing in and out, trying to compose herself so he wouldn't see any trace of the errant emotions that had driven her here. Then she rubbed her face, inhaled deeply, and made her way out, her hands on the rough stone at either side of her, back bent low under the rocky overhang.

Brock stepped back, looking embarrassed. "Sorry. I... I didn't mean to disturb you. Everyone's looking for you. Lintie took the bay, and I was supposed to look in this bit of the wood. I didn't know you'd be here. I think..." he tailed off. "Gaen wants you. It's important." He stepped back again, still clearly embarrassed, his hands thrust deep into his pockets, his eyes on the frosted leaf-mulch of the forest-floor. "Sorry," he repeated lamely.

"It's alright," Judit said, as casually as she could, as if it wasn't weird she was lurking in the caves like that, on her own. "I wasn't doing anything." She brushed down the back of her trousers, and they stood for a moment not looking at each other, then both turned to walk towards the village.

They walked in silence, a good distance between them, Brock's eyes on his feet. He didn't say anything. Judit felt palpably awkward, but she didn't know what to say either, unless it was some excuse for being in the caves, and she didn't have one. There was nothing else to talk about. They never spent any time together—Judit had barely had one conversation with him since the summer. They were practically strangers. The last thing she was gonna do was start spilling her guts to him, that was for sure. He could skit off.

"So this morning," Brock said hesitantly, eyes on the floor as he picked his way through the tree-roots, hands still thrust in his pockets. "Lintie said that Gaen—"

"I don't want to talk about it," she snapped. "Just leave it, okay?"

The thought of Brock and Lintie talking about her and Gaen and her emotions made Judit want to punch a tree. They should licit keep their noses out of her business.

Brock didn't say anything in response, just shrugged then hunched his shoulders further, eyes on the floor. They walked the rest of the way back in silence.

***

"Judit!" Merle was waving frantically with both arms from the entrance to the polytunnel, trying to get Judit's attention as soon as she and Brock exited the tree line for the meadow.

Judit peeled away from Brock and skipped towards her, glad to get away from the heavy atmosphere that had clouded them since she'd snapped at him. He turned towards the bay, probably off to find Lintie.

Merle was wearing a huge, tattered old coat that Judit recognised as Gaen's, and had a red woolly scarf wrapped right around her head, only her cold-pinked face showing. She had odd gloves on her hands, one pink and patterned, one black and fingerless.

"You licit look like a bag lady today," Judit observed. "Like these homeless people we used to get round Westway. With shoppin' trolleys full of plastic bags. Bags full of bags. And the bags had gone all thin and silky 'cos they were so old, so you kinda wanted to climb in the trolley and rub your face on 'em, they looked so soft. Not like plastic at all. Filthy though," she added.