Cold Tomorrow

[28]

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

"How do we know she'll be here?"

Ethel, leaning against the side of the car, arms crossed, directs her fierce blue eyes at me. "We don't."

We're at a small, fairly isolated park a little south of where the council meets. The area is hemmed in by trees and bushes on three sides and a side-street on the other. Everything is shrouded in dark and the wind makes the grassy ground ripple. It's a dark sea. It's a ghost possessing the earth, waving its fingers. Then it's just grass. I shiver.

"Just keep your eyes open," Katherine tells me. Annalise beside her has the look of a cat, scanning the park continually for movement. Her eyes twitch from spot to spot as every stray breeze stirs movement in the bushes. I don't bother.

A little way off, Harrison leans against the bark of a tree, arms wrapped around his chest as a defence against the cold. When I called him earlier, it was like speaking to an empty room. I told him he might see his sister and received silence on the other end.

When he did finally speak, it was only to say, "It's a school night. I can't stay out too late." No surprise. No excitement. No hope. I felt horrible.

Now I approach him carefully, tucking my hair behind my ears. Since cutting it, it's become a lot easier to look after, but much harder to keep in place. The wind gives it a slight tug and it blows in front of my eyes again.

"Cold?" I ask.

He looks in my direction, eyes vacant. Then it seems to click that I've asked a question and he shrugs. "I'm numb to it." He lowers his arms to his sides and tucks his hands into his pockets.

I don't know what else to say. We've been waiting for a half-hour. What if she never comes?

Harrison surprises me by speaking again. "I was going to tell my parents, earlier. After you called. I was so close to just...letting it all out. It doesn't feel right, keeping it to myself. But..."

"But you don't want to give them false hope."

He nods. "Exactly." A pause. "I don't think I really expect to see her tonight. I know you've told me she's coming but I can't quite wrap my head around seeing her here, in the flesh. It's like my brain is rebelling against the idea."

"It's too good to be true."

He looks down.

"Well, if it makes it any easier, I'm not sure how tonight's going to go, but it won't be good."

He laughs once, sharply. "Much easier. Thanks."

"I meant, if it makes it any easier to believe. I think knowing that it's not going to be like the last time you saw her makes the whole thing a little more real, don't you? A little more believable."

Harrison looks at me. In the dark, his eyes appear black. His face is stony. "What is it going to be like?"

I shake my head and look away. A streetlight a few paces away turns the grass nearest it to dirty gold. The colour is sickly and harsh. It makes me think of inner-city tunnels with graffiti on the walls. Concrete streets with rubbish in the gutters. Chain-link fences and midnight criminals. I close my eyes. My mind takes me straight to a memory: rich green grass, a field that extends to the horizon, nothing but the sky and the breeze and the sun.

When I open them again, nothing has changed. I can't change what's happened. I can't even change what has yet to happen. How can I tell Harrison what I've seen of his sister?