The words turned into gibberish and the graphs became indecipherable scrawls. It was unquestionably bad timing. Only two high school exams left and Abby had gone and broken her brain. Overloaded, overused, over it all.
She blinked at her watch until it came into focus. 7:02pm. Her brain was too far gone to continue studying until 8 o'clock. She would just have to do extra tomorrow.
Through the window, the sun had already dropped away from her patch of rural Australia. She spent a few minutes watching the last of the light fade from the sky, the shadows on the ground reaching up to swallow the lingering glow.
She pushed herself up from the desk and stretched, creaking joints making her feel like someone's grandmother. She staggered the first few steps towards her bedroom door until her body remembered how to walk in a straight line.
A warm glow oozed up the hallway. Abby padded along the floorboards, her body somehow feeling heavy and lethargic, as if she had spent the day trudging across the farm instead of trying to wrap her head around macroeconomic theory.
The living room was eerily dark and quiet. Her parents had spent months skulking around and refusing to make any more noise than a new grain sprout. Just one more week and it would be over. For all of them.
The kitchen door was ajar and faint voices seeped out with the smell of roast lamb. Abby felt her face moving in a strange kind of way and realised she was smiling for the first time all day. Even in her state of unending mental ruin her mother's cooking could do that to her.
Abby went to push the door open when her mother's voice made her hesitate. Abby hadn't been paying enough attention to catch the words, but the tone froze her feet to the floorboards. Her mother's voice had caught in anguish.
Abby frowned. She had never heard her mother sound like that before. She was the super-sturdy farm wife who bore floods and droughts and fires with a steely grit. Anguish and tears never had a place in Shari Wade.
Abby leaned closer to the door and peeked through the small gap, blinking against the light until her eyes adjusted.
Her mother was leaning against the sink, her face scrunched up and her fingers gripping handfuls of her short dark hair.
"It's not like telling her is going to make her any safer," she said, her tormented voice barely loud enough to reach Abby.
Her dad's hands gripped her mother's waist. "Shari, she needs to know the danger she's in," he said in his practical way. "Her heart is set on going to university next year. You need to tell her the truth so she can make an informed choice on whether or not she should go."
"She should do what she wants, John. She should be able to live without the fear. Just knowing what's out there, what Dmitry would do if he ever found us-"
"I know it's scary, Shari. But that doesn't mean ignorance is the better option."
Her mum shook her head, her eyes squeezed shut. "I wish my mother never told me. I have spent weeks trying to work out if Dmitry is even still looking for us. I've exhausted every contact but no one knows. Maybe he's moved on, given up. Maybe there's no point at all telling Abby about..." She shuddered and scrunched up her hair and face again.
Abby frowned. What the hell were they on about? What could possibly make her not want to go to uni? And who the hell was Dmitry?
Her dad reached up and pulled her mum's hands away from her head, then held them until she opened her eyes. "You're only saying that because you don't want to tell Abby. No, wait, listen to me. Time is running out. She needs to be told soon so she has a chance to digest and work out what she's going to do."
"But what about her exams? You have no idea what this knowledge will do to her. She'll be incapable of thinking straight for days. I was useless for weeks after my mother told me."
"All the more reason to tell her sooner." Her dad took a deep breath. "Fine. Her last exam is next week. You need to tell her straight afterwards."
Her mum raised her chin. "Maybe the next day. She'll be too exhausted to take it in after her last exam. Actually, the following weekend would be better-"
"Straight afterwards," her dad repeated. "No more delays, Shari, or you'll risk her holding a grudge against you. It's them you two need to be enemies with, not each other."
Her mum closed her eyes again and wilted, all the fight gone from her. Her dad wrapped his arms around her and looked to be half comforting, half holding her upright while she sobbed into his chest, the drill cotton of his faded blue shirt muffling most of the noise.
Abby was tempted to march in there and demand to know what they were talking about. Immediately. But her mum was so distressed it was hard to picture that conversation not developing into full-blown hysteria.
Her mum straightened up and sniffed. "You're right," she said, wiping the tears away. "I know I need to tell her. I just wish...well, it doesn't matter."
"Wish in one hand, shit in the other, then see which one fills up first," said her dad.
Her mum managed a weak smile before she rested her cheek against his chest. She drew in a ragged breath. "I'll do it. Straight after her last exam. I'll do it." She paused. "It's the conversation that changes everything."
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What did you think of chapter 1? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers,
Dani.
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Redemption
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