The rest of Tamsin's day went entirely past with a tense atmosphere that hadn't lifted from her mind. She had stayed quiet and thoughtful, and when an opportunity came when Tera was out of the house because she was running around with one of her friends from the town, Tamsin moved her ammunition, guns and knives into the pack as well. It was practically full, but it wasn't overly heavy, and she decided to add the letter from her father into the pocket with the Army Knife. Her mother hadn't come out of the room, except to grab a drink around noon.
It was now five o'clock and the sun was starting to move towards the horizon. Mosquitoes flew in and out of the house's open windows in an effort to find fresh blood, which they had, six times on Tamsin's bare legs. She scratched absent-minded at a bite on her thigh, her nails drawing blood from it. She had been sitting on the couch for most of the afternoon and her mind had wandered to what she knew about escape strategies. She figured her best bet, if whatever-it-was came to her home, was to find the closest exit and run to Mr. Bartley's house and call the police. But wait, what would the police do? As far as she knew, they were absolutely clueless about the Unseen and their efforts, and to tell them and try to make them understand would probably end up in her being taken to an asylum.
An asylum wouldn't be so bad, at least, maybe I could forget about all this, Tamsin thought.
Just then, the heavy wooden door swung open and in walked Tera, her boots, knees and hands all muddied from whatever her and her friend had been doing.
"Julia's gone home, she said she had to go have supper at five." Tera said, sitting down to tear her boots from her socked feet.
Tamsin slid off the couch onto the wool carpet at her feet, and started towards the bathroom, saying, "Alright, then you can get washed up before Mr. Bartley comes over. What were you guys doing for so long, anyway?" She came to a cupboard behind the bathroom door that held most of the family's towels and facecloths in it. Her hand came across a small blue towel, and when she turned around she came across Tera standing in the doorway.
"We were just goofing around near the pond on the way to town. Tadpoles are everywhere there!"
"Of course there are, but its almost time they grew into an adult frogs. Here, sit on the toilet and I'll clean you off." She pointed to the seat, and turned to the sink to rinse the cloth in warm water. Once it was soaked, she kneeled next to Tera, and started scrubbing the dried dirt on her right leg.
As the dirt slowly faded away from Tera's pale skin, Tamsin said, "Mr. Bartley should be over any minute, d'ya think we should get mom to start supper?"
Tera was looking at the wall behind Tamsin as she said, "Probably, but I don't like it when Mr. Bartley comes over Tams."
"Well," she started, and kept scrubbing until the dirt disappeared, "he's not bringing any wine this time, so it should be much better, right?"
"It wasn't the alcohol that bothered me...." She paused, looking down to her sister."He acts like he knows something more than he tells, and it sits right on the tip of his tongue every time he speaks to us. I never noticed it before, but since mom started acting strange last..." Her eyes drifted back to the painted wall. When she was done talking Tamsin took her hands and scrubbed them clean, too.
It was silent between the sisters as Tamsin thought about how Mr. Bartley had always acted around her and Tera. And she was right. Tamsin remembered many occasions after her father had passed when Mr. Bartley had made her wonder if there was more to a story, or anything he'd ever say. Maybe it was a formed habit through the years, not letting on to any sort of important information he held. And as she thought more of it, she realized how naive she had been to not catch his little flaw before.
