Simple ...

chapter three

I had been walking for so long my legs were slowing down, beginning to stiffen.  It would be light in a few hours and still no sign of Simple.  I saw the ridge up ahead in silhouette against the night sky and made myself walk a bit further.

  Looking down from the top of the ridge, I could see a few lights twinkling on the outskirts of town and the faint gleam of the river that ran down the mountain.  I sat and rested my legs, enjoying the cool night air on my damp skin. Then I heard a sound, something was moving about in the darkness behind me.  I hid behind a rock, hoping whatever it was wasn’t bigger than me, wishing I had brought Jack’s rifle along.

  My heart didn’t slow down, even when I saw it was Simple coming out from wherever he had been hiding.  He was carrying something wrapped in a blanket, holding it close to his chest, tight, like he was afraid he would drop it.  I stepped out from behind the rock and startled him.  At the sight of me he froze, only his eyes moving frantically from side to side.

  ‘Leanne shouldn’t be here, Gran be m-mad.’

  ‘Not as mad as she’s gonna be with you. Where you been?’

  He didn’t answer me and sat down on a fallen tree.  It was my turn to be startled when the blanket he held moved all by itself.  Knowing him as I did, I expected a wounded animal, but I was wrong. He unwrapped the blanket and held up a baby, not a year old.  Its white skin gleamed luminous in the pale moonlight and I could see it was a little boy. I didn’t know what to think.  Simple had been gone for weeks and I had missed him so much.  What on earth did he think he was doing?

  I sat staring at the baby, its tiny head swallowed up in his huge hand, so filthy against the clean skin.  He couldn’t have had him for long.

  Finally I found my tongue.  ‘Where did you get the baby, Simple?’

  He looked at me, his big dark eyes swimming with tears, and said, ‘For Lizzie, s-stop her cryin’.’

  ‘Where did you get it?  Tell me, we have to take it back!’

  ‘No, for Lizzie.  A b-boy like Simple.  Stronger than Lizzie’s.’

  This was going to take the rest of the night.  I had to make him see, to understand we had to take it back before half the town came looking for it.

  ‘Everyone’s been looking for you, Simple. I missed you.’

  ‘M-me too, m-missed Leanne.  Then I come back, bring baby for Lizzie.’

  I tried to tell him Lizzie couldn’t have this baby, that he had taken it from its Ma and was a bad thing he had done.  ‘We must take him back before the sheriff comes looking. Before Jimmy finds us.’

  He kept trying to say they had plenty of babies in town.  ‘Lizzie’s die. Lizzie can’t make g-good baby.’  He wrapped the blanket around the baby, holding him so tight I feared he might crush the life out of him.  I suddenly realised that the baby hadn’t made a sound, so I looked closer to see if he was still alive.  Seeming to sense my presence, his eyes flicked open, a gleaming deep blue in the pale moonlight.

  I asked Simple if he remembered where he took the baby from.

  ‘Town,’ he said.  ‘Like b-baby long time . . .’ He looked funny, like he was trying to remember something.  I couldn’t understand what he meant.

  ‘Like you, long t-time . . . Ma wanted b-baby . . . Simple g-got . . .’

  I still didn’t understand, but I couldn’t think about Simple’s words, I needed to get this baby back where it belonged, and quick.  I would ask Gran later what Simple was on about.  I told him I knew the baby came from town.