Page 21 of The Vanishing Place

Effie lay in the double bed with Aiden clinging to her like a leech.

They’d been in June’s house in Koraha for five days.

The walk out with the baby had taken forever.

And Aiden had gone mental whenever Effie tried to carry him.

He’d collapse to the ground howling, and start to eat the grass.

Which was gross—animals peed in the grass.

But June said it was normal, just big emotions in a small body.

It had been stupid going such a long mixed-up way, but Dad didn’t want June knowing the route back. Which made no sense. Unless maybe Dad didn’t want June coming back by herself, in case she got her foot stuck in a hole and the sandflies ate her alive.

Aiden kicked out, still asleep, and Effie groaned.

His top half was sticky with sweat, but his feet were like ice blocks.

In the hut, Effie liked sharing with Aiden and Tia, but in Koraha, they wriggled too much and took up too much space.

Effie lifted Aiden’s limp arm from her chest and plonked it back next to him.

Maybe it was because there was more of her now that she was nine.

None of her shoes fit. Shoes were a thing in Koraha.

June had bought them all a new pair. Even Four. And Four couldn’t even roll over.

Effie slipped out of the bed and threw on shorts and a cozy jumper.

A few streets over in his nan’s caravan, Lewis would be doing the same thing, waiting for the sun to finally appear.

Effie gathered her red hair into a ponytail, not bothering with a brush.

Then she unlatched the window—just like she’d done the last four mornings—and started to clamber out.

“I want to come.”

Effie stopped and turned back. “Go back to bed, Tia.”

Tia frowned, her eyes still sleepy, and crossed her arms. “Where are you going?”

“None of your business.” Effie hauled herself over the windowsill. “Go back to bed.”

“I’ll tell Dad.”

“Fine.”

Effie slipped down and started to run across the garden, the early morning grass damp beneath her feet.

Shit . She’d forgotten her shoes. She looked back at the house.

Tia was pressed up against the window with her nose flat to the glass.

Effie gave a small wave. She would sneak one of the candies from the jar in June’s kitchen and give it to Tia later.

Unless, of course, Tia told Dad about her running off.

Then Effie would rub dirt in her sister’s hair.

Effie ran along the grass next to the pavement, avoiding the pointy stones that jabbed her toes.

She swore as the dog at number 22 went berserk.

It jumped at the fence like a deranged wallaby, and Effie’s heart pumped so fast that it threatened to pop out of her.

She sped up. But no matter how fast she ran, Lewis was always there first. His nan didn’t seem to care where he was.

Lewis didn’t have parents. He’d had them once, obviously, before the “nasty business” with the log lorry when he was seven.

But he didn’t talk about his mum and stepdad.

By the time she made it to the end of the road, her ponytail had come out and she had to wipe the hair from her face.

She spotted Lewis from across the road. It was hard to miss him with his ridiculous red Crusaders cap.

The best super rugby team ever, Lewis said.

Effie had no idea what super rugby was, or what made it so super, but Lewis never shut up about it.

Crusaders this, Crusaders that. Yawn . It was more like stupid rugby.

She might have told him how boring it was, but then Lewis always smiled when he talked about it.

And Effie had never had a boy smile like that around her.

Lewis was lying on his back on the slide, throwing a rugby ball into the air. When Effie got closer, he turned and grinned.

“Cripes. Did you run through a bush or something?”

She rolled her eyes. “It was that crazy dog.”

“Rex.” Lewis nodded as he sat up. “Last month he climbed the tree in Mrs.Bennett’s garden. Stayed up there the whole day, thinking he was a bird or something.”

Effie’s eyes widened.

“Honest to god.” Lewis touched a hand to his chest. “You can’t make this crap up.”

She frowned.

“Come on, bush girl.” Lewis jumped up and took her hand. “I’ll teach you to throw proper.”

Heat rushed through Effie’s face. Friendship rules were strange and tricky.

Lewis was sort of like Tia and Aiden, just older—like a bigger brother.

He said silly things that made her laugh and he made her mad sometimes too, like when Tia took her stuff.

Except Effie wanted Lewis just for her, and she didn’t mind sharing things with him.

“Dad says I’m going to school tomorrow,” she said as they walked toward the grass pitch. “Will you be there?”

“Yeah. But you’ll probably be in the younger class. There’s only two teachers.”

“Is school good?”

“I like it.” Lewis shrugged. “Although it’s very uncool to say that.”

“Are you cool?”

He laughed. “I live in a caravan with my nan. And my best friend’s a nine-year-old girl who plays with possums.”

Best friend .

“I don’t play with possums.” Effie stuck her tongue out.

“Who skins them, then?” Lewis’s smile grew, filling his face.

“Have you ever killed a possum?”

“Nah. Killing things makes me want to vomit.”

“You’re weird.”

He shrugged again. “I guess so.”

“I thought all boys liked hunting.”

“I thought all girls wore dresses.” Lewis grinned. “And shoes.”

Effie punched his arm, and he laughed.

“I’ve had sandfly bites that hurt more than that.”

She frowned. “You’re an idiot.”

“Tell you what, you learn to throw this ball straight, then I’ll go hunting with you.”

“That’s a stupid deal.” She scowled. “That ball isn’t even round.”

Lewis laughed, and a tingling sensation spread through Effie’s stomach as they walked toward the field.

The tall rugby posts appeared up ahead and she started to run toward them—determined to be first—but her body was jolted to a violent stop.

A sharp pain shot through her shoulder as she was tugged backward, her arm almost wrenched from its socket.

“Ow.”

For a moment she thought it was Lewis mucking about. But as Effie turned, fear kicked in and she tried to wriggle free. It was a man, a stranger. His fingers dug into her wrist as he pulled her toward him.

“Hey.” It was Lewis shouting. “Let her go.”

The man, with hair to his shoulders and arms covered in puffy veins, smelled of sweat and cigarettes. Effie squirmed in his grip, his breath hot and moist on her face, but he was too strong.

“I see you, girl,” he spat, the words spraying on Effie’s cheek.

Lewis lunged at him, trying to pry the man’s arms from Effie’s body, but his stringy muscles were useless. Kids, even twelve-year-olds, were nothing compared to adults. The man kicked, slamming his foot into Lewis’s stomach, and Lewis fell back, landing on a rock with a sickening thud.

“Leave him alone,” shouted Effie.

The man strengthened his grip, and a new fear, colder than the first, flushed through her skin. He was trying to drag her with him, to take her away. She thrashed and scraped with her teeth, but it didn’t help. A horrible sound crawled out of the man’s mouth and he pushed his lips to her ear.

“I know,” he sneered, panting, and warm saliva trickled down Effie’s face. “I know what he did to that nice girl. He needs to be punished.”

Effie tried kicking, but the man lifted her up so that her legs flailed in the air. She screamed and he thumped the side of her head with his own. The pain was instant, like every feeling she had was suddenly in her head, and she blinked white spots.

“Let go of her, you ugly shithead.”

A blur of red—Lewis’s cap—flashed through the white spots, followed by a yell and a sudden release.

Dazed and on the ground, Effie looked up.

Lewis and the man were mushed together somehow, and one of them was bleeding.

There was a rock the size of Four’s head discarded a few meters away, and one edge was splotched with blood.

“Run!” Lewis yelled.

But Effie’s legs wouldn’t move. Her muscles had frozen, hard and weighty, like maybe they weren’t even hers.

“Effie, run !”

Adrenaline pushed through the cloud, her head impossibly heavy, and she stumbled to stand.

Lewis needed her. The man was on top of him, forcing his head into the ground, and Lewis was too scrawny to fight back.

Too scared to even hurt a possum. But as Effie stumbled forward, his eyes met hers. Pleading.

“Please,” he mumbled. “Go.”

She turned, her heart pumping, then she ran.

“I know what he did to her,” the man shouted after her. “I know.”

Effie sprinted from the park, her lungs screaming as her legs carried her up the road. Then arms wrapped around her, scooping her up, and she was no longer running.

Dad.

“Lewis…” Tears dripped into Effie’s mouth. “Lewis is—”

“Come on.”

Dad lifted her onto his back, her body draped like the dead chamois, and he ran back in the direction that Effie had just come from.

—

That evening, Lewis sat on the sofa bed in June’s living room with Tia on one side and Aiden on the other. Aiden kept gawking at him like he was a superhero, and making him play silly kid games.

After they’d been to the clinic and the nurse had given Lewis loads of pills and two ice packs, June hadn’t let him go back to the caravan.

Not a hope in hell, she’d said. His nan hadn’t even come to see him, which Effie thought was pretty shitty, but Lewis hadn’t mentioned it.

Maybe it was because they were already in huge trouble.

After hugging Effie so tight that she might pop, June had gone proper mad.

Like ballistic. Aiden had even burst into tears, and he wasn’t the one in trouble.

“Will the broken rib pop out of your skin?” asked Tia.

“Nah.” Lewis smiled.

“Did the nurse sew your ribs back together, then?”

“That’s not quite how—”

Tia’s eyes widened. “Do you think she forgot?”

“I don’t think—”

Tia frowned. “Do they just float around in there forever?”

Lewis laughed—a half laugh that made him grimace. “They just sort of fix themselves, I guess.”

“Do all bones fix themselves?”

“I—”

“My arm has bones,” said Aiden. “Look. They’re hard.”

“Yes, they are,” Lewis said. “You’ve got very strong bones.”

“That’s cos I eat spinach.”

“No.” Tia rolled her eyes. “Spinach is for muscles.”

“Okay, okay.” June walked in carrying towels. “I think that’s enough questions for one day. Bath time.”

“Can I go after?” asked Effie.

“Yes.” June looked at her. “But it’s still an early bed for you.”

Effie sat on the sofa next to Lewis as the young ones were herded out. Tia was still asking questions when June closed the door.

“How’s your head?” Lewis asked once it was just them.

She touched a hand to her forehead. The muddiness was still there. Mud in her thoughts and mud behind her eyes.

“Not bad,” she said.

But every time she closed her eyes, the image was there, like a cold itch beneath her skin.

When they got to the park, her dad had wrenched the man off Lewis like he weighed nothing, then tossed him to the ground.

But he didn’t stop there. Dad had grabbed the man and dragged him back to his feet.

Then Dad punched him, the blow so violent that the man fell to the grass, crumpling like a rag doll.

Effie had squealed, shaking, and crawled toward Lewis.

But Dad didn’t stop. He hit the man again and again till there was blood on his knuckles.

Sobbing, Effie had crouched on the grass in front of Lewis, blocking his view, not wanting him to see the man in her dad’s clothes.

Eventually, a howl burst out of the crumpled man, a gurgle of pain and laughter, and Effie had turned to see him looking up at her dad, smiling without enough teeth. Then he spat blood at Dad’s feet.

“God will punish you.” He laughed.

Then Dad punched him a final time and Effie closed her eyes, too scared to move, too scared to check if the rag-doll man was still alive.

Lewis shuffled an inch closer on the sofa bed and held out a bag of chocolate Pineapple Lumps, offering one to Effie.

“Where’d you get those?” she asked.

He smiled. “Your dad gave them to me when June wasn’t looking.”

Effie took one. “Thanks,” she said. “For jumping on that guy.”

“Any time.” Lewis gave a ridiculous salute. “Always happy to help a friend in distress.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t in distress .”

“Well, you sure fooled me.”

“Well, you…” She put her hands on her hips. “You’re the one with broken bones.”

“All part of the job.”

Effie frowned and took another Pineapple Lump. “What will the police do with him?”

“Dunno.” Lewis shrugged. “Apparently he’s not from here. Griffiths, the police fellah, said he’s from up near Hokitika. Not right in the head, I reckon.”

“Who do you think he was talking about?” asked Effie. “About that girl.”

“I think he was talking shit.”

“But…” Something twisted in Effie’s stomach. The otherwise thing . “The last time we were in Koraha…” She paused, worried that the dark bits in her dad might make Lewis like her less. “Last time, you said that thing about my dad. That he hurt that hiker…”

“It was just a rumor. Stupid local gossip.”

She looked at him, confused. “You said—”

“I was wrong, Effie. People make up stuff all the time round here.” His voice was odd, like he was trying out adult words. “Especially about your dad, and your family. But no one knows what they’re talking about.”

The thing in her stomach stirred. “But,” she continued, “my dad, he gets angry sometimes, violent. Like with that man.”

“You mean with the man who grabbed you and broke two of my ribs?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Parents do crazy shit when their kids are in trouble. My stepdad once slashed some guy’s tires cos his car clipped my bike.” Lewis shook his head. “Bloody nice ute too.”

“So,” said Effie, “you don’t think that man was talking about my dad?”

“I think that man was a nutcase.”

Her body eased, the blackest parts of her a little lighter. Like maybe she’d been worrying about nothing.

“And hey.” Lewis smiled. “School’s going to be a breeze after this. We’re local heroes now.”

Effie smiled back.

“Reckon you’ll get the full royal treatment tomorrow,” he said. “The kick-arse kids of Koraha. Catchy, don’t you think?”

“I think you’re an idiot.” She rolled her eyes and took the bag of candy.