Page 26 of The Vanishing Place

Four walked between Effie and Tia, Effie holding one hand and Tia the other.

Since turning three a couple of months ago, Four refused to be carried anywhere.

If Effie even tried to lift him, he would scream and do the grass-eating thing that Aiden used to do.

The forest floor liked to trick Four’s small feet though, tripping him over, but Four just giggled like it was a game.

“You’re flying.” Tia laughed as they swung Four in the air, lifting his gangly legs over a rotten stump.

“Again,” he said. “Do again. I want to fly.”

“What’s the polite word?” asked Effie.

“Please. Again, please.”

Tia smiled and they swung him up. Tia was still small, shorter than other nine-year-olds, but she was strong.

Dad and Aiden walked ahead, their hair and clothes still wet from the river.

Dad was being a proper dad, chatting and laughing, and Aiden looked up at him like Dad’s bad days never happened.

As if the times he left them alone were made up.

Effie forgot sometimes too. Like when Dad searched for mushrooms with Four, or when he helped Aiden climb the big tree at the back of the hut.

It was harder then—to imagine the blackness in him.

But Effie couldn’t forget it. Sometimes, though, she had to put a lot of effort into remembering.

“Come on, you three.” Dad looked back, grinning. “Hurry up. There’s birthday cake to be had.”

“Cake,” shouted Four.

Twelve felt like an important age. Like Effie could manage anything.

She was no longer a little kid. No longer naive and immature.

The last year had been good. They still visited Koraha every three months, and Dad hadn’t left as often.

And when he did, Effie knew how to take care of the young ones.

She knew how to fix them dinner, something warm with vegetables, and how to teach Aiden his numbers and words.

Effie read to them for fifteen minutes each night, getting them to answer questions about the pictures, just like Mum had taught her.

And when Dad came back, he read with the boys and Effie read Harry Potter to Tia.

Lewis had used his savings from cleaning at the motel to buy her the fifth book.

It was the longest and the best so far. Almost eight hundred pages.

“How’s my birthday girl?” Dad wrapped an arm around Effie’s shoulders and kissed her forehead.

“Hungry.”

“Excellent.”

She frowned. “Are you sure the cake’s edible?”

“Yes.” He smiled. “Definitely maybe.”

He kept his arm around her as they walked back through the trees.

Tia had begged to go for a swim in the river, even though it was Effie’s birthday.

But Tia had a smile that was hard to say no to, which was usually super annoying.

The river had been fun though. The water was the bright turquoise color of summer, and there’d been a white heron that watched them the whole time.

Tia and Aiden had swum with Dad while Effie let Four paddle at the edge.

Then they’d skimmed stones and had a picnic.

As they neared the hut now, Tia stopped. Then Effie felt it too, that something was different. Tia held out a hand, making them stay, then she looked back at Dad.

“Someone’s in the hut.”

Dad pulled free of Effie and moved forward. No one knew the way to the hut. Not even June. Dad had sworn them to secrecy.

Not even Lewis, Effie. Promise me.

I promise.

It’s important. This is our special place.

Dad lifted Four, who didn’t cry—he knew not to—and handed him to Effie.

“Stay here.”

The bush hummed as Dad neared the hut, the piercing burst of cicadas vibrating in Effie’s chest. Four clung to her, his little arms crushing her neck as a heat prickled her spine.

A warning. Dad’s body had that look, like every muscle in him was held tight with anger.

The look that told Effie to keep her distance.

She rubbed Four’s back as Dad reached for the door handle.

Effie jumped as the door burst open and a tall boy, a man maybe, filled the frame.

“I thought I heard someone,” he said.

The tall man-boy smiled like there was no anger in Dad at all, like he wasn’t staring down the barrel of a rifle.

“Hi.” He held out a hand. “I’m Asher.”

Stupid name.

He was real pale, like the freckled girl at school.

Even his hair, which reached his shoulders, was blond, and he had a short beard that circled his lips.

Effie disliked him straightaway. Not the pale thing—that was kind of cool, like a Sindar Elf—but the rest of him.

It was dangerous, him being there, seeing things that his tiny brain wouldn’t understand.

Looking at them—at Dad—with his judging outsider eyes and making stupid assumptions.

His eyes.

Effie flinched, momentarily fascinated.

Far out.

The man-boy’s eyes were totally different. One of his eyes was bright blue while the other was black. A swirl of ocean and a pit of dirt.

“This is our home,” said Dad, without taking his hand.

“Sorry, yes.” The stranger with the strange eyes stood aside. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“Why are you here?”

“Oh, right…” He smiled as if Dad had said something funny, and shook his head.

He was clearly an idiot.

“Sorry. I got lost. I’m doing this sort of back-to-nature, trying-to-find-myself thing.” He smiled again. “Have you ever read Into the Wild ? Great book.”

Dad just stared at him.

“Right, no. Anyway, I got myself a tent and boots and enough dehydrated food to last a month but…”

A massive idiot.

“I might have bitten off more than I can chew.”

Seriously, it was like he couldn’t stop smiling. Maybe he wasn’t right in the head.

“Do you want some cake?” Tia bounded forward before Dad or Effie could stop her.

“Oh.” The man-boy-idiot looked from Tia to Dad, then back at Tia. “That would be great. I’m pretty starving actually.”

“This isn’t a café,” said Dad.

“But he’s hungry,” said Tia. “And we’ve got loads of food. Please, Dad. Please.”

Tia smiled that smile, the one Dad could only say yes to.

“One piece.”

Tia took one of the stranger’s hands and Aiden took the other, and they led him inside. Into their secret place.

“How old are you?” asked Tia.

“Twenty. Well, almost. I’ll be twenty soon.”

Jesus. Effie rolled her eyes. He didn’t even know his own age.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” asked Aiden. “They’re weird.”

“Sorry.” The man half smiled.

“I think it’s cool.” Aiden grinned.

“Oh.” Asher sat on the floor, where Tia had set a cushion out for him. “It’s because my left pupil is permanently dilated, which—”

“Dilated?”

“It means big or widened. Which makes my left eye look much darker than the right.”

“Are you sick?”

“No.” He shook his head. “No. There’s nothing wrong with—”

“You’re quite pale.”

He laughed. “That’s from my mum. Her side of the family are from Scandinavia.”

“You should go in the sun,” said Aiden. “That’ll make you less white.”

“I don’t really tan. I just go red, like a crayfish.” Another smile. “I prefer the shade.”

Idiot . Effie scoffed. Everyone knew that crayfish were actually dark green.

“I think we should sing ‘Happy Birthday’ first,” said Tia. “It’s Effie’s birthday. She’s twelve.”

Effie set a pile of plates on an upturned wooden box, and Asher looked at her for the first time.

“Happy birthday,” he said. “I hope you’re having a good day.”

“I don’t care what you hope.”

“If I keep my eye open really wide, like this, will it turn black?” asked Aiden.

“No.” Asher touched her brother’s knee. “It doesn’t really work like that.”

“Oh,” said Aiden, looking disappointed.

“Let’s sing,” said Tia.

Effie looked up at Dad, who stood in the corner, watching. He didn’t like Asher either, Effie could tell.

They sang “Happy Birthday,” Tia’s voice louder than everyone else’s, and ate cake. Then Effie did the dishes. Aiden asked if Asher could sleep on the sofa and Dad said no. Not a hope. Then Tia asked and Asher was allowed to pitch his tent behind the hut.

Tia tapped Effie’s arm as they were getting into bed, her skinny body buzzing with sugar and excitement, and she put her mouth right up to Effie’s ear.

“I think he’s beautiful,” she whispered, her words wetting Effie’s skin. “Like an elf with magic eyes.”

Effie swatted her sister away, then she rolled over.

“That’s gross.”

—

Asher’s stupid little tent was still there three weeks later.

Effie kicked a foot full of dirt against it whenever she walked to the compost toilet, but Asher never mentioned it, not even when he caught her in the act one time.

He just held his arm out and offered her a peppermint Snifter like she was a stupid six-year-old.

Effie had turned away, pretending not to notice.

Aiden and Tia had probably finished the bag later, rotting their teeth. Not that Asher cared.

Dad barely spoke to Asher, and Asher was made to eat and sleep in his tent, but Dad let him stay. Asher was WWOOFing or some bullshit. Dad said that he needed help with the garden and fixing a few things around the hut. And in return, Asher got to eat their food.

It was stupid. Asher and his freaky black eye were stupid.

And it didn’t take a genius to work out that he was a lousy gardener. Stuff kept dying and being ruined by possums. Dad had never needed help before; Effie had always done everything. And she never let the vegetables die.

Asher was probably a spy for one of those child-protection government places. One of the parents in Koraha must have dobbed on Dad, said he was an unfit parent or some lie.

Like they knew shit.