Read Online Darkness Be My Friend by John Marsden - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: John Marsden
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Barbies, I remember that. We paid her out for months afterwards."
"Trust Belinda."
"Yeah. But what I was thinking about was, it's happened to us, hasn't it? Like, our houses have burnt down and we haven't saved much."
I didn't say anything. I wasn't sure where this was heading.
Lee said carefully: "Suppose when we finish showing them what they want to see in Wirrawee, I get away for an hour, and go back to my place and pick up a few things."
"Like what?"
Lee started scraping another name into the dirt, with his finger this time. I couldn't see what the name was.
"My grandfather," he said slowly. "When he was alive, there was this scroll..."
And suddenly Lee was crying. It took me a minute to realise, because he did it so quietly. He hadn't changed his position: he was still sitting there but his body was shaking. It was likeâthis sounds terrible but it's the only way I can describe itâit was like someone was running a low-voltage electric current through him. I couldn't see his face, but I could picture it. His teeth would be clenched and his eyes closed tight. I put my hand over his and held it; no, not just held it but kneaded it with my fingers, over and over again. But there was nothing I could really do. The tears flowed and flowed. And the strange thing was that he didn't make a single sound. Silent crying. There's something awful about that. I don't know why it seems so terrible, maybe just the feeling that he was crying without letting himself
cry. And it went on and on. I thought he'd never stop. I wasn't exactly timing it, but it could have been half an hour.
When he at last seemed to have stopped I moved up a little higher so I was beside him, and I put my arm around him. We stayed together like that for a long time. I was starting to realise that my relationship with Lee might not be completely over. I still had very strong feelings where he was concerned. I just wasn't sure what those feelings were. In the past when I'd ended a relationship, that was it: I never had a thought of reviving it. It was definitely like that with Steve. But maybe being in so many isolated situations with Lee meant that different rules applied now.
The rules for everything else had changed. Why not for relationships?
Seven
Wirrawee had certainly changed, almost beyond belief. There'd been hints of it as we walked in there, but we'd kept away from the road as much as possible, so we had no real warning. From time to time I'd seen glimpses of cars and trucks, and most of them were travelling at good speeds, with headlights on full. It seemed that since the bombing raids had been reduced they felt a lot more confident.
They felt pretty confident in Wirrawee itself. I soon
found that out. It was 1130 p.m. when we started our cautious approach to the town. Ursula and Lee and I were leading: we came over the little hill on Coachman's Lane that was always such a bugger on the fun runâit came just near the end, when you had no energy leftâand to our surprise there were lights everywhere. It was party time in Wirrawee. Even New Zealand hadn't been like this, because they had electricity restrictions there, brownouts and even blackouts. Some of that was because they were getting short of electricity, some because they were scared of being bombed. They didn't want to give bombers a nice bright easy target. Their best defence against being attacked was world opinion, which was mainly on our side. But I suppose the brownouts were fair enough. Playing it safe.
The lights in Wirrawee weren't anything out of the ordinary. It was just the shock after what we were used toâand compared to what we'd been expecting. It was the fact that it all looked so ordinary, in the middle of a war. I'd thought they'd be hiding in the dark like we were used to doing.
But the streetlights were all on, and here and there a house or shop was still lit up, as though the people were staying awake to watch "Rage" or something.
"Trust Belinda."
"Yeah. But what I was thinking about was, it's happened to us, hasn't it? Like, our houses have burnt down and we haven't saved much."
I didn't say anything. I wasn't sure where this was heading.
Lee said carefully: "Suppose when we finish showing them what they want to see in Wirrawee, I get away for an hour, and go back to my place and pick up a few things."
"Like what?"
Lee started scraping another name into the dirt, with his finger this time. I couldn't see what the name was.
"My grandfather," he said slowly. "When he was alive, there was this scroll..."
And suddenly Lee was crying. It took me a minute to realise, because he did it so quietly. He hadn't changed his position: he was still sitting there but his body was shaking. It was likeâthis sounds terrible but it's the only way I can describe itâit was like someone was running a low-voltage electric current through him. I couldn't see his face, but I could picture it. His teeth would be clenched and his eyes closed tight. I put my hand over his and held it; no, not just held it but kneaded it with my fingers, over and over again. But there was nothing I could really do. The tears flowed and flowed. And the strange thing was that he didn't make a single sound. Silent crying. There's something awful about that. I don't know why it seems so terrible, maybe just the feeling that he was crying without letting himself
cry. And it went on and on. I thought he'd never stop. I wasn't exactly timing it, but it could have been half an hour.
When he at last seemed to have stopped I moved up a little higher so I was beside him, and I put my arm around him. We stayed together like that for a long time. I was starting to realise that my relationship with Lee might not be completely over. I still had very strong feelings where he was concerned. I just wasn't sure what those feelings were. In the past when I'd ended a relationship, that was it: I never had a thought of reviving it. It was definitely like that with Steve. But maybe being in so many isolated situations with Lee meant that different rules applied now.
The rules for everything else had changed. Why not for relationships?
Seven
Wirrawee had certainly changed, almost beyond belief. There'd been hints of it as we walked in there, but we'd kept away from the road as much as possible, so we had no real warning. From time to time I'd seen glimpses of cars and trucks, and most of them were travelling at good speeds, with headlights on full. It seemed that since the bombing raids had been reduced they felt a lot more confident.
They felt pretty confident in Wirrawee itself. I soon
found that out. It was 1130 p.m. when we started our cautious approach to the town. Ursula and Lee and I were leading: we came over the little hill on Coachman's Lane that was always such a bugger on the fun runâit came just near the end, when you had no energy leftâand to our surprise there were lights everywhere. It was party time in Wirrawee. Even New Zealand hadn't been like this, because they had electricity restrictions there, brownouts and even blackouts. Some of that was because they were getting short of electricity, some because they were scared of being bombed. They didn't want to give bombers a nice bright easy target. Their best defence against being attacked was world opinion, which was mainly on our side. But I suppose the brownouts were fair enough. Playing it safe.
The lights in Wirrawee weren't anything out of the ordinary. It was just the shock after what we were used toâand compared to what we'd been expecting. It was the fact that it all looked so ordinary, in the middle of a war. I'd thought they'd be hiding in the dark like we were used to doing.
But the streetlights were all on, and here and there a house or shop was still lit up, as though the people were staying awake to watch "Rage" or something.
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