Read Online Lost on Mars by Paul Magrs - Free Book Online Page B

Hallows Eve.
    Da was pulling blankets over the beasts and he looked at me, surprised, when I finished my account. ‘You believe what this girl told you?’
    â€˜She was pretty serious about it. She sure seemed like someone who’d seen something awful down there in the Melville .’
    Da scoffed at me. ‘Lore, you’re telling me that you’d believe a single word that spoiled and pampered Adams child would ever say?’
    I hung my head, ashamed of his mockery. Didn’t sound to me like Annabel was all that spoiled and pampered. Yeah, she had fancy clothes and they let her wear garish face paint and scent, but Annabel was still like their slave, doing scavenging work for them.
    â€˜She never heard nor saw anything down there,’ Da insisted, glaring at me. I wasn’t to go blabbing this stuff indoors. I wasn’t to go unsettling Ma, because Ma was coming to the end of her tether. As if she too had been lowered into the dark on a long, fraying rope. But the darkness consisted of her own fears. Some of the wild talk in the air those past few months had just about made her sick. None of us wanted to see Ma get sick again, did we?
    â€˜All I’m saying is what Annabel said to me,’ I told him, feeling defeated by Da’s hard expression. ‘And I was figuring that, if there were – well, non-human beings scavenging aboard the Melville … well, maybe that’s who it is, coming into the town at night and making people Disappear … stealing them away and all that.’
    I knew at once that I’d made a mistake. Molly and George mumbled and stirred in their pen as if they could feel the furious tension rising off Da. His face was black with anger as he advanced on me. ‘Lora, I’ve warned you now. You’re putting half-truths together and coming up with dangerous lies.’
    I resolved not to say anything else, but I knew what I knew and what I’d seen. I thought I could trust Da to listen to me; to take me seriously and not to treat me like a little kid. Thank God I never told him about the night Toaster threw Grandma’s eye into the dead lake and the ground opened up to swallow it.
    â€˜OK, let’s go back in,’ he said, his smile warming up. ‘You’re missing Aunt Ruby’s tales from the olden days. Come on, cheer up, Lore.’
    He called me ‘Lore’ when he was feeling fond of me.
    â€˜I’ve heard enough about the olden days.’ I sounded rude, I knew I did, but I just couldn’t help myself. Why did all the adults hide away from stuff?
    â€˜Lore,’ he said, warningly.
    â€˜In the olden days they would have believed me,’ I said. ‘Back then they knew the Martians were out there. They didn’t deny it.’
    His eyes widened. ‘Martians? Lora … is that what you’re worrying about?’
    I wouldn’t meet his gaze. ‘I’m not saying I am. Just that … I might be.’
    He sighed. ‘They are long gone. You don’t have to worry about them coming back in the night and snatching people away and eating them.’
    I couldn’t believe he was laughing at me. I burst out, ‘What about Grandma? So where did she go?’
    I met his eyes and he was on the point of tears. Oh no. I never wanted to upset him like that. I wanted to take back each of my stupid, careless words. Forget about the Martian Ghosts and Grandma.
    â€˜Lore, your grandma was very old. She was hardly her old self any more, was she? Remember how she’d rave and bust stuff up?’
    â€˜Yeah, I do.’
    â€˜When she was most like herself, she realised that she was making life harder for us. She was being a burden and she was too proud for that. She loved us all too much. And so that’s why – I believe – she took herself off in the middle of the night. I believe that she went out into the wilderness to die quietly.’
    Da had his hands on my