part 4
spotlight C
an you please explain what the tall ones are, and describe the black animal thing again? Blue Mon 27 Jan 2014 04:27:13 No.14084960 The tall ones, as Vav has explained to me, are I guess, a bit like dryads? Tall as trees, incredibly thin, and often get up to mischief. I have more stories about the tall ones to come. They hunt down the black creatures. At first I thought they looked like crocodiles, for the size of them, but they have longer legs and can move their spine in directions that crocodiles can't, they have much higher flexibilityt Also the thumping was apparently their tails on the ground. They have huge, thick tails.
But Vav told me that they're mostly hollow inside. Its how they move the children they take. They lure you close then swallow you up., like an angler fish dangling a light. They rove in groups of two or more, and head back to their territory before they consume the children properly. The tall ones frighten them, as they are supposed to be equally strong, and do not require rest as often.
When I was thirteen, Vav helped me make my first friends. I used to go to a school called Humpty Doo Primary, when I was little. I got pulled out for the move that lasted until I was thirteen. It was just before my thirteenth birthday that my parent's relationship ultimately became totally unsalvageable, and my mother began the lengthy process of trying to take both me and Sandy away from my Dad. When I was eleven, my mother was pregnant again, but there was something wrong, and the baby was stillborn. It turns out the baby had too much fluid in the brain, and the brain had not been able to properly form; almost like a brain slurry.
At least, that's how Vav explained it when I asked. Long story short, there was a lot of grieving between my parents, my dad lost custody, my mum had me and Sandy, and we moved back to Darwin. I just wanted to see my dad, but I felt like I was probably never going to see him again. The court costs that he had to pay, including my mothers, were sizeable, not to mention the child support and other payments my mother had claimed. The last time I saw my dad he was getting into a car, looking like an empty shell.
My mother was flourishing with her new job at a bank, and I was busy trying to keep Sandy stable at this point, when my mother announced I would be going to stay with Aunt Vav for the school Holidays. I think she wanted me gone, and didn't want me home alone to ruin things, because Sandy was in daycare.
Now, I love my little sister, a whole bunch. But she was still a baby, barely a person. She was a sponge just absorbing the world around her, so I couldn't tell her why I would blu- tack bay leaves in every corner of every room. I couldn't tell her why I didn't think Grandma died because she was just old.
So for the winter holidays, between terms two and three of my first year of high school, I went and hung out with Aunt Vav.
When I saw Vav for the first time in nearly three years, she pulled me into a hug. She was pleased to see that I had the knife she sent me for my twelfth birthday tucked into my belt. We hung out for a couple of days, and then she piled me into the car.
"We're going to hang out with some real country." She told me, pushing my cap down on my head.
Now, Aunt Vav's closest neighbors were a big family who had a lot of sheep, a lot of cows, and a lot of land. They lived about 20 minutes away. I remember Vav selling them a couple of her more distant areas because "what the hell was she going to use them for, anyway?"
Vav prefers being further away from people because she thinks that humans weren't built to live in close quarters like cities. She says humans make each other crazed. She would go on about ancient nomadic lifestyles, and then territories. She said that being surrounded by so many people is bad for you, because people don't like each other.
We headed out, it was getting towards evening. By the time we got there- there was only an hour or so left of daylight. The family has a pretty big house with a big shed, plenty of tractors and shit around. I briefly met the adults before Vav handed me off to the kids. There were ten of us. Three siblings (blonde and all boys). There are two half-cast siblings, (a boy and a girl). Then three brunette kids (Two older girls and a little boy), another lone kid who is really tan but probably European or some shit, and me. I'm the only thirteen year old, and our ages range from about ten to eighteen. There were a couple of other kids, but they were all under six, and with the adults. The set up was that the backyard was a large bush area but with wide paths cut into it so that the kids who lived there (the blonde boys) could ride their bikes through it.
One of the brunette girls was the oldest, and I could tell she was just hanging out with us because she was on babysitting duty. The half-cast boy introduced himself as Rabbit, and I realized it was because he was born with a cleft lip and palette (known as a hare lip), and was missing one of his front teeth- so I guess it made sense. The scar was a pretty prominent feature of his face, but he spoke pretty well. He was fifteen. When I was introduced as Blue, a couple of them tittered.
Blue the redhead. Australia has a thing for ironic nicknames. The other loner tan kid was named Saul, and he was also fifteen. We hung outside; where the family had a swing set and a large climbing frame, just talking shit, playing tag, and then we ate dinner which was just a big barbeque.
The adults started drinking and we kids were left to our own devices, so Mandy, the oldest girl, went inside and got a dolphin torch for us to use to play a game of spotlight. We played for a while; it was exhilarating, getting to just play random games with other kids.
At one point Saul and I were the only ones sitting on the trampoline, watching the others play, when Rabbit started yelling.
"Saul you piece of shit! I said I spotted you!" Immediately Saul called back, "What do you mean? I'm over here with Blue!" T
hen Rabbit came tearing out of the bush track like his ass was on fire.
"Fuck!" he was screaming. "Dad!" Rabbit's dad was a big guy who owned a whole bunch of mango farms, and he was pretty drunk at this point, but he came out of the house anyway.
Saul and I jumped off the trampoline and we could hear one of the Blonde boys scream.
Vav, Saul's Parents, and the Dad of the blonde boys came tearing around the house with torches, and Vav stopped by me to check me over.
"Go wait by the truck, Blue." She said, and ran after the other parents who were off in the bush. Rabbit's dad took his torch and told the other kids to go inside the house. Mandy appeared carrying her little brother, and shouting for her sister. By this point Rabbit's mum had disappeared into the house and I'm sure was calling the cops; but if something serious was happening, they are a couple of hours away. I could hear the parents yelling for the other kids, and Rabbit was crying, when Saul's hand slipped into my own.
"Your aunt said to wait by the truck, right?"
I nodded and headed that way, pulling Saul along by the hand, and we both climbed into Vav's car. I knew why. Vav had been teaching me how to shoot over the last couple of days, and while I was far from adept, I knew she kept a pistol in the driver's side door just in case. Saul and I sat there in silence, listening to the adults call out the other kid's names. At one point there was a yell from one side of the car, a section of the bush-track.
We both jumped when something knocked on the window, and Rabbit was standing there, puffy-eyed and looking in at us.
We opened the door and he climbed in, sniffling.
"They can't find Ben." He said, it was the name of the eldest blonde boy.
We waited there for ages, until Vav opened the door and ushered us out.
"It's fine." She said. "We found Ben. Looks like he's been dragged through a few bushes, and he'll need a couple of stitches, but he's fine."
Once Rabbit and Saul were with their parents, Vav ushered
me out of the house and into the truck.
We drove home in silence.
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