rocks for a few hours, picturing drifting faces and sometimes scanning the horizon for whales, until she felt cold and sore enough that it drove her to walk on.
After a while the open sea bent back and there was the harbor below her instead, its sandbars crowded with lounging sea lions. She reached the town’s biggest street, lined with small wooden houses whose overhanging upper stories were supported on posts. There were a few stores here that sold odd foods like sugar- cured salmon and smoked elk meat alongside the canned beans and chips. Everything was made of the same wooden boards, everything was painted dark brown or tan, and the hills were crossed by the same flimsy stairs as the slopes behind her own house. The whole town seemed to be trying to crawl away from the sea. In one spot there was a two- room shack that hadn’t i 23
managed to escape in time: the shore had eroded beneath it, and now it stood at an awkward slant, abandoned to the gray waves that pawed again and again through its single glassless window.
“If you think you can get away with crawling out of school, I’ll teach you to think different!” The voice was bellowing but slurred, and it made Luce stumble a little from shock as it broke through her daydream. She’d come to the stretch with the town’s two bars and one ramshackle church, all lined up against the hard ascent of the mountains behind. Her uncle Peter had just slumped out of the Dark Water Inn, and his breath smelled of sour drink and decay as he glared wearily down at her. “If you’re too damned lazy for school, we’ll see how lazy you can be gutting fish all day! Up to your elbows in the slime of their in-nards. And you’ll see how easy it is for the knife to slip, too.”
“They let us out early,” Luce said, shrinking back a little.
As long as the policeman didn’t keep calling him, she could probably get away with the lie. Her uncle would never get around to checking up on her himself.
“Maybe that’s all right, then.” He looked at her skeptically.
“I heard something awfully strange, though. Heard you were the one went and found that dead baby on the beach? At dawn today?” Luce was appalled; of course, she thought, of course she should have realized that the news would get back to him.
“What kind of business you think you have, sneaking out of the house like that? You think people don’t talk when they hear that? Saying I don’t keep enough of an eye on you.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Luce whispered. She could tell by the way her uncle glared at her that this wasn’t good enough. “I just went for a little walk?”
24 i LOST VOICES
“Not trustworthy enough to be left alone,” he muttered.
“You go getting into trouble all the time, and I have to hear about it from who- knows- who running their damned mouths.” Of course he didn’t even mention the fact that she could have drowned, Luce thought. Peter had his hand on the back of her neck, and he steered her into the bar. “You’re going to sit right down and not cause any more disturbance until I’m ready to go home.”
“I can go home by myself ! I promise. I’ll just go home and do homework.”
“You’ll do your homework right here,” Peter snapped; he apparently hadn’t noticed that she didn’t have her book bag with her. Luce realized that she couldn’t argue with him, not while he was in such a foul mood. He shoved her down at an out- of- the- way table back in the corner next to the broken juke-box. Someone had left a tattered romance novel on a chair, and Luce picked it up just to look like she was doing something.
Maybe Peter would get so drunk that he’d forget all about her, and she could slip away. The bartender watched her curiously.
“Didn’t know you had one of those, Peter,” he observed while Luce’s uncle swayed across the dim space toward the bar.
Peter slung his heavy thighs up onto his stool and knocked back the trace of whiskey that was left at the
After a while the open sea bent back and there was the harbor below her instead, its sandbars crowded with lounging sea lions. She reached the town’s biggest street, lined with small wooden houses whose overhanging upper stories were supported on posts. There were a few stores here that sold odd foods like sugar- cured salmon and smoked elk meat alongside the canned beans and chips. Everything was made of the same wooden boards, everything was painted dark brown or tan, and the hills were crossed by the same flimsy stairs as the slopes behind her own house. The whole town seemed to be trying to crawl away from the sea. In one spot there was a two- room shack that hadn’t i 23
managed to escape in time: the shore had eroded beneath it, and now it stood at an awkward slant, abandoned to the gray waves that pawed again and again through its single glassless window.
“If you think you can get away with crawling out of school, I’ll teach you to think different!” The voice was bellowing but slurred, and it made Luce stumble a little from shock as it broke through her daydream. She’d come to the stretch with the town’s two bars and one ramshackle church, all lined up against the hard ascent of the mountains behind. Her uncle Peter had just slumped out of the Dark Water Inn, and his breath smelled of sour drink and decay as he glared wearily down at her. “If you’re too damned lazy for school, we’ll see how lazy you can be gutting fish all day! Up to your elbows in the slime of their in-nards. And you’ll see how easy it is for the knife to slip, too.”
“They let us out early,” Luce said, shrinking back a little.
As long as the policeman didn’t keep calling him, she could probably get away with the lie. Her uncle would never get around to checking up on her himself.
“Maybe that’s all right, then.” He looked at her skeptically.
“I heard something awfully strange, though. Heard you were the one went and found that dead baby on the beach? At dawn today?” Luce was appalled; of course, she thought, of course she should have realized that the news would get back to him.
“What kind of business you think you have, sneaking out of the house like that? You think people don’t talk when they hear that? Saying I don’t keep enough of an eye on you.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Luce whispered. She could tell by the way her uncle glared at her that this wasn’t good enough. “I just went for a little walk?”
24 i LOST VOICES
“Not trustworthy enough to be left alone,” he muttered.
“You go getting into trouble all the time, and I have to hear about it from who- knows- who running their damned mouths.” Of course he didn’t even mention the fact that she could have drowned, Luce thought. Peter had his hand on the back of her neck, and he steered her into the bar. “You’re going to sit right down and not cause any more disturbance until I’m ready to go home.”
“I can go home by myself ! I promise. I’ll just go home and do homework.”
“You’ll do your homework right here,” Peter snapped; he apparently hadn’t noticed that she didn’t have her book bag with her. Luce realized that she couldn’t argue with him, not while he was in such a foul mood. He shoved her down at an out- of- the- way table back in the corner next to the broken juke-box. Someone had left a tattered romance novel on a chair, and Luce picked it up just to look like she was doing something.
Maybe Peter would get so drunk that he’d forget all about her, and she could slip away. The bartender watched her curiously.
“Didn’t know you had one of those, Peter,” he observed while Luce’s uncle swayed across the dim space toward the bar.
Peter slung his heavy thighs up onto his stool and knocked back the trace of whiskey that was left at the
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