Sliver Moon Bay: The Looking Read Online Free PDF Page A

make do with crayons. She can always get Starling to draw.
Except Starling likes to eat them. Then she gets a tummy ache.
    The morning goes by quickly. We
have a gym session inside because of the rain. I hate gym but it
went off alright until we played a game where you have to pick a
partner. I’ve never liked to play them partnering games cause it
gets a bit awkward when I’m left standing alone. The gym teacher
stands beside me looking silly. I haven’t been to the gym for so
long that the silly bitch forgot how it goes for me. But I didn’t
get angry. I’ve stopped doing that a long time ago. So now the
silly bitch is my partner for a team building game of dodgeball.
She’s feeling so much guilt about my situation that she seriously
puts in a lot of effort and we eliminate all competition in a very
short time. We stand there victorious and the class is stunned by
this. They’re all out. Then somebody makes a funny face and
everyone laughs. The poor bitch thinks they’re laughing at me but
they’re laughing at her. She looked mighty funny moving her three
hundred pound behind, this mountain of jelly stuffed in her gym
pants, with such energy, and now she’s standing there breathing
heavily, jelly shaking, sweat dripping down her massive doughy
forearms. She’s a sight to behold. From the waist up she’s just an
ugly fat girl but from below her waist she looks like a wobbly slug
collapsed in a plastic bag. That’s what everyone was thinking. They
even talked about it later, over lunch. I didn’t get involved.
Wasn’t asked to, anyway, and didn’t agree with what they said
either. To me the silly bitch looked like a mermaid. They’re not
all beautiful. Not like fairies.
    That reminds me. I hope Lilian
is coping with Starling. She’s not always easy to feed. Lunchtime
can be a fun place at ours if Starling chooses to throw a fit. Who
knows what’s going on at home when Lilian’s in charge? I wish I
were there.
    The afternoon passed,
eventually, though it didn’t pan out like I planned, with me
cruising on the side line undetected, but it wasn’t all bad. I
might have learned something even. Cause I did pay attention some
of the time.
    The bus drops me off at the
fork. Lilian’s not there so I walk home on my own. I don’t mind;
I’m thinking Starling’s having a lie down. They both might be. But
when I get home, things are not great. Lilian is very upset. She
doesn’t want to tell me what’s wrong. She locks herself in her room
without a word and I gather that the day has been exhausting.
    So I ask Starling. She’s busy
at her little desk, drawing a big mess on it, with a fat blue
crayon. It’s down to a stub.
    ‘Doggie dead,’ she says,
pressing the stub into a crack in the wood. It crumbles under the
pressure. Starling looks up and smiles a blue smile at me. ‘Dead.
Dead. Dead. Doggie dead.’
    But she doesn’t know what dead
means. Dead is sleeping. So she has learned something today
too.
     
     

 
    10
     
     
    ‘He’s found the dog in the
shed. He says it was poisoned. He thinks it was you!’
    Lilian’s crying. It’s midnight
and they’re at it again. Second night in a row.
    ‘It wasn’t me, Lilian. Stop
crying.’
    Chris sounds surprisingly flat.
He’s very calm. He must be tired. He’s using his ‘inside’ voice.
Then he said something else but he was speaking too low so I had to
get up and tiptoe to the door just to hear him. But it’s Lilian who
speaks next.
    ‘Where were you all day?’
    ‘Seriously, Lilian? You playing
detective now?’
    ‘I called the trawler. Ralph
said you weren’t there.’
    ‘Oh, you asked the junkie. Well
done, Lilian. Good work.’
    ‘Drake said you stole his dope
yesterday. He said Assassin chased you. Is that true?’
    ‘I’m going to bed, Lilian. I’m
tired.’
    ‘Did you kill the dog?’
    ‘No. I didn’t kill the stupid
dog. And I’m done with this now, Lilian. I’m going. To bed.’
    The door to their bedroom
closes. Lilian’s