Sliver Moon Bay: The Looking Read Online Free PDF

standing alone, in the living room. She starts
pacing the room, murmuring to herself, something. I can only
imagine what. But I don’t want to go there so I’m counting
elephants to see how long the self-comforting goes on for, this
time. Twenty elephants and then the television comes on, just
quietly. We’re all good then. Lilian’s going to stay up
tonight.
    I go back to bed. I’m gonna
need my energy tomorrow.
     
     

 
    11
     
     
    Tomorrow came and went and
nobody noticed. I stayed home from school to look after Starling.
Chris went to work, Lilian went. Somewhere. She didn’t say where
but when she returned in the afternoon, she brought some sunshine
back with her. She was in a good mood for the rest of the day, even
after Chris came home. Then the next day and the one after, I went
to school. Nothing happened. Just the normal, boring stuff. Stuff I
like. But it doesn’t last and here we are, getting ready to live a
new day.
    A lot more birds out and about
today. I see them from our back garden; they’re circling, crying,
arguing on the beach. I wonder what’s turned up. A sea turtle
perhaps, resigned to rotting on the beach, like the last time this
happened. But when we get there, nothing out of the ordinary is
happening on the beach. Just some agitated birds, that’s all. Ah,
well. Starling gets busy with her sandcastle. She’s got a new
bucket and a digger that Chris got her in town yesterday. So she’s
up for a big session.
    I don’t fall asleep this time
though I am tired. It’s Saturday morning and I’m always tired on
Saturdays cause I get to stay up on Fridays, to watch a movie with
Lilian. Chris disappears into the shed right after dinner, and
after Starling’s in bed it’s just me and Lil’, and we watch a late
night movie, the kind not suitable for children, but on Friday
nights I’m not a child. Lilian loves to watch love stories, romance
and all kinds of girlie movies and she wants me there curled up by
her side. Cause that’s what us girls should be doing. Well, it’s
not like I have a lot of choice. Course, I sit there watching. It
gets excruciating pretty quick. For me, not for her. She’s in, all
in, sniffling through the soppy bits lapping it up, wishing she
were the girl in the movie. Failing that, she just wants to be
elsewhere, anywhere where there’s a man to notice her. It’s Chris’s
fault she’s like this. He should be paying her more attention; any
fool can see that, even a fourteen- year-old like me. He should be
joining in but it’s me sitting here, watching things that don’t
involve me now—and won’t for some time, says Lilian and she laughs,
she’s somewhat embarrassed, the poor thing, perhaps wondering if I
should be viewing this at all. But she’s wrong in thinking those
things will interest me when I’m older. They won’t. All this, this
kissy-kissy huggie-huggie kind of stuff is not for me. Or Chris,
apparently, as we’re about to find out. He’s snuck out of the shed,
and has been standing in the doorway, watching.
    He stands in the doorway,
watching this situation; the film, Lilian clutching her hankie,
sniffling, and me cuddling up close with my arm around her. He
shakes his head, passes judgment, on the way to the kitchen to get
himself a glass of water—it’s foolish, mindless stuff and only
foolish, frustrated women can stand watching it. For once, I agree
with him. It is foolish and Lilian should not be crying. But the
hero dude has died just now and the heroine has fainted and Lilian
takes it all to heart. She’s a fan of true love. Oh, dear. I think
it’s time we all went to bed.
    And in the morning, Starling’s
up extra early. She’s got her new bucket and her digger ready so
getting her to the beach promptly is the least of what is expected
of me, today. We’re going to build a biiiiig sandcastle today.
    And so we’re doing it; digging
and piling up mountains of sand amongst the noisy birds. Starling
doesn’t mind. She likes