The Third Day, The Frost Read Online Free PDF

that he said that. I waved to him when I got into the
treeline. Then the little procession of prisoners appeared from the
direction of the lake and Kevin immediately turned around and
walked casually back to the sheds.
    Lee and I hustled on up to the others, who
were busting to hear what we had to say. We were all wildly
excited. I think we were so sick of each other’s company that the
possibility of welcoming Kevin back was wonderful for all of
us.
    ‘What’d he say? Can we get him out? How’d he
sound? How’d he look? He’s lost a few k’s, hey? What did the others
say?’
    It took an hour before we calmed down, and
then we spent half the night trying to figure out what we could do.
At least it helped keep us warm – that night was even colder than
the one before. Then, about midnight, it started to rain. We crept
down to a hayshed and burrowed in there for a sleep, but it meant
we had to post a sentry. That was a drag. I did the first one but
didn’t sleep much after it, anyway. When dawn came I got up and
went over to Homer who was taking his turn. ‘You go back to bed if
you want,’ I said, ‘I’m wide awake so I might as well do
sentry.’
    ‘I couldn’t sleep either. Let’s just talk.
That way we might talk each other to sleep.’
    So we talked, first time in a long time. We’d
always been friends – we were practically raised together – but I’d
been finding him suffocating in recent months, so I’d given him
more room. Sometimes I just wanted to breathe my own air. Wherever
there was Homer there wasn’t room for much else. We didn’t seem to
have the time for relationships these days. No, not the time: the
energy. That’s what we were missing. We were more selfish, I know
that much. I used to have strong feelings about Homer but now my
strongest feelings were reserved for me, for keeping myself
going.
    But we talked, mainly about what our world
would be like if we ever won back our country. It had always been
an article of faith with us that we would win. These days, though,
seeing colonists looking so settled, so comfortable, we had to
admit that the odds were starting to tip against us. The effect on
Homer was to make him more warlike. ‘After it’s over,’ he said,
‘we’ve got to turn this country into a fortress. Everyone should be
trained to use weapons, to fight. If anyone tries to invade us
again we’ve got to be ready. And if they do come, we’ve got to
fight for every house, every street, every hectare. That’s what
we’ve got to do.’
    Me, I had the opposite reaction. I told Homer
my favourite story.
    ‘Once upon a time there was a village near a
cliff. The road to the village was dangerous, and lots of cars went
over the cliff and crashed on the rocks below. The people in the
cars got mashed up whenever that happened; some of them even got
killed. But eventually the village got a government grant to do
something about it. Only trouble then was that the village split
into two groups, the people who wanted to build a fence around the
top of the cliff, and the people who wanted to buy an ambulance to
put at the bottom of the cliff, to cart the casualties off to
hospital.’
    ‘Yeah, they shouldn’t have waited for a
government grant,’ said Homer, being smart. ‘They should have done
something about it themselves. That’s a good story.’
    ‘Oh, Homer! You don’t have to play dumb any
more! You’re not at school now.’
    ‘Oh, you mean I’ve missed something? What kind
of fence did they want to build?’
    ‘Very funny. I just think that it’s no use
having invaders pour into the country and then trying to do
something about it. What we need to do is to help other countries
get better incomes, so that they don’t feel any great urge to rush
in here.’
    ‘That’s easier said than done.’
    ‘How do we know? We never really tried.
Anyway, turning the place into a fortress is hopeless. We haven’t
got enough people to do it properly, even if we wanted to,