Afire: Entire Blinded Series by Sarah Masters Page B

my Coke. “It's all right. I don't blame you for going. I would if I could."
    "But you can now you're sixteen. You could come and live with me. Nothing she can do about that."
    I thought about it—only for a second, mind—and nodded, hope growing inside me that I could get away from her. Be free.
    "You'd like that?” Dad raised his glass, swallowed a mouthful of beer. He licked froth off his top lip.
    "Yeah. Be great."
    "You sure?"
    "God, yeah.” Excitement swirled in my belly, and I smiled, big and wide.
    I looked at him, and he winked, but it wasn't long before his face clouded.
    "I wasn't doing anything I shouldn't have been, you know, son."
    "I know."
    "It was just...she was so... Shit, I shouldn't be talking about her to you."
    "It's all right. I don't mind."
    "How...how has it been? With her?"
    "Bit rough."
    "She been hitting you?"
    "Yeah."
    "Bad?"
    "Yeah."
    "Shit. I knew it. I should have—"
    "Doesn't matter."
    "It does."
    We sat in silence, and I turned away to look out over a large field. Cows mooched, some with their heads bent munching on grass, others lying in the sun.
    "They reckon when a cow's laying down it means rain's on the way,” Dad said.
    I nodded. “Doesn't look like it to me.” I stared at the clear blue sky.
    "Me neither."
    After lunch, on the journey back Dad went through what we'd do next. I was to wait until Mum'd left for work the next day then pack my things. Dad would pick me up about eleven, and I'd be free. Free of her, free to catch up on all the time I'd missed with Dad.
    As I got out of his car, he said, “It'll be grand, son, you'll see."
    The phone ringing that night, it'd sounded shriller than usual, faster, the space between rings shorter. I tiptoed from my room and crouched in the darkness at the top of the stairs, watching Mum as she spoke on the phone in the hallway, light from the living room doorway spilling onto her back.
    "Right. Okay... Yes, yes, I'm fine... Well, it's no skin off my nose, is it? Don't know why you even bothered to ring... Lee? Oh, right... Yes, I suppose so. Yes...yes...goodbye.” She turned and looked up the stairs, spotting me before I had the chance to scoot back into my room. “That was your aunt. Your dad's dead.” She swivelled and walked back into the living room.
    Leaving me devastated.
    I thumped down onto my arse, leaned my head against the wall, and let the tears fall. I didn't sob, didn't sniff, just sat staring at the phone in its cradle—the damn phone that had allowed a voice to ooze out such horrific news and for a spiteful woman to receive it.
    Blinking now, I open my eyes and stare out the coach window, the vehicle cocooned in the darkness of what I imagine is a country road. No lights beam down like they would on a motorway, and I stare at the reflection of myself in the glass, a skinny young guy struggling to come to terms with what's gone by and what's up ahead. But I can do it, no doubt about that now. Already I feel stronger, as though the further away from home I get the hold it had on me loosens, its power receding.
    I spend another two hours dozing on and off. The coach heaves to a stop, and I look outside, the sight of a road lined with houses sparking off a memory.
    "Biddingford!” the driver calls.
    I stand, working out the kinks in my neck, and lift my bag, which seems heavier now. I lug it down the gangway, pausing beside the driver to thank him, then leave the coach, the cold whip of a hearty wind snapping me fully awake. I glance around, every house light doused apart from the home beside me. I take a deep breath and walk up the garden path, readying myself to ask the occupant for directions to a bed and breakfast.
    At the door, I ignore my fast-beating heart and close my hand into a fist, rapping my knuckles against the wood. My new life starts now, right this minute, and my future glimmers, ready to become an inferno.
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Dedication
    * * * *
    Another one for Sid
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