Young Writers Society

Note: Karet Stone. If you're following as I post then you won't know about the Karet stone, which appears in the edits. It's a black stone pendant that Luci carries round of an evening. It reacts to heat and friction and lights up. He uses it as a torch.

Louten Road East:

Luci:

'Hey!' Sammy yelled, jumping up and down in her usual, overly energetic way. I slowed my pace from a jog to a stroll as I reached the bus stop and ran my fingers through my damp hair. It was nice to be jogging again, now that Mele knew the way. Sometimes I enjoyed the company, but with her it was like picking flowers in a meadow- it's only a matter of time till you step on a snake.

Have you ever noticed how sometimes the days and weeks and months seem to pass in the blink of an eye, and yet others drag out and never quite seem to be over? It was like that, how it suddenly felt like we'd been that way for years- three of us. I never even realised until the day she wasn't there.

I looked around. Nobody seemed aware of anything odd- except Valeo. He was the only one who knew that she was supposed to be close behind. He frowned at me in question and I pretended to be trying to catch my breath.

'Where's the new girl? Is she late?' I asked.

Sammy shrugged. 'I guess so. She'd better hurry up otherwise she'll miss the bus. She doesn't do so well walking, you know. I don't think she's used to it yet. It'll take her ages to get to school if she misses it.'

I looked back over my shoulder and around the crowd once more.

Valeo caught my eye again.

Something wrong?

I couldn't deny it. He dismissed himself from his conversation with the older boys and weaved his way around the kids to put one arm around me and steer me out of earshot.

'Don't worry, I haven't told anyone,' he assured me with a light pat on the shoulder. 'How come she's not here?'

Maybe there was a spark between them. He'd never been inquisitive before- and I'd never felt that protective pang in my stomach, either.

'I don't know, I decided to run so she left before I did. I didn't pass her on the way down.'

I flinched when he dipped his free hand into my trouser pocket before I could fight back. He whipped my phone out before I could even reach for it.

'Give it back!'

He was taller and a lot stronger than me, and held me back with one arm while he used the other to flick through the menu's and lift it to his ear.

We waited impatiently until he folded the screen back down and handed it back to me. 'No answer. I'm going to go look for her, in case she took a wrong turn or something.'

'It's fine.' The words kind of vomited out, even though I tried to swallow them back down. Maybe for a brief moment my conscience was trying to take over. 'I'll go look for her, you've got exams soon, you need to be in school.'

'Then I'll come with you. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, right?'

'Right. Hey Deanie!' I yelled. Deanie stood up from where he'd been watching two bugs on the floor fighting over half a biscuit. 'Tell our teachers the new girl got lost and I've gone to look for her!'

'Yeh, sure,' he answered, clearly disgruntled that I'd distracted him from his entertainment. He squatted down with the others to resume the match.

Valeo flicked his head and we started jogging again back up the way I'd come.

His version of a fast jog was a full pelt sprint to me. I wondered if this is what Mele felt like in my shadow.

Running along the dirt paths in the Salen Summer was like dodging dragonfire. Hot, dry air filled my lungs and turned my throat to sandpaper.

Seven houses lay between the bus stop and my own. At each one we slowed to peer round and yell into the garden, but nothing moved except the heatwaves on the horizon.

'Are you sure she left?'

'I'm sure. I remember her swearing at me before she left. We had a fight last night.'

'About what?'

I didn't answer. I didn't feel like having that conversation right then.

'Is it possible she might have gone left from your house instead of right?'

'Maybe.'

He slowed to catch his breath and glanced up and down the way we came. 'When did she leave?'

'About seven thirty.'

He took his phone out and looked at the time. 'We just missed the bus. Right, at her pace, if she wasn't paying attention, in half an hour she could have covered about a mile, where would that get us?'

'Past old Lady Maru's house. Would she have made it to the Vineyard?'

'She would have noticed by then, surely.'

'Not if she went that way on purpose.'

He stared at me while the thoughts raced through his mind.

'I wouldn't put it past her.'

'Alright, your place first. We should check she didn't go back home before heading up that way.'

'Sounds like a plan.'

'Give me your phone.'

I handed it over. At least he asked this time. We started running again. He carried on trying but each time got through to the empty audiomessage tone. When we reached the house I ran inside while he looped around the outside to check the garden, only to come up empty on the porch.

Stupid girl. At first it was an annoyance, but how far could she have gone?

'Stop it,' he said.

'Stop what?'

'She's run off somewhere, it's not your fault.'

'I wasn't-' I was. Just a little. That heavy feeling was there in the pit of my stomach again. I drew a deep breath and looked down. He was leaning against Uncle's bike. It was a rust bucket and hadn't seen forty miles per hour in at least half a decade, but it was faster than running.

He followed my gaze and stood up straight again. 'I'm driving.'

'No way. My bike.'

'Lan's bike, and you don't have your license.'

'Neither do you!'

'I'm closer to it than you are.'

'I don't care. I'm driving.'

'Then I'm keeping your phone.'

'Deal.'

He scowled at me briefly, then lifted one leg over to saddle the bike and patted the front of the seat. 'Come on, sweetheart. Let's get on with it.'

That boy had no shame, and by the grin on his face at my torment, he knew it.

The rust bucket growled reluctantly at first before it chuttered into life and we started down the driveway towards the road. Uncle wouldn't mind. He always took the train when he went away and left the keys behind in case of an emergency. I think this counted enough as one.

Valeo put one arm over my shoulder and onto my chest to hold on. If I wobbled too much or turned to sharp then his arm would tighten around my neck, and I'm quite sure that's what he was intending.

I loved the speed. We soared up towards the eastern end of Lauren road, where the stony road narrowed to a dirt path that was just about wide enough for one car to fit down. In the event that two came head to head, one of them would have to reverse backwards to one of the few widenings in the road. It was always a terrifying experience for anybody new to the area, and for car drivers when stupid kids on their parents motorbikes were determined to scrape past along the hedge line anyway.

I skidded to a halt outside Old Lady Maru's house, where the smell of flowers that she flooded her garden with made my nose tingle. She's let the kids come and pick flowers to sell in the town centre for pocket money. Lan bought some of her rarer prizes for his recipes. She had rows of every colour; black, white, burning orange, lime green, and rumour had it she sung to them, too. She and Mele would have made a good pair, actually. No disrespect to the old lady.

She was sitting in her garden with her Grandson when we pulled in.

We stopped so fast we almost toppled off the bike and the two of them looked up at us. Valeo ran up the garden path to briefly converse and then came back.

'No sign of her. To the vineyards?'

'Hold on tight.'

And off again. By the time we got there we added another quarter mile, just to give her the benefit of the doubt, and circled around the vineyard before stopping the bike by a huge oak. Valeo scaled it before I did and we searched across the vast rows of red grapes. Even if she was hiding among them, with her hair colour she would have looked like a giant bunch of grapes anyway.

It was a slow climb down. We were out of ideas and leant back against the tree to take a moment to breath and think.

'Anywhere she might have gone?'

I shrugged. She was starting to feel like a stranger again, now that I suddenly realise I had no idea where she might have ended up. I mean, where would she-

'The library!'

'You think she would have made it that far?'

'She might have take the rabbit path instead of the main road, which means she could have dodged through the field by Bakers Hill without passing the bus stop.'

'Let's get going then.'

The sun was on our faces for most of the journey back. We took the more secluded routes. Riding without a license never got anybody into trouble around here so long as they didn't crash into anyone's cornfield.

Riding a bike round town when we were supposed to be in school wouldn't be taken so lightly.

We snaked around the outskirts, avoiding the main road where the sound of kids screaming from the lower school flooded across the park, and past the second-hand market where a few people saw us flash by. It took longer to get there since we looped around the old well memorial and parked up round the back of the library.

Valeo jumped off the bike before I had a chance to straighten it up properly and we both darted for the doors. Running for her, to find her.

I laugh when I think about it, actually. It was the first instance of a habit that we'd never really grow out of. Looking for Mele. Trying to find her first- or at least that's what I like to portray it as.

I never stood a chance, he was always faster, always stronger. Those three years of age and summers he spent away with 'family' put a lot of distance between us.

I turned the corner in time to see him push through the large doors of the library and skidded to follow.

I ran in, up the stairs, and into the main centre of the library where he stood. 'Mele!' He yelled. I went straight for the poetry corner, certain that she would be there, but as I turned around there was only a dead end. The only person in there was an old, white-bearded farmer who sat near the front with a paperback novel in hand and looked up at us only briefly.

I imagine it was his day off, and he probably wasn't in the mood to start chasing school kids for skipping classes. We wandered back out the front doors and round back towards the bike, out of ideas and spent of energy.

'She'll turn up. I'll try calling her one last time.'

He took my phone out of his pocket and tried dialling the number one last time.

Nothing.

'Let's get to school,' he said quietly. 'She might even have turned up there.'

I nodded and we started walking uphill towards our school. It wasn't my job to babysit her, but it would be no good if she'd gone and run away now. He put one arm over my shoulders again as we were walking.

'I'm sure she's probably just sulking somewhere. We'll find her.'

'It's okay, I'm not worried,' I assured him.

It wasn't my responsibility to stop her from running away, but I would be held responsible anyway and that was something I couldn't be bothered with.

When we got to the school gates I tried to put it to the back of my mind. Uncle would kill me if she disappeared now. It was her own fault, she shouldn't have been digging up the past. If she'd run off back to her mum then it would have made life a whole lot easier for me.

It felt like the hours flew by that day, but perhaps that's just because it was ten oclock by the time I made it through the school gates. The bells tumbled by, and so long as I got my homework in on time my teachers wouldn't hold it against me for being concerned that the new girl might have gotten lost- of course it was an admirable thing to do.

Of course.

When I got to the library I grabbed Uncle's bike and sped off before anybody could tell me otherwise, back home. She'd be there, I told myself. Of course she would.

I found her sitting at the dinner table eating tomado palta as if everything was normal. I slung my schoolbag on the floor with a purposeful stamp and went to the fridge. I don't even know what I was looking for, I wasn't even hungry. It was better than standing there doing nothing.

'Next time let someone know before you decide to disappear. Valeo was looking everywhere for you.'

The silence was painful, broken by her fork being put onto the table before she stood up and headed for the door, slinging her backpack over her shoulder as she did. Would she be back for dinner? How was I supposed to know?

There were more mature ways of handling things.

For the next two days I hung out at the library for as long as I could before going home. The more time we spent together the more my chest hardened when I thought about her. She left each morning and never made it to school, but sure enough she stayed true to her nature. Like a feral, stray cat, she always ended up back home when she was hungry, and like an idiot I carried on cooking for her because at least then when Uncle came to talk to me I could at least say that I had tried.