Everything We Keep Di Walker (free ebook novel .txt) 📖

‘Don’t you think it’s odd that her parents would put her on a train, then leave, and there’s no sign of an aunty. Remember that time we went to your cousin’s wedding in the Barossa, and we left the kids at the Crosbie’s for a weekend? We took the kids over, helped them make up their beds, had dinner, did everything we could to help them settle before we left. Then we called Donna a thousand times to check on them.’

Agatha could see Tully’s mum move around the counter and flick the switch to the kettle.

‘Not every family is like ours, you know that. Besides, the kids have known the Crosbies for years. We were the ones being over cautious. They had a wonderful time that weekend. Unlike us at the wedding.’

‘Yes, well don’t remind me. I think we should call someone, you know, child welfare or something. Maybe the police. This girl could be running from trouble or about to cause trouble.’

‘I think you’re overreacting. Let’s see what happens in the morning. Her aunty will show up and you’ll see it was just a misunderstanding.’

Agatha slipped back to Tully’s bedroom and closed the door. The fairy lights gave her enough light to find her suitcase, open it and get out her regular clothes. She swiftly changed out of her pyjamas.

She had no intention being here in the morning if they were going to call the police or Nell. Agatha waited.

Fully dressed, under the sheet, and a throw rug Tully had given her, in case she got cold, her orange suitcase was zipped up, near the door ready to go when she was.

Agatha waited.

A little while later, she heard footsteps approaching and the bedroom door being carefully opened. Celeste moved past her to Tully’s bed, then back again. Agatha could sense her standing there, looking down at her. After a few moments she left, closing the door behind her.

Agatha waited.

The clock told her she had waited for over an hour and it was now past midnight. Pulling back the throw and the sheet, Agatha sat up and found her shoes. With a firm grip on her suitcase, she left Tully and her soft fairy lights behind and headed for the front door. She looked back down the hall to the darkness that had settled on the rest of the house. Taking a deep breath, she turned the lock on the door, returned it so it would lock behind her and slipped out into the warm night air.

11

Agatha woke early. It was the sound of cars going past, headlights on, with commuters trying to get ahead of the Friday morning traffic that woke her rather than the sun, that wasn’t up far enough to reach her.

After leaving Tully’s in the middle of the night, Agatha had walked quickly, turning corners, trying to retrace the route from Katherine’s to Tully’s backwards in her mind. She wasn’t successful. She had found herself at a dimly lit park, that she hadn’t seen on the trip the evening before.

The open space of the park didn’t bring her any relief, rather she found herself scared to be out in the open. Agatha had turned back and walked further along the street. She looked at the fronts of houses, listened to the dogs barking out an alarm to their sleeping owners that someone was approaching and each time one did, she kept walking. Eventually, weary from the day and carrying her case that seemed heavier than before, she found a house that, when she approached, didn’t have a barking dog or a security light and offered a front veranda with a couple of outside chairs.

She looked up and down the empty street, stepped silently through the opened gates and up onto the veranda.

In a few steps she was at the chair, her suitcase beside her. She made another scan of her surroundings checking to make sure she had not been seen, and Agatha’s eyes told her she needed to sleep. She pulled her knees up and hugged them with her arms, closed her eyes and had drifted off to sleep.

The sound of cars zipping along the street woke her from a restless sleep. She crept off the veranda and headed back to the park. The predawn light was enough for her to see a picnic table on the other side at which she could open her suitcase and get something to eat.

The sound of running feet made her jump with fright. An early morning jogger raced towards her, and from a few feet away, jogged off the path and around her. Agatha caught the stare in her direction. The jogger was soon out of sight and Agatha decided that she needed to hurry. Reaching the picnic table, she placed her suitcase on top. It was then that she noticed a large black mark on its corner, possible from when she knocked it in the dark last night. Using the palm of her hand she tried to wipe it away, but it was stubborn. She couldn’t get rid of it. She felt her chest tighten. She didn’t want her orange suitcase to be damaged. Again, she tried. Her effort made no difference.

The sounds of more footsteps and the yap of a dog disrupted her thoughts and reminded her that she needed to hurry. She found a muesli bar, smoothed out the items on top and closed the case. Looking around her, she decided that with the dawn light getting stronger every minute, she needed to move on.

She was determined to remember the way to Katherine’s house. It couldn’t be far. Maybe if she found her way back to the train station? Or asked someone to call her? Agatha walked through the park, the morning air, cool, the muesli bar was enough to stop from feeling hungry.

She reached the other side of the park within a few minutes. More people walking dogs appeared, each one giving her a smile and a morning greeting. ‘Morning,’