Unsheltered Clare Moleta (book club books .txt) 📖

his plate. Eileen started laughing and Mira said, Dad! Seriously? And Stokes said, Dev, Dev, give it up, bro. You can’t fight love.

The dog lay quiet on the edge of the circle, watching them eat. Li saw how they had knitted together without Jasmine, how easily Rich would fit. She got up and cleaned her plate and went back to the vehicle.

Stokes brought her gear over. She put her hand on the pack and was walking again, in pain and dust, dry-throated, sick with fear. Jerked clear of the memory.

He said, I heard your kid might be alive.

I’m going to find out.

Good. That’s real good. He hesitated, as close to awkward as she’d seen him. I looked for my folks for a long time, he said. Kids don’t give up easy.

She nodded, hoisted her gear into the back.

Your waterbag’s full but we couldn’t find any fish. And, ah, we’ve all been wearing your clothes. Sorry bout that.

She remembered the way she’d thought about him, about all of them, in Transit. They would’ve taken them off me anyway, she said.

There’s a couple of phone numbers in the top pocket, he told her. We could use you. Any time. We’re a family-friendly operation.

The last thing Rich gave her was the tent. He came up and threw it in the back with the rest of her gear. She looked at him, making sure.

I want it back, he said. And he put a folded piece of paper in her pocket.

The trees around them were noisy with wind.

Rich said, Why didn’t you tell me what happened with this mob?

I thought you wouldn’t bring me with you in case I fucked it up for you.

Li. He shook his head but he wasn’t angry anymore. You gotta have a bit of faith.

How long since they’d met? A hundred days, not even, back in that factory in Port Howell. He had restarted time for her in Transit and there were things she should say to him that she hadn’t worked out, but now she could feel the range like a magnet and everything else was background.

He took her hands, grubby with oil, turned them over and touched the shiny new skin. They healed up good, he said.

She shivered, though it was hardly even sensitive anymore. I should have thanked you for that.

You should have thanked me for a lot of stuff. You’re shit at it.

She shrugged. Sweet-talk. But her gratitude to him was an anchor.

If you find her. Or if you find out. Would you think about coming up to North?

She took her hands back. I don’t know.

All right. He nodded. Stokes gave you the numbers, so just let me know. About Matti at least.

When he turned away, she remembered that she did have something for him.

Hold on. She opened the driver’s door, reached across the front seat for the Saint Anthony medallion. Held it out carefully.

Rich picked it up, looked at it with recognition and then pleasure. Lost things, right?

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there is something up there.

He gave it back. I don’t know if I can take that. Don’t you need it?

She hoped he lived. Put it in his hand and closed his fingers over it. You already found her for me.

The map she’d carried from the lake and lost at the roadhouse lay open on the passenger seat, as she drove, the range its easternmost limit. Beside it was Rich’s hand-drawn map of the southern pass over the range, the lowest, least Weather-bound route, sketched from memory.

There was no sign of the howler’s passage this far east. Beyond the roadhouse where Rich had planned to meet the mosquitoes, she drove up an old river valley. Fire had gone through this country, but there was new growth among the blackened trees. Big rock formations and new colours, too, less red and scrub, more shades of blue and brown.

Rich had told her not to stop along this stretch between the roadhouse and the range. She passed warning signs about training exercises and unexploded ordnance. Now and then she saw an army vehicle in the distance, but the base wasn’t visible from the road. Sometimes a truck or a convoy of trucks, army or Company, passed from the other direction. Once a ute overtook her, the tray crowded with people and dogs staring back at her. Chris didn’t call and whenever she tried him it went straight to answering machine.

It rained heavily, cleared and rained again. The range was always there, but its snow-coated peaks came into view without warning. Li felt a high straining in her stomach. She didn’t know how to prepare for whatever was waiting for her. One new update on this claim. She watched the speedometer and saw distance and time folding together, clicking over.

Late afternoon, the mountains closed in around her and she started to climb. Up and up, one tight curve after another with no reprieve. She was struggling with her walking boot now, wanted to take it off, but there was no safe place to stop. The road didn’t seem wide enough for anyone to pass her. She slowed to a crawl, keeping an eye on the fuel gauge and seeing it wasn’t going to get her over the pass. An orange light was layered across the valleys deepening into shadow below her. She felt the temperature dropping inside the vehicle.

Two hours later a truck came at her around a bend in the dark, across the centre line, lights on high beam. Blinded, she swerved left and braked hard and skidded out against the barrier. Sat, panting, at the side of the road until the tail-lights disappeared. Then she drove on slowly until she found a rest stop, backed onto a wall of earth and rock that gave some shelter from the wind. She was asleep almost before she turned off the ignition.

Cold woke her. She was stiff and groggy, and she needed to piss. She lurched out of the car and slammed