Divine Mortals (6 page)

“Arse Hat?”

I nodded.

“Ava I have no problem with you.”

For some absurd reason my heart sped when he spoke my name, I took a deep breath trying to keep my thoughts firmly on the discussion at hand.

“Then why the cold shoulder? Why the silence?”

“Why does it matter?” His voice was smooth and gentle, his gorgeous dark eyes swallowing me.

I stared back, my train of thought successfully derailed.

“Huh?” I squinted at him confused, he did smile then, a beautiful glowing smile that lit his face.

“Why, I said, does it matter if we are friends or not?”

“Well…” he had me there, I could hear Joel’s words from our earlier conversation.

Why does it matter?

I still didn’t know the answer.

“It’s just good manners is all.” I finished lamely, turning back towards the two babies who were eyeing us in a curious manner.

“Do you want to meet them?” Robert asked, following my gaze towards the calves.

“No.” I spoke a little too quickly, inadvertently stepping away from the gate, “I mean, I can see them fine from here.”

“You’re afraid?” his voice wasn’t mocking, it was surprised and curious, I looked up to find him staring down at me, his amber eyes glowing gold in the setting sun.

“Ah… I,”

“You
are
afraid, wow, Fred will be disappointed.” he teased, a smile dancing across his face.

“Yes!” I almost yelled, taking a breath I bought my volume back in check, “Yes I am okay, dammit, I hate anything larger than a cat, I’m terrified of cattle and I don’t want my damned horse, my grandparents don’t even realise, and I don’t have the heart to tell them.”

Robert chuckled, looking again towards the cattle.

“Well, you couldn’t have chosen a worse place to come then. And I think they realise by the way, your grandparents I mean, your face gives it away.” His own face gave nothing away, the smile gone as quickly as it had appeared.

“I didn’t choose to come here. It’s my punishment.” I muttered before turning and striding back towards the house, feeling more than a little humiliated at admitting my fears to Robert.

“Punishment?” his hand on my arm stopped me and I squinted into the last of the sun to find him gazing at me intently.

The silence played out until Robert seemed to realise he still held my arm. His fingers burning against my skin like individual flames.

“Why would you call it that?” His tone was soft and confused.

“If it wasn’t for me my parents would be alive.” I sighed, “And I wouldn’t be here.”

I didn’t wait for an answer, I turned again and headed swiftly towards the house.

He took up once more behind me, his footsteps muffled by the dirt track.

Everyone was as we left them, Pop was talking farming, still, with Jed and Shawn, Nan was no-where to be seen, presumably inside cleaning up from tonight’s barbeque.

“What did you think about the calves honey?” Pops voice stopped me before I could make my final escape into the house and I paused looking back at him through the fly screen.

“Oh, ah, they’re very cute.”

“Cute, huh,” Jed laughed, “let’s see if you still say that when you can’t get across a paddock without them chasing you to suck on your boots, pants, fingers, whatever they can latch on to.”

“I’ll remember that.” I murmured, trying for a second time to disappear indoors.

“Where’s Robert?” It was Shawn’s voice that stopped me this time, I glanced behind me, assuming he still followed, but there was no one there and he was nowhere in sight.

I shrugged, “Dunno.”

“What did you say to him?” Shawn teased.

I let the screen bang shut behind me.

“How the damned hell should I know.”

I
didn’t sleep much that night, my mind swimming with thoughts of my parents, past conversations, past arguments, plans we had made that would never be realised.

I fell asleep eventually, just before dawn, dreaming a jumbled collection of memories.

I woke late, Nan and Pop were already out on their respective errands and I was left alone to wander around a large empty house on a huge lonely farm. The feeling of desolation hadn’t left upon waking as it had the other mornings, and I wondered if the honeymoon period of my first few days here was officially over and the darkness was coming back to claim me once more.

I only managed to walk in circles around the house for an hour, surfing the internet and then channel flicking before I felt as if I was going insane.

The phone broke my trance as I stared aimlessly out the kitchen window.

“Hello,”

“Ava – finally, I’ve tried calling for the last few days and there was never anyone picking up.”

“Reece…”

“Yeah, sorry, I should have spoken to you sooner but, well I text, did you not get them?” I had gotten them, and then deleted them. “How’d you get this number.” I leant forward until my forehead was resting against the coolness of the refrigerator door.

“Julia gave it to me, wait, don’t you want to speak to me?”

I took a breath not sure how to answer this. I didn’t want to speak to him, I didn’t want to have to do
this.

“Are you dumping me?” his voice had an edge to it and I felt myself cringe.

“No, I, well I don’t know, I’m here now, in the land of no life, and you’re in Chicago, what did you think we were going to do?”

“Geeze Ava, we’ve been dating for eight months. You could have friggin run this by me, I’ve been worried about you, and all this time you’re down their just assuming that I can read your mind.”

“Reece I’m sorry, but with my parents and everything I’m not a good girlfriend at the moment I just need some time so…”

“Thanks.” He snarled, the line going dead.

I made a break for the back door, not sure where I was going or what I was going to do, I just left, marching out of the house and down the steep wooden steps off the back porch, between the horse pens and down the track towards the distant hills and still snowy mountains that flanked them.

The day wasn’t hot, but even so I could feel moisture gathering on my forehead and across my back after only a few minutes. I tried to focus on the walk, on the things surrounding me, I didn’t want to think of my parents or my dreams, or Reece, and strangely even after an almost sleepless night I wasn’t tired. I was actually the opposite, I felt wired. I needed to do something to expend all this extra energy or risk spontaneous combustion.

The track I walked was long and straight, heading in an almost perfect line towards the forest covered hills ahead, I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I didn’t care either.

Fields spread out either side of the dusty track, some filled with cattle, others with horses, but most were empty.

I let my mind wander, to ponder my first few days at River Stone, Sally, Jed, Shawn, Robert. My thoughts stopped with Robert, so evasive to the point of being rude yet so totally… magnetic. Every time I saw him I struggled not to stare, not to try and strike up a doomed conversation.

The fields either side of me had changed, from the cropped grass of the recently grazed to the long waving stands of hay waiting to be cut, swaying slowly, like waves on the ocean.

Letting myself through a gate I moved slowly towards the centre of an empty field, my hands held flat so the tops of the stalks brushed my palms, I breathed in the deep sweet scent of this sanctuary filled with flowers and sunshine.

Coming to a stop I sat down, the grass crushing beneath me to form a springy bed as I lay back.

Closing my eyes I let the sun beat down on my face, warm and inviting. The sound of crickets filled the air, happy within their grassy maze.

I stretched in the sunlight, enjoying the quiet, so different to the loneliness of the house. Here I felt like I was part of something larger, something huge, the whole world existed around me, animals and insects going about their own lives and I was completely insignificant, a splotch on the face of it all.

I lay there for a while, keeping my mind safely blank before opening my eyes to the world again.

I saw it instantly, only a few feet from my face, my blood ran as cold as its own, its jet black eyes staring back at me.

I could no longer hear the crickets, their silence telling.

They were smart
, an unwelcome voice in my head sang out.

The warning signal, that was its tail, hadn’t moved. Its tongue, typically forked darted in and out of its mouth, tasting the air around me.

I didn’t move, I couldn’t, I was afraid that if I did it would too. I had only seen Rattle Snakes in a zoo, they were not generally something you came across in Chicago.

If I was bitten out here, by myself with only my own two legs to get me all the way back to the house I would die, plain and simple.

I swallowed assessing my options.

“Nice snake,” I whispered, it raised its scaly head a little further, its tongue moving faster.

I took another breath.

“You don’t want to bite me today do you?” Its tail twitched a little but otherwise the snake kept up its silent watch, obviously not of the mind to just turn around and go back the way it came.

“Dammit.” I mumbled under my breath, my mind turning over and rejecting a dozen escape plans, all of them coming back to the simple fact that if the snake took exception to my movement I would be bitten before I even realised what was happening.

The snakes head flew to the ground in an instant, clenching my eyes tight shut I froze, waiting for the strike. A second passed and then another, nothing happened. I opened my eyes again, the snakes head was still on the ground, but his tongue was limp, hanging from its thin blue mouth, its body slack, no longer tightly coiled. It took me a moment to realise a shovel was sticking up from behind its head, only an inch or two behind its eyes, neatly removing its head from its shoulders, if snakes had shoulders.

I rolled back quickly, jumping to my feet in a delayed reaction to get away from both the snake and the shovel, scared it might be my neck on the line next.

As I stood I came face to face with Robert, his eyes fixed on me, his hand still firmly on the handle of the shovel, the other on his hip in a menacing sort of way.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” his voice cold as his eyes searched mine.

“I ah, I mean, I…” I stuttered, trying to form coherent words, getting angry at myself for letting him intimidate me.

I took a breath, “What do
you
mean what am I doing here, I came for a walk, what are
you
doing here?”

His eyes narrowed as he pulled the shovel up violently.

“I’m saving your life is what I’m doing,” he growled, like I was nothing more than a disobedient child. I noticed with a twitch of my stomach that the snakes body was still moving, even though its head now lay a few inches away, I looked quickly back at Robert.

“I didn’t need saving,” I glared, “I was just going to wait for it to go.”

“I beg to differ.” he said dryly, turning abruptly and storming back towards the gate, it was then that I noticed Pop standing next to the pickup parked on the side of the track.

“There was a rattle snake.” Robert informed him as he threw the shovel onto the bed of the truck before going to stand next to him, glowering back at me.

“What were you doing in the paddock honey?” Pop wore a look of confusion, I struggled to rein in my temper and not say something scathing back.

“I was resting okay, it’s a nice day, and I just thought I would lie down for a while before I walked back.”

“You’re not in Chicago now love, it’s dangerous out here, you shouldn’t be walking this far from the house, take a car, your Nans old red hatchback never gets used anymore, you can take that, at least it’s a faster means of getting home should something happen.”

I nodded stiffly,

“I realise I’m not in Chicago.” I spoke through clenched teeth, Pop glanced at me sharply then decided to ignore my temper.

“Where were you going anyway?” he raised one grey eyebrow at me,

“I was walking towards the hills.” I answered, non-committal, after all I hadn’t had any set route.

“You can’t go up there either Ava, not at the moment, it’s too dangerous, the track was washed out in last winters storms and we haven’t had a chance to clear it yet. Once it’s cleared I’ll take you there, there’s a plateau paddock on top with a great view, but not before the track has been cleared do you understand?”

“Sure.” I shrugged, I couldn’t really care less about a plateau paddock or the view of green nothingness that I would get from the top of it, but Pop wanted me to agree so I did.

“Come on love,” he moved towards the driver’s seat, “I’ll give you a ride back to the house, we’re heading in now anyway.”

I walked slowly towards the old pick up realising only when I got there that there was no back seat, climbing into the centre next to Pop Robert jumped in beside me. The cab was fit to burst, Robert was large and muscular and despite his age Pop was not a small man either, having retained a lot of muscle on his broad shouldered frame due to his active lifestyle. I was the ham in the sandwich, one side of me pressed against Pop the other against Robert.

I jumped as Roberts arm touched mine, his skin literally burned, unnaturally hot. Although rather than pull away I found that I relished it, it was like an electric current between the two of us and I became painfully aware of every square inch where his skin touched mine. Robert himself was tense and quiet the entire trip back,
nothing new there,
I reflected, smiling at his discomfort.

The ride back was short, it didn’t take long when you weren’t walking. Robert leapt out as soon as we came to a stop, as if getting out of the way of an angry bee, saying something quickly to Pop he disappeared behind the main shed.

It wasn’t until Pop spoke that I realised I was still staring in the direction that Robert had gone.

“Don’t worry love,” Pop smiled, obviously mistaking my look,

“He’s just shy, it’s not you, he’s like that around all the kids.”