Bone Jack Read Free Page B

her at all. Now she sounded like she almost hated him.
    He bit his lip, looked away. After a while he said, ‘Did you see anyone else out there?’
    ‘Like who?’
    ‘Like runners,’ he said. ‘Lots of them. Hound boys.’
    ‘No, I didn’t see anyone.’
    ‘You must have seen them. They ran up the path to the top of the ridge. They must have run right past you.’
    ‘The Stag Chase isn’t for another two weeks.’
    ‘I know that.’
    ‘They can’t have been hound boys then. Anyway, I didn’t see them. I didn’t see anyone.’
    She was lying. He was sure of it. There was no way she could have missed the runners.
    ‘You’re lying,’ he said.
    He expected her to get angry and deny it but she didn’t. She just gave him a look that said she didn’t really care what he thought.
    Somehow that was worse. It meant maybe she was telling the truth and he was the only one who had seen the runners. And if he was the only one who’d seen them, then maybe he’d imagined them, maybe they’d never been there at all.
    Seeing things, mirages, like people saw in deserts. Tricks of the light. Or of the mind.
    He tilted his weight a little. The swing moved. His feet scraped across the safety surface.
    ‘I heard Mark moved in with your grandpa,’ he said.
    A guarded look. ‘Yeah, we stay there sometimes.’
    ‘Only sometimes? Where do you stay the rest of the time?’
    She shrugged, gazed off into the distance. ‘Here and there.’
    ‘How’s Mark doing?’
    ‘What do you care?’
    That was it, Ash knew. The reason for the anger that kept coming back into her voice. She thought he’d betrayed Mark, abandoned him when Mark needed him the most. As far as Callie was concerned, that made him the enemy.
    He didn’t blame her for feeling that way.
    ‘I couldn’t …’ he said. Stumbling over the words. ‘Everything changed after your dad died. Mark changed. He was like a stranger. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to say to him.’
    ‘What did you expect?’ said Callie. ‘We’d already lost our mum, then Dad killed himself. We lost the farm. Our home. We lost everything. After that Mark wouldn’t talk to anyone for a long time, not even to grandpa or me. He clammed up and got strange and crazy.’ She looked straight at Ash. ‘But he was still Mark.’
    ‘I’m sorry.’
    ‘Sorry’s no use. It’s just a word you say to make yourself feel better.’
    ‘I don’t feel better.’
    ‘You don’t deserve to. You were supposed to be his best mate, but you just gave up on him.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ he said again.
    ‘He wants to see you,’ said Callie. ‘That’s why I’m here. I was going to go on up to your house later.’
    ‘What does he want?’
    ‘I don’t know. He’s the one who wants to see you, not me.’
    ‘When?’
    ‘Tomorrow night. It has to be tomorrow night.’
    ‘I can’t come tomorrow.’ Not when Dad had only been home a day, he thought. But he couldn’t tell Callie that, couldn’t tell her that his dad had come home safe from war when her own dad was dead.
    ‘You’re just the same,’ she said. ‘Useless.’
    ‘Maybe next week. I can’t get to your grandpa’s house tomorrow. Mum’s busy so I can’t get a lift.’ Immediately he reddened at the lie. It was only a few miles to Cold-brook, where Grandpa Cullen lived. Callie knew as well as he did that it would take him less than half an hour on his bike.
    ‘He’s not staying at Grandpa’s,’ she said. ‘He’s hardly ever there.’
    ‘I can’t make it,’ he said. ‘Why does it have to be tomorrow, anyway?’
    ‘Because that’s when he wants to see you,’ she said. ‘Because next week might be too late.’
    ‘Too late for what?’
    ‘It has to be tomorrow night,’ she said again, looking away. ‘That’s what Mark said.’
    ‘I can’t. There’s stuff going on at home. Mum needs me there.’
    ‘Your dad’s back,’ she said. ‘I know about that. You don’t have to lie.’
    He stared at her,