Sliver Moon Bay: The Looking Read Free

sticks her bottom lip
out, shakes her head, crosses her arms. ‘You go.’
    So I’m climbing up the dune, to
get her bucket and spade. Then I smell smoke. It can’t be. So soon?
But it is. He’s there, smoking a cigarette in the bushes above me,
staring. But is it really him? It could be a tree branch swaying
over the edge of the cliff. Is it? —I can’t stop to think about it.
I’m not stopping. I’m getting closer. I’m almost under him. Another
second and he can slam his foot down on my head. And then what?
—Exactly. But I’m spared my horrible imaginary death cause he
panics and makes the first move, this time. He kicks into the sand
under his feet. I close my eyes a split second too late. I’m
blinded, unable to breathe. Round two, lost. My goodness, that’s
disappointing. And it’s only a bit of sand. How would I go in hand
to hand combat? He’s twice the size of me, for Christ’s sakes. And
no-one to help me. I have no choice right now. I’ll have to let him
live for a little while longer.
    When I reach the top, it’s game
over. He’s gone. I get the bucket and the spade, and Starling’s
towel to wipe the sand from my eyes. Right. That was nasty. We’re
taking it up a notch, then. Maybe it’ll get interesting now. Either
way, he won’t scare me. I’m onto him.
     
     

 
    3
     
     
    It started to rain. I persuaded
Starling to go home. She didn’t want to cause she likes rain and
she likes to watch raindrops hit the water but I knew Lilian would
worry. She’d wake up now the rain’s falling; the sound of it
plopping on the roof always roused her, so I told Starling I’d get
her ice-cream and she agreed to go home. We went back up the dune
and got the trike. I fastened Starling’s sandals on and put her on
her towel in the basket, then pushed the trike up the path. It was
slow going but at least we weren’t getting wet, here under the
trees. We proceeded quietly; Starling was getting sleepy as she
tends to do after we’ve had a run along the beach.
    In the quiet I thought about
him. He’s come again to watch me. It’s definitely on, then.
    ‘Look, Salah!’ Starling points
excitedly. ‘Look! Birdie!’
    It is a birdie. A baby starling
lying on the ground. About to take a last breath, by the look of
it.
    ‘It sleeping!’ Starling cries,
climbing out of her basket. ‘I want birdie!’
    Okay, we’re going to have to
take this birdie home. I pick it up. It feels like a blob of
chewing gum, like a cotton ball that’s wet. I blow on it and it
opens its tiny beak. Take pity on me, it seems to be saying, so I
do.
    ‘We take birdie home,’ I say to
Starling.
    She climbs back into her seat.
I grab a bunchful of leaves and put them in Starling’s lap.
    ‘Here, darling. Hold birdie,
okay?’
    She nods, puts her little hands
around the leaves. I place the bird in there and Starling hovers
over it, preciously. I push the trike up the path. Starling doesn’t
take her eyes off of her starling.
     
     

 
    4
     
     
    Starling woke up Lilian. She
showed her ‘her’ little birdie and Lilian agreed to let her have it
then went back to sleep. So now we were alone, free to do as we
liked for the rest of the day. So we went into Starling’s room and
made the birdie a cotton ball nest in a shoe box. It lay there,
looking sleepy.
    ‘Birdie tired,’ says Starling
and goes away, to the kitchen to have something to eat. She grabs a
chocolate bar from the pantry, climbing up on a box to get it from
its secret hiding place on the second shelf where Lilian puts
treats, out of Starling’s reach. We share the chocolate bar between
us. We talk about the bird and Starling decides to keep a little
bit of chocolate for later, to share with her birdie when he wakes
up. It’s a cute idea. And who knows? It might just work.
    So goes the afternoon. We draw,
we talk, later we watch a movie about fairies. And Lilian sleeps
the day through.
     
     

 
    5
     
     
    ‘Sarah-honey, I’m going out for
a bit.