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1474 Words
"I said, what do you want?" the girl insisted. I was too surprised that she actually knew how to speak our language. She didn't look like anyone I had ever seen around here. It was as if she was manifested out of nowhere. Then I heard them yelling for me from the camp.
"Kira! Kira! Kira!"
Their voices were coming closer by the minute. I knew I couldn't stay here any longer. I had to shuffle out again. I began to back away from the strange girl. She stared hard at me, her face remained confused and irritated. I had to leave her for now, and maybe I would come back when she was calmer.
It was Mr. Shirokani. He came down the path to me.
"Didn't we tell you..." he started.
"Yes," I said. "Yes. Yes."
I started to brush the dust off myself. A potato bug dropped away from my shoulder. Mr. Shirokani put his hands on his hips.
"Next time I'm going to keep an eye on you the most," he said.
I made a face.
"It's for your own good. Now time to go."
~*~
I hardly slept that night. Every time I did drop off I saw her coming out of the cave and coming through the wood. Then I saw her in my bedroom. I saw her come right to the bed. She stood there all dusty and white like the moon.
"What do you want?" she whispered. "I said, what do you want?"
I told myself I was stupid. I'd never seen her at all. That had all been part of a dream as well. I lay there in the dark. I heard Dad snoring downstairs. I imagined Mom cooing at the baby inside a glass case with tubes and wires sticking in him. They had stood around staring at the baby like he was in a fish tank. They'd told us I had to keep praying for him but I didn't know what to pray.
When it was pitch black outside I drifted off again. It was already getting light when I got up and tiptoed into the kitchen. My Dad was gone. He left a note along with my breakfast of pancakes and no syrup for me. The note read: "Going to see your brother and Mom. Run out of syrup, sorry."
I ate the pancake dry then went back to my room and looked down into the backyard. There was a blackbird singing away on the eucalyptus tree. I thought of the cave girl with her matted hair and dirty face. What was she doing there?
I asked Dad to go on a camping trip two weeks later, and he wasn't surprised anymore. I had been busy at school, and they had been busy with work and hospital visits, too.
"When do they release him?" I asked.
Mom clicked her tongue and sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
"We don't know, honey," she breathed and continued to push her sauteed chicken breast around her plate.
"Is it too dry, darling?" Dad asked.
"No, it's perfect," Mom tried to smile. "It's just..."
She didn't finish the sentence. Dad had taken off work that day to cook for us. Mom had come home for a little break from the baby.
"Should I stay off so I can help?" I offered.
"No, don't worry about it," Dad said. "When is your trip again?"
"This Friday," I said. "I'll be back on Sunday's evening."
"You're doing a two-night hike?" Mom asked, looking concerned.
"We have this program where Mr. Shirokani includes star-gazing and folk dance at his village," I said. "Three of my classmates are going too."
"Did you pack enough clothes?" Dad said. "It's going to be freezing."
"There will be a bonfire," I said. He nodded. Mom went back to pushing her chicken.
~*~
Before we moved, they had enrolled me in a public school here. I didn't mind that I'd have to take a bus back and forth instead of being driven by Dad. It gave me enough freedom, but I never knew that being free also means being alone. That morning I told myself that it gave me time to think about what was going on. But I couldn't think. I watched the people getting on and off. I looked at them reading their papers and picking their nails or looking dreamily out the windows.
I wanted to stand up and shout, "There's a mysterious girl in the cave and my brother is ill and my parents are depressed, and I'm freaking lonely here!"
But I just went on looking at all the faces and swinging back and forth when the bus swung around corners. I knew if somebody looked at me, they'd think nothing of me. Nothing weird had happened to this seemingly normal girl, either.
It was strange being at school here. The Saprano asked us to lift up our hearts and voices and sing out loud in assembly. The Yeti inspected our nails and uniforms. The Mad Monkey went red in the face and stamped his feet when we didn't know our equations. Miss. Clementina got tears in her eyes when she told us the story of Icarus, how his wings had melted when he flew too close to the sun, and how he had dropped like a stone past his father into the sea.
At lunchtime, Maxima and Nikolay argued for ages about whether the Americans faked the moon landing.
I couldn't be bothered with it all.
I went to the fence at the edge of the field and stared over the town towards where Lake Tunaycha was. I told myself that I couldn't tell anyone until I knew who the cave girl was.
The camping trip came, and once again, I slipped off when Mr. Shirokani didn't keep an eye on me. I was stealthy and quick like a mouse, and the next thing I knew, I was in the cave again.
Leaning over the large rock, I shined the flashlight and there she was. She hadn't moved from the spot since the last time I saw her. My heart started acting up again. The girl opened her eyes and closed them, but didn't appear to be hostile.
"You again," she said, in her cracked, squeaky voice.
"What are you doing here?" I whispered.
She sighed like she was sick to death of everything.
"Nothing," she squeaked. "Nothing, nothing, and nothing."
I watched a dry mud cracked on her skin as she shifted.
"Are you hiding from anyone?" I asked. "Are you a runaway?"
"No."
"People are going to find you," I tried again. "Don't you have a home to go to?"
She sighed. "Got food?"
"Food?"
"To eat."
"Oh," I breathed and immediately rummaged through my backpack for my granola bar. When I found it, I shakily handed it to her. Her face was pale as dry plaster. Her hair hung like a blanket over her thin frame. My heart pounded when she began to move. The earthy air was clogging my nostrils and throat. I bit my lips and watched her hand reaching for the snack. She spent a moment looking incomprehensibly at it, turning it over and over.
"What is this?" she said.
"It's food," I told her.
"No, it's not." She threw it away. "Useless."
"Yes, yes it is!" I cried and pulled myself over the rock to retrieve the snack bar without thinking. The girl hissed and scrambled away. I put my hands up to calm her. "Sorry!"
"Get out!" she screamed. "Get out! Go away! Go!"
I panicked and staggered to my feet again before climbing back over the rock.
"I didn't mean to frighten you," I said, looking back at her again. "Is there something I could bring you? Water?"
"Nothing. Nothing. Go away!"
I backed out and emerged into the light a while later. I brushed the dust and the cobwebs off then I looked down the cave one last time. Dejectedly, I decided to head back to the camp. Maybe, I will come back with less questionable food later, I thought.
I reached the lakeshore and slipped back into my tent without anyone noticed.
"Are you the new girl here?" said somebody inside. I almost yelped in surprise. There was a girl's head sticking up from her sleeping bag next to mine. I knew two people were assigned to share a tent, but I thought no one would show up. I was wrong.
"Yes."
"I'm India."
"India?" I stared at her.
"Well?" she said.
"What?"
She clicked her tongue and shook her head and said in a bored-sounding voice, "I'm India. You're..."
"Kira," I said.
"Good. That's how it works," she said then pulled her hoodie over her wheat-colored hair and turned over before going back to sleep again.
- Writer
