Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor

Author:Hayley Scrivenor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

* * *

Lewis stayed in to talk to Mrs. Rodriguez over recess. I hovered in the doorway, but he didn’t look at me. He was talking about an assignment that wasn’t due for ages. Esther was the glue that held us together, and he was never really chatty, but he hadn’t even said hello.

“Hey, Ronnie,” he said, nodding at me as he walked away from the teacher’s desk. As if to punctuate his words, the bell rang.

Everything I’d planned to say melted away.

After recess, I gave Mrs. Rodriguez my poster on Peru. She made an odd face when I handed it to her. Almost no one else had done the homework, and I hoped that meant it would be displayed on the classroom wall. Mum had been home on Sunday afternoon, so I hadn’t been able to use the lamp in the end. Instead, I’d traced the llama from the magazine onto a separate, thin piece of paper and then stuck it onto my poster.

When the bell rang for lunch, Lewis came up to my desk. “I’ve got Bible group,” he said, already walking away, like he’d guessed that I wanted to talk to him but he didn’t want to talk back.

He’d never gone to Bible group before. My mum had signed the note excusing me from Friday Scripture, but I hadn’t passed it on to the teachers. More often than not, Mrs. Cafree had mini chocolates that she doled out for correct answers to questions like Who will love you forever? She was an easy mark: Jesus was the answer to almost all her questions. But it was Monday, and the Bible group didn’t even have snacks; you had to bring your own lunch. I sat alone under the fig tree and ate the sandwich Mum had packed for me.

When the bell rang for the end of the day, I stood up and walked straight to Lewis’s desk.

“I need to talk to you,” I said. “I feel like you’re avoiding me.” I enjoyed the drama of the statement. It was something my Barbies might say to each other. “I’ll see you out at the bags.”

Lewis took ages. I waited as everyone else in the class drifted toward the buses or the hot walk home. The veranda of our classroom was empty by the time Lewis reached his hook.

“I have to find Esther,” I said.

Lewis unzipped his dark blue backpack without looking at me. I had to get his attention.

“And you’re going to help me,” I added.

“You know where she is?” Lewis’s face was a small, pale moon.

Mrs. Rodriguez hadn’t come out of the classroom yet. She always took ages packing up.

“Will you come and look with me?”

“Where?” Lewis folded his arms across his chest and looked back toward the classroom.

Maybe if he thought I knew where she was, he would come. “The creek.”

His eyes widened.

“People are looking for her. Adults, who know what they are doing.” Lewis’s arms were still crossed. He looked like he was giving himself a hug.

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