Fertile Ground by Sally Grey

Author:Sally Grey [Grey, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
Published: 2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

PART FOUR

Another doorstep surprise this morning. No, not a dead bird. Makes a change, I know. A box this time. A large one. With a tiny, embossed tree on the side. Golden tendrils flowering outwards, delicate leaves. The detail on this thing is ridiculous, really. It’s just a logo. Calm down.

There’s no one outside, no unusual cars nearby to tell me who left it here. No note.

I take it inside, put it on the kitchen table. It looks funny sitting there, shiny and white against the old, scarred wood of the table, the old-fashioned kitchen. Country kitsch, an interior designer would probably call it, before announcing it out of fashion and gutting the whole thing to re-design it in ugly chrome and sparkle.

I use a pair of scissors to open the box, peel back the flaps at the top, before I notice it isn’t addressed to me. Or to Dad. Or even to you, Mother.

“Billy?”

He’s taken to lying down upstairs, actually underneath his childhood bed. He shimmies into the dust-filled space and spends hours staring at the coils of springs hidden there. Not the weirdest thing he’s done, and we all know it could be so much worse, so I’m not questioning it for now. Annoying when I need him, though, he can’t seem to hear anything when he’s under there.

“Billy!”

I’m halfway up the stairs, then all the way up the stairs, then practically under the bed with him when I finally get a response.

That response is, “Uh?”

So eloquent, my baby brother.

“You’ve got a package. Downstairs.”

His eyes look as confused as my head feels. It has to be something bad, obviously. No one knows he’s here except me, Dorrie, Gus and Tony. I didn’t send for anything, Dorrie wouldn’t order something without telling me, Tony’s so wrapped up in his own ego the idea of him buying a present for someone without the ulterior motive of sex is ridiculous, so the only person who could have addressed this box to my brother is our vengeful neighbourhood plumber. So, the conclusion is it’s a box of anthrax. I probably shouldn’t have brought it inside.

Billy looks as it, sitting there on the table, like it’s a bomb. Another possibility, I suppose.

“Don’t ask me who sent it, I don’t know. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know. It was just on our doorstep.”

Billy doesn’t move.

“Are you going to open it?” Long pause. “Look, I’m sorry I opened the top, I didn’t think it would be for you.”

Although why I thought it would be for me, I don’t know. Who would be sending me gifts? Maybe I thought it was something Dad ordered before he died. I can’t have thought it was something she ordered, or I wouldn’t have bothered to open it, would’ve just chucked it straight in the bin. I don’t want anything of yours, Mother. I don’t know what I thought.

If he doesn’t open it in the next ten seconds, I’m opening it for him. I can’t bear the suspense.

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Billy clasps

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.