Once Upon a Wickedness by Fleur Beale

Author:Fleur Beale [Beale, Fleur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781776956739
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A Question with Consequences

What Ilka wrote on the blackboard:

When we ask our question we’ll turn into a slug rat

We won’t be able to talk ever again after we ask

Questions will hurt our mouths

We’ll disappear

Dance jumped to her feet. ‘Of course! That’s it! We’ll ask a question but the next day we won’t be at school because we’ll be disappeared in the night.’

Every single kid gulped and shivered but then Zeb said, ‘If he is going to do that, things are going to get tricky. He’ll make us ask questions, but how do we turn that back on him?’

Everybody watched Dance. She fed more wood into the stove then she prowled around the room wearing a thinking face. At last she came back and sat down. The kids made space for her to get close to the warmth of the stove. ‘He wants to get rid of me,’ she said. ‘If I disappear I reckon he’ll leave the rest of you alone, ’specially now you know how to turn his evil back on himself.’

The kids stared at her, their faces pale. ‘You can’t disappear, Dance,’ Clara whispered.

‘We don’t want you to ever leave.’ Reggie hugged his arms around his body.

There was worry on every face, even a bit on Dance’s, but she knew in her bones that this was the next step to . . . whatever would come. ‘I think I need to ask a question. I want to find out where people go when they’re disappeared, and I want to try to fix things so that this village can be happy again.’

Several of the kids scrubbed tears from their eyes, but Billy said, ‘I’ll ask a question too. I want to find our ma and pa.’ He looked at his little sister. ‘Clara, I’ll find somebody to care for you.’

She shook her head. ‘I’ll go with you and Dance, Billy.’

Dance thought for a bit before she said, ‘It’s a risk though. We don’t know if we’ll be able to come back.’

Billy’s heart gave a bump, but Clara got stubborn. ‘I want to try. I won’t know if I don’t try.’

Dance waited; it wasn’t up to her to tell Clara what to do. She watched Billy wavering between keeping his sister safe(ish) by leaving her behind, or letting her come with them and… whatever. In the end he said, ‘I don’t want to leave you Clara, and that’s a fact.’ He sent her a smile (a bit of a wobbly one) and said, ‘Okay, let’s do this together with Dance.’

Cora said, ‘I’ll ask a question too. I won’t be much use if I stay here. I feel too twitchy and unsettled.’

‘I want to get rid of Murk,’ Larry said. ‘I’m fed up with being hit. I’ll ask a question too.’

Dance clapped her hands. ‘That’ll be five of us. A good number — not too many and not too few.’

The other kids weren’t at all happy. ‘We need you here,’ Reggie said.

‘I feel safe when you’re here,’ said tiny Angelica.

Nobody else said anything — they were too busy trying to pretend they weren’t crying.

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.