A Million Things by Emily Spurr
Author:Emily Spurr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2021-02-15T00:00:00+00:00
Day 41
Friday
Iâm still on the couch when I hear it, the beep-beep of a truck reversing and the boom of heavy metal landing in the street. I peer out your window. A scraped old container, once blue, possibly orange before that, now just a dirty, rusty bang of a skip rests in front of Lettieâs. The truck it was dumped off is already halfway down the street.
The cleaners.
I didnât think theyâd be here this soon. I thought Iâd have a week or so, a few days at the very least. I pull on my school gear and hurry to the kitchen. I grab mosquito coils from under the sink, the purple lighter from the drawer next to the stove and step out the back. My thumb keeps slipping off the lighter. By the time I manage to get each ring smouldering my fingers are aching. I place one on the table next to the door, one on the pavers and one in a mosquito-coil tin near your shed. The coils smoke and the heavy scent pushing into my sinuses makes my eye sockets ache. I breathe in through my nose, long and deep. Itâs still there, underneath, sweetly sour, a sharp sinking rotten that catches at the back of the throat and forces my feet back. I light another coil and place it near the fence line. Splinter sneezes and shakes his head. I loop my fingers through his collar and step us both inside. He might bark and I donât want anyone popping their face over the fence. I cut the tape and open the windows from the kitchen so I can drop incense sticks in jars on the outer ledge, half a packet in each. I light them and pull the windows mostly shut, hoping to keep the smell on the outside. Overkill? Maybe. Itâll give me a few hours, at best. What else can I do?
I leave early. Lettieâs in her front yard scowling at four people in white jumpsuits piling out of a van. It has one of those cage trailers attached at the back. They wave at her. She stands next to the skip and glares at them. Another truck with a skip on the back appears around the corner. Good luck to whoever thinks theyâll be filling that thing. My shoulders relax a little. Thereâs no way theyâll get through the house today, they wonât make it to the backyard for ages.
âWho do you think youâre waving at? Weâre not friends.â Lettieâs angry voice cuts through the morning chill.
I smile.
Schoolâs not the relief it usually is. Ms Pham asks if Iâm okay and tells me I have some extra homework to catch up on, then we get a notice for school camp. A trip to the old gold mines in Ballarat. It costs $89. The rest of the day jumps through moments: Iâm performing coherent actions I donât remember starting or finishing.
What if I pay? Thatâs enough to feed me and Splints for more than a week.
Download
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.
Fury of Magnus by Graham McNeill(2058)
The Fine Print (Dreamland Billionaires Book 1) by Lauren Asher(1817)
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn(1599)
Luster by Raven Leilani(1564)
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward(1562)
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi(1556)
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz(1404)
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid(1354)
This Changes Everything by Unknown(1157)
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante(1154)
The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses) by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu(1142)
The Midwife Murders by James Patterson & Richard Dilallo(1136)
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook(1110)
Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte by Kate Williams(1081)
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur(1081)
The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson(1077)
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante;(1045)
Every Vow You Break by Swanson Peter(1029)
Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins(1007)