Directions for Dark Things by Stephanie Sowden

Author:Stephanie Sowden [Sowden, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Audrey

Wednesday

Audrey flipped shut the cap on the olive oil and placed it back in the pantry alongside the last remaining few bottles from the haul they’d had that one summer Daddy had decided to collect and press the olives from the grove on the back half of the land. Mrs Doyle had used it for over a year, until she’d started to complain it had gone bad and made her dressings taste rancid. By that time Audrey was gone and Daddy was too distracted to be pressing more olives, and so the bottles had stayed in their spot on the bottom pantry shelf, just waiting for a use.

When Irina had taken her into the pantry and pointed at them, Audrey had said, ‘Absolutely not. The poor girl could kill herself.’

‘There’s something not quite right about her,’ Irina said before putting the bottle in Audrey’s hands. ‘About why she’s here. You can see that.’

‘She’s right, my darling,’ Daddy said from next to Irina. ‘Do what you do best and take care of her. She clearly needs you.’

Audrey had considered this, as she’d poured the silky golden oil down the steps and returned to the table to wait for her new companion. Terri had taken herself off down to the fourth floor, for what Audrey couldn’t think. Irina and Daddy were right, there was something not quite right about this girl. Best for everyone if she stayed here for the time being.

Audrey had learned long ago that things did not go well when she prioritised her own mind. But she’d been on her own for so long she’d forgotten that perhaps she did need somebody. Irina, Daddy and Mama kept her company of course. But sometimes she’d watch them fade away, the backdrop of her old, empty house emerging into focus in their absence. Her brilliant mind was not always willing to be tricked for too long, even by itself.

Much better to have someone there who would stay. Someone, as Daddy pointed out, that needed her. Somebody she could make better.

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