The Leaves Forget by Alan Baxter

Author:Alan Baxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PS Publishing
Published: 2023-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

20

WE DRIVE UP THE LONG dirt track and eventually it opens out into a wide, cleared area. Liv’s letters flood back to me when I see the main house, the communal eating area, all the cabins. Beside the main house is a large chicken coop, but no chickens I can see, and several veggie beds that have gone to seed. It’s just like she described. I feel a strange déjà vu, like I’ve been here before, but I know it’s only my imagination. I picture Liv here, loving it on her arrival, then slowly becoming more concerned as the shine wore off, as the community dissolved into something else. Something dangerous, deadly.

The place is cold and dark and deserted. There’s an old Ford station wagon parked off to one side, as much rust as paint and the tyres are all flat. Looks like it’s been there for years. No other vehicles are in sight.

Dad pulls up beside the old Ford and squints out through the windscreen glass. “What now?”

“Start at the main house?” Andrew asks.

I point over towards the cabins. We can see the last two now, tucked under the overhanging bush, leaves and bird shit coating the roofs. “They’re all small, single room things. Let’s check them first, it’ll only take a few moments.”

Dry leaves and twigs crackle and snap underfoot as we climb out of the car and make our way over. There’s muted bird noises and a soft wind in the dry foliage, but the place is otherwise still. The communal area is full of dead leaves, twigs and bark, cobwebs in every corner. It doesn’t take long for nature to start reclaiming a place the moment people stop pushing themselves into it.

“It feels . . .” Andrew pauses, searching for the right word.

“Dead?” I offer.

He glances at me, tight-lipped. Nods.

None of the cabins are locked. They don’t even have locks. But I’m relieved to notice they do have sliding bolts on the inside, so people staying here could have privacy if they wanted it. To some degree anyway, the flimsy doors wouldn’t take much kicking in.

All the cabins are empty. A simple cot bed, side table, and a small wardrobe in each. A couple of the wardrobes have clothes in them, men’s and women’s, but nothing else. We check the single drawer in each bedside cabinet and they’re all empty.

When we get to the second row of cabins my heart rate goes up. Liv said she had one of these. The first one we open has a green cardigan hooked up on the end of the bed and Dad makes a small noise, looks at me.

I nod. “That’s Liv’s.”

Dad picks it up, balls it and presses it to his face, breathes deep. It’s a strangely vulnerable move and Andrew takes my hand as I suck in a breath. I imagine Dad thinking of Liv as a baby, a little girl, a surly teenager. All the stages of her life, he’s been there. And now she’s gone.

“Just smells like dust and damp now,” he says in a tight voice.

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