I sigh and open it up. It’s all written, all words, all in my ma’s handwriting, pages and pages and pages of it and I–
Well, anyway. I go back to the map, to Ben’s writing on the other side, the first chance I’ve had to look at it in something other than torchlight, which ain’t really for reading. Ben’s words are lined up at the top. Go to are the first ones, those are definitely the first words, and then there are a coupla longer words that I don’t have time to sound out yet and then a coupla big paragraphs that I really don’t have time for right now but at the bottom of the page Ben’s underlined a group of words together.
I look at the girl, still rocking, and I turn my back to her. I put my finger under the first underlined word.
Let’s see. Yow? You, it’s gotta be you. You. Okay, me what? M. Moo? Moose? Moosed? You moosed. You moosed? What the hell does that mean? Wuh. Wuh. Warr. Warren? Tuh. Tuhee? Tuheem. You moosed warren tuheem? No, wait, them. It’s them. Course it’s them, idiot.
But You moosed warren them?
Huh?
’Member when I said Ben tried to teach me to read? ’Member when I said I wasn’t too good at it? Well–
Well, whatever.
You moosed warren them.
Idiot.
I look at the book again, flip thru the pages. Dozens of them, dozens upon dozens, all with more words in every corner, all saying nothing to me at all, no answers of any kind.
Stupid effing book.
I shove the map back inside, slam the cover shut and throw the book on the ground.
You idiot.
“Stupid effing book!” I say, out loud this time, kicking it into some ferns. I turn back to the girl. She’s still just rocking back and forth, back and forth, and I know, I know, okay, I know, but it starts to piss me off. Cuz if this is a dead end, I got nothing more to offer and she ain’t offering nothing neither.
My Noise starts to crackle.
“I didn’t ask for this, you know,” I say. She don’t even look. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”
But nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
“I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!” I yell and stand and start stomping around, shouting till my voice scratches. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO! I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!” I turn back to the girl. “I’m SORRY! I’m sorry this happened to you but I don’t know what to do about it AND STOP EFFING ROCKING!”
“Yelling, Todd,” Manchee barks.
“Awwghh!” I shout, putting my hands over my face. I take them away and nothing’s changed. That’s the thing I’m learning about being thrown out on yer own. Nobody does nothing for you. If you don’t change it, it don’t get changed.
“We gotta keep going,” I say, picking up my rucksack all angry-like. “You ain’t caught it yet, so maybe just keep yer distance from me and you’ll be okay. I don’t know but that’s all there is so that’s what we gotta do.”
Rock, rock, rock.
“We can’t go back so we gotta go forward and that’s that.”
Still rocking.
“I KNOW you can HEAR me!”
She don’t even flinch.
And I’m suddenly tired all over again. “Fine,” I sigh. “Fine, whatever, you stay here and rock. Who cares? Who ruddy cares about anything?”
I look at the book on the ground. Stupid thing. But it’s what I got so I reach down, pick it up, put it in the plastic bag, back in my rucksack, and put my rucksack back on.
“C’mon, Manchee.”
“Todd?!” he barks, looking twixt me and the girl. “Can’t leave, Todd!”
“She can come if she wants,” I say, “but–”
I don’t even really know what the but might be. But if she wants to stay here and die all alone? But if she wants to go back and get caught by Mr Prentiss Jr? But if she wants to risk catching the Noise from me and dying that way?
What a stupid world.
“Hey,” I say, trying to make my voice a little gentler but my Noise is so raging there’s really no point. “You know where we were heading, right? To the river twixt the mountains. Just follow it till you come to a settlement, okay?”
Maybe she’s hearing me, maybe she ain’t.
“I’ll keep an eye out for you,” I say. “I understand if you don’t wanna get too close but I’ll keep an eye out for you.”
I stand there for another minute to see if it sinks in.
“Well,” I finally say. “Nice knowing ya.”
I start walking away. When I get to the big stack of shrubs, I turn back, giving her one more chance. But she ain’t changed, just rocking and rocking.
So that’s that then. Off I go, Manchee reluctantly on my heels, looking back as much as he can, barking my name all the time. “Todd! Todd! Leaving, Todd? Todd! Can’t leave, Todd!” I finally smack him on the rump. “Ow, Todd?”
“I don’t know, Manchee, so quit asking.”
We make our way back thru the trees to where the ground dries out, to the clearing and up the little bluff where we ate our breakfast and looked at the beautiful day and I had my brilliant deducshun about her death.
The little bluff where her bag still lies on the ground.
“Oh, goddam it!”
I look at it for a second and it’s one thing after another, ain’t it? I mean, do I take it back to her? Do I just hope she finds it? Will I put her in danger if I do? Will I put her in danger if I don’t?
The sun’s well up now and the sky as blue as fresh meat. I put my hands on my h*ps and take a long look round like men do when they’re thinking. I look at the horizon, look back the way we came, the mist mostly burnt off by now and the whole swamp forest covered in sunlight. From the top of the bluff, you can see out over it, over where we drove our feet into oblivion by walking it all. If it were clear enough and you had powerful enough binos you could probably see all the way back to town.
Powerful binos.
I look down at her bag on the ground there.
I’m reaching for it when I think I hear something. Like a whisper. My Noise leaps and I look up to see if the girl’s following me out after all. Which makes me more relieved than I want to say.
But it ain’t the girl. I hear it again. A whisper. More than one whisper. Like the wind is carrying whispering on it.
“Todd?” Manchee says, sniffing the air.
I squint into the sunlight to look back over the swamp.
Is there something out there?
I grab the girl’s bag and look thru it for the binos. There’s all kinds of neat crap in there but I take the binos out and look thru them.