Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

manage alone, but I don’t want to, I can’t, put you through that too. Or anyone I love. It’s brutal.”

“Look,” his eyes on me pleaded, “I won’t be gone long. This will be the last time, I’m sure of it. I don’t want to go, but I have to.”

I could see his mind was already made up. “What if you don’t come back?” I asked. “What if you get caught?”

“I won’t get caught.”

“How do you know?”

“I promise. I won’t get caught. I’ll be extra cautious with everything I do.”

I felt something on my cheek, then more little drops came down. There was a lovely pitter-patter soothing sound as the rain landed on the leaves and the trees.

“Okay.” I said. “How long will you be gone?”

“Well, actually, I think it’s better for me to walk, and save the bus money. I know, what you’re thinking, but I’ve thought about it a lot these past three days. So I’ll be, I guess, maybe four or five days maximum.”

I looked into his face. He bit his thin lips and chewed them as his eyes stared out at the rain falling on the land. I really don’t know him, I thought. We’ve been through a lot together, but how well can you know someone after only two weeks? Maybe he’s had enough, and won’t come back? Will I be left here alone, for the whole winter?

“Look, just calm down.” I said.

“I am calm.”

He was adamant, and there was no convincing him. He said he planned to leave the next morning.

Chapter 47

W e waited around the rest of that day. With it raining, we stayed inside the tent- me writing, him re-reading his Moonwalking with Einstein book. It was awkward between us. I didn’t regret running with him, I had nowhere else to go, and besides, it was him who saw the open door when the staff were distracted. But it felt like everything had been thrown up into the air, and I didn’t know what was going to happen.

The rain went off at dark, but we had dinner inside. The next morning when I woke he’d already packed up. On his side of the tent there was an empty space.

I heard him shuffling about outside. Zips opening and closing. I stuck my head out to see him kneeling in the heather. “Morning.” I said.

He looked back, nervously. “Morning.”

“Did you pack plenty food?”

He stuffed his headtorch into the backpack’s side pocket. “Yeah, I cooked some rice in one of the plastic containers. I have bananas, and a little bit of bread too. Will be enough till Inverness.”

“Okay.” I said. “And remember to get UHT milk, and more teabags. And to phone the care com-”

“Yeah, I said I would. I promise. UHT milk, teabags, and tampax. Anything else?”

I had been using sphagnum moss the past two days, but I was worried about tics.

“Good. Good.” I said. “No, that’s all. Thanks.”

I watched him pretending to pack. The dreich, drizzly weather corresponded with my mood.

“I don’t know what to say.” He proffered at last.

I forced a smile. “It’s fine. I’ll see you in five days, right?”

He nodded.

We had some tea together then I walked down with him, his guilty face traipsing the ground as we reached the old man tree then headed left along the lochside.

I peered out into the greyness above the water. It was just like it had been on the day we left Glasgow- the same soft rain that hung in the air, unsure of what to do. “Not the best weather to start.” I said.

“Yeah. At least the snows melted though, and the slush has gone. I don’t mind the rain so much.”

We turned the head of the loch, walking along by the mountainside to our left. We both stopped at the same time.

“Well…” Harry said, looking up at me. He looked so small, and young. His navy collar was turned up high above his scarf, his backpack strapped tight around his bony shoulders. The rainwater glued his oversized jacket to his thighs.

“Well,” I said. “Good luck.”

I stretched my arms around him and we squeezed each other tight.

“I’ll come back, I promise. Don’t worry.” he assured.

I didn’t reply. I let go and stood back.

“Ok, bugger off then,” I joked. “You know how to get to Inverness, right? I’m not going to hear about you getting frozen like Jack Nicholson, somewhere in the middle of the mountains?”

He laughed. He looked relieved. The sparkle retained his eyes. “Heeere’s Harry! Maybe I’ll just find us a hotel like that to hide out in, kill the caretaker, and it will be ours!” He pumped his fist in the air.

“Sounds like a plan.”

He looked down at the gravel, then up at me, “Do you know about the minotaur? Where the inspiration for that film comes from?”

I shook my head and smiled. “Tell me about it when you’re back, Harry. I’ll be waiting for a good story.”

He nodded, and gazed away into the trees beside us, then above the trees to the stream coming down. It hadn’t been there when we arrived eight days ago. It ran from the gap between two hills, until it was loud enough and close enough that it was the only thing we could hear.

He started walking away, then turned and walked backwards, “Five days, tops, and you can hear all about the Minotaur! Greek Mythology. You know how I love the Greeks!”

I waved. He waved back and smiled. He looked glad to be going. I didn’t know if he just needed to keep on the move, or if he really did want to get all the things he felt we needed. Maybe he had to sort something out by himself, I didn’t know. He turned his back fully on me.