BLOOD RUN
Blood Run 4
4.
I'm hungry, the boy said.
His sister sat beside him and the other, the younger lay quiet, her nappy soiled. Yes, we must eat.
The old mummer rustled in the early morning breeze. The sun glinted on the leaves that were stitched together like sequins.
We'll have to get some food she said.
Where?
She tried to imagine what her parents would do without money. Maybe there was some friend, but then her mothers voice came to her and said trust no-one. No-one.
What do we do?
I'll get us some food.
Yes.
She smells.
We need to change her.
How?
I don't know.
She opened the bag.
Did you bring any nappies?
I don't think so.
Why not?
She was vaguely annoyed, I don't know. Why didn't you?
He started to cry. I want Mummy.
Her eyes started to well up too but rather than cry she told him not to worry, that it would be fine, that they would find some way out. She grabbed the bag.
Where shall we go?
At the top of the bag was their parents book. She took it out. I don't know. She opened the book. Folded neatly was the photograph of the five of them together smiling. The were standing in a forest, that day, that summer. In the heat of that holiday. The camera had been put on timer and placed on the balcony of the wooden house. It was a fairytale house that was once covered in candies, their father said, but they had been swept clean because candies make your teeth rot. And to find it they had driven a long rode into the wilderness, and then a path that stretched for miles, that wound its way from where it was that they had abandoned the car.
We could go here, she said.
That's miles away.
Yes.
How do we get there?
Walk.
All the way?
Yes.
She rummaged into the bag, stuck her hand in as deep as she could. She felt her teddy and blankie and his teddy and a toy and her dolly and some more toys and at the very bottom she found the last thing her mother had placed there. A packet of wipes. She pulled it free and showed it to him.
Do we have nappies?
No I told you. But we can clean her and the nappy and put it back on.
She took the little one shoes off and her trousers. She unpeeled the straps to the nappy. The smell was terrible and the nappy was very full. The mess was dry and stuck to her bottom.
That's horrible, he said.
She wiped her. It took six wipes and she threw the wipes aside. She took the nappy and emptied it where she had thrown the wipes and then wiped the nappy clean as best she could and put it back on her, then the trousers, then the shoes. She looked at her brother and told him to wipe his face clean. She took a wipe for herself and rubbed her face. She wished that it was warm.
We'd better go.
I'm hungry, he said.
Yes, I know.
They dragged themselves out from under the shade. The little one was very quiet.
Do you think that she is well?
Yes, she just didn't sleep.
Nor did I.
Me neither.
The morning sun felt tepid on their faces.