Читать книгу The Hum of the Sun - Kirsten Miller - Страница 21

3.

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They reached the main road two hours later. On the way, a vehicle stopped. A man put his head out the window of the cab of a truck sup­porting a canopy filled with chickens. Ash recognised him as the owner of the makeshift spaza shop where his mother had bought their milk and washing powder and green hand-hardening soap. “You boys not at school?” the man asked. He wore a woollen knitted hat over the dome of his head.

“My mother died,” Ash replied.

“I heard from the priest,” the man said. “We’re expecting a funeral.”

“I heard,” Ash said. “We won’t be there.”

“You don’t go to school?”

Ash squinted at the road ahead. “Zuko doesn’t go to school. He won’t sit in a chair too long.”

“And you?”

Ash shifted on his feet. “I can’t go now. There’s things I have to do.”

“You should have shown your mother some respect and buried her properly.”

“There’s a lot of things we don’t do properly, my family.”

“I heard there was a rich guy who supports you. From the city.”

“I don’t know about that.”

The man pointed at Zuko. “Is he the one that won’t speak?”

“Can’t speak. He would if he could.”

“I heard about him. He okay in the head?”

“He’s standing right here. Don’t talk about him like that.”

“From what I’ve heard, he won’t understand me anyways.”

“That’s not true.”

The man put both his hands on the wheel, and looked bored.

“You going to the city?” Ash asked. He assessed the chickens in the back. They’d both fit in there, if they had to.

“Why? You want a ride?”

“Our father’s there.”

“You’ve got a father?”

“Everyone’s got a father.”

“Not everyone knows who that is.”

“I know. She told me. My mother told me.”

He raised an eyebrow. “From what I heard, your mother quite liked the men.”

“What are you saying?”

“Nothing. Get in the back with the chickens. I’ll give you a lift home.”

The sky rolled out to another place. The road would take them there. There was nothing to go back to. Ash shook his head. Zuko squinted into the sun and played with the light through his long eyelashes.

“No,” Ash said. “We’re on our way already.”

“Someone will report you, taking a kid like that on the road.” The man flicked his left indicator, already resigned that they had made their decision.

“You think he looks like he doesn’t want to be out here?”

The man shrugged, and pushed his beanie back from his dark fore­head. “You got shoes for him?”

“In the bag,” Ash lied. “He doesn’t like wearing them.”

“If anyone asks me, I’ll deny I ever saw the two of you. I don’t want any trouble.”

Ash shrugged. “Whatever. It’s a free country.”

“Now it is.” The vehicle accelerated onto the tar and the wheels spun slightly, like the sound of a small animal.

The Hum of the Sun

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