Catherine Jinks TheRoad (69 page)

What did it mean?

Overnight, Peter’s attitude towards their predicament had changed. The day before, he had withdrawn himself slightly from everything that was going on. He had retreated into his head, which was well furnished with fantasy scenarios and alternative worlds and longings for things like roast chicken and TV and hot showers. He had recognised that they were in a bit of a mess, but had figured that it would all blow over – that the adults would find a solution – and that they would be home before he missed anything important, like his friend Henry’s birthday party.

The long night in the caravan, however, had transformed him. He had never expected to be stuck out in the desert for a
whole night
; the fact that it had actually happened suggested to him that things were way out of control. He’d had trouble sleeping, and during his wakeful moments had found himself pondering the exact nature of the events overtaking them. If Alec was right – and Peter had become more and more convinced that he
was
right – then they were in the middle of something supernatural. Something you might see in a film, or read about in one of his science fiction novels. Something that most adults, he knew, would find hard to accept.

All indications pointed towards the possibility that they were stuck inside some sort of temporal loop. They weren’t doing the same
things
over and over again, but they were passing the same
place
over and over again. That much was obvious. You didn’t have to be a genius to work that out. The question was, Why? And how could the loop be broken?

Peter had read about people seeing UFOs out in desert country like this. He wondered if what had befallen them was somehow connected with the passage of a UFO. He also wondered if the government had established some kind of secret facility way out here – like the old nuclear test sites they’d once built at Woomera – where scientists (probably physicists) were actually experimenting with temporal inversions and things. Maybe the scientists had developed some kind of ray. Maybe they’d had some kind of
leak
, like a radiation leak, only different.

These were the thoughts that had passed through Peter’s mind while he lay on the floor of the caravan. Now, having determined that Alec’s claims had been well and truly substantiated – to the satisfaction even of a sceptic like Mr Harwood – he considered the question of whether or not he should discuss his theories with someone else. With his dad, say. Or with Alec.

It soon became obvious, however, that he wouldn’t be able to raise the topic of temporal dislocation any time soon. Not while the adults were arguing. For they
were
arguing, though not very heatedly, about what they should do next. Peter could hear their raised voices quite clearly, even behind the caravan.

Rose, who was carefully drawing a noughts-and-crosses grid in the dirt, seemed not to notice.

‘. . . said there’s a fridge there. Water. Electricity.’ It was Linda speaking. ‘Wouldn’t it be better for the kids if some of us waited at Thorndale, while the rest tried to find a way through to Broken Hill? Wouldn’t that make sense? The kids need baths. They need to run around a bit.’

‘. . . don’t wanna be there . . .’ Alec replied, in muffled accents. ‘. . . bodies . . .’

‘Well
obviously
we’d clear the bodies away
first
.’

‘What, are ya mad?’ Del squawked. ‘Can’t disturb a crime scene! It’s against the law!’

Noel said something, too softly for Peter to hear. Linda added that of course it wasn’t against the law, not in emergency situations. Del pointed out that there was something else to consider.

‘We never found the kid,’ she squawked. ‘There was a kid livin there, and we never found ’im. Mongrel didn’t find ’im. If we go back, we could take another look.’

‘A kid?’ gasped Linda. ‘What kid?’