Catherine Jinks TheRoad (79 page)

‘Dunno. Could be.’ Del didn’t seem particularly interested. ‘Better leave it alone.’

‘Come here, Rose, I’ve got to wash you down,’ Linda ordered. ‘Why do you always manage to find the one place where you shouldn’t be?’

‘But it was an
accident
!’

‘Don’t be cross with her, Lin.’

‘Here,’ said Verlie, ‘I’ve got an old washcloth we could use . . .’

Suddenly, to Peter’s surprise, he was alone. Linda and Verlie had hustled a whimpering Rose into the caravan. Ross and Noel were talking to Del again. Ambrose was hanging around the ute, peering nervously at his girlfriend, and Louise had wandered back to Ross’s car, the headphones clamped firmly over her ears.

Peter couldn’t believe it. Why wasn’t anybody more interested? This red stuff wasn’t normal, surely? It looked
grotesque
. Not only that – it was seeping out of the ground. He could see it spreading, like oil or water. Could it
be
oil?

Petrol was sort of pinkish, he knew that. Could oil be sort of reddish? A very, very dark red?

Like stop motion photography of a vine growing, the watery goo began to branch out, trickles of it slowly welling across the

soil, gathering dust, heading towards Peter . . .

He jumped back, and collided with Alec.

‘Oh!’

‘Watch it.’ Alec grabbed his arm.

‘Sorry. I’m sorry.’

‘What’s the matter with you?’

‘I dunno. Sorry.’ But on second thoughts, Peter decided that someone should be informed. ‘That stuff,’ he said. ‘It’s coming out of the ground. It is. You can see.’

Alec stared at him for a moment. Then, with narrowed eyes, he examined the smeared and trampled scene of Rosie’s excavations. Standing some distance away, Peter realised that the scratches in the earth now looked extraordinarily like open wounds.

‘It’s as if the ground is bleeding,’ he whispered, with horror.