Free Phoenix by Eden Maguire Page B

off again, telling myself no, I’m not playing. Then I glance up at her. She has clear grey eyes, a long face with a mysterious scar on her cheek, a mouth where a gentle smile hovers. I cave in. OK. This tiny white stone is me when I’m scared, this sharp black lava stone is for when I’m angry and blaming myself, this crystal quartz with the light reflecting from it reminds me of Phoenix … I set them in a row on the low table.
    ‘Pick up the small white one,’ Kim tells me. ‘Describe it to me.’
    ‘It’s me when I’m scared. You wouldn’t notice that it has a hole right through the middle.’
    She looks at me, waits for more.
    ‘I put it back in the bowl and it easily gets lost.’
    ‘You think people don’t see that you’re frightened?’
    I blink and look out of the window. ‘I don’t let them.’
    ‘They see anyway,’ Kim says gently. Then she moves on to my big black guilt-and-anger stone.
     
    All of which leaves me feeling like I matter until I walk out to the car park and bump into Jim talking to Henry Jardine.
    Jim’s job is to sell and fix computers. He’d been workingin an attorney’s office next door to Kim. I just have to glimpse my stepdad for the big old black stone to come hurtling out.
    ‘Are you checking up on me?’ I muttered. ‘I already texted Laura to say I kept the appointment.’
    ‘How did it go?’
    I shrugged then switched on the smile for the deputy sheriff. ‘Hey, how are you doing?’
    ‘I’m good, thanks. I was telling Jim here about a fly-fishing contest in June. It so happens I’m carrying a spare entry form in my car.’
    While Jardine went off to fetch the form, I insisted on letting Jim know that my session with Kim was a success. ‘We played with pebbles.’
    ‘Pebbles?’
    ‘Yeah, and rocks.’ Let him think that Laura paid good money for pre-school activities. The deputy sheriff was soon heading back with a sheet of paper and I was already out of there.
    ‘Darina, before you go, I want to give you and your dad the latest news on Foxton,’ Jardine said, real casual.
    Ignoring the factual error over the relationship between me and Jim, I hit the mental brakes and slammed into reverse on my decision to leave. ‘What do you mean? What happened?’
    ‘Hey, nothing exactly happened – not yet. But I’m letting people know that I drove out there with Sheriff Kors.’
    I tried hard to keep my voice steady. ‘You did?’
    ‘You know how it is – they say a new broom sweeps clean, don’t they? Danny is picking over recent big events in town, studying the deaths of the kids from Ellerton High. He’s been listening to rumours about Foxton Ridge.’
    ‘Same old, same old,’ I muttered. I was expecting Beautiful Dead wings in the air above my head any time now – Hunter’s way of warning me to take extreme care. ‘I guess you and Sheriff Kors came back empty-handed.’
    Jardine studied me closely. ‘Kind of. For some reason we both felt a little shook up afterwards. It sure is pretty up there though.’
    ‘I like the place,’ I admitted. Jardine already knew I spent time on the ridge, so I wasn’t giving anything away. So far, no wings – I must be doing OK.
    ‘Laura and I wish Darina didn’t visit,’ Jim butted in. ‘It’s too far out of town. And they say it’s haunted.’
    ‘They? Who’s they?’ I laughed.
    ‘We didn’t see any ghosts.’ Jardine seemed to agree with me, thank God. ‘It’s kind of windy up there – you getweird weather. And those stories mess with your head if you let them.’
    ‘Not with mine,’ I insisted.
    ‘Well, it’s not just the rumours,’ Jim went on like a dog at a bone. ‘We worry there might be squatters – undesirables, low-lifes.’
    I glared at him. Drop the topic!
    ‘No ghosts and no squatters either,’ Jardine reported. ‘We found campers down at the Government Bridge campground and a couple of hikers up by Angel Rock.’
    ‘Happy now?’ I asked Jim.
    ‘But I agree with your dad –