Free Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew Page B

light. She squinted at things that weren’t there and crouched to the ground the way a wild animal might, her ear still cocked against the noise of trees for better listening.
    The flicker of light was occasional and jagged, turning off when movement eclipsed it with dancing shadows, erratic flicker-book acrobatics that nobody could see but Ennor. She rubbed her eyes and looked again and her instinct was to run but the fire and scent of happiness hooked her closer and she sat huddled in the dark shadow of the trees and watched the colourful strangers. The music fattened her ears until she was full to the brim with sugary pleasure and she dropped mindless into the exotic dream.
     
    ‘You dead?’
    Ennor closed her eyes to the early morning rise and hoped the voice was in her imagination.
    ‘Hey, I’m talkin to you.’
    A sharp kick against her shin made Ennor lurch forward and she opened her eyes to a pair of split and restitched biker boots.
    ‘That hurt.’
    ‘It was meant to. Good to see you alive and not the other. Thought I’d have to spear you and roast you cross the fire.’
    Ennor sat up and rubbed her leg as she looked at the dark-eyed girl squatting beside her.
    ‘You’re not a spy, are you?’
    Ennor hugged her rucksack into her arms away from the girl.
    ‘Leave me alone.’
    ‘Why the hell? You’re on my property. What you got in your precious big bag?’
    ‘Nothin, I gotta go.’
    ‘That’s a whole lot of nothin.’ The girl started to laugh and she told Ennor she’d have to bring her in on account that she was trespassing. When she stood up straight, Ennor noticed she was a way big girl and not with fat but big with muscle and bone.
    Ennor gathered up her blanket and tied her boots as fast as she was able because the girl was everything that meant trouble and more.
    ‘Don’t worry, I int gonna steal your crap. Not just yet anyway, hell.’
    She sat down on the snow beside Ennor and was close enough for malice if she tried to run.
    ‘You see a gypsy girl and what you think? You think criminal intent.’
    ‘Dint say that.’
    ‘You don’t have to say somethin to think it.’
    Ennor prepared herself for some shape of a beating and she asked God if he was punishing her for killing the boy. She clenched her teeth to a bite and counted seconds. One, two, three . . .
    ‘I’m Sunshine.’ The girl slapped her hands to Ennor’s cheeks and searched her eyes for fear and she gave her chin a little pinch and laughed. ‘Pleased to meet you. My friends call me Sonny and so can you for starters but madden me and we’re back to Sunshine and a whole lot of whip-ass.’
    Ennor told the girl her name and Sonny laughed some more and got up again and headed towards last night’s fire and shouted for Ennor to follow if she was hungry.
    ‘Where we goin?’
    ‘To meet the others. You’re mine now.’
    Ennor followed the girl out of the forest and past the smoking embers and she shouted that she really had to be on her way.
    As they walked through the camp the gypsy girl shouted to everyone who might be listening that they had a visitor and she spat out Ennor’s name like it was poison.
    Some faces looked up from their doings but most did not. Ennor smiled just in case but nobody paid her much attention.
    She looked skyward and a lone magpie caught her eye and she counted it, one, as it flew against the snow clouds and settled on the roof of one of the trailers.
    ‘That’s bad luck.’
    ‘What is?’
    ‘That magpie.’
    ‘It’s just a dumb bird. There int no such thing as luck and bad luck. Nobody ever tell you that?’
    Sonny led her to a stack of upturned crates that circled another smouldering fire and told her to sit.
    ‘What if I don’t?’
    Sonny laughed and shook her head to indicate she thought her crazy and she set about refuelling the fire with pine branches that were stored beneath a plastic sheet.
    Sonny sat back and nodded into the flames with a satisfying grin. ‘You like coffee? I