The Mouse

by Lauretta Hignett

  Creepy. Sunny was hoping to take off from the bushes by the front gate, but couldn’t be sure that Steph couldn’t see her. Cursing her stepmother for making her walk further, she kept going up the street and cut through between two houses at the end of her cul-de-sac – her usual route to Annabel’s house. After a quick peek around to make sure there were no more eyes on her, she ducked behind a fence and quickly took off.

  She would never get tired of the visual beauty of the Alternate world. Everything shimmered, either very gently for the inanimate objects, or more lustily for the things that were full of life. She looked down, and she whizzed over towards the Blue Mountains, captivated by the forests below.

  The whole area thrummed with light and life. Some of the trees had different colours, some deeper and brighter all at the same time. She imagined that she could pick out the trees that were older – they glowed with a strange resonance. If she strained her ears, she almost felt that she could hear them hum, making their particular brand of beautiful music.

  Sunny found the village of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and scouted around quickly, not sure what she was looking for. He had said that he had a cabin here somewhere, but there were lots of cabins, and it was a vast area to search. There were people scattered around too – their bright internal fires were like many coloured traffic lights dotted all over the mountainside. She sighed internally and went down to think for a bit.

  Below her was a gigantic snowy gum tree, and it was buzzing with energy. She ran her hands over it, savouring the feeling of the ancient tree, absorbing its vibrations. Feeling only slightly silly and glad that there was no one to see her do it, she put both arms around it and hugged it, and felt warmth in her heart. It was invigorating and calming all at the same time, and she felt ready to resume the search for Hunter.

  Hugging a tree. Steph would be so proud.

  She went back up and down the mountainside a little bit, then looked back down and over to see if she could see her tree. She picked it out immediately – she remembered its colour and its unique vibration.

  A lightbulb went off in her head.

  She brought to her mind’s eye the memory of Hunter’s internal light. Golden, blazing and majestic, it was unique and beautiful and not something she was likely to forget. With her eyes closed, she drifted, and felt compelled to float in a particular direction.

  She embraced the impulse and drifted low, over a range and down a hill. She followed a small stream that sparkled down into a valley until she came to an area at the end where the ground flattened out a little bit. The forest was unbroken. There were no clearings around at all, but she was drawn to a spot that was slightly elevated, perched in between two rolling hills and overlooking a huge forest on the mountain lower down. She went down a bit lower until she was almost drifting through the tops of the huge trees.

  Suddenly she spotted a tiny log hut in the middle of nowhere. It stood, camouflaged by trees, with barely a clearing around the cabin. The scrub around it had been cleared, but the bigger trees formed a light canopy overhead. There were no apparent tracks around it at all, neither going further up the valley nor down the mountainside. It was almost invisible.

  But outside the hut, a golden light blazed like the sun. It was Hunter.

  Sunny laughed to herself with unabashed pleasure and went straight down. She’d done it – found a needle in a haystack. Hunter was working on a pile of branches with an axe, chopping them into smaller logs and stacking the firewood outside the hut. He was wearing only jean shorts, which made it easier for her to spot him from a distance, with no shirt in the way to dull his fiery light. Landing softly on the grass in front of the hut, she pushed back the tingling in her limbs and walked towards him.

  “Hi!” She called from a distance, so as not to startle him. He probably had a gun on him somewhere, and she wouldn’t forget the first time she’d surprised him.

  Hunter turned and threw the axe down. “You made it!” He seemed genuinely pleased to see her.

  “Yeah, although I was thinking that I’d just call you on your mobile if I couldn’t find you.”

  “How long did it take?”

  “About twenty minutes.”

  “Really?” He seemed impressed. “You scouted this whole area in twenty minutes?”

  Sunny shrugged. “No. I actually tried something a bit different – I concentrated on locating your particular energy, and I was… drawn to you somehow.”

  “That’s even better.” He smiled widely. “That could be very useful.”

  They walked together towards the cabin. It was small, about the size of two small rooms put together, and very rustic. The logs looked very old, but parts of the roof and windows looked newer, as did the steps that lead up to the front door. The door was open. Inside Sunny could see a small bed with a sleeping bag laid out on it, a tiny table and chair, and a bench inside with a camp cooker on top of it.

  Hunter had built a small wooden table outside, and two logs laying either side of it served as chairs. Hunter motioned to her to have a seat, and he took the one beside her, leaning back against the table to look at the bush outside.

  “This place is great,” Sunny said, leaning back against the table. “How did you get here?”

  “Today? Or at all, do you mean.”

  “Both,” Sunny turned back to Hunter. He reached over to the other seat and pulled his shirt over, and pulled it over his head. Sunny was grateful; it meant she could concentrate better.

  “I was searching for somewhere completely off-the-grid, somewhere I wasn’t going to be monitored at all. I’m not massively into hiking or camping, but I’ve been holidaying with my family around here since I was a kid. When I was thirteen, I went off by myself and hiked around the area. I was lost when I found this cabin.” Hunter smiled self-depreciatingly. “I stayed a few days, and then managed to navigate out. I’ve come back a couple of times a year ever since, and I’ve fixed up the cabin a bit. It was a nightmare, carrying some tools on the hike out here the first time. It’s been worth it, though.”

  “To be completely alone? Yeah, I understand that. But at thirteen?”

  Hunter’s eyes drifted away. “My little sister just died. Nothing controversial – she had a congenital heart defect and had a couple of open heart surgeries when she was a baby, but it never fixed her up. She died when she was nine.”

  Sunny felt heartbroken for him. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thanks.” He gave her a small smile. “She was the last thing in my life that was truly open and honest. Everyone else – my parents, my auntie and uncles, and all of my parent’s friends – they were so stoic, so secretive, always suspicious. But she was warm and happy and fun, and you could read her like an open book.”

  “You miss her.”

  “Every day,” Hunter said simply.

  Sunny paused for a minute.

  “I lost my mother,” she said finally. Hunter looked back up at her. “Well, I didn’t really lose her. I never knew her. She died when I was a baby.”

  Hunter gave her a wistful smile. “I don’t know what’s worse. Losing someone you love the most, or never really knowing the one you would have loved the most.”

  They sat in silence for a moment.

  “We’re a pair of sad saps,” Sunny said miserably.

  “Yeah.”

  “I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”

  Hunter gave her a hard look. “Mouse. I’m only going to say this one more time. I will never betray you. I promise. Upon pain of death.”

  Ignoring her fluttering heart, Sunny’s stomach gave a mildly embarrassing gurgle, which snapped her to attention.

  “Oh, I forgot!” She pulled the muffins out her bag and handed one to Hunter.

  “Perfect. I could only bring up the bare essentials with me, so the food around here is a little bland. It’s a three-and-a-half-hour hike to get here from where I parked the car.”

  “Play your cards right, I can go get pizza later,” Sun
ny told him through a mouthful of muffin.

  “You kinda make all my survival training null and void,” Hunter said, smiling at her.

  They ate in compatible silence for a while, listening to the wind in the trees around them.

  “So, what do you think of this place?” Hunter asked her.

  “Well, to be honest, it’s not my cup of tea,” she admitted.

  He laughed out loud. “It’s not mine either. I’m not really a wilderness kind of guy. But it’s the only way I can truly get away, from everything and everyone.”

  “Except me.” Sunny winked at him.

  “Except you,” he agreed amiably.

  “I’m more of a beach girl. I always feel like I have to be close to the water, or I feel a little bit… I don’t know. Claustrophobic.”

  “I get that. I like the ocean too. I’ve lived near it my whole life.”

  “You should see it in the Alternate. It’s unbelievable.”

  “I hope I can.” He looked thoughtful. “Without having to be near death, of course.”

  “We’ll work on it. How do you want to do this?”

  “I’ve been practicing this meditation gig, and I think this might work. There’s a stream nearby, we’ll hike to it, and I’ll settle down and meditate. When you can sense my vibrations change, see if you can pull me in.”

  “I’ll give it a go.”

  Hunter got to his feet and held out his hand. “Come on.” He pulled her to her feet.

  “How far away is this stream? By foot, I mean.”

  “About half an hour.”

  They chatted as they charged through the bush. She told him about her dad and Steph, how her position as number one girl in his life was usurped by her evil stepmother.

  “People don’t see her like I see her. I know it sounds silly, but I just don’t trust her. Everyone says that I’m just jealous, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m not a petty person.”

  “And she ruined those muffins by putting chia seeds on them. What a bitch.” Hunter glanced at her sideways, then laughed. “But seriously, you’re probably right. You should always trust your instincts when it comes to your relationships. She’s probably harmless, but you never know.”

  She told him about Annabel, her big mouth and her one-woman mission to destroy the patriarchy. He got a particular kick over the name change story.

  “That’s classic,” he laughed. “I’d love to meet her.”

  “She’d love to meet you. She’s stunning, but considered too much of a handful for any normal guy to ask out. She’s hot, which is a turn on, but she’s mouthy, which is a turn-off, she’s passionate, which is a turn-on, she’s an outspoken feminist, which is a turn-off, they conclude ‘Lesbian,' which is both a turn-on and a turn-off. Pretty confusing for a seventeen-year-old boy.”

  “She sounds great to me.”

  “So, she sounds like your type?” Sunny said, trying to sound casual but acutely aware that she might as well have had a net and a bucket of live bait in her hand, she was fishing so hard.

  Luckily, he let it slide. “I don’t have a type,” he was thoughtful. “I told you, I don’t date that much.”

  “But you… surely you have girls…” She wasn’t sure how to phrase it.

  He rescued her from her blabbering. “I know what I look like,” he said bluntly. He managed to make it sound like a curse. “And I do get girls hitting on me a fair bit. The types of girls that do are mostly the type of girls I would rather avoid.”

  “What type?”

  “Usually high maintenance. Looking for an extension of themselves, or validation, rather than companionship and good conversation.”

  “Or just sex,” Sunny interrupted, winking at him.

  “Or just sex.” Hunter agreed.

  “And that’s not what you’re looking for?”

  “Not only sex,” he said, winking back. Then he laughed to himself. “You’ve got a way with you, Mouse. I’ve never told anyone any of this stuff. You should be a shrink.”

  “Ha.” She said. “I’ll let my careers advisor know. She thinks I can’t seem to focus.”

  “What are you going to do after school?”

  “I don’t know. I want to keep studying; I kinda like the institution of school. I like all my subjects, but I’m not brilliant at any one in particular.” She sighed. “I wish I were obsessed with something in particular so that I could focus on it as a career. But the thing I like most is Drama, and I don’t think it’s something that I’d want to do much of outside of school. It’s just for fun.”

  “What about your friends?”

  “Annabel is decidedly shady about her intentions. She’s very ambitious, though. She’ll probably end up as Chairman of some dictatorship somewhere. You might be called in to dispose of her one day.”

  “And your other friend?”

  “Simon? He wants to be a video game tester. With his brains and hair, he’ll probably end up in Government too.”

  Hunter laughed out loud, throwing his head back. She loved making him laugh. It probably didn’t happen often enough.

  They were following a tiny animal track through the bush, leading slightly downhill towards the stream. Hunter paused for a minute to give her a hand over a fallen log, and he picked up the conversation again.

  “You know, Mouse, that you probably already have your career path sorted out.”

  “I do?”

  “Well, with what you can do. You’re kind of… a superhero.”

  Sunny burst out laughing. “A superhero? Ha ha ha ha haaaaa!”

  “Well, what else would you call yourself?”

  She stopped laughing. She thought of the tiger running loose in Colombia, the dead secretary in Korea, and all the other men left rotting in those cells. “A bit of a hot mess. I’m doing my best though.”

  “You’re doing great. Really.” Hunter said meaningfully.

  They were getting close enough now to hear the tinkling of the river, there were rapids running a bit further south, but Hunter took a path west and pushed through the bush towards flatter land. They came to the stream where it made a big U shape and turned almost around on itself. The banks were almost clear of trees, and a soft bed of grass sat in between a few big rocks. The sun flickered through some gaps in the trees casting strange shadows on the river; it was both beautiful and disturbingly dream-like.

  “Okay. This could work,” Hunter said, and he sat, cross-legged on the bed of scratchy grass, facing the river. “So, I think it would be best if you go into the Alternate, and, I don’t know, do a lap or something. Come back and see if you can see that I might be more susceptible to it, or whatever, and see if you can pull me in.”

  “O-kay…” Sunny had her doubts that this would work. The guy that she had managed to take with her had been so close to death that his consciousness was somewhere else entirely. She wasn’t sure Hunter could get there.

  He made himself comfortable on the ground. “I’m going to stay meditating until you either manage to take me, or you come back to reality. So just keep trying as long as you can.”

  “Right.” She watched him settle down and close his eyes. He took a deep breath and centred himself. After a second he opened one eye and looked at her.

  “You can go now.”

  “Oh, yeah right, sorry, I’m gone.”

  Slightly embarrassed to be caught staring dreamily at him, she took off. She wondered what she should do a lap of. The earth, maybe? Hunter would freak out if he knew how quickly she could do that.

  She settled for a quick trip back home to see what her Dad was doing. He and Steph were in the kitchen at home, getting ready for dinner. Ben was having slightly more trouble feeding Archie, and the poor kid had more food in his hair than he did in his belly.

  She thought about checking on Annabel and Simon, but remembering what Hunter had said about spying on people, decided not to. Instead, she did the only thing she wanted to do, and headed back to Hunter. If he wasn’t deep enough in m
editation, she’d just wait.

  He was harder to find. She zoomed all over the Blue Mountains, expecting to spot him quickly. None of the coloured lights below was him, she could tell from a distance. She drifted back down a couple of times, just to be sure, and was treated to the sight of a grizzly hiker doing a poo behind a giant gum tree.

  She went right back up and thought carefully. She remembered a valley to the east, so she raced over to check. Searching more thoroughly for a few minutes, she started to get frustrated. What if she couldn’t find him again? He would probably stay meditating all night and get bitten to death by mosquitos.

  She snapped out of it and concentrated on finding his internal light. She was instantly drawn further south and followed her instincts willingly. A few moments more and there he was, sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, on the grass by the meandering river.

  His light blazed brighter than ever. He was just glorious. Sunny let herself stare at him for a few minutes, and while she was watching, she noticed that his light started to vibrate differently. It was smoother, lower, and faster than before.

  Now was probably the time to try this, she thought to herself, and she inched closer to him and held out her hand. His hands were resting on his knees, palm up, so it would be no trouble slide her open hand into his. She pushed back the feeling in her fingertips and reached out to touch him.

  He gave tiny start when he felt her hand on his. His vibrations immediately went slightly slower, and she knew she’d lost him. She could feel his warm, dry hand on hers but she couldn’t pull him into the Alternate with her.

  She retreated, and gave him a few more minutes. As soon as she saw the tempo of frequency in his light, she tried again. She reached out her fingertips to touch him again, and again he lost the higher vibrations and refused to budge from reality.

  She kept at it for a while; after all, there were worse ways to spend an afternoon than holding hands with Hunter. After an hour, the sun began to set, and he was taking longer and longer to reach a deep meditation. She gave up.