Baux Hill Village is a small rural community on the outskirts of London and like any small community Baux Hill has its fair share of secrets. Moving there from a young age Joshua finds himself tangled up in the web of deceit. Will he find his way ou...
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THE HILLS WALKED ON ALL fours. I know because they followed me to school that Monday morning, great heaps of green agilely tailing behind the car. I thought of saying something like, "Mum, look! The Forest is moving," and imagined the twitch of her lips which I knew would instantly fall flat. Deciding against it, I lent my face up against the cold window, slightly wet with morning dew. Mum never believed me.
"Excited for school?"
Her question was met with silence. Mum's voice carried a disingenuous tone that made it impossible to properly engage in conversation with her. We knew she wasn't asking because she truly cared. Had she taken the time to get to know her own children she might've known that Abbey, despite the teenage angst, very much enjoyed school. Not for the most conventional reasons, which were primarily reserved to better suit my interests, but she liked music class and played the cello nonetheless. Someday she hoped to join an orchestra. Josiah on the other hand was indifferent to everything and impartial to nothing.
We were rather different, Josiah and I. To me the world was fascinating, and learning about it made me feel as though I indefinitely belonged. Each subject was an aspect of a painting, partially filled in when I had come to know it. I hated unfinished things, so always sought to complete the picture. I'd hoped to someday reach the delineation of knowledge, where all aspects were coloured in neatly and intricately so. But that's the twenty five year old in me speaking. To my younger self school served a much less complex function.
As a much welcomed distraction.
So in that moment I thought of the forest and wondered what animals lived there. Mr Baxley who owned the bakery on Dorbun Lane said he saw deer prints in his yard. I'd never seen a deer.
"Mum, have you ever seen a deer before?"
"No, Josh. Why'd you ask?"
I squinted my eyes and looked into the forest again, as if the action somehow enhanced my ability to see clearly. "Mr Baxley said he saw deer prints in his yard."
"I didn't know there were deer in this area," mum said absently, letting the conversation hang until it was reduced to nothing and died.
I strained against my seatbelt to look back out at the road to see if the hills were still following us, but they were playing hide and seek. The points of their hats popping over the horizon.
The town school was a quaint little building, lined with rows and rows of pretty looking flowers and shrubs. Only as we made our way inside did it strike me as odd how similar the building was to the church. The inside had a very cold feel to it, despite the very securely closed windows. It was as if a gust of wind had gotten trapped and was bouncing off of the walls trying to find its way back out. The air was energetic, and swirled about my shoulders and ruffled my hair.
