Selina returned home in the evening exhausted, but she also felt good in herself. She had helped the community in some small way, kept it going just that little bit longer. She was covered from head to foot in flour, her face paler than ever, and she spent most of the steep journey home brushing grain and dust from her hair and clothes.
She met Ted Corbin as she passed by the derelict church. He was calling for Breaker and asked her if she had seen him.
‘Little blighter’s probably raced off after a rabbit or some such. Good day in the mill? Looks like you’ve been hard at it.’
‘It’s a shock to the system but I had fun. Morag and Hannah are… a pair!’
‘They certainly are!’ He said merrily, before waving her goodbye and calling for Breaker once again.
As she neared Channel View, thankful to be home, she saw Priya returning from the other end of the village. She waited for her at the bottom of the garden kicking a small stone about her feet. As Priya neared, Selina waved and said jovially, ‘Good day at work?’
‘I hate being around children!’ Priya scowled, her blonde hair tangled.
The smile dropped from Selina’s face. ‘Why? What happened?’
‘That Lord of the Manor, Tupper, that’s what’s happened,’
‘What’s he done?’
‘Given me a job in the crèche is what he’s done!’
‘And?’
‘Oh...’ Priya looked as though she could burst into countless reasons, bullet-pointed and revised throughout the day, though she sighed a long breath and her protestations disappeared with it. She looked deflated and distressed. Surely she hadn’t taken to heart something one of her new colleagues had said? No, it wasn’t like Priya to take things personally.
‘They’ve got their priorities sorted, I’ll give them that...’ Priya said, ‘when a child’s out of line they punish them.’
‘Did anything interesting happen?’
‘Oh, Nothing really. Except one of the little darlings threw their breakfast all over me as soon as I arrived.’
‘Why’d they do that?’
‘I mean she threw up on me!’
‘Oh, gross...’
‘Hmm, oh, and take a look at this.’ She rummaged in her pocket and withdrew a crumpled sheet of paper. ‘A sweet little girl called Edith drew a picture of me...’
‘Ah, bless,’ she took the sheet and put her fingers to her lips.
‘Don’t laugh,’ Priya said, snatching it back. ‘Tell me I don’t really have the body of a hippo.’
Selina couldn’t help but shrug in mock uncertainty. Priya rolled her eyes and they walked toward the house, ducking beneath the tangled weeds that veiled it.
Though they had been in Mortehoe for little over a month, Selina felt, after a long days labour, that she was slowly becoming part of the community. She closed the door on the day behind her. She thought of their first day after being shipwrecked, the rotting mattress and the ghostly wind in the rafters. It was a distant memory now, and her day in the mill created a sensation of it being the first day all over again, one she felt proud of.
If only her fear of the dark would subside, and the dead of the Tangaroa would leave her in peace.