Music From Standing Waves by Johanna Craven Page A

I’m
unbelievably grateful.”
    I chewed my thumbnail. “Least she didn’t
smash your violin.”
    Nick rolled over and tapped ash into a glass
beside his bed. He held the cigarette out to me. “Want a drag?”
    I shook my head.
    Nick sat up on his elbows and looked at me
for the first time. His eyes were bright blue, like Tim’s. I wished
I had them too: Dad’s eyes, not Sarah’s.
    “So where does all your money go?” I
asked finally. I wondered if Nick would yell at me the way he had
yelled at Mum. Instead, he just laughed bitterly.
    “What?” I demanded.
    “You figure it out.”
    I picked at a loose flap of rubber on my
sneakers. “Are you saving up for a secret trip? Because that’s what
I’d be doing.”
    “Sure.”
    “Where would you go? I’d go to France and
have an amant secret. It means ‘secret lover’.
    Nick snorted. “Who’s been filling your head
with this secret lovers crap?”
    “Hayley.”
    He rolled his eyes. “That’d be right.”
    I frowned. “Why do you hate her so much?”
    “I don’t hate her,” said Nick. “She’s just
all froth and no beer, that’s all.”
    “What do you mean all froth and no beer?”
    “Never mind.” Nick dropped his cigarette into
the cup beside the bed. “Tell you what Abby, if I had the money to
go get a French lover, everyone would be hearing about it, but it
ain’t happening.” He flashed me a dark smile. “Haven’t you heard
about this place? Once you’re in, you’re in for good. No-one gets
out alive…”
    I hugged my ankles and peered over my knees
at my brother. “I’m getting out of here. I’m going to get another
violin and then I’m going to go and become a concert
violinist.”
    Nick lay back on his pillow and closed his
eyes. “Yeah. So am I.”
    “I am!” I snapped. “Andrew said I’m good
enough to go overseas if I want to. And maybe I do.”
    Nick lifted his headphones again. “Well then.
Don’t I wish I was you.”

NINE
     
     
    “Someone bashed a hole in the wall of Psycho
George’s,” Justin announced.
    “So?” I gestured to him to come inside, but
he stayed on my front porch, bouncing around like there was
something in his shoe.
    “So we should go check it out. I heard
there’s bloodstains in the bath. From where George killed his
wife.”
    I screwed up my nose. “That’s
disgusting.”
    “My brother told me it’s awesome,” Justin
grinned.
    “Go with your brother then.”
    He took my arm. “I thought we were going to
hang today.”
    “Yeah. We’re supposed to be going to the
movies remember?”
    Without my violin, I felt more like a normal
teenager; filling the hole in my life with the mundane and
meaningless. I’d painted my nails, watched eight thousand episodes
of Friends and finally learned to braid my own hair. I’d
spent more time with Justin in the last few weeks than I had all
year.
    That morning, I’d spent half an hour in front
of the mirror trying to find the perfect going-to-the-movies
hairstyle. My head was an elaborate sculpture of butterfly clips
and I was wearing my new halter-neck dress that made my legs look
ultra-long. The last thing I wanted to do was go traipsing through
the filthy old hang out of some throat-slitting ghost.
    “Nick said he’ll give us a lift to Cairns,” I
said, flicking my hair with what I hoped resembled laid-back
sophistication. “But he’s leaving in, like, five minutes.”
    Justin sighed. “Okay then. I guess so.”
    I grabbed my bag and followed him out of the
house.
    “Oh shit!” he laughed. “Check out the sky!
It’s totally gonna storm!” He grinned. “Man, how perfect is
this!”
    Black monsoon clouds were creeping over the
street like bulging potato sacks. The air sizzled with electricity.
The hot breeze smelled of rain.
    “Come on Abby, we have to do this. It’ll be
awesome. Like a horror movie.”
    “I hate horror movies,” I said.
    “It won’t take long, I promise. I just want
to check out the bloodstains. Then we can go