Chapter 7

That evening Sarah felt like she was in a dream as the night passed. She felt as though all the strange new things she'd seen had filled her mind up, and she couldn't absorb anything new; things just washed over her. There was so many things she didn't understand, so many magics she had seen. But that wasn't what was bothering her; what she was worrying about was the hidden things, the things she couldn't see.

When they got home, Jill proudly showed Wal and Danni what they'd bought, well, at least, most of it. When they looked to Eddie and Jill and asked who had paid for this, Sarah had felt completely stupid. It had never occurred to her that someone had to pay for this. She'd never had any money, and she hadn't seen any changing hands, so she'd just not thought about it. But of course these things needed to be paid for, and Sarah certainly didn't have any way to pay for these things.

Eddie admitted that he'd paid for it all, and Sarah thought that he actually looked a little sheepish. His dad in particular had regarded him with a piercing look. "Your bike money?"

"Yeah, I decided that could wait."

Sarah shivered when she saw the look that Wal was giving Eddie. It was Eddie's money? And just how was she expected to pay him? There was a painful silence. Finally, Danni spoke.

"Sarah, while you were gone we set you up in a room of your own, so Eddie can have his room back."

They showed Sarah around the room. She had her own light, and her own bed — such a comfortable bed too. The cupboard was full of Eddie and Jill's old stuff, but there was some space for her new clothes. Danni helped her put them away, showed her how to organise her things. Then she pointed out something on the wall, calling it a powerpoint. She explained to Sarah that she shouldn't stick anything into any hole that looked like that, she might die. Sarah felt a creepy sensation down her back. She'd never seen anything like this. You could die? But it looked so harmless! This place was dangerous and you couldn't tell by what you could see. How many other things did she not know about? This was all too difficult.

For a little while, she sat on the bed, lost in thought. Eddie. How was she expected to pay him? No one who wasn't a convict ever did anything for a convict or convict stock unless there was some payback. In a way, she was surprised that she wasn't sleeping with him tonight. Was that where everything was leading? Was she bound to follow her mother? Once again, Sarah's mind drifted to her family. Where were they? Were they okay? When Danni called her to dinner, she groaned. Now what?

Danni had noticed that Sarah was struggling, and she'd carefully chosen the one meal that she could make that would have a chance of being familiar for Sarah, just bread, cheese, and stew. Sarah sat quietly at dinner, not saying much, just listening to the family discussing the farm, and Jill's end of year things at school. So much didn't make sense.

The discussion was suddenly ended by a shrill ringing sound. Sarah looked around for the source of the noise, but was caught completely by surprise when Eddie stood up, walked over to a corner, picked something up, and spoke to it.

"Hello."

"Hey Chelle, how's it going?"

"Oh, yes, she's doing fine."

Suddenly Eddie's voice became quite guarded. "Ahhh, I'm not sure whether she can come to her senses."

"Well, it's kind of hard not to believe her, actually."

"Well, I don't think that I'm the only one."

Sarah was surprised to see Eddie looking around his family, and they were all nodding. Why? What on earth was going on?

"All of us think so."

"Yeah, for some time, I guess."

"Hey, you going to come for tea? Mum will make that curry again." Eddie glanced over to his mum. "Tomorrow." Sarah saw Danni's eyes rolling. She felt as though she was only half there. Eddie was going on like he was talking to someone, but there was no one there, though it seemed as though his family could hear them too.

"All right, we'll see you for dinner, Mz Cop. Bye."

Eddie put the telephone down, and came back to sit at the table. "Chelle's coming over to talk to us tomorrow night." He glanced at Sarah to see how she responded, and noticed the look of confusion on her face. "Oh, Sarah, you must be real confused."

She nodded. "Who were you talking to?"

"I was talking to Chelle."

"But she's not here."

"No, she used a telephone. It's a device that let's use talk to each other without being in the same place. Here, I'll show you."

Eddie jumped up, and brought the phone over to the table. It only just reached, but better for Sarah to stay sitting down for this, he figured. He gave it to Jill, and then pulled his mobile out of his pocket, and walked out of the room and down the hallway as far as he could go and still see Sarah. Jill picked up the phone when he called it, and handed it to Sarah, showing her how to hold it and explaining how it worked. When Sarah was ready, he spoke softly into the phone.

"Hello Sarah, can you hear me?"

"Oh Eddie, I can. So you can hear me too?"

Eddie moved out of sight. "Yes, I can, that's how a telephone works."

"Wow." Eddie hung up and returned to the table.

"So how do you make it work?"

When they had finished explaining telephones to Sarah, she wanted to know what Chelle wanted, which led into a discussion about Sarah. Eddie's family believed her. Sarah wasn't exactly sure how she felt about that. It was nice, she supposed, but they made it sound like a big deal, and that other people wouldn't. That didn't make her feel good. They promised to look after her and teach her what she needed to know, which helped, but she was still worried about her debt to them.

It was as if such a weighty discussion was too much for her, and she was yawning profusely by the time they finally finished dinner, so Danni helped her settle into her room, and she was asleep before they got around to turning the television on.