Chapter 22
The night’s inky thickness finally clogged the last cicada call. Rustling foliage from midnight creatures replaced them.
“I can’t do it,” whispered Sallyanne, crouching beside their dormitory.
“You can. I promise you’ll be safe,” said Elanora. “Here, you carry this and don’t spill a drop.” She handed a canister of water to her friend and saw her attention shift to keeping the contents steady. “Come on!”
Elanora and Sallyanne scurried across the playground. There was no point going back into the room as Nelly had been moved since morning. Olive had snuck past it after receiving a set of cuts from Miss Barton for opening her mouth while she chewed, and found an empty cot. There was only one place where she could be if she was still on the grounds. The shed. Nobody went near the shed because the shed was in the bush and the bush was a hellhole for snakes and spiders, evil spirits and foul breathed bunyips, so Sallyanne had tried to explain. But it wasn’t the shed that had Elanora worried. Her heart seized at the thick layers of shadows surrounding them. She stilled her breathing to stop them seeping into her lungs and sucking her back to the cell.
Calm down, they can’t find you here, she assured herself.
Thirty metres into the scrub it stood, fresh corrugated iron roofing just losing its metallic gleam from a cold, wet winter. Elanora stared at it, drawing her breath in wonder. As she exhaled, she rested a hand upon the timber frame and gazed at the iron sheeting free of rust holes and decay, held high and proud.
Sallyanne watched her touch the shed and shivered.
“Nell?” she whispered through the cracks in the wood. “Nelly?”
Elanora poked her finger through a knot in the door and pulled, scraping up dirt as it opened. The girls smelt her sickness before discerning her shape under a grey, moth eaten blanket.
“Nelly?” they whispered, kneeling at her side.
She raised her head, her eyes blacker than the darkness. “Sallyanne?”
Sallyanne poured water into her cracked mouth and brushed the hair from her face. “It’s all right Nell, we’re here.” She spluttered the water back up with a disconcerting gag.
“It’s me again, Nelly. Elanora. I told you I’d come back.”
Nelly smiled weakly. “I’m glad you came. I ‘ave someone... who needs...after I’ve gone.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, Nell, you’re not going anywhere.” While she spoke, Nelly pushed a small dark brown bear from under the cloth.
“Oh!” Elanora cried, staring down at the worn creature. “What’s his name?” she asked, stroking his head.
“Merrylamb.”
“He’s lovely, Nelly.”
“Will you take care of ‘im?” she asked, her skin a ghostly shade of alabaster.
“You can take care of him yourself when you get better.” Sallyanne smoothed her forehead. “What happened to you, Nell?”
She closed her eyes as memories cut like glass. Her brow tightened. “Me master...I promise I tried m’ best. I did wha’ I was told…’e ‘urt me. Me arm broke, but it don’t ‘urt no more...There was no lady on the station and I...I just couldn’t...”
“There, there, it’s all right now, it’s all right. You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t have anyone to look after you, but we’re here now,” Sallyanne held her good hand as Nelly coughed thickly.
“I got sick an’ I couldn’t keep workin’,” she continued, rasping from the effort. “ ‘e got worse. ‘e were bad...” she closed her eyes and a tear rolled down her temple.
“ ‘e dragged me back to Miss Barton. ‘e wants a replacement. But don’t go, don’t anyone go!” she gripped Sallyanne’s arm and Merrylamb rolled into Elanora’s lap.
Elanora picked him up, looking at Sallyanne in alarm. A replacement. A new girl.
“Well you can’t stay here,” Sallyanne said to Elanora.
“None of us can. That woman is a beast,” Elanora replied.
“She said she’d leave me ‘ere to rot. She said it weren’t the first time she swept away dirt.” Nelly summoned the last of her strength. “That room I were in. There’s someone in the wall. She told me. That girl wi’ the placard round ‘er neck. She told me she put ‘er body behind the wall so there weren’t no room for me. That’s why she moved me out ‘ere; she said this place were my coffin.” Nelly was saucer eyed and a gummy sweat broke out on her face.
“No, Nell, she just told you that to frighten you. There’s no one there and you will be all right. This is your hospital. We can make it really nice. We can bring you food and water and with plenty of rest you’ll be fine in no time,” Sallyanne soothed.
Nelly coughed in great racking spasms that made both girls wince and rub their chests. Her cracked lips trembled.
“Let me see your arm,” said Sallyanne lowering the covers.
Her arm was bruised with the stain of night. Deep purple puddles like mutant polka dots on her skin. Her elbow was swollen and bent at a grotesque angle. Her wrist puffed out as thick as a shin and her fingers had a greenish tinge. A foul smell came from her flesh. The girls were speechless.
Nelly coughed again, inhaling with difficulty, paling as they watched.
Sallyanne dripped a little more liquid between her lips. It drained down the cracks and out, untouched.
A sudden stillness came over them like the lowering of a shroud. The darkness diminished and a soft light appeared.
“ ‘e wanted ‘is money’s worth,” Nelly whispered. “She’s sellin’ us all.”
Nelly turned to her bear nestled safely in Elanora’s arms. He gazed back at her with aching button eyes, willing her to live. The darkness became gentle and soft, embracing her face before dividing for a supernatural entry of light. Nelly’s final vision of the world was Merrylamb humming her goodbye.