Chapter 404 Don’t Wander Around at Night
The direction that Dawn pointed in was the north-western part of the island. The mountain on the island was no more than a hill, really, and it had no name either. To Dawn, since it was in the east, it was the East Mountain, and the mountain to the west was the West Mountain.
Courtney questioned, “Do you always bring your radio up that mountain?”
“Radio?” Dawn might not be involved with the outside world at large, but she was quick to pick up on things. She pointed at her beloved box and exclaimed in excitement, “So this is called a radio?”
Courtney nodded.
“I always bring this up with me to the top of the West Mountain. When I press this button, it starts making noises. But it only works when the weather is clear. It doesn’t work when it’s raining.”
Courtney’s eyes instantly lit up.
“Hey.” Dawn waved a hand in front of Courtney’s eyes, summoning her back to reality. “You’re from the outside world, right? Tell me what it’s like.”
Courtney’s gaze fell upon the young girl’s face. After a few moments of thought, her eyes glittered.
“The world outside is far more interesting and amazing than this place. Take those two capsules I gave you for example: this is a kind of toy that kids aged three to five love…”
Dawn listened rapturously. She continuously pestered Courtney to tell her more stories, unwilling to sleep even when the night continued to drag on. Courtney also managed to get a lot of chatter out of Dawn.
Dawn was about four or five when Fatso brought her and her mother over to this island. She didn’t know the reason why, but in any case, Dawn and her mother were the only ones on the island. The island’s inhabitants cared about them to some extent, so Dawn’s mother helped them to do their laundry and other miscellaneous tasks of her own volition.
Once, the head of the island—a man called Dragon—seemingly closed a huge deal, and so he called over all his buddies for a night of drinking. When everyone was completely passed out from the alcohol they imbibed, Dragon then dragged Dawn’s mother into a room. The next day, Dawn saw with her own eyes her mother hanging on the rafters in the room, dead.
As the man running the show on the island, Dragon’s word was law. To him, human lives weren’t worth anything much, so he simply gave Fatso some money as compensation for his loss. Fatso didn’t dare to let Dawn stay with the other rowdy men on the island after that. That was why he ended up having her stay in such a secluded cave.
“So, you’ve been living here for the past seven or so years?” Courtney surveyed the place. A dim, yellow light shone by the entrance, illuminating the various hand-made items of furniture in the cave. The sight was actually a somewhat homely one.
Dawn sat cross-legged on the bed, seemingly saddened when she heard that. “Yeah. Actually, Fatso should have sent me away from this place after my mom died, but he insisted on making me stay inside here instead.”
“You were so young then; how could he have sent you away?”
“I heard that there’s a place called an orphanage in the outside world. They take in lots and lots of children, and they have food, toys, and many other things. It sounds like such a nice place. Why didn’t he send me there?”
“Only unwanted children or children with no parents get sent to the orphanage. Simply put, children with hard lives.”
“But I don’t have a mom. I have a dad, but he pretty much isn’t around all the time. I still have to watch out for wild beasts and other things every day while staying on this island, so I guess I have a hard life too, huh? An orphanage sounds great. I really want to go.”
Dawn looked so serious about living at an orphanage that it made Courtney feel a myriad of feelings.
When it was nearly morning, Dawn ran out of steam at last and slowly nodded off. Courtney looked at the sky outside and tiptoed her way out of the cave, groping her way up to the peak of the West Mountain.
After a few buzzes from her phone in the dark, Courtney’s phone turned on. It only had 30% of its battery left. Courtney was a little worried about this. She lifted her phone and walked around the mountain, attempting to find a spot with signal reception. However, her phone automatically turned off after she had only taken a few steps.
As she stared at the dark screen of her phone, Courtney mentally sighed. She then stowed her phone back into her pocket and retraced her steps back to the cave.
Dawn didn’t have a regular sleep schedule, having slept through the later parts of the night and still remaining asleep even though it was already way past mid-morning.
Although the cave wasn’t lavishly furnished, it seemingly had everything one would need. There was a large tub set in a corner, and to the side of the cave was an electric kettle. Courtney used the kettle to boil some water before she searched around the cave for something to eat. When she heard footsteps outside, she nearly choked.
The unexpected newcomer was Fatso, and he had an insulated lunchbox in hand. He placed it on the wooden table inside.
Courtney stayed far away from him, wariness showing on her face as she eyed Fatso.
“Wake her after this and tell her to eat the food.” After saying that, Fatso leveled a meaningful look at Courtney. “Don’t wander around at night. Wild beasts aren’t the only things lying in wait around the mountains. No one will be able to save you then.”
Courtney’s heart juddered for a second there. Did he find out I went up to the mountain last night?
Not long after Fatso left, Dawn woke up, rubbing her eyes. With well-practiced movements, she groped her way over to the table and sat down to open the lunchbox. After glancing at its contents, she put the lid back on again. “It’s always the same food every day. I’m so sick of this.”
A young girl in the throes of puberty would get irritated at the sight of anything. Dawn’s yearning for the outside world was the sole exception, and Courtney understood this very well.
“Dawn, do you want to leave this island?”
“Of course,” Dawn said distractedly as she shoved chunks of bun into her mouth, chewing as though she was eating some waxy facsimile instead. “I even think about it in my dreams. I don’t even just wish to leave anymore; I even made a raft in secret once. But in the end, the raft didn’t float, and I don’t know how to swim either. Even if I knew, I don’t know where I should go.”
“Why don’t you take me to see your raft?”
“You want to escape.” Dawn opened her eyes a little wider and glanced at Courtney. “I’m telling you now: I’ll be fine even if I run and they catch me. You, though—you’re gonna die if they catch you when you’re escaping. Anyway, I ended up breaking the raft when I was fiddling around with it. I don’t want to bother with it anymore.”
“So you don’t want to leave this place?”
“I’ve got you here to talk with me. If you tell me more about the outside world, I can pretend that I’ve actually been there.”
Courtney was baffled. Could she possibly have lost her curiosity about the outside world because I talked too much about it last night? She refused to give up. As she stared at the bun in Dawn’s hands, her eyes lit up. “Do you know what people in the outside world eat?”
“Buns? Pickles? Braised pork? Wild rabbits and chickens?”
“Those are all main courses. Do you know what desserts are?”
“The box mentioned them before. What are they? Something sweet? Like sugar water?”
Courtney’s eyes glittered as though she had just found herself a lifeline. She fished out a piece of chocolate that had already become squished from her coat pocket and handed it over to Dawn. “Try this.”
She was used to carrying chocolate around with her because both Jordan and Tina loved the same brand of chocolate. Fatso hadn’t starved her since her arrival at this island either, so this chocolate remained uneaten in good condition. All preteen girls love sweets!
