Dan Smith - The Child Thief

For a long time I crouched behind the windbreak with the revolver in my hand. I considered striking out into the forest to search for the source of the scream but knew it would be a mistake. The child thief might be trying to draw me out. So I remained where I was, alert, eyes wide to draw the light, listening. The forest listened with me.

The screams were long gone. The only evidence of them having existed was the echo of them in my head. And then I heard movement. Close.

Boots in the snow. The gentle scuff and crunch of someone moving in the forest. Footsteps pushing through the soft surface covering, breaking through the icy layer beneath. I turned the revolver towards the sound and squinted into the gloom. The trees stood unmoved by the screams and the secretive movements, like silent witnesses. Unjudging and unconcerned with the affairs of men. Their silhouettes against the snow, laying shadow where I needed there to be light, and among those shadows something demanded my attention.

A shape. Close to the base of a tree. A mound that broke the evenness of the area. As if something lay covered. I narrowed my eyes, pushed my head forward, studied. The shape of a man, perhaps. A killer in the night, lying concealed beneath a camouflage of snow, his rifle barrel pointed directly at me. I dropped lower, holding the revolver out, my finger tightening on the trigger. And, for a moment, the clouds above me parted. As if they had been looking down at me they split and allowed me the light of the moon. In that light my mind saw the child thief revealed: his face intent, his eyes hard and cold, his aim steady and true.

But all that my eyes showed me was a mound of snow covering a decaying log. And when the clouds reformed, shutting out the light, I continued to stare at that place. I stared and stared until something else took my attention. The briefest of movements. Something passing among the trees. Too tall for it to have been a small animal. It had to be something larger. A wolf. A deer. A man.

Then another exclamation. Not a scream. Not a child’s scream as before, but a more guttural sound. And then a loud bang, less than ten metres away from where I was crouched.

The muzzle flash lit up the area around the shooter, a man, his weapon pointed somewhere to my left, the orange-yellow flare exploding from the barrel of his rifle. A few metres away I heard the crash of a bullet as it struck something solid. I ducked lower, kept the revolver pointed at the figure and hunched so I was looking directly along the barrel, lining up the sight.

I was sure I hadn’t been seen. The shot had been a blind one. Something had startled the shooter and he had fired at it, but I had not made a sound. I had not moved. I had hardly even taken a breath.

I raised my eye from the sight and looked out at the dark shape, thinking this erratic shooting didn’t seem like the behaviour of a man who had led me to a killing place. This had less purpose and was less professional.

The figure moved now and I could see its shape more clearly. Then something was moving beside it, coming close, the two shapes crouching low in the forest, moving back to the cover of a tree, blending with its shape, becoming part of its shadow.

An urgent whisper.

The sound of breathing.

I raised my head further and took a risk. There was a danger to revealing my position, but I had to be sure. ‘Viktor?’

Silence.

‘Viktor?’

I kept the revolver pointed at the place where the shadows had merged. ‘Speak now or I’ll shoot.’

‘Papa? Is that you?’

Viktor and Petro had walked back in the direction of the shelter we found earlier that day, but their quiet conversation had focused solely on what they were going to do. Neither of them wanted to return home. For different reasons they both wanted to be by my side, so when they reached the shelter, instead of settling down, they turned round and headed back the way they had come. At the open steppe they found my tracks and followed them to the line of the hedge and across the field, but once inside the trees, they had lost sight of them.

‘We stayed together,’ Viktor said. ‘Looked for signs, but we couldn’t find anything. It was like you just disappeared, and then we heard…’

They were sitting by the shelter, backs to the low wall, talking in whispers. I clasped my hands together, my fingers held tight to hide that they were shaking. There had been a moment when I had almost shot my own sons.

‘What was it?’ Petro asked. ‘What made that noise? You think it was Dariya?’

No one answered. We all thought it was Dariya’s scream. We knew of no one else out there who would make such a noise.

‘We’ll find her.’ I put a hand on my son’s shoulder and Petro looked at me. I could hardly see his face in the darkness, but the light reflected from the snow into his eyes.

I told them to try to get some sleep. There was enough room in the shelter for both of them if they lay close and didn’t move around. It would work well: we could take turns staying awake, watching the forest. It made sense, and I felt more comfortable. I’d at least be able to close my eyes for an hour or so later on, knowing one of my sons would be watching.

‘I’m glad,’ I said to them. ‘I’m glad you came back.’

‘You’re not angry?’ Petro asked.

‘That you disobeyed me?’ I smiled. ‘Of course, but you’re not children any more. It’s good to have your company and I feel safer having you here. We can watch each other.’

As my sons slept, I watched over them, the revolver never leaving my hand. I sat until my legs were numb, then I moved slowly, keeping to the shadow until it was my turn to sleep.

At first light Viktor woke me and Petro as instructed. I handed them my satchel, telling them to make a fire, and trudged back towards the hedge, through the area where I had brushed the snow last night.

Up close, I could see the forest edge was a tangle of brambles and briars, the perfect place for rabbits to build their winter burrows, and there were fresh tracks where the animals had come to forage in the early morning. I was disappointed to find the first of my snares empty, and I took it up, removing the stakes and putting the noose into my pocket. As I came to the spot where the second snare was, however, I saw movement in the snow and hurried to grab the rabbit struggling in the trap. It must have been a recent catch because it still had plenty of energy, jumping and fighting to free itself, but the stake and the noose held tight. I took the animal’s back legs in one hand, gripping it tight, before removing the noose and holding it behind the ears. A quick pull and the rabbit’s neck was broken.

‘It’s not much for three,’ I said putting the carcass by the fire, ‘but it’s better than nothing.’

Viktor cleaned the animal and we cooked it over the flames, sharing it equally. As I ate, I glanced over at the place where I’d seen the mound last night.

‘What is it, Papa?’ Petro asked, seeing me stare.

Ignoring the question, I got to my feet and took the revolver from my pocket.

‘You see something?’

Both boys reached for their rifles as I advanced on the place where the snow had collected over the fallen log. Only there was no longer any mound.

There was no fallen log.

All that remained was a slight disturbance in the snow. Enough to tell me that someone had been there, concealed just a few metres from our camp.

‘Someone was here?’ Viktor asked. ‘Last night? Right here ?’

‘It seems so,’ I said.

‘Was it him?’ Petro couldn’t hide the fear in his voice.

‘Who else?’

‘How the hell did we not see him?’ Viktor said. ‘How did we not know?’