1101947187 by Jo Baker

Author:Jo Baker [Baker, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2016-05-16T21:00:00+00:00

“Someone might say.”

“Yes.”

He jerks his head: come on. They dash across the tracks, then scramble up the bank and in amongst the trees. Brambles tear at clothes and skin. He blunders through a clump of nettles. He swears under his breath, carries on.

They reach the top of the bank breathless. The air is cool; it’s twilight. There’s a fence—he, long-legged, swings across, and helps her clamber up and over and down the other side. A lone horse ambles across, snuffing at them.

The field is bare and scrubby and exposed. They turn and scud along the field edge, keeping to the shadow of the trees; the horse trots alongside them. There’s a gate but it is tied shut and the knot doesn’t give so they climb the bars, and then they’re in a lane, the horse left behind. The lane is hedged at first, and then there are fences and then buildings and the way narrows between high walls; there’s a smell of tar and the sound of their clattering footfalls and their rasping breath. Something stops and stares, its eyes reflecting red; then a blink and it’s gone. Their hands, linked tight, are hot and damp together; they can only go single-file now between brick walls, he doesn’t know when they joined hands. His arm is stretched back to her; she’s tumbling forward to hold on to him. It’s uncomfortable, constraining, it might be better to let go. They don’t let go. His chest hurts; the scar pulls and he can’t catch his breath.

At an intersection between alleyways they stop in unspoken accord; she bends double, gasping, a hand to her side. He leans against a damp wall, his belly heaving. There’s a little light left. It’s grainy and crumbling.

“Are you all right?”

She says, “I’m all right.” Then, after a moment, “What about you?”

He nods. He’ll live. Though his eyes swim with stars.

“Does your chest hurt?”

“Does it hurt?” He laughs, but the laugh collapses into a coughing fit. When he can speak again, he just says, “Yes.”

He fishes out his cigarettes, lights up, takes a drag, then turns the cigarette around and proffers it. She takes it off him, smokes. Perhaps she has forgiven him.

“What will we do now?” she asks.

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