After the Hole by Guy Burt

Author:Guy Burt [Guy Burt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Published: 2016-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

And so I thought I might give it ago ... just to see what it would he like, to he going out with him. Yes, I was excited; and yes, I thought he was an exciting person to he going out with— sort of slightly dangerous. Like the girl in the sixties movies who falls in with the high-school rebels, and finds they're much more interesting than her prim little friends. It was— I don't know the word for it. Exhilarating, perhaps. Something that had never happened to me before. I was all caught up in it before 1 knew what I was doing, which was part of the— appeal, that I knew what was going on but didn't stop it. All the time, I was playing games in my mind— trying to find out more about this weird character who was so important to everyone around him.

He— well, I don't know so much about at first, but after a while he did seem to have a pretty strange side to him, which made it all the more real. Things he said, when other people weren't listening, which sounded kind of strange. And sometimes he'd just— stop. Stop what he was doing, whatever he was up to, and freeze therefor a while. Sometimes only half a second, although you'd notice it once you were looking ... sometimes a bit longer. Like something had caught his attention. Like he'd seen something out of the corner of his eye. I think maybe that they were jokes forming in his mind....

It was all icing on the cake, if you know what I mean. Added extras, touches that made this wonderful Martyn character a bit larger than life. That was all he was, to begin with, as well; a character, not really a person. You have to get to know people before you understand them— before you know what they're like, properly. But a character, you can just hear about; hear other people talking and say, Oh yes, I know so-and-so. You don't even have to have met them. Like in newspapers ...

All the people I knew were phased for me, which was good as well. I didn't understand much about it all.

So we went out a few times, just like any other couple.

The afternoon crawled past, and the occupants of the Hole sat and stared at the walls, at the floor, at their feet or belongings, avoiding the others' eyes. There was an ugly tension in the cellar. In the center of the square floor the pile of food was heaped, an insignificant collection of cans and packets, bleakly outlined by their own shadows.

"We could shout for help," Alex said at last. Mike glanced at her quickly, grateful that somebody had spoken. "We could shout together. Maybe someone would hear us."

The others considered. "It's worth a try," Frankie said. "After three, everyone shout Help. One, two, three—”

They shouted. At least, three of them did; Geoff and Liz remained sitting, not moving, not joining in.

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