All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: A Novel by Darragh McKeon

Author:Darragh McKeon [McKeon, Darragh]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780062246875
Amazon: 0062246879
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 2014-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

No talking.

You form the line and when in the line you do not deviate from the line.

You stand an arm’s length behind the boy in front. You place your hand on his shoulder to judge the space between you and then you release your arm and take a half-step backwards.

When the gym master blows his whistle you begin the exercise. When he blows it again you stop. You count out loud to eight when performing the exercise. When not performing the exercise you count to yourself. When counting out loud, you do not mumble, you shout it clear and crisp, separating the numbers: one … two … three … four … five … six … seven … eight.

You start with star jumps, then tuck jumps, to warm the body. Then you do press-ups, sit-ups and squats. Then you repeat them all again.

Yevgeni has a slit on the side of his shorts – not a large rip, but a worrying one, worrying because it’s growing exponentially. He has a choice to make. When doing the star jump he can extend his legs to full width and risk tearing them more, or he can keep his legs in a little but risk the gym master making him run laps for the next half-hour. He has only one pair of shorts; there used to be another pair but he’s grown out of them, they rode up his thighs like a pair of swimming pants. The other boys laughed at him so he had thrown them out. This was six weeks ago. His mother had promised to take him shopping for a new pair – but she never did. He asked her to give him the money and he could get them himself, but she never had it on her. He suspected that she didn’t want to give it to him, that maybe he would spend it on something stupid, or he would meet Ivan or whoever and they would force him to hand it over. He reminded his mother after the last gym class, told her he had a rip in the side of his shorts, and she got angry and said he could mend it himself. But he didn’t know how to sew, and, anyway, men don’t sew, even he knew this. She was sorry for being angry and promised she would get him a new pair before the next class. Well, the next class is this class.

He should have asked his aunt. She’s always good with anything to do with school. She helps him cover his copybooks with old wallpaper and sometimes when he opens his lunchbox he’ll find a square of chocolate inside. When this happens he has to stuff it in his mouth at once, in case any of the other kids see it and take it. Six months ago a kid called Lev saw him put the square in his mouth and ran over to him and jammed his fingers in the joint where Yevgeni’s jaws meet, and

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