Belinda's Rings by Corinna Chong

Author:Corinna Chong
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC054000, FIC043000
Publisher: NeWest Press
Published: 2013-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

IX

IN ALL THE YEARS she’d lived in England, Belinda had only once seen Stonehenge. She’d been a sullen schoolgirl on a class field trip and she couldn’t remember anything about the experience. She hadn’t felt compelled to visit Woodhenge. History had not been a topic of interest in her mother’s household. But when Belinda came across a diagram of Woodhenge in one of the crop circle books she was studying, she felt its importance resonate like an echo. The diagram mapped the site where archaeologists had uncovered the remnants of 168 post-holes arranged to form six concentric rings, and buried in the centre, a small child’s skeleton. A dedicatory sacrifice, they presumed. The post-holes originally held wooden pillars, though the function of these was still a mystery. Some suspected the site had a religious purpose, and other theories touted moon and sun patterns to suggest it was a giant cosmological calendar that signaled the summer solstice when the dusk-light struck the pillars in a particular way. With Stonehenge just two miles away, a connection between the two monuments was almost undeniable. If you were to stand in the centre of Stonehenge with a map of all the archaeological sites in the area, you would be able to see Woodhenge in the distance, as well as dozens of surrounding burial mounds, simply by rotating on that fixed spot. You just needed to know where to look.

That Belinda had been raised in an English town only forty kilometres west of Salisbury was a coincidence solely of geography. She saw no significance in this fact. Twenty-three years before, she’d told her mother she would never return to Mere. It was a vow she would not allow herself to break. On the map of her memory, she’d drawn an invisible circle around Stourhead Gardens and Castle Hill, the town cemetery, the old bacon factory, the market square, and the perpetual clock tower — sealing the town behind a quarantine boundary, solid and unwavering. If she were to even think about how reachable the town really was, she might risk breaching that boundary.

On the phone the previous night, Wiley had begged her to come home. Belinda could hear the tightness in his voice. He’d obviously swung into one of his high-energy moods.

I’ve decided to reorganize the garage, he said. By myself. I’m going to turn it into a jam space. Maybe even build a stage.

Sounds great, Belinda said, knowing he would never follow through with the plans. So you’re doing fine then?

Oh yeah, yeah, he said. I’m just fine. Wonderful, in fact.

Good, she said. I’m doing well, too. You might be interested to know that I’m going to Woodhenge tomorrow. It’s going to be incredible.

Oh, Wiley said. That’s nice.

Do you even know what Woodhenge is? Belinda asked.

Think so, Wiley said. Like Stonehenge, but wood, right?

You’re impossible, Belinda said. Jessica says you haven’t been helping out.

Jesus Christ, you’re gonna nag me from across the Atlantic?

You’re not giving me a choice, she said. I mean it — I need you to help the kids.

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