Marlford by Jacqueline Yallop

Author:Jacqueline Yallop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd

Thirteen

As night fell, a rumbling began, deep in the belly of the exhausted mines, rising slowly into the village. The cobbles began to skew, then to sink, the pavements cracking. After that, events moved quickly. As if anticipating disaster, the streetlights went out; a moment later, the road caved in with a sudden crash. Two buildings opposite the library slumped into the crater, tearing themselves from their neighbours on either side. Roof tiles scattered and window glass smashed; stone and timber gave way with an unpleasant groan; a parked car slid backwards into the hole, disappearing; the half-repaired fissure alongside the Hepworth Barton Bank burst open again, spitting rubble and swallowing the scaffolding posts. A number of dogs began to bark.

Braithwaite Barton, unscathed, oversaw proceedings with an avuncular smile. At the other end of Marlford, the nymph continued to pour clean water with careful precision into the blue basin at her feet.

The following morning, when Dan and Gadiel arrived on an expedition to the general stores, they gawped at the crumbling hole, wary of coming too close: there was still the occasional noise of collapse, the groan of rock deep below.

‘Do you think… do you think it’s safe?’ Dan edged forwards, clinging to one of the makeshift barriers. ‘It smells disgusting – swampy.’ He lifted his boot, gazed forlornly at the smeared leather and wrinkled his nose. A slime of brackish mud oozed around them.

Gadiel looked towards a group of men standing on the library steps. The building seemed to have sunk at one side, its doors were wedged open and a trickle of brine dribbled out, back down the slope of the depression into the worked-out pits that skulked below. ‘Do you think Ellie knows? We should tell her. She’d want to know,’ he said.

‘It’s like the whole world is hollow.’ Dan tapped gingerly with his foot as if to test the theory. ‘As though we could just fall in. It could be a metaphor, couldn’t it, man… about how the world’s been eaten away by the forces of capitalism? Destroyed from within. Yeah, that’s it – eviscerated.’

‘We should help.’

‘Man, this is such a cool place to have the squat. When the others come and they see the village and everything…’

‘No one’s coming, Dan. I mean, you haven’t done anything; you haven’t told anyone—’

‘Yeah, but I will, won’t I?’

‘But why would they come?’

‘Why? I’ve just told you, man – we can make such a cool statement. Even the ground beneath our feet is a statement. The past consuming the present, just like Marx says. Look at it.’ He flung his hand towards the hole.

‘I’m not sure people will want to come,’ Gadiel said. ‘I’m not sure they’ll understand.’

‘Of course they’ll understand.’ Dan pushed his hair from his face and adjusted the balance of his spectacles with some care. ‘Gadiel, I can’t believe you sometimes. You don’t see things, do you? You don’t see the wider picture – the history and the future.’

Gadiel did not answer. He ducked under the barrier and walked slowly around the crater.

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