Quarantine by Nick Holdstock

Author:Nick Holdstock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pandemic;coronavirus;ebola;SARS;MERS;Pfizer;AstraZeneca
Publisher: Swift Press
Published: 2022-03-29T17:29:47+00:00

Lukas

I don’t know what the feathers meant. Maybe even Min-seo couldn’t have explained why it was so important for her body to have a soft black frame.

She’d have been pleased by the result. The outline was wide enough to contain her body yet still preserved its shape. One of her arms was under the pillow; the other was perpendicular. Her legs were together and twisted slightly behind. She’d posed herself perfectly.

If she’d told me what she was planning I’d have tried to talk her out of it, but she was so stubborn. She’d have made me help her.

I wanted to run out and tell someone even though I couldn’t, even though there was no point. All I could do was stand there and look at Min-seo lying on the bed. How long had it taken her to complete her work? What had she been thinking as she carefully placed each feather, stuck it down, saw her shape emerge? How had she been able to go through with it when every moment offered her the opportunity to stop, postpone, make another choice?

Unless she had treated it like any other piece of work. She’d feathered her walls. Now she was feathering her bed. Perhaps the frail and wrinkled object she was going to put there didn’t seem like her body. She was making a frame for a piece of sculpture.

I switched off the light and got into bed. I snuggled up to her carefully so as not to move her. I didn’t think about being in any other place or time. I stayed with her.

When I woke it was still dark. I hoped Min-seo was only sleeping. She was even colder.

Day began with a thick, grey light that made things look blurred. I’d have to leave Min-seo’s house eventually, but I wasn’t sure where to go.

I heard the front door open and panicked. I was reaching for a rock on the bedside table when Brendan entered. His smile shrank. He went up to the bed and picked up a feather from next to Min-seo’s foot. He turned it over several times, then brushed his palm with it.

‘She used to walk behind the canteen to see if any feathers had been dropped. It’s a popular place with the crows.’

He put the feather back, then sighed.

‘She picked a classy way to do it. I hope I do the same.’

I saw him lying next to her within his own black frame. Next to him Rustam, Ella and Sharnaz were similarly enclosed.

‘Do you think you will?’ I asked, as more bodies were added. Soon Valentina, Senk, Noor and Anurag would be gone. We could pluck every crow on the mountain and it wouldn’t be enough.

‘No, probably not. I suspect I’ll cling on. Although I don’t believe in God, I still think He might give me a miracle. You should get under the blanket, you’re shivering.’

‘No, I should go out. I can’t hide in here forever.’

‘True, but you’ll have to stay put a few hours. There’s a curfew until ten.

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