Rhys Thomas by On the Third Day

Author:On the Third Day
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-06-01T13:08:56+00:00

He could never have thought that such a meal would be so welcome. It was just a vegetable mush with some salt and pepper but as he swallowed each mouthful he was sure he could feel the nourishing goodness of it seep into his flesh and bones.

Emily ladled the soup on to her spoon in dainty, ladylike amounts, blew on it and ate. She always said that grace would be the last thing she would let go of, but Charlie was past that. He shovelled the food in as fast as he could.

He looked around at each of the faces at the table: the old woman, her daughter and two little kids. He guessed the husband must have died because there had been no sign or mention of him.

‘So,’ said the old woman, ‘what’s your plan?’

‘We’re going to the camp at the bottom of the hill,’ said Emily. ‘We’ve heard it’s safe.’

‘It seems that way,’ said the old woman. ‘It’s been there for months and we’ve not heard any trouble.’

The younger woman shifted in her seat.

‘Do you know the people?’ Charlie asked.

The old woman considered his question. ‘We don’t have much to do with them.’

‘Don’t you get lonely up here on your own?’ said Charlie, not thinking.

The two women paused as if waiting for the other to answer. It was the younger woman who finally spoke.

‘We think it’s safer to be on our own.’

Charlie nodded and looked into his soup.

The old woman’s daughter had said hardly anything the whole time they had been in there. He knew who she was. She was one of the people who had been broken. He had seen it lots of times.

‘We heard,’ he said, ‘that the government are getting close to a cure.’

Miriam’s mother smiled. ‘You never know.’

‘You don’t think so?’

‘We’ve heard similar things from people passing through on their way to the camp.’

Charlie’s voice became animated.

‘We spoke to a guy – didn’t we, Em? – who said they’ve been doing experiments all this time. They haven’t given up. There’s a small group that are working and when this is all over they’ll come back and get things started again.’

The old woman listened to him with patient silence. Charlie took a breath and looked at the little boy and girl.

‘I bet you two are loving not having to go to school,’ he said cheerfully.

The two kids stared blankly back at him.

‘Oh-kay,’ he said, and looked at their mother. ‘Sorry.’

He stopped suddenly when their eyes met. He broke contact and stared into his soup bowl again, not knowing what to say. He had said something wrong. The room became uncomfortably silent. Tears had formed in her eyes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.