Silent Waters by L.V. Matthews

Author:L.V. Matthews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Welbeck Fiction Limited

TWENTY-NINE

Claudia wakes.

She’s lying on a sofa, covered with a fleece blanket which smells of things she remembers; of jasmine, peaches, and of chlorine – Jen’s smell. There’s safety in the memory of it because it belongs to Claudia’s childhood, when life was hopeful and free and not like it is now. Now it’s toxic and all the bricks she built her life on are crumbling.

The light has faded and she wonders briefly if it’s dusk or dawn before she sees a clock on the wall. It’s seven in the evening. She thinks how strange it is to wake like this. She was dreaming again about the diving pool agitator, that when she jumps from the platform, it suddenly turns off, and she’s spinning faster and faster into a sheet of water that now looks like glass. She’s can’t tell where the bottom of the pool is, and she’s going to crash into it like it’s concrete and her body will break. She’s been long used to waking to the immediate sense of dread, she’s had years where’s she’s tried to work out what mood Mark might have been in before he’s even rolled over to face her. Even on the good days, she couldn’t trust Mark’s smiles – they could change very suddenly, like a cloud that turned the sky black.

‘Hello?’ she calls quietly, but she’s met with silence.

She sits up and takes in her surroundings. The lounge is small and compact, with a tall standing lamp in one corner, a mirror, and a huge TV. On the walls are framed pictures of stock internet phrases on well-being – Believe you can and you are already halfway there and Life beats down and crushes the soul but art reminds you that you have one – and they make Claudia laugh because Jen was always the most capable person Claudia knew, so what on earth is she doing with all this rubbish? Jen was always driven and ambitious and determined – all the things that Claudia wasn’t but pretended to be. She can see numerous hooks on the wall too, noticeable gaps where frames should be. Was it that way when Bill brought her in here? They’d driven all night and she was so tired and now can’t remember.

There is a bookcase with shelves filled with books with titles like Into The Deep, The Wave, Something Beneath the Sea, and this brings a smile to Claudia’s face. Jen, a human whose heart and soul belong in the water.

She’s thought about Jen a lot over the years; has wondered who she is now, what makes her laugh, and what makes her cry. She remembers years ago they used to do both at the same time. She remembers a day at the river, where they’d floated along where the water became rapid-like. It had shot them downstream alongside little gathered icebergs of dun foam, beneath a canopy of yellow leaves. Claudia went so fast that she clung wildly to Jen’s legs and Jen got her foot stuck down Claudia’s cleavage and couldn’t pull it free.

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.