Strangely Enough by Gillian Hagenus

Author:Gillian Hagenus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MidnightSun Publishing

About the Author

Rebecca-Anne C. Do Rozario is a writer, metalsmith, knitter, and fairy-tale scholar.

SHIV AND THE FAT STATUE

Raeden Richardson

The girl’s name was Shiv. Not so long ago, she hopped the fence by the shops, knelt on the tracks and waited for the train. She lay her wispy white hair over the rocks and the rails. She was alone in our world and longed to be gone.

Ten minutes passed and she kept her eyes closed. Twenty minutes passed and her tears turned to salt on her nose. Thirty minutes passed and she sat up, wondering what had stuffed the schedule.

She needed a little something to settle her nerves, so she hopped back over the fence and opened her bags in the reeds. She chose the darts but of course the box was done. ‘You’re so late,’ she said, for her mum was still waiting in the higher life.

Shiv left the reeds and went across the carpark to the shops. Through the shuttered doors, she saw the whole joint was empty. She banged and banged until the alarm rang. There was a paper sign on the window beside the bin. She couldn’t read the sign, for ever since she had found her mum dead, all these strange squiggles stopped making sense.

She kicked the bin and sent some pain up her shin. Then she left the shops and limped home to the reeds. A cop was snooping in her bags. He wore a light blue mask over his nose and his mouth. Shiv frowned, but neither she nor we will ever know if he frowned back.

‘The whole world’s in lockdown,’ he said. ‘Haven’t you heard?’

A train tore along the tracks. She saw every carriage was clean and clear.

‘Relax, sweetheart,’ he said. ‘You want to explain what’s in these bags of yours?’

Just like that, Shiv ran from the cop and went far away. Her heart beat up her chest, and when she coughed, her throat rattled in her neck. She was getting the shakes again, so she hid under the highway and tried to have a think. Still, she was stuck. Still, she was bound to this body.

Later, Shiv walked through the neighbourhood, peeking between the bushes at the people in their houses. Through the first window, a man stood in the kitchen, a hanky tied over his chin, scrubbing his pears and bananas in the sink. Through the second window, a snivelling girl watched the telly with silver tears on her sleeve. Through the third window, two men sat on either side of the sofa, swiping on their phones without saying a word.

In an alleyway, Shiv peeked in a car and found a box of darts on the passenger seat. She bashed the window, took the darts and ran down the street… But who was around to chase her down?

Standing in the streetlight, Shiv tried to settle her nerves. She needed this dart. She needed to ask her mum why she did it. ‘You could’ve waited for the sun to shine on you and me again.

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