The Ant Colony by Jenny Valentine

Author:Jenny Valentine [Valentine, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ages 12 & Up
ISBN: 9780007381012
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2012-05-30T23:00:00+00:00

Ten (Sam)

We used to lose power at home all the time. It was never something that took you by surprise, not really. Everyone I knew had a stash of lamps and candles and torches and batteries. Everyone I knew could make a decent fire in the dark.

Later, after I’d climbed in Bohemia’s window, I sat in my room in the dark. I suppose it was a welcome thing, to have been in proper blackness again. There was a hush I wasn’t used to, like everything was holding its breath until the lights came back on. My fingers tingled from holding on to the bricks. My whole body had this quiet hum in the middle of it, like a tuning fork, like pure adrenaline.

I’d climbed up the side of Max’s house a couple of times. Once for a dare and once to prove to my friends that I’d actually done it. Rock climbing was never really my thing at all. Rock climbing centres smell of sweat and other people’s fear, and on a real rock everything takes too long, like putting up shelves. I’m too impatient. The dogs at Max’s barked at me, but nobody paid them any attention because they barked at anything. They’d barked wolf.

The first time, they barked and yelped themselves crazy, and stood on their hind legs in their enclosure. I took a run up and grabbed the drainpipe a couple of feet above my head. It was a rough stone wall with plenty of good holes and lots of ivy. It was easier than the one I’d just done, not as high up.

I was never scared of the climbing. I was more scared of getting caught, of Max’s Mum and Dad watching in the dark, their hands on the window, palms flat against the glass.

I couldn’t get the sight of Cherry and Mick out of my head. The state of them slumped in the bathroom, half dressed, like corpses. And Bohemia, afraid and still smiling, pretending it was nothing.

She was alone in a way I’d never be.

I didn’t want to see it. I was way out of my depth in that much aloneness. I was useless. So I left her there.

I shut the door behind me in my own empty room and I thought about phoning home. I imagined hearing it ring. I knew exactly where it was and exactly how it sounded. It’s dark in there, in the centre of the house, with only the reflection of light on the walls from windows in other rooms. Even on a bright day the tiles on the floor are cold and outside sounds far away.

I thought about what Mum and Dad would be doing when the phone rang. Dad’s hands covered in soil, his palms thick and dry with it, rich brown in his nails where there used to be white. He’d shout to Mum to pick up because he wouldn’t get his boots off in time. Where would she be? Folding laundry, making a list, reading the newspaper with her glasses low on the bridge of her nose.

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.