The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance by Margaret Mahy

Author:Margaret Mahy [Margaret Mahy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780140365993
Publisher: Home
Published: 1984-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8. Changing for Ever

“It’s not so dreadful!” Sorry said, sounding rather bored. “Your mother thought she might feel more cheerful if she spent the night with Chris. Well, why not? I’m in favour of anything that makes people feel better about bad times.”

“Jacko’s so sick,” Laura said, but Jacko’s sickness was only part of the reason for her pain.

“It won’t make him any worse,” Sorry said, “and it might make her feel better.”

“You don’t understand about things like this,” Laura cried. “You haven’t got a heart.”

“Lucky me!” Sorry replied. “But it doesn’t mean that what I’m saying isn’t true.”

It was going to be a very hot day. They were walking along one of the tracks around the estuary where the city’s river, after turning through ranks of houses and small factories, met the sea and fell under the influence of the moon. The hills were on their left, the water on the right, though as the tide was out there was more mud than water. Ahead of them were two lakes, settling ponds for a sewerage system speckled with ducks, black swans and geese, and reflecting the jagged rim of the hills as exquisitely as less ambiguous water.

“You’ll forget it,” said Sorry, trying again. “Forget it now.”

“I won’t!” Laura said, with sullen determination. “I’ll never forget it.”

“Well no, perhaps not totally forget it.” Sorry grew increasingly perplexed and irritated. “You’ll just stop thinking about it. Other things will happen and you’ll start thinking about them instead, so you might as well stop thinking about it now.” He took off his jacket as he spoke, so that the sun fell on his back and shoulders. They came round a bend in the path and looked into a bay where the film of water, no thicker than a sheet of paper over the mud, nevertheless reflected the morning light with an intense silver whiteness, but as they walked towards the shining expanse, a gust of warm wind blew across the bright surface and it vanished, turning suddenly grey. They disturbed a heron sitting on a partially submerged log, and it rose and flew past them sinking its head on its breast as its flight settled down, trailing its long legs behind it. Laura wished she could fly off alongside it, and then dissolve into the honey-coloured air like sugar under the warm stirring of the wind, and never have to feel anything again.

“No chance!” said Sorry beside her, reading her thought by some uncanny skill of his own. “We’ve just got to grin and bear it. Look at the mud. It’s very calm, isn’t it? Let’s calm ourselves by looking at mud for a while.” However he was staring after the heron as he spoke as if part of his attention were flying with it.

“It’s easy for you to bear it,” Laura said sharply.

“Thank goodness!” Sorry agreed. “I don’t mind if you think I’m insensitive. It’s my triumph that I am. It’s a victory. Holy cow! Why suffer?”

“I didn’t choose to suffer,” Laura answered resentfully.

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