The Drowning Hour by S. K. Tremayne

Author:S. K. Tremayne [S.K.Tremayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-05-18T17:00:00+00:00

39

I am pushing you, Kat, on a swing in the park in Maldon, overlooking the Blackwater, our favourite park with the fountains and the lido and the bandstand. Greedy the First runs around us: yapping happily.

You are about seven years old, so I must be eight or nine. The summer sun is strong and thistledown floats, and you laugh at all the golden sparkles in the air.

‘More, Hannybobs, more, MORE! Push it harder!’

You always like the risk. The danger. I always love the sound of your laughter. It makes me laugh: a duet. Obediently, I push you harder, swinging you firmly into the clear blue sky. Greedy yaps even louder, responding to your excitement. I don’t know where Mum and Dad have gone. But it doesn’t matter. We are here, together and alive, in the green of Promenade Park, with the view of the river and Royden Island, with prams and picnics and an ice cream stand, where dogs bicker and people jog, and someone gives a pink balloon to an astonished little girl.

‘More, Hanny, more more more more more—’

I do another big push to make you gurgle with happiness, but I push too hard, and something isn’t right. I push so hard you seem to detach. Go away. Go too far. You do not swing back to me. Instead, your swing just goes up, and up, and up, and up, and away, and I stand there in Promenade Park and I watch as you soar.

I shield my eyes from the sun, with a trembling hand. You have gone from my sight, and now the blue sky gets blacker. It is dark now, and I am watching a pinpoint of light, wondering if it is you. It looks like that moving star we once sang a song about, standing by the window, two little girls, two sisters holding hands, and now there is not even a little moving star.

I gaze around. The darkened park is shut and deserted. Everyone has gone home. A chilly wind rips off the Blackwater, pushes litter down the paths. Fish and chip papers rolling like tumbleweed.

‘Mummy?’

I am scared now. How am I in a park in the night on my own?

‘Daddy?’

No one answers. I start running down the path to the gate that leads home and then I think I see you again: running away from me like a mist, a frail shiver of light, down the road, and I run up to the padlocked gates and scream, ‘Katty! Kattydogs! Come back! Don’t go! Help me!’ And then I feel someone big and tall is running up behind me and I …

Wake up. With a pelting heart. Gasping. Alone. In my room. Greedygut sleeps in his basket. The hotel is silent and brooding. What day is it? Saturday? When did I see Ben? Three days ago?

I gaze at the ceiling, drained of life. My loneliness is intense, hardened like a diamond.

Robert Kempe comes tomorrow. He might help. He has to help.

Reaching for my bedside glass, I gulp the tepid water, and some of it spills down my chin.

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.