The Haar by David Sodergren

Author:David Sodergren [Sodergren, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798800159837
Amazon: B0B15TYP57
Publisher: Independently published
Published: 2022-05-16T23:00:00+00:00

16

The rain never let up.

It was still chucking it down as Muriel sat in front of the telly, trying to pay attention to The Great Pottery Throw Down. The nice man on the screen was looking at a clay pot and crying, but Muriel was thinking of Arthur. She had been so angry about his unjust death that she hadn’t given herself time to grieve, and yet here, in the comfort of her own home, she found it hard to concentrate.

…hungry…

She put the volume up on the TV. Though she couldn’t drown Avalon’s voice out completely — it was in her head, after all — she could damn well try. What did he want her to do? Invite one of Grant’s people over to be his meal?

It wouldn’t precisely be murder. After all, Avalon wasn’t human. He was a creature, and creatures can’t murder. They can kill, certainly, but that was a different matter entirely. Was the spider a murderer for ensnaring the fly?

“It’s not the same,” she said.

Avalon walked and talked like a human being when he wanted to. Was he not capable of making moral and ethical decisions? Had she not accepted him as the living reincarnation of her husband?

The thought made her head hurt. She wouldn’t kill for him. She couldn’t kill for him.

Oh, if only he wasn’t so hungry all the time.

She switched the telly off, listening to the melancholy patter of the rain, then got up and emptied the bowl beneath the leaky roof into the sink. She replaced it, and stared up at the small hole.

Billy could fix that if he was here.

“Billy’s dead,” she said.

All it would take is one phone call. Just a quick call, telling them you’re ready to take their deal. They’ll come round, and—

She walked to the wireless and put it on. It was one of those fancy digital ones her grandson Jack had given her. He had tuned it to what he called ‘the oldies station’, and she never bothered to change it. Roy Orbison was singing Only The Lonely. Muriel smiled. She had been in her twenties when that song came out. She remembered dancing to it with her friends. Billy had never been a dancer, or a socialiser for that matter, but Muriel would go out with her pals whenever she could. Of course, they were all dead now.

…hungry…

She walked to the window. Raindrops speckled the pane, the wind blowing them horizontally. It was a treacherous evening, the kind where she would sit up all night worrying about Billy if he was out at sea. She wished she could have gone out there with him, just once. The idea of the pair of them sleeping on a boat under the stars had an undeniable romantic allure.

Lightning forked across the sky. Seconds later, thunder rumbled ominously overhead.

…hungry…

“There’s nothing I can do about that,” she said, loud enough for Avalon to hear in the bathroom.

She inspected her bruised and cut arms. They didn’t look so bad in the moonlight.

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