The Heart Broke In by James Meek

Author:James Meek [Meek, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Contemporary
ISBN: 9780374168711
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

41

Ritchie had been surly at dinner on the eve of their father’s last tour, Bec remembered, shovelling food into his mouth with the fork held at right angles to his fist and his fringe falling over his eyes. Later, when the summer darkness fell and Bec was in her room, tying the laces of her walking boots, she’d heard Ritchie yell ‘Fascist!’ and his door slam shut.

She put her nightdress on over her clothes and opened the window. The air smelled of chestnut blossom and the sound of the stream came up from where it rushed through the coomb at the foot of the garden. She got into bed with a book, but she couldn’t read. There was an owl call from outside and a plastic box flew in through the window and bounced on the floor. Bec got out of bed, grabbed it and ran back under the covers. She opened the box. It had a mirror in the lid, like a make-up compact, and three troughs of cream – one black, one green and one brown. She heard her mother coming, snapped the box shut, hid it and pulled the quilt up tight around her neck. Her mother put her head round the door and asked if she’d seen her father, and when Bec said she hadn’t, her mother told her it was time for her to go to sleep. She kissed Bec, switched off the light, went out and closed the door behind her.

Bec stared at the darkness through the window. As her eyes picked up the faint gradients of blacks and browns the square of nothingness began to take on substance and form. What had seemed like an opening into pure night now puckered and solidified into a shape, as if the air was curdling. A pair of disembodied eyes opened, their whites so pale as to seem to shine, like the moon. They swivelled and came to rest on Bec. A few inches below the eyes, two rows of teeth appeared, parted and let out a voice.

‘You haven’t cammed up,’ said her father.

‘I didn’t have time,’ said Bec. She got out of bed and carried the box to the window.

‘You have to blend into the darkness like a panther,’ said her father, taking the box from Bec’s hands and opening it. Reaching through the window, he began to dab and smear camouflage cream onto his daughter’s face.

‘What about my eyeballs?’ said Bec.

‘And nor does the panther have black teeth. We must give our prey a chance.’

Once he’d darkened Bec’s face and hands to his satisfaction, her father lifted her out of the room and set her down on the flowerbed under the window. From the far end of the house Bec could see the grey light cast by the television shrink and brighten.

‘Ready?’ said her father. ‘Remember the rules?’

‘Don’t make any noise. Don’t leave anyone behind.’

‘And?’

‘That’s it.’

‘Good girl. If we find the poacher, you wait while I work my way behind him.’ Bec’s father took a small pipe hanging from a cord round his neck and blew into it.

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