The Iron Woman (Faber Children's Classics) by Ted Hughes

Author:Ted Hughes [Hughes, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571226139
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2005-06-22T23:00:00+00:00

Lucy and Hogarth walked home in a daze. Her plan had worked too well in a way. But in another way it hadn’t worked at all.

‘They’ve all caught it!’ cried Hogarth. ‘Did you see that man’s face? I thought it was going to fly off and out through the window when I grabbed his ears.’

‘But will it stop the factory?’ Lucy almost frowned.

‘It might!’ cried Hogarth. ‘They’ve got to think about it. How long do you think it will take before the whole world’s plugged into the giant scream? And nobody dare touch anybody else?’

The idea horrified him. At the same time, he felt like rolling on the ground with laughter. It was horrifying – but also amazing, wonderfully amazing! To think of such a thing!

And Lucy too, she was frightened by everything that was happening. At the same time, she was dazed with excitement. After all, if that was the way things were, that was the way they were.

Her mother and father were less trouble than she had expected. Once she had grabbed their hands and let them hear what everybody was talking about, they sat listening to her. She told them everything. As they listened, they began to feel slightly afraid of their daughter.

‘But this business about closing the factory,’ her father kept saying.

‘Destroying it,’ corrected Lucy. ‘Not closing it.’

‘But people’s livelihoods!’ he cried. ‘Everybody works there. What do you think I’d do?’

‘That doesn’t bother the Iron Woman,’ said Lucy. ‘All she thinks about are the screams. Some of those screams are baby screams, you know.’

Her parents stared at her. She reminded them again of the creatures that had come dancing and writhing up the tunnel of fire. Her mother sighed and rested her forehead on her hands. She stared down at the table.

‘How do you come to be mixed up in all this?’ shouted her father. ‘Why you?’ The wrinkles on his brow were a new, unfamiliar shape. His hair was tousled, as if he had just got out of bed in the middle of the night.

‘The Iron Man will know what to do,’ said Hogarth. He wanted to make Lucy’s parents feel better. But now they turned their stare on him, with the same dreadful, anxious look. Blackish rings had appeared under their eyes. And Hogarth was thinking: Is this how people look during a war? – when there came a knock on the door.

‘The police!’ gasped Lucy’s mother, looking more haggard than ever.

‘Why should it be the police?’ cried Lucy. ‘I’m not going tearing up any factory. I’m not the Iron Woman.’

Her mother opened the door. Three journalists stood there from the local newspapers. And as they introduced themselves, others, behind them, were getting out of cars.

*

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