The Island of Mists and Miracles by Victoria Mas

Author:Victoria Mas [Mas, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529905151
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Published: 2024-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

‘Isaac.’

Alan said the name for a third time. Standing in the middle of the living room, he stared at his son who, despite his insistence, remained utterly silent. Alan had come home in the early afternoon and dragged the boy out of bed, where Isaac had naively hoped he could stay, forgotten. The shutters remained firmly closed; Alan had shut them the previous day, unable to comprehend what was happening outside, blockading his home against whatever lurked there.

‘What’s been going on out there these past two days? What is it you think is happening on the headland?’

The same questions, over and over for more than an hour now. The clock marked out the seconds with an old-fashioned tick-tock. Only a fragment of daylight managed to filter through the closed shutters into this accursed living room, where two shadows faced each other – one standing, gradually losing his patience; the other sitting on the sofa, mute, caught up in memories of the previous day.

‘Talk to me, Isaac!’

‘I see a woman.’

The teenager spoke softly, as though he could see the woman he was talking about even as he spoke, as though he needed to whisper out of respect for her. Alan wondered whether he had heard the boy correctly, if this whisper was really an answer; it was certainly not an explanation.

‘I was there. I didn’t see any woman.’

His son seemed untroubled by this detail; he looked serene as he sat on the sofa, patiently waiting for this interrogation to end. Something had changed in the boy, and Alan did not quite know whether it was his bearing, perhaps his voice, or his way of inhabiting silence without worrying about it.

‘Isaac, if you’re lying to me …’

‘I’m not lying.’

The doorbell rang. Annoyed by this interruption, Alan left the living room. He moved uncertainly, grumbling to himself. Once again, he had not slept during the night, and he had eaten very little: for the past two days, his routine had been turned upside down, and he still did not understand why.

On the threshold, he found Madenn, who had quickly wiped away the tears from her moist red eyes before the door opened. She no longer saw anything of the boy. Over the past few days, Isaac had stopped coming to the restaurant, had stopped coming to sit at the counter and have lunch with her. Of course, she had seen him on the headland, but there he was caught between worlds and barely able to speak, oblivious to everything around him. Now, the empty stool at the counter, the meals she did not serve him, this absence she had never anticipated, marked a break with happy times she was not sure would ever return.

‘I just wanted to ask how he’s doing.’

Standing in the doorway, Alan glanced around Madenn, suddenly mistrustful of the island and its inhabitants. Then he leaned towards her.

‘My son didn’t say that he saw … who you’re saying he saw.’

The comment amused Madenn, which somewhat alleviated her sadness. She pulled her cardigan tighter around her to ward off the cold.

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.