The Locals by Tim Collins

Author:Tim Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Badger Publishing
Published: 2015-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

The parade

“What’s that for?” I asked.

One of the men was binding my arms to the side of a chair with a bright green ribbon. The chair was stuck to long poles, making it look like the sort of thing an ancient emperor would have been carried in.

“So you don’t fall off,” he said, pulling the ribbon tight and tying a knot in it. “Health and Safety.”

I heard several of the others chuckling behind their leaf masks.

“I’m not sure I want to go ahead with this,” I said.

“I was nervous too,” said my aunt. She was wearing her white robe and green mask, and I could only tell her apart from the others by her hands. “But you’ll soon forget yourself and enjoy it.”

“I don’t think I will,” I said.

The locals had been waiting for us outside the Post Office. They were all wearing robes and masks, except Charlie, who was wearing his full-body suit and carrying his accordion.

No one was wearing shoes. My aunt had told me to go barefoot too, but I’d ignored her. After I’d decorated my dress with wild flowers, I looked at myself in the mirror and decided to wear all my normal clothes underneath so I could take the stupid thing off as soon as the parade was over.

The men hoisted my chair into the air. I was flung from side to side as they walked down the uneven road.

A group of the locals broke to the front of the procession and waved hankies around as they skipped along. Children in smaller robes and masks trailed behind, skipping and giggling.

I could see my aunt at the side, clapping her hands above her head as if she was in church. I thought it would make me feel less awkward to know she was part of this, but it didn’t. She was just as weird as the rest of them.

The locals jumped, twirled and threw their hands in the air as we made our way to the green.

I couldn’t begin to imagine how Roxy would react if she saw this. I thought she’d probably laugh herself to death.

Charlie leaped to the very front of the parade. He was twirling high in the air like a ballet dancer without missing a single note on his accordion. I’d have been impressed if I wasn’t so freaked out by it all.

I started to notice those leaf faces everywhere as we went on. There were stone faces peering down from drains like angry gargoyles, there were vague carvings in weather-beaten wood and I even spotted a couple of garden gnomes with leaf skin and acorn eyes.

We arrived at the green and Charlie leaped around, prancing nimbly and playing his accordion.

I thought the men would put me down now, but they carried me right into the middle and held me up high.

“Alright,” I said. I could feel my pulse speeding up. “Parade’s over.”

The locals formed a circle around me, held hands and hummed along to the jaunty accordion tune.

I scanned the circle for my aunt.

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