The Puppet Maker by Jenny O'Brien

Author:Jenny O'Brien [O'Brien, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781805080251
Published: 2023-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FIVE

MONDAY, 20TH DECEMBER, 7.00 P.M.

Penny was sitting in the kitchen when she heard the front door slam and the sound of feet clomping down the hallway. She spent most of her spare time in her favourite chair, a book propped on the table in front of her, the radio tuned to whichever station was playing the best music. She didn’t know what she’d do if she didn’t have access to reading materials. There were no books left in the house that she hadn’t read until the pages had loosened from the spine, apart from the Bible and that wasn’t something she was ever likely to read. She’d been brought up in a religious house. Prayers at the table before they were allowed to eat. Prayers at bedtime, kneeling on the stone-cold floor shivering in her nightie. Attending Mass on Saturdays and religious days. No meat on Friday. All of the things that were meant to show the world what a good Catholic family they were. So good that at the first sign of trouble, they’d turfed her out on her ear with only the possessions on her back. No, instead of the Bible, she took it upon herself to walk along the Royal Canal Bank and across Blacquiere Bridge to visit Phibsboro library once a week to stock up on books. She wasn’t fussy as long as it was escapist. Something to dive into up to her neck. Something to drown in. She jumped from the classics to crime, romance to short stories and essays. She wasn’t a purist. She didn’t have time for all that nonsense.

By the time he entered the kitchen, she was standing in front of the kettle waiting for it to boil, the latest Samantha Tonge novel hidden by a carefully draped tea towel – it wouldn’t be the first time he’d snatched her library book only for her never to see it again. It was a good job the librarian was a saint, suspicious and unbelieving when she’d said the cat had eaten it, but there was nothing she could do about that. The truth of a mad brother who turned humans into full-sized puppets was as unbelievable as blaming the cat.

‘Did you close the curtains?’

A simple enough question with a simple enough answer, but one she was scared to give all the same. No, do it yourself would mean repercussions that she wasn’t prepared to invite.

‘I’ll do it now.’

‘And be sharp about it. You remember the last time, don’t you, Penny?’

How could I ever forget! She ran her fingers along the raft of bruises running across her chest, shoulder and left arm, the colours faded to an insipid yellowy-brown. There’d been no trace of her brother, the boy he’d once been, when he’d turned on her. The shift from mental torture to physical attacks had been the impetus she needed to remove her daughter from an increasingly fraught situation. If only she was able to do the same. It didn’t take a genius to recognise the time was coming when the ability to choose would be taken from her.

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