The Quiet Space Between Us by N.A. Cooper

Author:N.A. Cooper [Cooper, N.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

She ran back to Walker’s place, stopping halfway to catch her breath. She clutched the book in her hands and opened the front page, checking, doubting herself the way she often did. She looked at the small print again, hoping that she’d somehow read it wrong, but she hadn’t. It was still there in black and white, as obvious as it was confusing.

She closed it, gripping it tightly in one hand while she ran across the fields, past the dirt track and towards the river. She could hear music and see a thin trail of smoke coming from the other side of the hut but she couldn’t see Walker. She ran round to the other side and found him there by the shed chopping wood. He was damp with sweat and his hair was tied back off his face. He looked at Ida, and Ida looked at him.

‘Where did you get this?’ she demanded, holding the book up for him to see.

Walker’s eyes narrowed, confused. ‘What do you mean?’

‘This book… where did you get it?’ Ida was shouting over the sound of the music, the same record as earlier now playing a different song: ‘Go Your Own Way’.

‘A shop,’ he said simply, the axe still held in his hand.

‘But which shop… when?’

Walker scratched the back of his head and shrugged. ‘The supermarket in town,’ he said, gesturing over towards the hills and whatever lay beyond. ‘I don’t know when.’

‘You don’t know?’

‘Why does it matter?’

She opened the front cover and thrust it at him. He leant the axe on a log and took it from her.

‘The date,’ she said. ‘It was published this year!’

He looked from Ida to the book and then back. ‘So?’

‘So how is that possible?’

Walker looked genuinely confused which only frustrated Ida further. She wanted answers but they weren’t coming as quickly and as clearly as she would like.

‘I must have got it when I last went into town then,’ he said simply. ‘End of January, I think.’

‘January this year?’

‘Yes. January this year.’ He spoke slowly, his voice low and devoid of all the anger that was so clear in Ida’s.

‘No. No. You’re lying.’

‘What… why would I lie about that?’

‘How is that possible? How!’ She was shouting at him, loud and angry. There was so much frustration and confusion bubbling away inside her that she had to release it somehow or she felt she would explode. ‘How is it possible?’ she repeated.

He put the book down on a log and took a step towards her. ‘Are you okay?’

Ida could hear the concern in his voice and the calmness in his tone, as though he was scared he would break her if he spoke too loudly. She tried to think straight, to arrange her thoughts in some logical order that allowed her to ask the questions she needed, but she couldn’t. She was spiralling, overloaded with information that didn’t make sense.

‘Do you need me to get you some help?’ Walker asked her.

‘Help? What do you mean?’

‘The guy… your

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