The Road of Bones by Anne Fine

Author:Anne Fine [Anne Fine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2007-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EIGHT DAYS I was in that cell. When we were finally herded out at dead of night, I truly thought I’d been lucky. Only eight days! (Some had been stewing for months.) I hadn’t yet realized that there are stages to despair – steps down through layers of misery until you reach a place where nothing – no, not even your own life – still seems to matter.

They pushed us out into the courtyard, where one of the first light snows of winter was beginning to fall. We sat like dogs at a gate and waited, shivering, until the guards were ready to move us through town.

We marched through back streets. ‘In case the townsfolk realize just how many of us there are,’ I heard someone mutter. And I could see how, if you happened to be looking out between your shutters and saw the wide snaking line of us shuffling along the streets in strictest silence, you might begin to wonder. All these men! Can these be the famous ‘vermin’ we’ve been told about so often, chewing at the roots of the state? But there are so many of them! And they look so much like us!

No, better to herd us round behind the glue factories and along the canal, though it must have taken a good hour longer to reach the station yard. It seems the women had been sent ahead, and were already bolted into their box cars. But how many cells had been emptied to furnish so many men? By the time we were pushed through the gate and followed the barked orders to squat in lines on the filthy boot-packed snow, I counted over four hundred.

And we were just the droppings from the prison of one small town! So how could anyone think we could be terrorists, wreckers, conspirators? If that were true, the Leader would have had to drown our revolt in blood, not simply usher us up ramps into the caged compartments of a train.

‘Three more in this one! Quick! You with the arm sling. And you! And you!’

The guard grabbed at an old man stumbling up the ramp and pushed him so hard he fell into the carriage on top of me.

Instantly the old man was howling. ‘My letter! Mind my letter!’

I lifted my sodden boot. The sheets of paper that had slid out of his sleeve onto the board floor were already filthy and torn. The ink spread into pools.

‘My letter!’ His rheumy eyes filled. ‘Now I must start again!’ he wailed. ‘Where will I find the paper?’

One of the prisoners crammed behind the closest mesh partition started to tease. ‘Why bother, Grandpa? No one will ever read it.’

The old man held out the pulpy streaked mess he’d gathered from the floor. ‘But it explains. All they have to do is take a moment to read it. Then they’ll know I’m innocent. Innocent!’

His neighbours’ snorts of contempt set him howling afresh. Beside me, the man with the arm sling broke off from shoving for a place, to offer a pitying look.

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.