The Shadow Year by Richell Hannah

Author:Richell, Hannah [Richell, Hannah]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781409143000
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2013-06-19T23:00:00+00:00

13

LILA

January

The Christmas tree is still up. It leans like a tired drunk against the bay window, spilling pine needles all over the cream carpet. The sight of its sad, brown-tinged branches and drooping decorations is immensely depressing and yet Lila still can’t summon the energy to take it down. She knows it’s bad luck to leave it there but the thought of packing away all those baubles, the tinsel, unthreading the ribbons of tangled lights and dragging the tree out into the garden all just feels too much. Even so, as she stands at the mirror over the fireplace applying her make-up, she feels its reproachful gaze out of the corner of her eye. Tomorrow, she thinks, brushing mascara onto her lashes, she’ll take it down tomorrow. Today there are other things to face.

Lila takes a step back and studies her reflection. It’s strange seeing herself in make-up again. She’s still pale from her bout of flu and it doesn’t sit quite right on her skin – too obvious, too artificial. She squints through critical eyes then rubs the blusher and lipstick off with a tissue. No need to make the war paint quite so obvious. She reaches for her pills and swallows two down quickly. Just for luck.

It was her mother’s idea to meet for lunch. She’d pitched it as a girls’ day out – a chance for a little mother–daughter bonding before she returned to France, but Lila knows all too well that it’s another clumsy attempt for her to check up on her daughter and after sharing such a gloomy Christmas day with her, she hadn’t felt able to say no.

For once, the public transport system seems to be on her side. A bus driver spots her racing down the pavement and waits at the stop. ‘Thank you,’ she gasps, swiping her card. The man gives her a wink and closes the doors behind her. Lila stumbles to the back of the bus and slides into an empty seat, her lungs burning with the effort of her run. She rests her handbag on her lap – the new one her mother has given her for Christmas – and turns to the window, watching the bustle of the city pass outside.

They slide past a Turkish greengrocer, a Halal meat shop and a colourful Italian deli. Above a railway bridge hangs a huge advertising hoarding urging passing commuters to FIND PARADISE. A taxi blares its horn at a pack of laughing kids scampering across the road. A group of men gesticulate outside a betting shop while a scruffy black dog, tied to a lamp-post, barks encouragement at them. As the bus pulls in to the next stop, Lila averts her gaze from a heavily pregnant woman waddling up the steps and concentrates instead on two lads with matching facial hair, black skinny jeans and Wayfarer sunglasses. They slouch onto the bus and slide into the seat in front of Lila’s, both of them hunched over their mobile phones, tapping furiously at the tiny keyboards.

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