The Cold Blast by Mary Easson

Author:Mary Easson [Easson, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cockleroy Books
Published: 2021-03-19T18:11:26+00:00

John

Me and Jim looked forward to the summer holiday that year like no other. There’d been a rare day out to the toun one-year past – a fish tea in a fine establishment after a walk in the gardens and down the Royal Mile from the castle to Holyrood. And a trip on a steamer the year afore – doon the watter to Rothesay on a day when the smirr barely gave sight of land two minutes after leaving the Broomielaw though we didn’t care. The salt air filled our lungs and the breeze blew away the cobwebs of daily life in the Rows. But the thrill of a week under canvas in the Highlands with the pals? That had us talking and planning for hours on end! These trips had come about courtesy of my mother’s determination to save on our behalf. She insisted that things were looking up, were getting better with all of us working, but I knew the sacrifices she made to put away the odd shilling here and there to give her boys a holiday.

When it came to the bit, only me and Jim, Bert, Dan, and Sandy got on the train for the camp. Rob was noticeable by his absence – the seat next to his brother stayed empty all the way to our destination in the hills. There hadn’t been enough time to find out the detail of what had happened along at the Big House on the Saturday night in question, even the Blackrigg rumour mill didn’t work that fast. There’d been an explosion and a man had been killed, that much we knew for sure. We also knew that Rob and two others were being held in police cells and Constable Mackay wasn’t about to let them out in a hurry. Had we not left the village when we did, tales of a planned insurrection or even revolution, and a train load of Glasgow polis on its way to quell the riots, would have come to us on the grape vine, for sure.

As we crowded onto the station platform, we wondered whether Sandy would be joining us but, true to form, he appeared on the horizon just in time, shadowed by his mother. I guessed she was making sure her younger son was packed off and wasn’t going to reappear at her door. With Rob locked up, the waste of one holiday would be more than enough in her eyes. Besides, why should one son suffer because of the actions of another? As the train departed, I imagined her setting off for the police station to enquire about Rob’s situation. His two hands pressed against the window, Sandy looked for a glimpse of her for as long as he could then he slumped in his seat, his head against the glass, and he didn’t speak for the first hour. We knew to leave him be and hoped that, in time, he would reveal something about his brother’s predicament.

Our week at the camp was everything I thought it would be and more.

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.