Darker With the Lights On by David Hayden

Author:David Hayden
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781945492136
Publisher: Transit Books
Published: 2018-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

Elsewhere

THROUGH THE PLASTER and brick the clear-eyed boy stands, impermeable in the stream of time. The room beyond is clean and uncluttered. A large painting hangs on one wall, an unfigured pattern in brackenish tones of purple and brown. Tea rose is faintly on the air. A woman sits on a comfortable sofa. She barks. And barks again. Short, dry sobs, torn up from a place inside where everything that was alive has compacted into a single hard point.

The boy blinks.

Outside: the road, the path, the strand, the sea. No one visits in the winter and the residents could walk the sand unimpeded by pleasure seekers from other places. Except they do not walk. The winds are harsh and searching. It is either raining or about to rain. Everyone here feels porous, but no one talks about it. The sky is a vast anvil hovering over the sea.

The boy belonged to the sea. He would walk the winter beach. Dig tunnels in the hard wet sand until his hands were blue-red and numb, and stung when he put them in the fleecy pockets of his jacket. Further up the head the boy would sit for hours on the grassy dunes that overlook the stone beach, watching the procession and recession of the tides. The small hawks buffeting in the high air, scanning the world for life. A mile away a broad, half-buried sewage pipe dumps its slick load into the sea, just about half a mile too close to the shore, and when the seasons rise and the wind turns, the stink rolls over the land.

The boy watched closely for the first warm day when he could go to the Drop to swim before the old men arrived. Ragged ribbons of deep green seaweed border the natural pool, said to be fifty foot deep. There is a worn-in run-up track, but the boy preferred to climb to an awkward ledge several feet higher and, from a standing start, cartwheel into the air before cutting, cormorant-style, straight into the still-cold water, making as little sound as he could. The long wait, falling and rising in the darkness, a perfection of movement; all the stale air of winter expelled in huge, pearly bubbles, then breaking, surfacing with a long inspiration that felt like new life beginning.

The half-term holiday starts today. A small number of families will come for a cheap break bringing their strollers, picture books and waterproofs. The house next door is a holiday cottage, uncared for and uninhabited most of the year, even in high season. A few minutes ago a minicab pulled up, its exhaust rattling on the tarmac. Two children, a boy and a girl, perhaps twelve and nine, jumped out. The parents and the driver chatted unhurriedly before unloading, exchanging payment and giving thanks. The taxi shuddered off and the four stood in silence. A curtain flickered. “Let’s get the keys,” said the mother, clutching a letter. “Can I press the buttons?” asked the girl, and the mother read out the combination to the key safe.

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.