The Earth Wire by Joel Lane

Author:Joel Lane [Lane, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: British Literature, Horror, Short Stories, Fiction
ISBN: 9781553101628
Publisher: Christopher Roden/Ash-Tree Press
Published: 2012-01-05T23:00:00+00:00

Other Than the Fair

ON FRIDAY, Helen walked back from school in the gathering dark. Autumn was coming to an end; the trees along the road were mostly black frames. It was too cloudy to see the moon. She didn’t like walking on her own in these conditions, but this afternoon she couldn’t face the company of the other girls either. The house was dark when she let herself in. Immediately, before she had time to rouse herself with a cup of tea, the night overtook her. She went upstairs to her room and slept for an hour. The sound of Claire coming home woke her up. Still half dreaming, Helen stepped across her room to the dressing-table and examined her reflection. The face she saw appeared still childish, though framed by long dark hair. She would be fourteen in a month’s time.

Was this how Claire had looked a couple of years ago? Helen wondered as she changed her clothes and carefully applied some make-up. She and her elder sister no longer shared the same world that had kept them, as children, on almost equal terms. Claire had moved into a realm that was alternately threatening and glorious, overshadowed by boys, lit up by fashions. For months now she had been going out with Gary, who at seventeen was a year beyond her. Helen would have liked to be able to impress Gary. He was a lot more attractive than the rather irritating lads of her own age.

‘You all right for this evening?’ Claire asked her when she emerged. ‘Don’t look too bad, actually.’ Helen smiled, flattered. ‘Gary’s calling at seven-thirty.’ The three of them were going to the firework display on Midsummer Common. For Claire and Helen, who had moved in early in the New Year, it would be the first time they’d seen it. Afterwards they might spend some time in the funfair. Helen had saved some money for fireworks; but the established family ritual of lighting fireworks in the back garden had been abandoned this year. Claire had suggested going to the display, probably just to get herself and Helen away from the house for the evening; she had promised that Gary would take care of them.

Helen’s parents both arrived at roughly the same time. She could hear them arguing in the kitchen below; she put on a record to drown out their voices. Claire had to thump on her door to get her to come down for dinner. The atmosphere at the table was as difficult as ever. Whatever was the matter, it was clearly not to be discussed in front of the children. Helen resented that exclusion as much as she hated being expected to cope with the silences. She knew that Claire felt much the same way. Her father fixed his gaze somewhere between the two girls, and began a monologue about a firework display that he had been to as a young man in London. It had gone on for a full hour, he said.

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