The Gameshouse by Claire North

Author:Claire North
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2019-05-28T04:00:00+00:00

A world outside. Motion without movement. Workers resting beneath the shade of a banana tree. Mangos rotting on the earth. Nets thrown into a river by stick-skinny girls. The banging of the gong from temple. Many stops, waiting for another train to clear the narrowest point in the track ahead. Sometimes the rain falls; sometimes the skies clear, brilliant blue flecked with white that turns black again as quickly as the clouds parted, and turns the distant hills and fields to dusty grey.

The British man says:

“Can’t trust these people, these Siamese, to do anything. Can’t trust them to get a job done. ‘Tomorrow,’ they say, and then the next day: ‘Tomorrow.’ You ask what the hold-up is and they say, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow,’ and when you insist they say, ‘I need to order a part.’ Why didn’t they order it yesterday? ‘I’ll do it tomorrow,’ they reply, and that is the end of the argument! No, better off with a Chink. Hard worker, your average Chink, but wily too, will rob you if you blink but if you show him who’s master, make it clear you’re not having any funny business, they’ll do all right by you. Your Malay is the laziest of the lot, but responds well to the rod, but your Jap! Gotta admire a Jap, you have. Damn me if the blighters aren’t almost like us!”

Remy listens, his face turned away, and says nothing at all.

He is still as the train moves.

He is motion.

He is a fixed point on the earth.

He is the earth as it turns.

He is here.

He is everywhere.

He is nothing at all.

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