The Lip by Charlie Carroll

Author:Charlie Carroll [Carroll, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

In the caravan, I change my dress, eat a packet of crisps, drink some water, ready myself for the walk and, at the end of it, Petherick. I am dreading it. I consider stalling, waiting for Esther who is coming this evening and who, if she keeps her promise, will bring me a mobile phone. Last time, we only had a common name to search for, but this time we will be able to search the newspaper websites themselves, within which Richard has assured me I will find him and his story.

I had a phone once. It was during the last year of school. Everyone else had one. Even the youngest kids, the Year 7s, would bump into each other in the playground because they were gazing deep into their phones. I had seen the same on my land, the endless emmets who could not seem to sufficiently admire the view without taking it in through the filters of their screens. When I was feeling kind I laughed at their ignorance; when I was feeling less so I imagined them so enthralled by their little devices that they air-walked right off the lip, snapping terrified selfies as they plummeted into the ocean.

I made vows to myself that I would never become like those emmets, like all the others at school. I preferred to read books in the library; I preferred to trust in my eyes and my memories for their panoramas of Bones Break. And so, when I was fifteen years old and Mum upgraded her phone and offered me her old one, I took the thing with a shrug, promising I would use it to call her in an emergency, promising myself I would use it for nothing more.

I stayed true to my word for a week, never once looking at it. I did not even take it to school with me, and when I asked Esther for her number one lunchtime in the library she laughed at me because I had to write it in my notebook. The following Saturday morning I tried to turn the phone on but the battery had already run out. Using Mum’s old charger I powered it back up and, while I waited, I added in Esther’s number and then deleted all the other contacts except for the numbers of my parents. I was surprised to discover that this, such a small act of engagement, gave me a brief but unmistakeable thrill. There was a sort of magnetic power to the phone, and for the first time in my life I glimpsed why and how people could become so mesmerised by these little gadgets. Once it was fully charged I put the phone in my pocket and took it to work with me that afternoon.

It was a quiet Saturday at the Cafy and, during a lull, I felt the urge to sit on one of the picnic benches with a cup of tea and play with my new phone. There was no Wi-Fi at the Cafy, so Mum showed me how to turn on the mobile data and then left me to enjoy it.

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.