Read Online Paradigm (9781909490406) by Ceri A. Lowe - Free Book Online
Authors: Ceri A. Lowe
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they were the empty bodies of animals and people.
Through the tick-tick of the rain, there were other sounds, strange noises that didnât feel like they belonged in the city. There was a creak and then a bang as the red-brick railway arch collapsed. A boom that came from the far edges of the town shook the roots of the block, and the last of the faithful gulls, most of which had long left, skimmed over the winds peppered with leaves, and away towards the sea. Their departure seemed almost final and Alice waved sadly with both hands across the balcony.
Then, on the other side of the street, someone waved back. There was a man standing on the roof of one of the low-slung buildings. He shook a hand towards her and shouted something but she couldnât exactly hear what it was. He waved again and this time, he called.
âI canât hear you,â said Alice. âI really canât.â She lifted her hand to the man and shook it slowly back and forth. The man called again. One of his arms was bleeding and, as he waved the other, she could see a pool of blood gathering around his feet. He kept talking, kept shouting, but Alice wasnât even sure he was calling out to her at all. His words, picked up by the wind, were blown across the city like shrapnel as he whirled around in a circle.
âHello,â she called in a brittle, still voice, but the stick-like figure didnât even turn to face her.
She watched the man as he paced in lines on the very edge of the roof, sometimes gesturing and then other times veering in the wind as the lean of the breeze took him. And then, suddenly, his legs slipped from under him and he tipped awkwardly out into the water. For a while he floated around, catching the lower half of his body on the tops of trees and shop awnings that were hidden underneath the water. Then, as quickly as he had fallen, he stopped moving and slid downwards in a graceful swirl under the water. There was the glug-glug of a plug being pulled out and then he was gone.
âNow you see it,â said Alice. âNow you donât.â
----
A fter a lunch of cold soup and the rest of the apple juice, she lined up what food she had left. There were still two packets of biscuits, four cans of soup and some bananas, but Alice wasnât hungry. She was thirstyâthirsty for something that wasnât thick and gloopy.
âWater, water everywhere,â she said to herself and supped on a can of super-value chicken-and-lentil broth to quench the dryness. It was thick and messy and the bits of chicken kept getting stuck between her teeth. She spat out the lentils one by one until there was a line of them across the carpet. She thought about the man whoâd been standing on the roof of the building and the blood dripping from his hand around his feet. She thought about the way he had stamped about in the puddles of rainwater that had gathered on the sticky waterproof tar. It was then that Alice got the idea.
----
S he went to the kitchen and grabbed two saucepans by their worn handles then headed out of the front door and turned right towards the ladder to the roof with its spine-like black rungs that spiralled around and around towards the top. Before she climbed, Alice looked across at the other side of the city and breathed in the air. Acrid black smoke danced across the surface of the water and, like the balcony facing the opposite direction, there were buildings on fire in the distance. Apart from the calling of a pair of gulls, the scene was eerily silent. All the people had gone.
One of the birds twisted on the wind and dived headlong into the water below and then pulled back up again, coasting the currents of air. There were all kinds of rubbish floating along the surface, gathering around the edges where the buildings and roofs met the water, swirling around like flies. She saw a pram, empty and turned on its side, being carried along through what used to be the streets with
Through the tick-tick of the rain, there were other sounds, strange noises that didnât feel like they belonged in the city. There was a creak and then a bang as the red-brick railway arch collapsed. A boom that came from the far edges of the town shook the roots of the block, and the last of the faithful gulls, most of which had long left, skimmed over the winds peppered with leaves, and away towards the sea. Their departure seemed almost final and Alice waved sadly with both hands across the balcony.
Then, on the other side of the street, someone waved back. There was a man standing on the roof of one of the low-slung buildings. He shook a hand towards her and shouted something but she couldnât exactly hear what it was. He waved again and this time, he called.
âI canât hear you,â said Alice. âI really canât.â She lifted her hand to the man and shook it slowly back and forth. The man called again. One of his arms was bleeding and, as he waved the other, she could see a pool of blood gathering around his feet. He kept talking, kept shouting, but Alice wasnât even sure he was calling out to her at all. His words, picked up by the wind, were blown across the city like shrapnel as he whirled around in a circle.
âHello,â she called in a brittle, still voice, but the stick-like figure didnât even turn to face her.
She watched the man as he paced in lines on the very edge of the roof, sometimes gesturing and then other times veering in the wind as the lean of the breeze took him. And then, suddenly, his legs slipped from under him and he tipped awkwardly out into the water. For a while he floated around, catching the lower half of his body on the tops of trees and shop awnings that were hidden underneath the water. Then, as quickly as he had fallen, he stopped moving and slid downwards in a graceful swirl under the water. There was the glug-glug of a plug being pulled out and then he was gone.
âNow you see it,â said Alice. âNow you donât.â
----
A fter a lunch of cold soup and the rest of the apple juice, she lined up what food she had left. There were still two packets of biscuits, four cans of soup and some bananas, but Alice wasnât hungry. She was thirstyâthirsty for something that wasnât thick and gloopy.
âWater, water everywhere,â she said to herself and supped on a can of super-value chicken-and-lentil broth to quench the dryness. It was thick and messy and the bits of chicken kept getting stuck between her teeth. She spat out the lentils one by one until there was a line of them across the carpet. She thought about the man whoâd been standing on the roof of the building and the blood dripping from his hand around his feet. She thought about the way he had stamped about in the puddles of rainwater that had gathered on the sticky waterproof tar. It was then that Alice got the idea.
----
S he went to the kitchen and grabbed two saucepans by their worn handles then headed out of the front door and turned right towards the ladder to the roof with its spine-like black rungs that spiralled around and around towards the top. Before she climbed, Alice looked across at the other side of the city and breathed in the air. Acrid black smoke danced across the surface of the water and, like the balcony facing the opposite direction, there were buildings on fire in the distance. Apart from the calling of a pair of gulls, the scene was eerily silent. All the people had gone.
One of the birds twisted on the wind and dived headlong into the water below and then pulled back up again, coasting the currents of air. There were all kinds of rubbish floating along the surface, gathering around the edges where the buildings and roofs met the water, swirling around like flies. She saw a pram, empty and turned on its side, being carried along through what used to be the streets with
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