Read Online Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson - Free Book Online Page B

and magazines.
    ‘Air-raid shelters,’ said Silver, who had read about the war.
    ‘This be the time when all people dwelt underground,’ said Gabriel.
    Silver didn’t believe this was true, but she didn’t want to argue, and she was fascinated by this caught moment of Time. It was as though Time had got trapped here and couldn’t move on. She didn’t feel like she did when she went to a museum and saw lots of old things; she felt as though Time existed differently here. Even though the people had gone away and gone forward, Time itself was left here, or a piece of Time, anyway, as real and solid as the mattresses and tin mugs.
    The dirty faded signs on the wall said ALDGATE WEST.
    ‘My work be to find supper,’ said Gabriel. ‘I may not return without our supper.’
    ‘Where are you going to find that?’ asked Silver, wondering why anyone ate supper in the early hours of the morning.
    ‘Here,’ said Gabriel, and he disappeared.
    Now Silver was alone in the dark, listening to the rats and mice scurrying about their business. She shut her eyes and visualised her little room at Tanglewreck, with the fire lit, and whatever food she had been able to steal from under Mrs Rokabye’s selfish and sharp eyes. She supposed that Mrs Rokabye had arranged everything with Abel Darkwater, but did that mean she was really bad, or just greedy and stupid? Grown-ups were always worrying about money, she knew that, but what did you need if you could eat and sit in front of the fire and read books? That was what Silver would do with her money.
    She wondered if the Throwbacks had any money …
    Just then Gabriel reappeared, dragging a large sack.
    ‘Pizza,’ he said, ‘from the Pizza Hut.’
    ‘You’ve been to Pizza Hut?’ asked Silver disbelievingly.
    ‘My mother Eden be from the Kingdom of Italy. There be a Hut up a stretch from this place and at this hour a Short Wagon comes and two Updwellers bring these boxes to the Hut. It be a depot for food. Come.’
    Dragging his sack, he hurried along the deserted platform and disappeared into the tunnel where the trains came through. Not wanting to be left behind, Silver ran after him.
    It was now pitch black, and there were heavy dripping noises coming from above. Every five seconds, Silver feltanother cold drop slither down her neck or her nose. She was damp all over and beginning to shiver. All she wanted to do was sleep.
    Something is following me
, she thought, and looked fearfully behind her into the solid darkness. There was nothing to be seen, nothing to be heard, except for scurrying and dripping, but she was sure that that there were more than two of them in the tunnel.
    Suddenly, coming towards them, she saw a flare, then another and another, and Gabriel ran ahead, while she hesitated, and then a man appeared like an apparition out of the half-light. He was heavily built, like Gabriel, taller, though not much, and he wore a black fur coat. Gabriel said something to him, and he nodded, before striding up to Silver.
    ‘We greet you as a Stranger. Micah will hear your story, he will.’
    ‘You’ve got to help me,’ said Silver. ‘There’s a terrible man who …’
    But she said no more because she fainted clean away.
    When she came round she could hear low voices, and she sensed the low light on her eyelids. For a moment she didn’t open her eyes, because she wanted to be awake without anybody knowing.
    She was warm. The air smelled of petrol and dogs. Someone was playing what sounded like a recorder.
    She opened one eye just a little. A group of men, women and children were sitting round a fire dug into a shallow pitand piled with old crates and pallets. Most were drinking something out of what looked like giant tin mugs. Some had mending, or knitting or carving on their knees.
    The men were short and square with their hair tied back in brief ponytails. Silver knew better than to stare at their ears, but they all had ears the size of hands. The women were taller than