Untouchable Things (53 page)

Authors: Tara Guha

He sleeps without covers that night but the weight of knowledge pushes on his chest like rubble.

Epilogue

For the fifth time this week he is watching her scream. Watching and listening. The voice has caught his attention tonight, swooping over their heads like the screech of an owl.
Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, Bridget Bishop.
All those people she saw with the devil.

Is that what she’s been shouting about, night after night? They draw back from her, the whore who cried witch, and she laughs as she pulls off her bonnet and flings her hair into flame. She is basking in the warm gaze of the eyes on her, his eyes, too absorbed in her own revenge to remember that others might be planning theirs. Offstage, away from the glare of the audience.

In a disused basement, for example. Something of the sewers, perhaps a rat or two. Just one player, an old man, both victim and voyeur in a perfectly staged set-up. No one to applaud him, not like here, a full house ready to ejaculate its appreciation. A smile slides across his face, at odds with the scream before him. That luscious mouth still agape as she sways and swoons and splatters her deceit across the stage. He is starting to shut off from the sound again, just as husky pleas in the basement faded into mime. The smell of fear or the old man shitting his pants.

No slugging oozing drops

But a black rain and bloody hail poured down.

The plot had been worked out years ago; all he needed to do was press the button. And change the script just a little. The punishment was passed on, the sins of the father placed squarely where they ought to rest, but can the gods be cheated so easily? Will their thirst for revenge be quenched or enflamed by his sleight of hand?

No doubt time will tell. It’s a good job he has no plans to have children. They might well feel the need to complete the circle and dispose of him, their father, their millstone and curse.
Patricide
. A word to be tried on the tongue until the pallet is ready and the taste is first normalised, then craved.
Patricide
. He knows from the sideways glance that he has tasted the word aloud, his lips kissing the ‘p’ and his teeth releasing the ‘s’ like the hiss of a snake.

His hand goes to his pocket where he can feel the hard, round object, fluted at the edges. He runs his thumb along the pin tucked behind it. It’s not like him to take back a gift. She will understand when he returns it. An act must be completed in the proper way, even if some details have been changed. And the act itself is another gift for her, laid at her feet like the dead mouse a cat brings its owner.

Her white dress is sliding down one shoulder. His hand twitches to straighten it, to tear it off. It’s the same scene as always, arm outstretched as she slips away. But this time will be different. This time he must rise and go to her. This time he can save her and save himself.

This time…

Do it for Daddy, darling. Just one poem

… he will rip…

Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his mother’s bed

… away the layers…

You remind me of someone

… that hide her face…

You’re staring at my hair

… one by one…

Please take me back. He’s left me for someone else

… until he learns…

Goodnight, sweet ladies

… her truth.

Her hand is taut, there for the taking. A rush of hair tips over her face and strokes the ground. Splitting sounds, the crack of thunder.

The dark-haired man rises from his seat and makes his way to the exit.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to my lovely editor, Lauren, and the whole Legend Press (dream) team. Thank you to everyone who has given me practical support with this book, including advice (Greater Manchester Police, Jo Mitchell, Katy Peden), space to write (Laura Tunbridge, Mark Holtom and Catherine Putz) and feedback (Lee Bullman and Nigel Tordoff). Thank you to my wonderful local friends and to all my friends who have supported me along the way. Each time you said something encouraging about my writing, I tucked it away to savour later.

Thank you to Liz Flanagan, my dear friend and writing buddy, always on hand with ideas, brilliant advice and backup whenever I most need it.

Thank you to my family: to Mum, Dad and Dae for believing in my creativity, and to my fabulous network of uncles, aunts and cousins cheering me on. Thank you to my gorgeous girls, Leela and Evie, for putting up with a mother “always in front of a screen”: I might not get picked for
Strictly Come Dancing
quite yet, but I still hope to make you proud. Thank you to Dave for your unique and galvanising blend of support and brutal honesty – and for the tantalising kitchen smells that keep me going through long nights of editing.

Finally, a huge and heartfelt thank you to Elaine Hanson and the Luke Bitmead Bursary for giving me my break. It’s a wonderful thing to support unpublished writers and, Elaine, I am truly grateful for your enormous generosity in the face of personal loss. I wouldn’t be here without you.

Untouchable Things
was the
Winner of the 2014 Luke Bitmead Bursary

The award was set up shortly after Luke’s death in 2006
by his family to support and encourage the work of fledgling
novel writers. The top prize is a publishing contract with
Legend Press, as well as a cash bursary.

We are delighted to be working with Luke’s family to
ensure that Luke’s name and memory lives on – not only
through his work, but through this wonderful memorial bursary
too. For those of you lucky enough to have met Luke you will
know that he was hugely compassionate and would love the
idea of another struggling talented writer being supported on
the arduous road to securing their first publishing deal.

We will ensure that, as with all our authors, we give
the winner of the bursary as much support as we can, and
offer them the most effective creative platform from which
to showcase their talent. We can’t wait to start reading and
judging the submissions.

We are pleased to be continuing this brilliant bursary for an
eighth year, and hope to follow in the success of our previous
winners Andrew Blackman (
On the Holloway Road
, February
2009), Ruth Dugdall (
The Woman Before Me
, August 2010),
Sophie Duffy (
The Generation Game
, August 2011), J.R.
Crook (
Sleeping Patterns
, July 2012), Joanne Graham (
Lacey’s
House,
May 2013), Jo Gatford (
White Lies,
July 2014) and
Tara Guha (
Untouchable Things
, September 2015).