Алия Уайтли - Skein Island

‘Okay.’ I find a scrap of paper and a pen in my bag, and write it out for her.

‘Thanks.’

‘It’s fine,’ I say.

‘I don’t need it. I might want it, though. One day.’

‘I don’t even know what that means.’

‘Yeah. That’s going around,’ she says.

Is it okay to know people, just a little, and only want them when you want them? To take the parts you like and leave the rest, on your own terms?

I don’t have an answer for that.

Katie is right again, though. Not having an answer is going around.

My time on Skein Island has given me a taste for the outdoors, but I prefer it in smaller doses. I visit Jimbo’s Golf Accessories Emporium and kit myself out, then sign up for lessons at the golf course. It’s a good walk through a maintained landscape, and if I get cold I can give up and return to the clubhouse for a drink.

I’m standing at the bar, chatting about the water hazard on the ninth hole with some of my new friends, when I feel a tap on my shoulder. My first thought is for my ghost and my second thought is for Katie. But no, it’s not either of those options. It’s Dave.

‘Hi,’ he says. ‘I didn’t know you played golf.’

‘I’ve just taken it up.’

‘I heard you went to Skein Island.’

‘I did. And no, I didn’t wear dungarees and get in touch with my inner goddess or whatever.’ I’ve heard all the jokes in these past few weeks, and none of them even begin to bother me. I’m getting tougher.

‘I wasn’t going to say that. I just wanted to say – I’m sorry. That it didn’t work out between us. It was the cigar smoke. I hate cigar smoke.’

‘The ghost’s gone,’ I tell him.

He rolls his eyes at me. ‘You’re not on about that again, are you?’

‘What?’ It takes me a moment to realise what he means. ‘You don’t believe in the ghost?’

‘If you don’t like the smoke, stop smoking. Smoking in bed is disgusting and dangerous.’

‘I don’t smoke!’

‘And stop making stuff up. This ghost guy – you created him to push me away… You realise that, don’t you? He was only there to make me jealous. I told you, you need to do something about it. I wish you the best in solving your problems. I really do.’

The things we tell ourselves to make certain we’re front and centre in our own stories. ‘Goodbye, Dave,’ I say. I turn my back on him. I hear him sigh, and then walk away.

I lie very still, early the next morning, in the first light of dawn, and I think of what my ghost would have said to me about the whole thing. Min, girl, that wasn’t the right man for you. He fooled his own memory to make you out to be the bad guy. He decided not to believe in me, even though I’m right here. Plain as the smoke drifting past your nose .

Except you’re not here any more, are you? There’s no more smoke.

I pick up my phone and take it with me under the duvet. In the warm darkness, I find there’s a text message from Katie.

All right?

I wonder what it cost her to write that, and whether she’ll hate herself for it later.

I text back, and we start a conversation. I tell her about Dave and she calls him deluded, which makes me feel much better.

Forget him. Irrelevant. Bloody people. I still hate them all.

I text back:

I hate them all too. Do you want to meet up? I was thinking about trying parasailing, or taking tango lessons.

There’s a long pause. Just at the point where I’m about to put the phone down and return to sleep, she texts:

But I’m miles away.

I’m not sure who she is and I have no clue who I am, but I know us just enough to be sure that we’ll find something that brings us together, real or imaginary. It doesn’t matter which.

I text back:

I’ll come to you.

If there’s more to us both, we’ll find it.

Skein Island is set in a world that’s not quite the same as our own. Although the story contains real towns and places it also has quite a few imaginative liberties taken with those places. Apologies to anyone who knows the locations and gets confused by the geographical alterations. It’s also worth mentioning that the book was written more than a few years ago, and some elements, such as the repatriation days that used to take place at Wootton Bassett, and certain technological developments, have changed in reality. I decided to leave them as they are in this revised version.

The novelette that accompanies Skein Island was a recent revisit to the island, to look afresh at some of the themes from an older (and probably not wiser) point of view. I hope it works as a complement to the original story.

Big thanks to Neil Ayres, John Griffiths, Tim Stretton, George Sandison, Gary Budden, Max Edwards, Adam Lowe, Victoria Hooper, Francesca Kemp, and everyone at UKAuthors and Titan Books. And thanks to Libby’s Café for the coffee and teacakes.

This book wouldn’t exist without the support of the people who give me daily injections of confidence. Nick, Elsa, Mum, Dad, Harley and Barney, and the best big brother in the world – Jim Ovey, my hero – thank you.

The Arrival of Missives

The Beauty

The Loosening Skin (June 2020)

TITANBOOKS

Skein Island

Print edition ISBN: 9781789091526

E-book edition ISBN: 9781789091533

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd.

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

www.titanbooks.com

First Titan edition November 2019

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Copyright © 2019 by Aliya Whiteley. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.