Joe Treasure - The Book of Air

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Joe Treasure - The Book of Air» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию без сокращений). В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Город: London, Год выпуска: 2016, ISBN: 2016, Издательство: Clink Street Publishing, Жанр: sf_postapocalyptic, Современная проза, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.

The Book of Air: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

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Retreating from an airborne virus with a uniquely unsettling symptom, property developer Jason escapes London for his country estate, where he is forced to negotiate a new way of living with an assortment of fellow survivors.
Far in the future, an isolated community of descendants continue to farm this same estate. Among their most treasured possessions are a few books, including a copy of
, from which they have constructed their hierarchies, rituals and beliefs. When 15-year-old Agnes begins to record the events of her life, she has no idea what consequences will follow. Locked away for her transgressions, she escapes to the urban ruins and a kind of freedom, but must decide where her future lies.
These two stories interweave, illuminating each other in unexpected ways and offering long vistas of loss, regeneration and wonder.
The Book of Air

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I’m startled by another burst of noise. The chancel windows are shattering in the heat. Some of the roof tiles crack at the far end of the nave and flames appear.

‘Come on, Simon. Time to go.’

‘But where’s…?’

‘We’ll talk about Django when we’re on the ground.’

‘He said I had to…’

‘Don’t worry about it.’

‘…I had to…’

‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.’

‘…I had to fly.’

‘No one can fly, Simon. Only birds can fly.’

‘But Jangle said.’

‘Quick, Si, before the fire gets us.’

I lift him and he climbs into my arms.

‘If the mmm-bantams have laid an egg, can I have soldiers?’

‘No bread, Si, remember. Not this year. Later we’ll have bread and you can have all the soldiers you want.’

I take a last look over the parapet and I see the monkey chattering away among the gravestones with Django’s clarinet. He crosses the road and scampers across the lawn, diminishing as if into an unimaginable future where babies will be born to replace the dead and everything lost will be found.

Agnes

Since I last opened this book, a horrible thing has happened, and we have left the O, Walt and I, for ever. Dell is with us. Until last evening we had no thought of making this journey. But now we shelter in the shadow of a fallen house and wait for the rain to ease before we set off again on the road to the village. Dell is asleep. Neither of us slept last night. Gideon stands patiently, head down against the wind. Walt lies beside me in his basket while I write. He holds one foot above him and makes small contented noises. He knows nothing of the danger we are in, trusting his safety to my care.

Yesterday at dusk Dell sent me to the canal for water, while she skinned some rabbits. When I had scooped up the last bucket and was loading it on the cart, a boy came, leading a cow along the pathway. The cow tugged a boat. Inside the boat a man stood to steer it with a paddle. I have seen other scroungers travel like this, usually with a horse or a donkey, sometimes with nothing but a pole to push against the riverbed. This cow was white all over like no cow in the village and bigger than any I’ve seen, with strong muscles in her rump. The boy was so small beside her that I took him at first for a child, until I saw the wisps of hair on his chin. The man shouted something from the boat and I couldn’t tell if it was me he was shouting at or the boy. The cow seemed to understand him, anyway, because she stopped and dropped her head to graze at the side of the path. The boy waited, leaning against her side, looking so frail and sickly that I thought he might have fallen over into the water if the cow hadn’t been there to support him. The boatman spoke again and I heard enough of his words to know he was asking where a person with a thirst might get a drink.

I told him he could follow me to the O. If I had known what trouble I was bringing to us all, I would have dropped the water and run into the darkest alleys of the forest. But how could I have known?

There was a dog chained up on the boat that growled at me, until the man slapped its muzzle. Quick and jerky in his movements this boatman was, in a way I’ve observed here among the scroungers where a man can’t stand easy among his neighbours but must watch for danger. He had a voice with a creak in it like a door shifting in a draught. When he stepped on to the path, his hot stink blew against me.

He took a swipe at the boy, sent him to fetch some things from the boat and set about untying the rope from the beast’s harness. He winked at me and more words came out of his mouth. I moved so that the cow was between us, making a show of patting and stroking her. Seeing her so close, I wondered at her bulk and her milky colour.

‘You like my Charlie?’ he said. ‘Got a bunch of them, all Charlies, barned up back home. The lads tend them while I’m on the canal.’

He told me people called him Quinlan. If the boy had a name I didn’t hear it. I led the way, pulling the water cart under the trees. Quinlan followed with the cow. He was not much taller than me, but powerfully built. He wore a kind of smock that showed his knees and his huge calves. The boy trailed after with some fish from the canal and a bag of fresh squirrels.

Back at the O, I poured Quinlan a drink and he took a seat by the fire, while the boy stayed outside with the cow. For a while I was busy helping Dell make the rabbit stew. There weren’t many wanting food but we thought more might come in later and what was left would keep for another day. When I went back to fill Quinlan’s mug, Madge was sitting by him with Walt in her arms. I went back again later with some stew for Quinlan and a cup of the gravy for Madge and I stopped to cuddle Walt and kiss his little squinting face, and I felt Quinlan’s eyes on me and saw the way he gnawed without thinking at the inside of his mouth, while his eyes slid up and down.

It was a quiet evening. And when all but a few had left or settled to their beds, I went again to take Walt for his feed. Trev had joined them by the fire, as he does sometimes to show welcome to a stranger. I lifted Walt from Madge’s lap and turned away, and felt the hairs rise on my neck as if Quinlan’s eyes could reach through the air and touch me.

I sat where I could feel the fire’s warmth, but out of sight behind a curtain because I wouldn’t have people see me with my clothes unbuttoned. The scrounger women are not so particular, but I still keep to village ways. Walt was in a fussy mood and wouldn’t settle, so I put him to my shoulder to rock him and hum a low tune that I remember my gran singing to me.

On the other side of the curtain Quinlan was talking. ‘She’s not bad looking, and plump enough, with a nice pair of bags on her. A bit pale. But she’ll colour up with outdoor work. I’ll offer a good price.’

I thought at first it was the cow he meant, and wondered why he would think of selling her and who’d pull his boat for him if he did.

‘She’s a face filler, mind, I can see that,’ he said. ‘Don’t suppose there’s much left for your sows once she’s done with the scraps. I’ll take her off your plate for all that, and the tadpole with her.’ I knew then he meant me. I’m heavy still from carrying Walt and swollen with milk.

I waited for what Trevor would say, but it was Madge who answered. ‘And we get what in return?’

‘There are plenty can haul water and cook a rabbit stew. You don’t need this girl eating double.’

‘She’s a worker,’ Madge said, ‘and sharp at everything.’

‘And we like her.’ It was Trevor at last speaking up for me. ‘Dell likes her. She’s family.’

‘You know how the world goes,’ Quinlan said. ‘I’m in the leather racket. Charlie leather. Four pelts I give you and you let me take the girl. I’ve three good lads to help make her welcome. She’ll cook for them when I’m on the road.’

‘It’s a good offer, Trev,’ Madge said. ‘How many years before that tiddler’s grown to pull his weight? And who’s to say there won’t be more where he come from?’

There was nothing then but the crackle of the fire and the murmur of talk from the others at the O. From Trevor I could only hear sighing. Then he spoke again in a sad, wheedling voice. ‘She’s happy here, see, her and the boy. I heard your offer, but what’s in it for her is all I’m asking?’

‘Look, I’m set up. Got the space. Got more meat than I know what to do with. Live in my barn, you do all right.’

‘Well you can ask her yourself, I suppose. She came free and can leave free.’

‘Wo,’ Quinlan said, ‘I don’t do business with no girl. We spit on it, man to man, she don’t need asking.’

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