Tim O’Brien: Northern Lights

TIM O'BRIEN

Northern Lights

Fourth Estate

An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk.

Published by Flamingo 1998

First published in Great Britain by Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd 1976

Copyright © Tim O’Brien 1975

Tim O’Brien asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780006551485

Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2015 ISBN: 9780008133146

Version: 2015-09-10

With gratitude

to the Arrowhead people,

who will know perfectly well that

there is no such town as Sawmill Landing,

that Grand Marais doesn’t sponsor ski races,

that these characters are purely fictitious

and that this is just a story.

For Ann

… and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places … For the day of his wrath is come. And who shall be able to stand?

REVELATIONS

Cover

Title Page TIM O'BRIEN Northern Lights

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Epiloguge One Heat Storm Elements Shelter Black Sun Two Blizzard Heat Storm Elements Shelter Blood Moon Keep Reading About the Author Praise Also by the Author About the Publisher Fourth Estate An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk . Published by Flamingo 1998 First published in Great Britain by Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd 1976 Copyright © Tim O’Brien 1975 Tim O’Brien asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication. Source ISBN: 9780006551485 Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2015 ISBN: 9780008133146 Version: 2015-09-10

Dedication Dedication Dedication Epiloguge One Heat Storm Elements Shelter Black Sun Two Blizzard Heat Storm Elements Shelter Blood Moon Keep Reading About the Author Praise Also by the Author About the Publisher For Ann

Epiloguge … and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places … For the day of his wrath is come. And who shall be able to stand? REVELATIONS

One

Heat Storm

Elements

Shelter

Black Sun

Two

Blizzard

Heat Storm

Elements

Shelter

Blood Moon

Keep Reading

About the Author

Praise

Also by the Author

About the Publisher

Wide awake and restless, Paul Milton Perry clawed away the sheets and swung out of bed, blood weak, his fists clenching and closing like a pulse. He hadn’t slept. He sat very still. He listened to the July heat, mosquitoes at the screen windows, inchworms eating in the back pines, the old house, a close-seeming flock of loons. What he did not hear, he imagined. Timber wolves and Indians, the chime of the old man’s spoon in the spit bucket, the glacial floes, Harvey hammering at the half-finished bomb shelter, ice cracking in great sheets, the deep pond and Grace’s whispering, and a sobbing sound. He sat still. He was naked and sweating and anaemic and flabby. Thinking first about Harvey, then about the heat, then the mosquitoes, he’d been sailing in a gaunt nightlong rush of images and half-dreams, turning, wallowing, listening like a stranger to the sounds of his father’s house.

He sat still.

Harvey was coming home.

There was that, and there was Grace, and there were the mosquitoes crazy for blood against the screen windows.

‘Lord, now,’ he moaned, and pushed out of bed, found his glasses, and groped towards the kitchen.

He returned with a black can of insecticide. Then he listened again. The bedroom was sullen and hot, and he was thinking murder. Carefully, he tied the lace curtains to one side. He ignored Grace’s first whisper. He pushed the nozzle flush against the screen window. Then, grinning and naked, he pressed the nozzle and began to spray, feeling better, and he flushed the night with poison from his black can.

He grinned and pressed the nozzle. His fingers turned wet and cool from condensed poison, and he listened: mosquitoes and Junebugs, dawn crickets, dawn birds, dragonflies and larvae and caterpillars, morning moths and sleeping flies, bear and moose, walleyes and carp and northerns and bullheads and tiny salamanders. It was dark everywhere. The black can hissed in the dark, ejaculating sweet chemicals that filled the great forest and his father’s house. He sprayed until the can was empty and light, then he listened, and the odour of poison buoyed him.

He sat on the bed. Harvey was coming home, and he was dizzy.

‘Bad night,’ Grace whispered.

‘Lord.’

‘Poor boy.’

‘Poor mosquitoes .’

‘Shhhhh,’ she always whispered. ‘Shhhh, just lie back now. Come here, lie back. You’re just excited. Phew, what a stink! Come here now. Lie back.’