by James Rice
DATE UNKNOWN
I remember it was sunny when we left the hotel but by the time we reached the forest the rain had come. It fell in waves, like the sea had taken to the sky. It hissed through the leaves above us, rattling the hoods of our raincoats.
Nan said she knew a short cut, a secret path down to the lily pond. We loved feeding the ducks. It was our favourite part of the day. Sarah, my parents, they weren’t bothered, they’d given their sandwich crusts to us and we’d headed off straight after lunch. Nan kept saying we had to go west, pointing: this way’s west and that way’s west, but I doubt if she knew which way west actually was. It seemed to me we were going in circles.
After a while Nan began to panic. ‘How can you get lost on an island this small?’ she said. ‘This is the sixth time I’ve been here.’
Eventually we found a cliff edge but there was no secret path. Nan was exhausted and needed to sit for a while so we took shelter under an overgrown blackberry bush. We watched the rain, fizzing like static on the surface of the sea. Nan said not to eat the blackberries, just in case they were poisonous.
After a few minutes the rain died. After another few minutes the sun came out, so hot we began to steam. Nan said it was a true British holiday, all weathers at once. That’s when I first noticed it, perched there in the branches above us. I nudged Nan and pointed. I couldn’t stop staring at it.
‘Look away,’ Nan whispered. ‘Else it’ll claw your eyes out.’
Nan and I huddled there, staring at our shoes while it perched above us, scanning the horizon. I asked Nan what it was doing here and she said there were several theories. One was that it escaped from a zoo. I asked if there was any chance it had flown here by choice but Nan said she doubted it could have made it all the way from America.
As its shadow passed over us we couldn’t help but look, couldn’t help but watch it cross the sky. It soared low over the sea, disappearing behind the trees that lined the far side of the cove.
‘We don’t tell anyone about this,’ Nan said. ‘It’s our secret. It’s just for me and you.’
We waited, just in case it circled back. It didn’t. Then we waited a while longer, just sitting there in silence.
Nan stood. She sighed and smiled. She said, ‘We’d best get back, Fly, else your parents’ll think we’ve drowned in the rain.’
I nodded and stood too and we both headed off through the forest. We still didn’t know which direction we were supposed to be heading in, but for some reason it didn’t seem to matter any more.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to everyone on my MA, especially Robyn Donaldson, Mike Holloway, Paul Abbot, Denise Bundred and Christof Häberle. To my inspiring teachers Alicia Stubbersfield and Jim Friel. To ‘The Dicks’, Josh Mansell, Matty Herring and Liam Sillett. To Mike Morris and everyone at Writing on the Wall. To Niall Griffiths and Julia Bell for making me feel like a writer. To Luke Brown for the encouragement and Karolina Sutton, Norah Perkins and Kate Howard for making all my childhood dreams come true.
To my friends, my family, Nat and my cats.
And to anyone that reads it, cheers.
READING GROUP QUESTIONS
The social disparity between Skipdale and The Pitt sets the scene for the novel. Why do you think this is important?
What motivates Greg to tell his story?
How does the inclusion of the police transcript add to the narrative? Does it alter your opinion of Greg’s reliability as a narrator?
Did this novel contribute to your understanding of phobias?
What role does the notion of obsession play in the novel?
Greg’s parents are fixated on projecting a perfect image. How does this contrast to the reality of their situation?
Can we see Greg’s obsession with classic Hollywood films influencing his own outlook on life and on romance in particular?
‘Miss Hayes has a new theory. She thinks I’m not really scared of Them. She thinks they’re just something to blame my anxiety on. She thinks I hide my real fears behind Metaphorical Phantoms’. What do you think of Miss Hayes’ theory? Are there other characters in the novel besides Greg and Miss Hayes with their own ‘Metaphorical Phantoms’?
Do you feel sympathy for Greg’s mother?
What is the significance of Finners Island?
This novel deals with some difficult social issues and the world that Greg inhabits is almost dystopian. Is there room for happiness in a world like this?
How far do you think the author has used Greg’s social alienation to expose intricate truths about our modern lives?
Sarah accuses her mother of being repressed. What part does repression play in the novel as a whole and how does it manifest?
Greg’s father claims that ‘someone is always to blame’. Do you think this is the case in this situation?