2-14:On the road to nowhere
‘So why are you back?’
‘I brought a girl back to her…’
She faltered, the feeling still raw.
The woman saw Daisy’s distress and continued.
‘They don’t usually take kids,’ she said. ‘Usually women.’
Daisy nodded.
‘It’s Smith’s way of showing he’s in charge,’ the woman said sardonically. ‘You were sisterhood then?’
‘Yes,’ said Daisy. ‘Sort-of.’
‘Like the rest of us then. I wondered about them for a while, but Smith came in and steamrolled the lot of them.’
‘But not you.’
‘No, they threw me and the rest of us out of their society by drawing up a border between the good side of town and the bad.’
Surprise seemed stupid at this point and Daisy held her tongue.
‘Every so-often there’s a raid and they grab one of us for an interrogation session just to make the point they’re watching.’
Daisy’s gaze was on the ground, bare earth with gravel poking out here and there. What the woman told her wasn’t a surprise. Not in the least.
‘Listen to me,’ said the woman, her voice barely concealing anger. ‘You have to leave. I don’t want you here. We don’t need you.’
Daisy nodded, and began to speak.
‘I don’t want your apologies. I just want you to go.’
Daisy backed away and walked to the gate and out. It was the only thing that saved her when the missiles struck the marketplace.
The explosion threw her into the air like a rag-doll and her last moments of consciousness were spent staring at the fireball…
She rose slowly back into consciousness, waking as-if from the sleep of the dead, with every night of heavy-drinking hitting her all at once.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
There are a few ways to describe one's self when effectively trying to mask the fact that you're a complete hermit and spend your entire existence behind a computer screen sipping hot tea and eating cakes. The first would be to suggest that you're somewhat introverted and avoid coffee. Another might be to suggest you're a fan of Apple Macs but are cutting-down from the 6 you used to have to an even two (Macbook and Mac Mini in turn). Finally you might choose to say that despite the massive pay-drop, this writing thing is quite a lark isn't it? Not to mention enjoying the creative life a lot more than mindless tedium in corporate jobs, working the 40 hour week to the drumming of endless meetings and political intrigue that would have made Machiavelli blush and hand his pen over to the corporate slugs that run companies these days. Enough said really.
