Sacrament. Clive Barker

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      ‘It’s broken,’ Cornelius dead-panned. ‘I say we hack a hole in the ice, wrap it in a pair of Adrianna’s knickers and bury it for future generations to discover.’

      ‘You can’t fix it?’

      ‘Yes, I can fix it,’ Cornelius said. ‘That is why I’m here. I can fix everything. But I would prefer to hack a hole in the ice, wrap it in a pair of Adrianna’s knickers—’

      ‘It’s given good service, that camera.’

      ‘So have we all. But sooner or later, if we’re lucky, we’ll be wrapped in a pair of Adrianna’s knickers—’

      Will was at the stove, making himself a ragged omelette. ‘You’re obsessing.’

      ‘I am not.’

      Will slid his breakfast onto a plate, tossed two slices of stale bread on top of it, and came to sit at the table opposite Cornelius.

      ‘You know what’s wrong with this town?’ Cornelius asked.

      ‘Give me an A, B or C.’

      This was a popular guessing game amongst the trio, the trick being to dream up alternatives more believable than the truth.

      ‘No problem,’ Cornelius said. He sipped a mouthful of beer and then said: ‘Okay. A, right? There aren’t any good-looking women in two hundred miles, besides Adrianna, and that’d be like fucking my sister. Okay? So, B. You can’t get any decent acid. And C—’

      ‘It’s B.’

      ‘Wait, I haven’t finished.’

      ‘You don’t have to.’

      ‘Fuck, man. I got a great C

      ‘It’s the acid,’ Will said. He leaned towards Cornelius. ‘Right?’

      ‘Yeah.’ He peered at Will’s plate. ‘What the hell’s that?’

      ‘Omelette.’

      ‘What did you make it with? Penguin eggs?’

      Will laughed, and was still laughing when Adrianna came in out of the cold. ‘Hey, we got more bears at the dump,’ she said, her Southern drawl perfectly mismatched with every other detail of her appearance and manner, from her badly trimmed bangs to her heavy-booted stomp. ‘At least four of ‘em. Two adolescents, a female and a huge male.’ She looked first at Will, then at Cornelius, then back at Will. ‘A little enthusiasm, please?’

      ‘Just give me a few minutes,’ Will said, ‘I need a couple of cups of coffee first.’

      ‘You’ve got to see this male. I mean—’ she was struggling for the words ‘—this is the biggest damn bear I ever saw.’

      ‘Maybe the one I saw last night,’ Will said. ‘Actually we saw each other. Outside Guthrie’s place.’

      Adrianna unzipped her parka and sat down on the beaten-up sofa, flinging aside a pillow and blanket to do so. ‘He kept you talking for quite a while,’ she said. ‘What was the old fuck like?’

      ‘No more crazy than anybody’d be. living in a shack in the middle of nowhere.’

      ‘On his own?’

      ‘He had a dog. Lucy.’

      ‘Hey…’ Cornelius cooed. ‘Does that sound like a man with a supply or what?’ He grinned, his eyes popping. ‘Only a guy with a habit would name his dog Lucy.’

      ‘Christ!’ Adrianna shouted. ‘I am so thoroughly sick of hearing you talk about getting high.’

      Cornelius shrugged. ‘Whatever,’ he said.

      ‘We came here to do a job of work.’

      ‘And we’ve done it,’ Cornelius said. ‘Every damn undignified, pitiful thing a polar bear can do we’ve got on film. Bears playing around the broken sewage pipes. Bears trying fucky-fucky in the middle of the dump.’

      ‘Okay, okay,’ Adrianna said, ‘we did good.’ She turned to Will. ‘I still want you to see my bear,’ she said.

      ‘ Your bear now, is it?’ Cornelius said.

      She ignored him. ‘Just one last shoot,’ she implored Will. ‘You won’t be disappointed.’

      ‘Jeez,’ Cornelius remarked, putting his legs up on the table. ‘Leave the man alone. He doesn’t want to see the fucking bear. Haven’t you got the message?’

      ‘Keep out of this,’ Adrianna snapped.

      ‘You’re so fucking pushy,’ Cornelius replied. ‘It’s just a bear.’

      Adrianna was up from the couch and over to Cornelius in two strides. ‘I told you: keep out of this,’ she said, and shoved Cornelius’ shoulder just hard enough to tip him over. Down he went, clearing half of the doomed Pentax from the table with his boot-heel as he went.

      ‘Come on,’ Will said, setting down his omelette in case there was an escalation in hostilities. If there was, it wouldn’t be the first time. Nine days out of every ten Cornelius and Adrianna worked side by side like brother and sister. And on the tenth they fought, like brother and sister. Today, however, Cornelius wasn’t in the mood for insults or fisticuffs. He got to his feet, brushing his hippielength hair back out of his eyes, and stumbled to the door, picking up his anorak on his way. ‘See you later,’ he said to Will. ‘I’m going to go look at the water.’

      ‘Sorry about that,’ Adrianna said when he’d gone. ‘It was my fault. I’ll make peace when he gets back.’

      ‘Whatever.’

      Adrianna went to the stove and poured herself a cup of coffee. ‘So what did Guthrie have to say?’

      ‘Not a lot.’

      ‘Why did you even go see him?’

      Will shrugged. ‘Just…some stuff from my childhood…’ he said.

      ‘Big secret?’

      Will offered her a slow smile. ‘Huge.’

      ‘So you’re not going to tell me?’

      ‘It’s nothing to do with us being here. Well, it is and it isn’t. I knew Guthrie lived on the Bay, so I kind of killed two birds…’ the words grew soft ‘…with one stone.’

      ‘Are you going to photograph him?’ she said, crossing to the window. The Tegelstrom children, who lived across the street, were out playing in the snow, their laughter loud. She peered out at them.

      ‘No,’ Will said. ‘I already invaded his privacy.’

      ‘Like I’m invading yours?’

      ‘I didn’t mean that.’

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