Flight of a Starling. Lisa Heathfield

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СКАЧАТЬ wash away his guilt.

      ‘Can I come?’ Sarah asks, wide-eyed in the flame light.

      ‘You shouldn’t even still be awake.’ Ash ruffles his sister’s hair and she ducks away from him, making it neat again.

      ‘It won’t be long before you join us,’ I tell her.

      ‘And you’re not exactly missing much,’ Rita adds.

      ‘Don’t be late back,’ Rob says, leaning forwards with his elbows on his knees. The fire-shine catches on one cheek, the other in shadow. ‘It’ll be an early start.’ He picks up a leaf and starts slowly shredding it, dropping each section to the ground when he’s done.

      ‘We won’t be,’ Rita says.

      I stretch my legs out in front of me, my arms straight to the solid black sky. The warm from the fire touches the line of my bare belly, between my top and my jeans.

      ‘It’s endless up there,’ I say, as my bracelets clink down on each other. They sound like stars falling.

      ‘We should get going then,’ Ash says. He stands up and puts his hands out towards Rita. She lets him pull her to her feet, but won’t keep her fire-warmed palm in his.

      ‘Sure you don’t want to come?’ Spider asks Rob.

      ‘I’m staying here,’ he says, still staring into the flames.

      ‘Suit yourself,’ I say, grabbing Spider’s hand to pull myself up. ‘See you later.’

      We walk across the darkening grass, Rita linking her arm through mine. Two boys cut close nearby on bikes, caps low on their heads. They stare at us for too long and I wonder if our circus blood somehow sits on the outside of our skin. Spider starts to walk more quickly, so we stay with him and Ash until we’re by the road and we follow the way the few cars are headed as they thread through the night.

      ‘This place gives me the creeps,’ Rita says.

      ‘It’s OK,’ I say.

      ‘Nah. There’s something rotten in the air.’

      ‘You won’t think that when people pay to come and see you prancing around in your feathers,’ Ash says.

      ‘Fair enough.’

      We cross the road at the traffic lights and the shops on either side are ones we’ve seen a thousand times before. It’s too late for them to be open, but there’re still people around.

      ‘I bet they’re all ghosts,’ I say.

      ‘I don’t care, as long as they’ve lots of lova to make us rich,’ Spider says.

      ‘We’ll never be rich, Spides,’ I say. Even with Rob’s new ideas, every year less people come to see us.

      ‘It’s definitely got grimy air,’ Rita says.

      ‘We won’t be stopping long,’ I remind her.

      ‘Lil said no good was coming. Maybe it’s here that it’s going to happen,’ Rita says.

      ‘Lil spouts baloney,’ Ash reminds her and I know he’s right. Lil, with her ancient van and cards she can’t really read.

      ‘No more than you,’ she says. Ash looks hurt. He must feel like a boat cut loose – one day Rita is kissing him, the next she doesn’t want to know.

      The line of shops moves out, curving round a fountain stuck large in the concrete. It reaches high, its water tumbling in prickling lines.

      ‘There’s something nice,’ I say, pointing towards it.

      ‘The water, or the forbidden flattie boys?’ Rita asks. Sitting on the edge are three of them. They watch us as we get closer. They were talking, but now they’re quiet.

      ‘Evening,’ I say.

      ‘Evening,’ the boy nearest us says, a cap tight down over his eyes while the other two just nod.

      ‘Lost your tongues?’ I ask, but my words have no sharp edges to them.

      ‘Hi,’ the boy next to him says, his face cracked through with acne scars. I bet Lil’s cream could sort him out. The boy at the end with the stud through his ear stays silent.

      I lean over the stone ledge and put the tips of my fingers into the bubbling water. Beneath the foam is a scatter of coins. If these boys weren’t here, I know what I would be doing now.

      Spider and Ash look like they want to keep walking, but I sit down and catch my hand in the falling tracks of spray.

      The nearest boy takes off his cap and there’s an instant pull inside me. Da always told me it’s best not to look at a flattie too long, but I’ve never seen one like this. He’s got cheekbones you could balance cups on. And Ma says curls on a boy mean he’s honest, so I reckon his blood is true through and through.

      ‘You’re not from round here?’ he asks. He has hair the same deep brown as Spider’s.

      ‘No,’ I say. ‘We’re with the circus.’

      ‘Serious?’ the middle boy asks. ‘The one in East Park?’

      ‘I don’t know if it’s east, but it’s a park,’ I say.

      ‘You must’ve seen the posters,’ the same boy says to the other two. ‘The one with the angel on it.’

      ‘It’s a changeling,’ Rita tells him.

      ‘A what?’

      ‘A fairy left in place of a stolen child,’ the nearest boy says.

      ‘How d’you know that?’ the boy on the end laughs.

      ‘But in our circus, it’s the changeling who wants to get back to her home,’ Rita says.

      ‘It looks like an angel on the poster,’ he says.

      ‘They’re the same thing,’ I tell him. ‘Didn’t you know?’

      ‘It’s not like a normal circus then?’ the nearest boy says. He’s looking right at me as he speaks.

      ‘It’s more frightening,’ I say, willing him to look away first, but he doesn’t.

      ‘Do you do all the normal stuff, though?’ the middle boy asks.

      ‘You’ll have to come and see,’ I reply.

      ‘We should get going,’ Ash says, stepping closer to Rita.

      ‘We’ve only just got here, Ash. You can go if you want,’ I tell him. ‘Rita and I won’t be long.’

      ‘You can’t stay on your own,’ Spider says. ‘Your ma would kill us.’

      ‘We’re not on СКАЧАТЬ