BooksBarbecue
Back The Double Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. Acknowledgements

In Vidor’s drowsy state, the rhythm of Gessen’s words had taken on the cadence of a well-rehearsed chant. In that strange state between waking and sleep, Vidor’s mind left his body and floated towards the ceiling. A tranquil hideaway, under the eaves, where he might remain, suspended between the pull of the earth and the vacuum of space. Nothing in that liminal gap to disturb the peace and tenor of his mind.

‘Even now,’ Gessen said, the fading voice reaching Vidor from the other side of a distant shore, ‘long after the boy grew up and learned what kind of man his father was. When he wants nothing more than to strip their shared DNA from his tissue and bones, he thinks he sees him at times, or someone who looks like him. Turning the corner of a crowded street. Boarding a train. The scorched head and fiery-eyed gaze of a man burning in hell.’

A hush settled over the room. The only sound was Gessen’s breath, synched in time to Vidor’s own. ‘The ties of blood and bone are not easily broken. Even in death.’

A long stillness followed. Was there a moral to this particular tale? Vidor turned his head away, trying to slow the urgent ticking of his heart.

‘What I’m trying to say, Vidor, is that it might be helpful if you’d open your mind to the possibility you’re being haunted by the shadow of another life. By someone, long hidden, who now wishes to make himself known.’

As Gessen’s long monologue came to an end, Vidor could feel his mind, still unmoored from his body, being carried along on a deep current. Drifting above the ocean floor, wafting with the seagrass above the shifting sands. A shaft of sunlight pierced the murky water above his head. With little desire to swim towards the light, he clung to the seabed, feeling no sense of danger. Instead, a warm embrace and quiet murmur buoyed his spirits, as he felt the touch of a woman’s hand. He drifted and dreamed, content to float for all eternity, until a vague threat, like a dark stain, blocked out the sun. A boy with a face like a hatchet emerged from the depths to taunt him. You’re not supposed to be here. You should have died.

But he didn’t die. I did not die, he shouted, though no words came. I’m still here. He gasped for air as he moved upwards through the murk, struggling towards the light.

40

Vidor was relieved to see it wasn’t Gessen waiting for him, with his fangs concealed behind a false smile, but the welcome presence of Dr Lindstrom, dressed in a cream-coloured blouse and black skirt as if for a celebration. Had the Christmas holiday arrived, or was it already long past? While he’d been out, adrift in the liminal zone, time had lost all meaning.