Free Nailed by the Heart by Simon Clark

roots in the dirt which corresponded to where the four legs
of the chair had stood. The wood of the chair was alive. The frame
had warped, or grown rather, making the leather seat too small for
the frame. He felt the arms. They were beginning to bud with new
growths. From touch alone he could feel that the legs had swollen.
Another ten years and he would have found something between a chair
and a tree. Not quite one thing or the other. It would slowly have
filled the room, vying for space with the swollen celery plant.

    Feeling
suddenly cold, he broke the chair against the stone wall, then
dropped the pieces into the wheelbarrow. When Ruth called him for
lunch he did not mention the chair to her.

Chapter
Twelve

    "Celery
boats?"

    Chris
smiled. "No thanks, Ruth. I'll stick with the sandwiches. Has
David eaten?"

    "All
he wanted was a Pot Noodle." She read his expression. "It's
okay. He didn't come into the caravan."

    "Did
you get rid of the goldfish?"

    "That's
your job, loving husband."

    "Thanks
a million. Just check your pants drawer tonight." He grinned.
"Make sure I haven't slipped it into one of your stockings."

    "Pig."
Playfully, she kicked him on the shin.

    "Ah
... But I'm your very own loving pig."

    They
were sat on chairs on the walkway that ran around the top of the
seafort wall. Overhead, spring was doing a superb new paint-job on
the sky, a deep, flawless blue. Twenty feet beneath him on the beach,
David crouched over a pile of toys. He had drawn huge faces in the
sand with a stick. They had grins and squint eyes.

    "Perfect."
Ruth wriggled lower into her chair, resting her feet on his legs.
"The celery wants eating up before it wilts."

    Below
in the courtyard were the two skips, now full and awaiting
collection. In one lay the celery monster spider, its long white,
rubbery legs no doubt splayed out and crushed beneath thirteen heavy
timber doors and five wheelbarrowsful of concrete rubble.

    Get
out of that one and I'll call you Houdini, he thought.

    "As
there's more junk to shift," said Ruth, "maybe we should
get help."

    "Any
ideas?"

    "There's
a lad in the village who seems to do odd jobs for people. You've
probably seen him. Long, straggly hair and a scruffy beard. Looks
like a wild man from the backwoods. I think he's a bit simple."

    "He'll
fit in well here, then."

    "Perhaps
he could give us a hand."

    "It's
an idea. I'll ask him."

    While
she shut her eyes and basked in the sun, he settled down to watch
David playing on the beach. David had balanced three of his toys on a
boulder that rose out of the sand to knee height. The toys were his
favorites-a Maddog Bigfoot, a blue stunt car, and a Star Wars
stormtrooper figure. He then placed a Superman comic next to those on
the boulder. He leaned forward, resting his hands on the smooth
boulder and intently studying the toys as if they were about to
perform a neat trick.

    After
that he began to look from the toys to the sea then back again. The
sea was creeping in. After a few minutes the first waves hit the
boulder. They rolled slowly around it.

    David
ran a few paces up the beach then turned to watch the boulder with an
intensity that made Chris's own neck ache.

    Why
on earth had he done that? His son had deliberately marooned some of
his most precious toys on the boulder. By now the sea had completely
encircled the boulder.

    When
David used a swear word or made some observation on life that would
have been impressive coming from an adult's lips, it always caught
Chris by surprise. He would shoot David a look, half wondering if
some forty-year-old dwarf had switched identities with his son. He
felt that way now.

    God
alone knew why. The boy was only playing what six-year-olds no doubt
played. But it had the air of-Chris struggled for the description-a
ritual. Or a ceremony.

    The
waves had swollen in size now. What happened next was inevitable.

    One
hit the Maddog car and it disappeared into the sea with a splash; the
receding wave sucked it