Raven Summer

Free Raven Summer by David Almond

Book: Raven Summer by David Almond Read Free Book Online
Authors: David Almond
you’re sitting in the dark down at the Forum watching a film. What happens at the violent bits, eh? At the really savage bits. Like the last James Bond film when Bond smashes that guy’s head on the washbasin and there’s the crunch of bone and the splattering of blood and he goes on smashing him till the washbasin’s all smashed up as well. You hear it, don’t you? And you even—don’t you?—hear them
laugh.
That’s what I’m on about.”
    “That means nothing,” I say. “A movie’s all made up. The video you saw was—”
    “Real. Aye. But you don’t get it, do you? There’s no difference. Aye, you watch the picture with loads of others in the Forum. And aye, you watch the beheading all alone. But while you’re watching it in secret, you know you’re watching with a million others all around the world.”
    He holds up the knife again and turns it so that it glows in the moonlight. I think of Death Dealer, resting in a drawer in my bedroom. I could do you, too, I think. I smile at the visionof it, of Nattrass stretched out dead on the icy earth like an ancient fighter, with Death Dealer thrust into his heart.
    “It’s a vicious world, Liam. And you know why? Cos people love it that way. Cos all of us are beasts at heart. Your new mate, whatdeyecallim, he’ll know all about that. And so do you, Liam Lynch.”
    And he prods me in the chest with the knife point. Once. Twice. I feel it through my clothes.
    “Don’t you,” he says. “Even you. Don’t you? You know all about getting wild. We seen it with the snakes that day, didn’t we?”
    He prods me.
    “Go on,” he says. “Have a go at me. Go on. Go on.”
    I punch him in the face. I snarl at him to shut up. He laughs and stabs the knife at me again. I grip his wrist and try to twist the knife back towards him. We wrestle. The knife gleams right by my face. He’s stronger than me but he’s holding back. He’s grinning. The knife comes closer. Then he jumps free.
    “Whoops!” he laughs. “Get running, Liam!”
    The torch beam glares into my eyes. I jump up, sprint, don’t get back in time.
    Spotlight spotted you in the night! You’re out!

9
    That night I dream of Nattrass.
We’re fighting on the field. We struggle for hour after hour. I think it will never end, but at last I plunge Death Dealer into his heart. I stand over him as his blood leaks out into the earth. Next morning, I see the horizontal cut on my cheek. Shallow, just a couple of inches long. A dark red line of dried blood. I close my eyes. I dream again of plunging the knife into his heart.
    At breakfast, Mum reaches out, touches it.
    “What’s that?”
    I feel the line.
    “Hawthorn tree,” I say.
    “Hawthorn?”
    “I was hiding. I ran into the tree. A thorn got me.”
    She gets her camera.

10
    Crystal continues to e-mail.
    I wasn’t always with Phil and Phil. There’s been others. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson were best of all. They had a lovely house with a pretty garden and a little pond with goldfish and a cherry tree and a dog called Sam. There was a skyblue canopy across my bed and a dream catcher to catch bad dreams. They were teachers. They were about to love me very much. They wanted to make me so happy. They said I was the girl that they had always wanted. They wanted to adopt me.
So I got a knife and I cut myself, up high on my arm beside my shoulder. There was blood on my sheets. Andon my pillow. Not much, just a trickle and some spots. But enough to scare them off.
I write to you because I don’t know anybody like you, anybody normal. And I think you and me and Ol were meant to meet.
Cx

11
    There’s a big gathering in Hexham for Greg Armstrong.
It starts with prayers outside the abbey. I’m standing beside Max and Kim. Becky Smith’s on the other side of them. I take no notice of her. Prayers are led by a vicar, a priest, a rabbi and a muezzin. I don’t join in. Afterwards we all head towards the marketplace, where a little stage has been put up. A few old

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