Free The Book of the Crowman by Joseph D'Lacey Page A

where we lived but I wasn’t going on the street. Still, it meant I often left Flora in her cot for two or three hours at a time. I think that’s the real reason she was lonely.” Denise’s eyes filled with tears. She reached out to Flora and squeezed her hand. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
    Flora couldn’t understand her mother’s anguish. She was bright in her response.
    “Don’t cry, mummy. The Crowman kept me company and when he left I was sad. It wasn’t because of you.” To Gordon she said: “Mummy made men happy, which is very difficult sometimes, and they paid her. She had to work a lot to make sure we had food and everything.”
    Denise laughed through her tears as she reached for a handkerchief and blew her nose.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, sniffing and dabbing her eyes. “I’m sure those aren’t the details you’re interested in.”
    Gordon shrugged.
    “We all do what we have to do to survive. It doesn’t make us bad people.”
    Denise stared at him then, her face frank and her eyes unguarded for the briefest of moments. Gordon didn’t have time to interpret what he saw there; having lost centre stage for a moment, Flora wanted it back.
    “You asked me if he ever spoke to me. The first thing I ever remember him saying was that I was special and that sometimes special people suffered a lot. But he said that if I helped it would be worth it. He said there’d be a future and I’d be in it. He said I wouldn’t suffer any more. He still tells me that now. When I’ve had a few bad days in a row and… you know. When I feel like I’ve had enough.”
    “Yes,” said Gordon. “I know what that’s like.”
    Flora looked up, angry for a moment until she saw Gordon’s eyes and realised that he wasn’t lying, wasn’t just saying things to make her feel better.
    “Nowadays, he tells me more stuff about other people and places and what’s going to happen. He doesn’t talk so much about me any more.”
    Gordon sat forward.
    “He tells you about the future? What does he say about it?”
    “He talks about how things might be if other things happen first. And he tells me what will happen if they don’t. The Crowman says the future has nothing to do with the future and everything to do with now. What you do now makes the future.” Flora closed her eyes for a moment, imagining or remembering something. “You know what you were saying about people needing to work together and help each other? He said something just like that a few weeks ago. He said that’s how the present could change the future.”
    Gordon grinned.
    “He sounds like my kind of guy. In three years I’ve never met anyone who’s had as much contact and communication with the Crowman as you have, Flora. He’s right; you really are a special girl.” He reached over and touched her hand briefly before pulling away with a frown. The liquid darkness awoke once more in his fingers; the gift that had become a curse, threatening to reveal him to the Ward whenever he used it. He blustered on. “I can’t believe I’m suddenly this close to him. When was the last time you saw him?”
    “Mmm… about three days ago.”
    “Where was he?”
    Flora pointed to several layers of towels folded over a wooden rail.
    “Standing down in the street. I saw him through the window.”
    Gordon moved towards the makeshift blackout but Denise moved to stop him.
    “We never open that when there’s light in here. Only a few people know we’re up here but that’s more than enough. Sometimes we look out either at dusk or at dawn. I like Flora to be able to see the street even if she can’t actually go outside very often.”
    Gordon itched to look down and see the place where only three days before the object of his search had stood. If the Crowman visited as often as Flora said, Gordon knew he had to stay here until the next time he came. The Crowman seemed to have an affinity for the girl. If it took a week, a month – even a year – Gordon would