The Thief of Always. Clive Barker
the old woman appeared at the door. He snatched up a couple of hot dogs, and was gone.
‘Oh, my Lord!’ Mrs Griffin cried when she set eyes on the dead cat. ‘Oh … you foolish thing.’
‘It was an accident,’ Harvey said, sickened by what had happened. ‘He was up on the stove—’
‘Foolish thing. Foolish thing,’ was all Mrs Griffin seemed able to say. She sank down on to her knees, and stared at the sad little sack of burned fur. ‘No more questions from you,’ she finally murmured.
The sight of Mrs Griffin’s unhappiness made Harvey’s eyes sting, but he hated to have anyone see him cry, so he fought back his tears as best he could and said:
‘Shall I help you bury him?’ in his gruffest voice.
Mrs Griffin looked round. ‘That’s very sweet of you,’ she said softly. ‘But there’s no need. You go out and play.’
‘I don’t want to leave you on your own,’ Harvey said.
‘Oh, look at you, child,’ Mrs Griffin said. ‘You’ve got tears on your cheeks.’
Harvey blushed and wiped them away with the back of his hand.
‘Don’t be ashamed to weep,’ Mrs Griffin said. ‘It’s a wonderful thing. I wish I could still shed a tear or two.’
‘You’re sad,’ Harvey said. ‘I can see that.’
‘What I feel is not quite sadness,’ Mrs Griffin replied. ‘And it’s not much solace, either, I’m afraid.’
‘What’s solace?’ Harvey asked.
‘It’s something soothing,’ Mrs Griffin said, getting to her feet. ‘Something that heals the pain in your heart.’
‘And you don’t have any of that?’
‘No, I don’t,’ Mrs Griffin said. She reached out and touched Harvey’s cheek. ‘Except maybe in these tears of yours. They comfort me.’ She sighed as she traced their tracks with her fingers. ‘Your tears are sweet, child. And so are you. Now you go out into the light and enjoy yourself. There’s sun on the step, and it won’t be there forever, believe me.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m sure.’
‘I’ll see you later then,’ Harvey said, and headed out into the afternoon.
THE TEMPERATURE had risen while Harvey had been at lunch. A heat-haze hovered over the lawn (which was lusher and more thick with flowers than he remembered) and it made the trees around the House shimmer.
He headed towards them, calling Wendell’s name as he went. There was no reply. He glanced back towards the House, thinking he might see Wendell at one of the windows, but they were all reflecting the pristine blue. He looked from House to heavens. There was not a cloud in sight.
And now a suspicion stole upon him, which grew into a certainty as his gaze wandered back to the shimmering copse and the flowers underfoot. During the hour he’d spent in the cool of the kitchen the season had changed. Summer had come to Mr Hood’s Holiday House: a summer as magical as the spring that had preceded it.
That was why the sky was so faultlessly blue, and the birds making such music. The leaf-laden branches were no less content; nor the blossoms in the grass, nor the bees that buzzed from bloom to bloom, gathering the season’s bounty. All were in bliss.
It would not be a long season, Harvey guessed. If the spring had been over in a morning, then most likely this perfect summer would not outlast the afternoon.
I’d better make the most of it, he thought, and hurried in search of Wendell. He finally discovered his friend sitting in the shade of the trees, with a pile of comics at his side.
‘Wanna sit down and read?’ he asked.
‘Maybe later,’ said Harvey. ‘First I want to go and look at this lake you were talking about. Are you going to come?’
‘What for? I told you it’s no fun.’
‘All right, I’ll go on my own.’
‘You won’t stay long,’ Wendell remarked, and went back to his reading.
Though Harvey had a good idea of the lake’s general whereabouts, the bushes on that side of the House were thick and thorny, and it took him several minutes to find a way through them. By the time he caught sight of the lake itself the sweat on his face and back was clammy, and his arms had been scratched and bloodied by barbs.
As Wendell had predicted, the lake wasn’t worth the trouble. It was large – so large that the far side was barely visible – but gloomy and drear, both the lake and the dark stones around it covered with a film of green scum. There was a legion of flies buzzing around in search of something rotten to feed on, and Harvey guessed they’d have no trouble finding a feast. This was a place where dead things belonged.
He was about to leave when a movement in the shadows caught his eye. Somebody was standing further along the bank, almost eclipsed by the mesh of thicket. He moved a few paces closer to the lake, and saw that it was Lulu. She was perched on the slimy stones at the very edge of the water, gazing into their depths.
Speaking in a near-whisper for fear he’d startle her, Harvey said:
‘It looks cold.’
She glanced up at him, her face full of confusion, and then – without a word of reply – turned and bounded away through the bushes.
‘Wait!’ Harvey called, hurrying towards the lake.
Lulu had already disappeared however, leaving the thicket shaking. He might have gone in pursuit of her, except that the sound of bubbles breaking in the lake took his gaze to the waters, and there, moving just below the coating of scum, he saw the fish. They were almost as large as he was, their grey scales stained and encrusted, their bulbous eyes turned up towards the surface like the eyes of prisoners in a watery pit.
They were watching him, he was certain of that, and their scrutiny made him shudder. Were they hungry, he wondered, and praying to their fishy gods that he’d slip on the stones and tumble in? Or were they wishing he’d come with a rod and a line, so that they could be hauled out of the depths and put out of their misery?
What a life, he thought. No sun to warm them; no flowers to sniff at or games to play. Just the deep, dark waters to circle in; and circle, and circle, and circle.
It made him dizzy just watching, and he feared that if he lingered much longer he’d lose his balance and join them. Gasping with relief he turned his back on the sight, and returned into the sunlight as fast as the barbs would allow.
Wendell was still sitting underneath the tree. He had two bottles of ice-cold lemonade in the grass beside him, and lobbed one to Harvey as he approached.
‘Well?’ he said.
‘You were right,’ Harvey replied.
‘Nobody in their right mind ever goes there.’
‘I saw Lulu.’
‘What