best footballer at our school; Ellie Whatsername, barmaid at the Blue Nun in Crowley; some bloke that is always hanging around her like a faithful puppy.
They stopped about three metres away from us.
Perfectly in synch.
Perfectly silent.
They were looking at us, and they were looking
through
us, at the same time. A thousand people in a block.
Lilly took hold of my hand and her palm was cold,her hand was shaking. I held it tight and drew strength from that simple gesture.
We stood there together, facing the crowd, waiting for them to make their move.
25
Kate O’Donnell took a step forwards.
‘What do you want from us?’ she demanded.
There was no answer. The crowd just stood there. It was almost as if they had been frozen again.
‘They’re not even blinking,’ Lilly whispered.
It was true.
They weren’t blinking. Or breathing, it seemed. They weren’t moving at all.
‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?’ Kate screamed this time. She looked red-faced and terrified.
Again, nothing.
The crowd seemed to be ignoring us.
They were just standing there.
Kate jumped from the stage and homed in on Doctor Campbell.
‘All right, you idiot quack,’ she said spitefully. ‘Just tellme what the hell is going on!’
She put her face just centimetres from the doctor’s face and screamed, ‘TELL ME!’
She was so close that he must have
felt
her words on his face.
But he didn’t appear to flinch.
Kate let out a sound of frustration and sank to her knees, like all the air had been let out of her. I could hear her sobbing. I even felt like joining her. Lilly’s hand tightened its grip on mine, and her fingernails bit into my palm.
Then I heard it.
A low sound that could have been the thrum of an electrical power source, except it seemed to be coming from the crowd of people in front of us. I realised it had been building for a while, but that I had only just become aware of it. It was a deep throbbing sound I could
feel
throughout my body.
I was vibrating along with the noise.
I felt on the very brink of panic, and still the sound continued to develop; getting louder and deeper and making my body vibrate even more, like the heavy bass you get at arock concert when the PA is really kicking.
Lilly let go of my hand and put her hands up to cover her ears.
‘What is that?’ she said loudly to compete with the sound that was rising up around us.
The crowd still didn’t move.
They just stood there.
‘My god.’ Kate’s voice was quiet and full of fear. ‘Look.’
She was still on her knees, and she was staring at Doctor Campbell in front of her. I looked over but couldn’t see what she meant.
‘His
hands
!’ she said. ‘Oh god, look at his hands!’
I thought she had lost her mind.
And then I looked at Doctor Campbell’s hands.
And then I thought maybe I had lost mine.
NOTE
Kyle pauses here and creates a silence that lasts almost a whole minute. Sounds of breathing can be discerned, but nothing else.
Bernadette Luce has written much about this pause. In ‘TheImportance of What Isn’t There: Finding Truth in the Gaps’ she hypothesises about the reason for this pause, deciding, after a particularly long discourse, that ‘(T)his is the moment where the power of silence overtakes the weakness of language. Kyle Straker, with his silence, tells us all we need to know about this part of the greater narrative. That it is beyond words, it transcends language, and the gap he leaves as he attempts to find a way to describe what happens next is a silent scream that we hear echoing through the rest of the tape. Gaps always provide a good environment for the manufacture of echoes.’
The fact that Kyle then manages to describe what he saw when he looked at Doctor Campbell’s hands seems to be ignored by Luce.
26
At first I thought it was a trick of the light.
With the sun starting its climb down from its high point in the sky towards a resting place on the horizon, it
could
have been the result of light and
They stopped about three metres away from us.
Perfectly in synch.
Perfectly silent.
They were looking at us, and they were looking
through
us, at the same time. A thousand people in a block.
Lilly took hold of my hand and her palm was cold,her hand was shaking. I held it tight and drew strength from that simple gesture.
We stood there together, facing the crowd, waiting for them to make their move.
25
Kate O’Donnell took a step forwards.
‘What do you want from us?’ she demanded.
There was no answer. The crowd just stood there. It was almost as if they had been frozen again.
‘They’re not even blinking,’ Lilly whispered.
It was true.
They weren’t blinking. Or breathing, it seemed. They weren’t moving at all.
‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?’ Kate screamed this time. She looked red-faced and terrified.
Again, nothing.
The crowd seemed to be ignoring us.
They were just standing there.
Kate jumped from the stage and homed in on Doctor Campbell.
‘All right, you idiot quack,’ she said spitefully. ‘Just tellme what the hell is going on!’
She put her face just centimetres from the doctor’s face and screamed, ‘TELL ME!’
She was so close that he must have
felt
her words on his face.
But he didn’t appear to flinch.
Kate let out a sound of frustration and sank to her knees, like all the air had been let out of her. I could hear her sobbing. I even felt like joining her. Lilly’s hand tightened its grip on mine, and her fingernails bit into my palm.
Then I heard it.
A low sound that could have been the thrum of an electrical power source, except it seemed to be coming from the crowd of people in front of us. I realised it had been building for a while, but that I had only just become aware of it. It was a deep throbbing sound I could
feel
throughout my body.
I was vibrating along with the noise.
I felt on the very brink of panic, and still the sound continued to develop; getting louder and deeper and making my body vibrate even more, like the heavy bass you get at arock concert when the PA is really kicking.
Lilly let go of my hand and put her hands up to cover her ears.
‘What is that?’ she said loudly to compete with the sound that was rising up around us.
The crowd still didn’t move.
They just stood there.
‘My god.’ Kate’s voice was quiet and full of fear. ‘Look.’
She was still on her knees, and she was staring at Doctor Campbell in front of her. I looked over but couldn’t see what she meant.
‘His
hands
!’ she said. ‘Oh god, look at his hands!’
I thought she had lost her mind.
And then I looked at Doctor Campbell’s hands.
And then I thought maybe I had lost mine.
NOTE
Kyle pauses here and creates a silence that lasts almost a whole minute. Sounds of breathing can be discerned, but nothing else.
Bernadette Luce has written much about this pause. In ‘TheImportance of What Isn’t There: Finding Truth in the Gaps’ she hypothesises about the reason for this pause, deciding, after a particularly long discourse, that ‘(T)his is the moment where the power of silence overtakes the weakness of language. Kyle Straker, with his silence, tells us all we need to know about this part of the greater narrative. That it is beyond words, it transcends language, and the gap he leaves as he attempts to find a way to describe what happens next is a silent scream that we hear echoing through the rest of the tape. Gaps always provide a good environment for the manufacture of echoes.’
The fact that Kyle then manages to describe what he saw when he looked at Doctor Campbell’s hands seems to be ignored by Luce.
26
At first I thought it was a trick of the light.
With the sun starting its climb down from its high point in the sky towards a resting place on the horizon, it
could
have been the result of light and
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