Literary magazine
T HE COLD HAD SET IN . J OHNNY SHIVERED , HUGGING on to his puffer jacket like a lifebuoy in the sea. Under normal circumstances, the image of him with that on in his living room would have been hilarious,
sheepishly.
Johnny noticed his legs,
clad in worn working jeans
a ghostly blue in colour
but the freezing temperature had dulled even that.
under the light, shaking
Martin sat opposite him, blowing furiously into grubby
( trembling? he thought).
builder’s hands, his hand of cards scattered on the worn
The light threw shadows
carpet floor. The stack at the centre of the table sat un-
across the room, too, so that
touched. Johnny looked at Steve; too cold to speak, he
the top half of Steve’s angular
simply nodded, and Johnny, with an effort, gathered
face was a grotesquely large
back the impromptu game of rummy for three.
silhouette on the opposite wall.
The antique clock, won by Johnny in a drunk round of
No, Johnny thought. There was
poker in what seemed like an age ago, limped to half-
something decidedly unsettling about
eleven. Martin and Steve took turns pouring the hot cof-
the atmosphere. There shouldn’t have
fee from a flask. There would be little left for him. Johnny
been — Steve and Martin were friends of
felt a momentary stab of anger, sending liquid warmth
his ( if not good friends , his mind reminded
through the icy caverns of his body, and then it was
him, but he forgot that for the moment) and this was his
gone.
own home ( and it wasn’t that, either , his ever-irksome
mind told him too). Yet he felt unease, tensing within him
Outside, it was still — completely, absolutely still. There
like a slow, stretched spring.
were no engines, with their oddly comforting noises in
the night. Nobody was outside; the scene was one of
Steve stood for a moment by the doorway, lacing up his
parked cars, internally shrivelling in the cold, and trees,
boots, rubbing his hands together, seeming to coil into
seeming to grow bare in front of Johnny’s eyes.
himself, desperate for some warmth. Then, with sudden
resolve, he uncrossed himself and went outside.
Steve managed to get the first words out.
He screamed.
“Well, damned if I’m gonna spend the whole bloody night
here.”
Johnny, in a stupor, noticed that Martin was the first to
react. Martin rose from the floor, forgetting the cold, and
The others realized that they hadn’t spoken in nearly a
ran over to Steve; then he, too, stood still. The expres-
minute due to the cold, and this sent round a somewhat
sion on Martin’s face, usually always the pragmatic, an-
forced wave of laughter. Johnny chuckled heartily; after
noyingly unimpressed one, ran Johnny’s blood cold. He
all, it got him a little warm, if nothing else.
was completely still. His face had frozen into a horribly
“It’s proper cold, isn’t it?” Steve said. “ Proper cold. I
inverted rictus grin, the sides of his mouth twitching.
coulda sworn it wasn’t this cold when we came in. Your
Then the spell broke, and Martin himself shouted, “For
heating’s done for, mate.”
God’s sake, get back in!”
He added the last statement almost as an afterthought,
7
barked out a short, perfunctory laugh, and then got up,
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