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,

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barked out a short, perfunctory laugh, and then got up,