Member-only story
When Lily Was Here
Prologue to a novel
Below is the prologue to my novel The Peace of Hood: A futile horn. It is currently going through a number of redrafts etc, but currently weighs in at just over 100,000 words. This prologue, however, started life as a short story and is relatively short. It takes place in a lonely graveyard, moments before the beginning of the 19th century, and a young boy, Jim Hood, digging a grave.
At first, the boy digs with his hands. He scoops up the sodden earth and banks it behind him, the same way the mangy dogs dig the muddy banks of the Thames.
One of the dogs from the river sits, watching him. He is heavily built with black fur and amber patches, and missing a front leg. He has followed him from where he salvaged the body, the body of his sister. The dog’s gaze is fixed on him.
He says it over to himself again, ‘the body of my sister,’ but no matter how many times he says it, it will never sound right, it will never sound true. And he has dragged her to this place of rest. His mouth is dry and ridden with a sourness that tastes like poison.
The endless rain has soaked into the ground, making the task easier. The earth shifts in the wake of the young boy’s purposeful movements and is flung down in sticky clods, shot through with worm and grit.
