The Hunger Trace by Edward Hogan Read Free Book Online Page A

ask. He dropped from the tree.
    Christopher’s frown appeared to be inquisitive, nothing more, but when the hawk rose up through the last metre, Christopher screamed and hit the ground, flinging the chick away in a spinning spray of yolk and blood. Fred rose steeply and flew over to the roof of the old aviary, where he bristled. Louisa stood back and looked at Christopher.
    ‘Bloody thing tried to kill me,’ Christopher shouted, still on the ground, his arms over his head.
    ‘Hey, what happened, sweetie?’ said Maggie, walking over.
    ‘Don’t you come anywhere near me!’ Christopher said, peering out from behind his hands. Maggie froze. ‘And don’t call me sweetie. I hate it. This is all your doing. You forced me to come here.’ He was almost crying.
    ‘Christopher, it’s okay. It’s a perfectly natural reaction,’ said Maggie.
    Louisa wasn’t listening. She looked over at Fred, who seemed undisturbed, now, although he would make her pay later, for letting that boy snatch his food away. She took a guess at what a normal person would do. She crouched down to check on Christopher, who was still curled up in a ball. ‘You’re okay,’ she said. She took him by the elbow, which he ripped around sharply into her face, knocking her over. She would later confess – though only to herself – to a feeling of exhilaration as she lay there on the grass.
    ‘Jesus, Christopher, what are you doing?’ said Maggie, running to Louisa.
    ‘You can shut up,’ Christopher said, standing. ‘That bloody thing tried to, erm, kill me.’
    ‘You can’t just fucking hit people,’ Maggie said.
    ‘I’m fine,’ Louisa said quietly, sitting up.
    ‘It’s your doing,’ said Christopher again, pointing his big crooked finger at Maggie, dirt in the wrinkles. ‘I never wanted to come here, and I never asked for you.’
    He made a gesture of contrite protest to Louisa. ‘I’m alright,’ she said. ‘Just taking five.’ But he was quickly on his way, head down, shaking the glove onto the ground.
    ‘I’m going to get completely inebriated,’ he called back.
    Maggie looked distraught. ‘Well, he can make a good decision when he tries,’ she said. She offered her arm to Louisa, who said she felt happy sitting down for a while. Maggie’s eyes, swirling and opaque like a stick-stirred brook, gradually took their focus on Louisa, and then widened. ‘He’s cut you,’ she said. Louisa dabbed at her lip, saw fresh blood on her fingers. ‘Nah, I’m fine,’ she said. ‘It was just the shock that knocked me over.’
    ‘That and the sixteen stone he weighs,’ said Maggie.
    After a few minutes, Louisa got to her feet, still shaky. She called Fred down from the roof, put the hawks in the weatherings, and knew she was done for the day.
    Maggie took disinfectants and medical equipment from the weighing room, and ignored Louisa’s insistence that she would treat herself. She made her go into the cottage and lie on the sofa. Louisa was secretly pleased, because she felt suddenly shattered.
    She knew from her touch that Maggie was getting used to working with animals. The securing grip on the neck gave it away. Maggie washed the wound and stemmed the blood flow with cotton wool and petroleum jelly.
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ Maggie said.
    ‘Forget it.’
    ‘I’m sorry you had to witness that domestic scene, too.’
    ‘Sounded pretty hurtful.’
    ‘I’m used to it.’
    Louisa thought back to how disagreeable she herself had been when Maggie first moved in.
    ‘I appreciate what you did today,’ Maggie said. ‘I thought it was outstanding. When I called that hawk out of the tree, it felt like the first clear space I’ve had in my head for months. Does that make sense?’
    ‘Big old beak and talons headed for you – tends to focus the mind.’
    ‘I loved it.’
    ‘I know you did.’
    ‘I’d like to do it again,’ Maggie said.
    ‘I’m pretty busy.’
    ‘So am I.’
    ‘Which is also a problem. Too many people these