The Red House by Mark Haddon Read Free Book Online

point. Faith was a belief in the impossible. Of course it looked ridiculous from the outside. Jesus loves you, bitch . Scratched into the metal of her locker door so it couldn’t be washed off.
    Suddenly there was a fox. Real orange, not the dirty brown of urban foxes, trotting through the gate, cocksure and proprietorial, like the ghost of a previous owner. Two different times were flowing though the garden. The fox stopped. Had it seen her? Had it smelt her? She didn’t breathe. The gap closed between herself and the world. She was the grass, she was the sunlight, she was the fox. Then she wondered if it was some kind of sign and the spell broke and the fox trotted off round the far side of the house and she was shivering.

    Dominic stands under the shower, eyes closed, water pouring onto the crown of his head. Hot water. How amazing to be alive this late in human history. Miners in their tins baths, a kettle on the coals, Queen Elizabeth I taking three baths a year. But showers were never quite hot enough or strong enough on holiday, were they. That crappy plastic box. Down the corridor Benjy unlocks the mini-kit on the second Captain Brickbeard level and gets the wizard, while Melissa rises through that turbulent region of half sleep, part of her still at primary school, everything in slo-mo, a tiger padding slowly between the desks. Beams creak and pipes rattle as the house comes to life. A scurry in the roof space, the same dog far off. Alex pees noisily. The whir of an electric toothbrush. A cockerel. Daisy pours a small portion of Marks & Spencer’s Deliciously Nutty Crunch into a bowl.
    Alex squatted on the flagstones by the front door to lace his trainers then stretched his hamstrings on the ivy-covered sill. The faintest smell of manure on the bright damp air. He set his watch then jogged along the track to the main road, stones crunching and slipping under his trainers. He loved wild places. He felt at home among lakes and mountains in a way he never did at home or school. Every other weekend he and Jamie would pile into Jamie’s brother’s Transit, bikes on the back, canoes on top, and Josh would drive them to the South Downs, Pembrokeshire, Snowdonia. Put up the tent in darkness and wake in that igloo glow. He climbed the stile and began the long haul to Red Darren, his mind shrinking with the effort and the altitude, this precious trick he had learnt, doubts and worries falling away at four, five, six miles, the fretting self reduced to almost nothing, only the body working like an engine.
    Dominic and Daisy asked him about it sometimes and assumed his inability to explain was evidence of an inability to feel, but on Llyn Gwynant, on Nine Barrow Down, he experienced a kind of swelling contentment for which they yearned but never quite attained, and thefact that Alex couldn’t explain it, the fact that it was beyond words, was part of the secret.
    Because you’ll burn yourself . Angela handed him two eggs. Crack these into the bowl .
    What would happen if you and Dad died at the same time?
    What would you like to happen? She scraped mushrooms into the pan.
    I’d like to go and live with Pavel .
    I’d have to check that with Pavel’s mum .
    But what will happen to my toys?
    She handed him a fork. You’d take them with you . She thought how small Pavel’s house was. Now add some milk and whisk it .
    What about the television?
    Hasn’t Pavel already got a television?
    But what about our television? He was on the verge of tears.
    You can have the television .
    I’ve changed my mind. I want to go and live with Daisy . Something broke inside him and he was choking back the sobs.
    She turned the gas down and wrapped him in her arms.
    Benjamin was crying and Richard didn’t want to intrude so he poured a mug of coffee from the cafetière and walked outside where he found Alex doing press-ups on the lawn, proper press-ups, knees and back rigid, locking his elbows, touching the grass with his nose, a great