Cold Iron: E-Book

Peter Mortimer

• Herausgeber: Iron Press
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 58

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

A collection of seventeen ghost tales, whittled down from a total of almost 200 submitted from writers both established and unknown, bring a selection both paying homage to the tradition of the ghost story and placing it firmly in the context of our own times. Thus, ghosts appear on football terraces, from cancer wards, on the floor of TV shows, on the late night service bus, over a Sunday dinner and at a supermarket checkout. These terrifying tales pay homage to the traditions of the genre, but tackle peculiarly 21st Century topics.

Leseprobe

First published 2017 by IRON Press

5 Marden Terrace

Cullercoats

North Shields

NE30 4PD

tel/fax [phone]

[email protected]

www.ironpress.co.uk

ISBN 978-0-9954579-6-6

ePub ISBN 9780995457997

Printed by imprintdigital.com

Story © Kitty Fitzgerald

Illustrations © Nicola Balfour

This edition © IRON Press 2017

Book Design Brian Grogan and Peter Mortimer

Typeset in Georgia

IRON Press books are distributed by NBNI International

and represented by Inpress Ltd

Churchill House, 12 Mosley Street,

Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1DE

tel: [phone]

www.inpressbooks.co.uk

Me, the Aquatic Ape and the Manatee

It was at a jumble sale in Derbyshire in 1981 that I first came across the theories of evolutionist, Elaine Morgan. The book was called The Descent of Woman, published in 1972 by Souvenir Press. She challenged the traditional – almost entirely male – evolutionary theories with her own bold vision, titled The Aquatic Ape Theory.

I had recently been watching a Desmond Morris documentary on evolution and had been neither impressed nor convinced of his arguments. But who was I to challenge him? And yet when I read Morgan’s book, it made perfect sense to me. She has since written many other books.

Establishment male evolutionists ridiculed her work for decades until their theory about our move from four to two legs was shown to be inaccurate. Last year, David Attenborough said publicly that acknowledgement of and recognition for Morgan’s theories was well overdue.

Water is essential for humans and creatures of all kinds. We need to protect it from those who pollute it, from those who prevent access to others and those who want to sell it to the highest bidder.

The Aquatic Ape theory was first proposed by the marine biologist Alister Hardy in 1960. The Manatee belongs to the scientific order, Sirenia. All sirenian species in the world are listed as endangered or vulnerable by the IUCN – World Conservation Union. www.savethemanatee.org

Kitty FitzgeraldCullercoats,Summer 2017

KITTY FITZGERALD has written five well-received novels: Identity (Room to Write 2014), Pigtopia (Faber & Faber), Small Acts of Treachery (Brandon), Snapdragons (Brandon) Marge (Sheba) and a collection of short stories, Miranda’s Shadow (IRON Press 2013) She has been published in 24 countries. She took 2nd place (fiction) in the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and has written for radio drama and theatre. Her writing awards include: Hawthornden Fellowship, Hosking House Fellowship,Henrich Boll Award. In Autumn 2015, she was Writer in Residence at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture, University of Manitoba, Canada. She is currently working on another fable and her first crime novel. Kitty comments that working with the illustrator Nicola Balfour has been great fun.

NICOLA BALFOUR is an artist educator living in Easington Colliery, County Durham. She moved from The New Forest to Newcastle in 1981 where she studied Fine Art at the then Newcastle Poly. She was the art editor for IRON Press for a brief but happy time and has helped design and paint miles of silk banners with countless community and school groups. She has been a pantomime camel, environmental artist, a creative agent and is the proud mother of 2 daughters. She is a co-director at The Barn at Easington, an outdoor arts and education centre. The Water Thief is her third book illustration. ‘It’s been a really joyful experience to work with Kitty who has given me the space and freedom to create.’

Contents

Chapter 1     The Manatee

Chapter 2     The Child

Chapter 3     Changes

Chapter 4     What has happened to the water?

Chapter 5     Into the mountain caves

Chapter 6     What will they do?

Tomas felt compassion and something else that he didn’t understand.

1.

The Manatee

TOMASWASAFISHERMANWHOLIVEDALONEINA small house close to the sea. For generations his family had fished from little boats, riding the waves like dolphins. One soft, spring day he started building a new wall to protect his home from the encroaching waves. After a few hours, he sat on a rock to rest, thinking it was strange how the place he’d lived in all his life had this curious relationship with water. On one side of the town was the unpredictable sea, which ate away at a little more of the land with every tide, while the rest of the area was dry and dusty.

Tomas glanced at his blue and yellow boat lazing peacefully in the bay. As he daydreamed and just before his eyes completely closed, he thought he heard a sweet voice calling,

‘Come to me...come, but don’t come too close.’

It was the sort of voice that might belong to a rainbow. He was intrigued and opened his eyes. He couldn’t see anyone so he followed the sound. Near the back of his boat, by the lapping water, he discovered a female manatee in the shallows. Her paddle tail was caught up in an old oil barrel and some wire mesh so that she was unable to swim properly. His first thought was to ignore her; but when he looked into the creature’s eyes, he remembered what his mother had said to him when he was nine years old and preparing for his first fishing trip with his older brother.

‘Manatees are special creatures, some think them sacred, keep clear of them with the boat and the nets.’

As he stared at the manatee, Tomas felt compassion and something else that he didn’t understand. The emotion rose up in him so strongly that it frightened him.

‘Don’t be afraid, I’m hurt but I won’t harm you,’ the manatee said.

Tomas was startled because she didn’t open her mouth to speak like he did but somehow her words slipped into his mind.

It was then that Tomas noticed the cuts on the creature’s back and saw the glistening fragments of steel sticking out from her side. He knew what had happened; the creature had been hit by at least one speedboat. The boat engines had a low frequency, which meant the manatee couldn’t hear them coming because her hearing was in the high range. She must have been right out to the channel, over six miles away, because pleasure boats were rare around his area. Although, when he thought about it, he realized he’d recently seen many more of them crossing the bay.

‘Will you help me?’ the manatee asked.

Tomas knew at once that he would. He stepped closer.

‘Be careful,’ the manatee said. ‘You must never touch my skin with your bare hands.’

‘Why not?’

‘If I tell you, you won’t believe me.’

‘Try me,’ he said.

‘Because if you do, for a brief time, I’ll turn into a woman and you’ll fall in love with me.’

Tomas laughed.

‘You see,’ the manatee said, ‘you think it’s not true but it is.’

Tomas laughed again.

‘It is true,’ she said. ‘Your kind and mine share a long story; we have been close on land and sea for thousands of years.’