Clay Read Online Free PDF

as well. Sky getting red, the edge of the quarry dark and jagged against it.
    “There were lads and priests everywhere,” he said. “The smell of piss and incense and the sound of kids singing hymns.”
    “Did it feel holy?” I said.
    He glanced at me.
    “Aye, Davie. It seemed dead holy.”
    “Did you cry?” said Geordie.
    “Eh?”
    “Like on the first night in your bed. Did you miss your mam and dad and that?”
    “No,” said Stephen. “The new ones often wept and wailed, but not me. Aye, I mebbe missed my mam and dad at first. But I’d moved on. I thought there was work I had to do, and I couldn’t do it if I stayed with them. When I went to Bennett, it was like I’d left an old life behind. It turned out I hadn’t.”
    Geordie and I smoked another Players.
    “How did you know in the first place?” said Geordie.
    “Know what?”
    “That you wanted to be a priest.”
    Stephen shrugged. He stared into the sky.
    “I knew soon after the angel came,” he said.
    “The angel?” said Geordie. “What bliddy angel?”
    “Tell you in a minute,” said Stephen. Then he leaned closer to Geordie. “Anyway, what do you want to be?”
    “Me?” said Geordie. “Dunno. A footballer! Newcastle United forever!”
    Stephen turned his eyes to me.
    “What about you?” he said.
    I shrugged.
    “A footballer as well,” I said.
    He shook his head like he was disappointed.
    “You tell lies, Davie, don’t you?”
    “What?”
    “It’s OK. We all do. Sometimes lies can help you. Me, I always knew I was going to do something special. I always knew there was something lying in wait for me.”
    He paused and looked at me.
    “Do you not feel like that?” he said.
    I shook my head quickly.
    “No?” he said. “Do you not think there’s something different about you? Do you not think there’s a special purpose to your life?”
    I shook my head again.
    He raised his eyebrows, like he didn’t believe me.
    “What about the angel?” said Geordie.
    “Aye,” said Stephen. “She struck me down and lifted me up again and everything was changed.”
    He licked his lips as we leaned close to him. He rolled clay between his finger and thumb and I saw an arm appearing before me.
    “What d’you mean?” I said.

eleven
    Stephen paused and breathed slowly, like he was gathering the tale into himself before he told it to us. He worked his clay with his fingers. He carved its features with the point of a knife. It grew more lifelike as he spoke.
    “It was a Tuesday morning. I was down on the beach at Whitley Bay. I was walking all alone like always. It was boiling hot. There were people all around me. People lying flat out in the sun. Screaming kids and yapping dogs splashing in the water. The smell of chips and hot dogs and coffee. Just ordinary, dead ordinary. Then there was a hush. Dead silence, nowt moving, like everything was stopped in time. Then a blast came from the sky and it was like a bolt of lightning went right through me. I found myself crawling on the sand. I was weak as a baby. I could hardly breathe. And there she was.”
    “Bliddy Hell,” said Geordie.
    “Aye,” said Stephen. “She was in the sky over the cliffs with massive wings and a sword in her hand and she was that bright, bright as the sun, bright and burning, and I turned my face away from her. ‘Stephen Rose!’ she yelled. ‘Stephen Rose! You cannot hide!’ And it was like her voice was everywhere, outside me and inside me. I couldn’t do nowt. I had to turn. She came down towards me. She pointed the sword at me. ‘Who is thy lord, Stephen Rose?’ she said. ‘Answer! For you cannot hide. Who is thy lord?’ And I knew what I had to say. ‘My lord is God most high,’ I answered. And everything went dead still again, and dark as night, and I thought I must’ve died, and then the angel was at my side, and was helping me up, and the sword was hanging on its own in the sky, pointing down at us. ‘You have answered well,’ she