Some Rain Must Fall Read Online Free PDF Page A

passed.
    ‘It’s coming back? It’s coming back!’ shrieked Janet as she watched the whale describe a slow semi-circle and cruise towards them again.
    Once more, however, it passed them over, and headed towards the old building, while the other whales floated in formation nearby.
    Turning again, it swam back towards Janet and Kif Kif, but in a smaller arc this time, so that its shadow didn’t even reach the street where they stood. It was heading for the old building once more, and this time it did not pass it by. Some decision seemed to have been made deep in the creature’s brain, and it hurled itself straight at its target, ramming into the stonework with its massive head.
    Amid the noise of a muffled thunderclap, the old building shuddered, stones falling out of their pattern in small clusters. A pale statue swayed on its perch and toppled to the street below, smashing unseen and unheard. The other whales, following the example of their leader, attacked the building with him, ramming and ramming it until crucifixes cartwheeled down through the air and bells rang with chaotic lack of rhythm. At last the church fell in on itself with the tremendous racket that only collapsing buildings make.
    For an attenuated minute the whales circled the ruin, then they swam off towards another part of the city, their tails beating up clouds of shimmering debris.
    Janet let out her breath shudderingly, then gasped at the pain of frozen muscles thawing. She wasn’t really very grateful to be alive; life had been conceded too far beyond the extremity of terror. To be unconscious in the long gullet of a whale: that would have been real mercy, not this ghastly approximation of survival.
    Only, she must pretend to be alive, pretend to have hope, spirit, feeling, for the sake of her daughter, so that her daughter wouldn’t give up. She must be strong for her daughter, comfort her, get her home to bed, carry her there if need be.
    Janet looked down at Kif Kif for the first time, and was shocked to see that the child’s face was radiant.
    ‘Oh, Mummy!’ marvelled the little girl. ‘Wasn’t it amazing?’
    ‘Amazing?’ echoed Janet incredulously. ‘Amazing?’
    Anger started up deep inside her like convulsions, getting more violent as she let go her hold on it, until she was shaking with fury.
    ‘Amazing!?’ she yelled at last, and began to hit Kif Kif, flailing at her with the flats of her hands. The child fought back, and in a few moments they were in a real tussle, pulling each other’s clothes and hair, until a warning shout from Kif Kif ended it. Janet found herself being pulled along the street by the wrist.
    ‘Come on !’ shouted the panting child crossly. ‘Stupid!’
    Janet stumbled along, stumbling partly because she was too tall to be led properly by a six-year-old. She glanced over her shoulder to see what the child had already spotted: a school of moray eel gathering twenty yards away, attracted by the commotion of the fight and the smell of human flesh.
    Janet gained her stride, scooped up her unprotesting daughter in her arms and ran and ran.
    In bed that night, safe behind the flywire, Janet tried to explain why she had been so angry.
    ‘I thought you were terrified of sharks and big fish like that,’ she said lamely, hugging the slightly alien child tight to her side. ‘You have nightmares every night …’
    Kif Kif pawed sleepily at an itchy cheek and nose.
    ‘I have nightmares about other stuff,’ she said.

In Case of Vertigo
SISTER JENNIFER
    swung open the boot of her car and lit the butane stove she kept set up in there. The open hatch of the boot shielded the flame from the wind; she was not concerned about the small risk of blowing herself and her car to high Heaven. She would get there by less spectacular means.
SISTER JENNIFER
    opened a tin of spaghetti and shook the contents into a small saucepan to heat. It was the same breakfast she had every day, except for the days when she had none at all.