2023

His son pushed past him, ran out through the

open patio door and crossed the spacious

garden. He exited through the low gate at the

back, and moved swiftly across the marshy

f ield until he reached the river. The dog had

followed him but got distracted in some

brushwood along the way. ‘It’s perfect here,

dad!’ Jack yelled. For a moment he wondered

how his son could run in this stif ling heat, but

then his own childhood came back to him.

How he had loved this place: the wind in his

hair, the birds rattling overhead, his boots

splashing in the mud, and the river steadily

f lowing past. Jack did not know how hard

he had worked to be able to buy back his

childhood home – but that was f ine, better

even: children should be able to simply enjoy

things.

He reached the back gate himself and looked

up. There were not so many birds now, he

noticed. As he made his way through the

f ield, he realised that his shoes did not sink

into the soil as much as they used to; it had

been a hot, dry summer. Still, it was great

to be here. How remote London seemed! He

didn’t want to think about going back to the

City on Monday. He would have to f inalise

the deal with Shell, and it was going to be

diff icult. Margaret would nag him no end

about ‘the environmental implications’ and

that they’d have to plant trees or something

to placate the activists. But that would be too

expensive. Keep your eyes on the prize. The

money for the mortgage had to come from

somewhere after all If it worked out they

could move in next month

Why was he thinking such things Enjoy the

moment youve earned it Jack catch he

said as he threw the frisbee A plane moved

overhead The noise was vaguely oppressive

Suddenly the dog reappeared from the

brushwood He saw that it had a dead bird in

its mouth

2043

His son pushed past him. ‘Let me through,

dad. This box is really heavy.’ Jack

disappeared downstairs to load the box onto

the truck. He had resisted moving as long as

he could. But with four f loods in seven years

… And then the Government had off icially

declared the area unsafe: riverbank erosion

due to ‘the new reality’ of drier summers and

wetter winters. Jack said that he was worried

about him, but he probably was simply fed up

with having to come down from London so

often to help put in the new f loor and clean

up the garden. A burden, Jack called the

house now, that couldn’t even be sold. That

rankled.

True, he had started to feel uncomfortable

at home himself. The shock of how quickly

things had changed still overwhelmed him

from time to time. The river had always been

such a stable presence, a constant backdrop

to his life, often forgotten but always there.

Now it had assumed a menacing aspect,

capable of lashing out at any moment. After

the f irst f loods the f ield had recovered, but

then the banks had started to collapse and

layers of dirty brown soil, said to come from

the industrial estate upstream, now covered

everything, even the garden. Birds no longer

nested there, and the air carried a pungent

odour of decay. He couldn’t shake the

nagging feeling that the river was out to get

him, held him responsible somehow. But how

was he supposed to have known that things

would deteriorate so rapidly

Going downstairs he tried to keep such

thoughts at bay He pulled up his collar

stepped outside and climbed into the

passenger seat of the truck As it drove off

he caught a glimpse through the rainswept

windows of the grimy garden and the f looded

f ield behind it The only thing which the river

had somehow spared he now saw was the

small boulder that marked the spot where all

those years ago at Jacks insistence he had

buried the dead bird his dog had found