Children's Children
Page 18
They could not settle upon a side, for the land changed shape the moment you crossed the border. Ten minutes before their wedding day they realised that the island was asking more of them than they could ever manage.
‘If we both move north, we’ll upset the balance and tip the island into the sea,’ he explained, holding her little hand coldly across the border.
‘And if we settle in the south, things will be skewed in that direction,’ she cried, ‘never mind what’ll happen when we start having the weans.’
‘The weight of us combined could ruin everything.’
They unclasped, hands coming apart like two ends of an ancient necklace. She sat cross-legged in the south and he watched the dawn descend upon the northern face of the rock. They held their silence reverently and wondered if they loved the island enough to be neither north nor south, foreigner or familiar, but rather a brave new direction, balanced like a hairline fracture in the centre of everything.
Notes
‘We’ve Got Each Other and That’s a Lot’ was longlisted for the Sean O’Faoloin Prize 2015
‘Still’ was published in Elbow Room 2015
‘Children’s Children’ was published in The Curfew Tower Is Many Things 2015
‘Shopping’ was published in The Incubator in 2014
‘Alternative Uses for a Belfast Box Room’ was published in The Honest Ulsterman in 2014
‘More of a Handstand Girl’ was published in Storm Cellar in 2014
Also by Jan Carson
‘A born storyteller, [Carson’s] narratives are uncontainable, fizzing up out of her pages like soda and vinegar in a bottle.’ —Guardian
‘At its best, Malcolm Orange Disappears reminds the reader of Kurt Vonnegut and other masters of the absurd – Carson can be very, very funny. All of Carson’s touches of magic realism are perfectly judged.’ —Sunday Business Post
‘A highly original book; very quirky.’ —Irish Examiner
Copyright
First published in 2016 by
Liberties Press
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Copyright © Jan Carson, 2016
The author has asserted her moral rights.
ebook ISBN: 978–1–910742–59–4
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.
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The publishers gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.