Page 9 of Reservoir 13

The clouds skated across the face of the moon and the silver light on the fields flushed in and out of the hollows. A blackbird moved under Mr Wilson’s hedge, poking around in the leaf litter for something to eat. At the river the keeper broke open the ice on the millpond so no children would be tempted to test it out. He had a good length of scaffold pole to pound down and it took a few strikes to crack through. There were slabs of glassy ice turning on the black water. In the eaves of the church the bats were folded deeply in their hibernation and the air around them was still. In his studio Geoff Simmons washed the day’s work from his hands, the hardened clay dissolving in milky streams down the plughole and into the clay trap beneath, the clear water rising to the outlet and flowing cleanly along the open drain outside. The stems of the coppiced willow stools up on the Hunters’ land gleamed red and gold in the narrow winter light. There was carol singing in the church, with candles and the smell of cut yew and holly. Molly Jackson sang a solo verse of ‘Silent Night’, her voice trembling a little while her parents watched from opposite sides of the aisle. When she finished everyone looked down at their sheets to find the words of the second verse. The sound of their singing carried out into the night, down to the river and the school and the cricket ground. The river ran empty and clear, turning beneath the bridge. There were clouds and the evening was dark and people moved through the streets with their heads lowered. From the houses the lights shone warmly and in the square the conversations spilled out from the pub. Car doors slammed and someone called goodnight and the headlights swept across the road, past the allotments, around beyond the beech wood and the visitor centre and away through the hills. The hills were a dark silhouette. The reservoirs were a flat metallic grey. At the quarry the rope-swing hung above the water. From his bed Jackson listened to the singing in the church. All was calm, all was bright.