Pools

It is middle England, mid-1980s. It is the kind of place where nothing ever happens. Except something has happened. A sixteen year old boy called Robert had been killed, down by the pools. And half a dozen lives will come unravelled. There's Kathryn and Howard, Rob's parents. Kath has been making the best of her second marriage after the love of her life died young. Howard has been clinging onto a family life he hardly expected to have. There's Joanna, the teen queen of nowheresville. She's been looking for a way out, escape from her parents' broken marriage. She thought Rob might take her away from all this, but lately she's started to think Rob might have other plans. And then there's Shane, with the big hands and the fixation on Joanna. Bethan Roberts' strikingly assured debut novel subtly reveals the tensions and terrors that underpin apparently ordinary lives, and can lead them to spiral suddenly out of control. I know Shane's not coming. I sit on the seat of the twitchers. I know he's not coming. But I wait. I grip the seat until my fingers go dead, and I wait for him. Pink hoop earrings, pink pencil skirt. I'm ready, should he stride past, Walkman blasting.
I'm ready, but I know he won't come. No one's seen him since that night. Not even me. Rooks scream in the spiky trees. Everything's frozen, even the air. It bursts in my lungs when I inhale. The only thing moving is the steam in the sky. It coughs out of the power station cooling towers. It never stops. I stretch my fingers out and let the blood flow back. Then I grip the seat again.