‘That it?’ Phoebe asked when they reached the end of the high street. Tammy thought the flat tone of her sister’s voice perfectly described how she herself was feeling; a mix of disbelief and resignation. Disappointed and underwhelmed, but not entirely surprised.
‘That’s it,’ Scott said. ‘Perfect, eh?’
‘If you say so.’
‘Feels like we’ve dropped off the edge of the planet,’ Tammy said unhelpfully as they drove up and over an unnecessarily ornate stone bridge. She looked through the gaps between grubby balustrades and saw a quiet stream where she’d expected a river. Big bridge, little trickle. It seemed to sum this place up perfectly.
‘Come on you two,’ Michelle said, doing what she could to keep their spirits up. ‘It’s not that bad. Anyway, it might be quiet around here, but Edinburgh and Glasgow are only about an hour away, probably quicker if we take the train.’
‘So there’s a station?’
‘Of course there’s a station,’ Scott said.
‘There it is,’ Michelle added quickly, spying the distinctive Network Rail sign at the side of the road just ahead. She saw a largely empty gravel car park and a single platform, a tin shed wedged neatly between the two. So where exactly was the station? Wait, unless that shack was the station…?
‘I think we missed your school,’ Scott said. ‘I’ll double-back and try find it.’
‘Don’t bother,’ Tammy grumbled. ‘Let’s pace ourselves. Can’t take too much excitement in one day.’
‘There’s no need to be like that, Tam,’ Michelle warned.
‘You reckon?’
‘Ignore her,’ she told Scott. ‘How about we just head for the house? I think we all want to see it.’
‘Look, I know what you’re thinking…’ Scott said.
‘If you knew what I was thinking you’d have kicked me out of the car,’ Tammy said quickly.
‘I know what you’re thinking, but you need to give this place a chance, you all do. It’s important. It’s a fresh start for all of us.’
‘But I didn’t want a fresh start, remember? I was happy in Redditch.’
‘Tammy, leave it,’ Michelle said, feeling herself tensing, anticipating conflict.
‘It was out of my hands, you know it was.’
‘No it wasn’t. You just decided you couldn’t handle—’
‘That’s enough!’ Michelle shouted, her voice loud enough to silence Tammy but wake George. ‘Arguing isn’t going to do any of us any good. We are where we are, and we’re all going to make the most of it, right?’
No answer from the back.
‘Right?’ she asked again, a little firmer this time.
‘Whatever,’ Tammy said grudgingly.
‘Just wait ’til you see the house,’ Scott said, unperturbed. ‘It’ll blow you away.’
They kept driving until they’d left the town, then followed a wildly twisting road which narrowed to little more than a track in places. ‘Where are we going?’ Michelle asked, confused.
‘To the house,’ Scott replied. ‘I found this route last week. I did some exploring. Thought I should get to know the area before you lot got here. Beautiful, isn’t it?’
He was right, this was beautiful. In the space of less than half a mile the grey dereliction of Thussock had been well and truly left behind, hidden by the curves of the road and the undulations of the land and temporarily forgotten. The landscape opened up again. Scott followed the road as it meandered between two hills, one a lush, grassy mound, the other more craggy, covered in bracken and gorse. The greenery was just beginning to show the first signs of autumn browning.
Michelle, feeling unquestionably insignificant, dwarfed by the panorama, clung onto the sides of her seat as the car clattered along. An unseen pothole caused them all to lurch to the left. ‘Don’t fancy this route in winter much,’ she said, already picturing long walks into town for supplies and then having to dig themselves out of snowdrifts.
Around the next bend, the road began to climb again. They were halfway up the rise when Michelle saw an odd-looking industrial construction in the distance. It was in the middle of an otherwise barren field alongside a forest, miles away from anywhere. And like the brewery in Thussock, it too appeared completely out of place. A tall metal tower loomed up over Portakabins and storage tanks. ‘I’m going to see if there’s any work going there,’ Scott said.
‘What is it? They drilling for oil or something?’
‘Not quite. Fracking.’
‘Whating?’
‘Fracking. Something to do with drilling down to extract natural gas I think.’
‘That’s supposed to be dangerous, isn’t it?’ Phoebe said from the backseat. ‘We learnt about it in geography. Causes earth tremors, I heard.’
‘If it was that dangerous they wouldn’t let them do it,’ Scott said. Michelle just looked at him and bit her tongue. Christ, he could be so naïve at times.
‘What’s going on over there?’ she asked, keen to end the debate before it began.
‘Where?’
‘Right over there,’ she said, pointing out of her window. ‘Past the fracking or whatever it is.’
Scott slowed down then stopped, perching the car almost at the very top of the hill. A well-spaced line of figures were walking across the countryside, scouring the fields, beating their way through bracken. And then she saw even more of them, so far they were barely discernible as people, their cagoules bright in the distant late afternoon gloom. Above them all hung a helicopter, appearing to match the methodical pace of the walkers down below. ‘Probably looking for that woman,’ he said.
‘What woman?’
‘Some old girl’s gone missing. Heard it on the radio.’
‘Sure she didn’t escape?’ Tammy mumbled.
‘What was that?’
‘Are we nearly there?’ she asked. ‘I’m desperate for the loo.’
Scott pulled away again. ‘Very close.’
The sun bounced off the rippling surface of a small lake hidden between two low peaks. Scott wound down the window and all they could hear was the noise of the car and the rushing of the wind. ‘Lovely,’ Michelle said. ‘It’s so peaceful. Just what we need.’
‘I walked up here from the house last week,’ Scott told her, accelerating up one final climb. ‘We’re just over this rise.’
And he was right. Another couple of minutes and they’d reached a junction in the road, having completed a single large loop. He turned right, heading back towards Thussock, and in less than a quarter of a mile they were there. Home. He pulled up outside the house and stopped the engine.
Absolute silence. No noise from anyone. Nothing.
‘Well?’ he asked.
Michelle got out first and walked up to the front of the building. ‘It’s much bigger than I thought it would be.’
‘Looks good,’ Phoebe said, sounding surprisingly upbeat. Although Tammy didn’t say anything, Michelle took her silence as a positive sign too.
The pictures Scott had shown her hadn’t really done the house justice. It had been a farmhouse once, apparently, though all but a thin strip of land around the back had long since been sold off. Its grubby double-frontage appeared unloved and neglected, but she could definitely see potential. It had originally been rendered off-white, but over the years it had darkened to a uniform murky grey. There were three identical windows on the first floor and two more below, one either side of the front door. To the left of the house as she looked at it was a single-storey extension which, whilst it didn’t exactly match either the colour or the overall look of the building, she thought looked spacious and useful. Over on the far right was a separate garage-cum-workshop. In front of the house was a large gravel driveway, big enough for several cars, and a patchy lawn wrapped around the side of the building. The place was massive. Far bigger than their old house.