Competition Thirty-Four Shortlisted: Crusader Knights of Carshalton by Chris Cottom
We wait at the window, watch for his Hillman, open the door before he’s parked. Mum shouts goodbye, doesn’t come out. We hope it’s an Army Day: the Imperial War Museum, a parade at Aldershot, even another walk around Windsor Castle. Once, when he still lived with us, we all went to the Farnborough Air Show, saw paratroopers spill from a plane like a line of ants. They aimed for the red flare, hit the ground running. Afterwards, Mum made us high tea and Dad blackened a cork with his lighter, streaked our faces like real commandos. He pitched his bivvy on the lawn, let us eat our cheesy toast inside.
Today’s actually a Stately Home Day. We don’t mind these, pretending we live there, divvying up the drawing rooms, deciding where we’ll build our camps. At the entrance to Polesden Lacey, a lady in a flowery dress smiles at us. What a surprise, says Dad. Boys, I’d like you to meet Marianne.
Marianne smells of perfume. She walks around with us, asks if we prefer Zoo Time or Animal Magic, whether we’d rather sail the Pacific like Thor Heyerdahl or explore it like Jacques Cousteau. When Dad sends us to patrol the garden, we double back, belly-crawl through the shrubbery to spy on the two of them talking on the terrace.
In the gift shop, Marianne buys each of us a crusader knight on horseback. Afterwards, she sits in the front, sings along to the Beatles on Pick of the Pops, like Mum used to before she got sad. At home, Dad parks round the corner and Marianne stays in the car while he watches from the gate. When Mum opens the door, we hold out our knights. Look, we say. Look what Dad bought us.
Chris Cottom’s work features in Banshee, Barrelhouse, Bending Genres, Fictive Dream, FlashFlood, Flash Frontier, Gooseberry Pie, Leon Literary Review, MoonPark Review, NFFD NZ, New Flash Fiction Review, New World Writing Quarterly, Orange Blossom Review, Oyster River Pages, Roi Fainéant, The Lascaux Review, and elsewhere. Catch him pedalling around Cheshire, UK, and at chriscottom.wixsite.com/chriscottom
Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash
Tags: