The next evening, Jude put on his coat and checked his phone.
Leo had sent a message asking to change where they were meeting. Someone he knew had asked him to stop by their home for a moment, he said, and asked whether Jude could come to the alley across from the old factory. He thought he would be finished before nine.
Jude replied that he was leaving now.
It was already dark outside, and lights shone in the windows of the building opposite. The papers he had been reading lay open on the table. Though he had been sitting there since daytime, he had sorted out very little. If he went out, he probably would not look at them again today. But with his coat already on, he did not want to sit back down, either. Jude left the papers where they were and turned off the light.
A fine rain was falling outside the building. Jude opened the small umbrella he had taken from the entrance. The brake lights of the cars stopped on the main road reflected off the wet ground. At the crosswalk, people tilted their umbrellas a little to make room for one another. Jude turned up his coat collar and stood among them.
What should he tell Leo first?
Should he begin by explaining the difference between hearing it in a dream and hearing it while awake? That on the day Maeve was beside him, he had heard coughing, too. That Maeve had not heard his father’s words while he answered. On the phone yesterday, he had not managed to tell those things in order. He would be answering a question from Leo, then bring up something that had happened on another day, and forget what he had meant to say first. Today they could talk face to face, so it would be a little better. Looking across the crosswalk, Jude thought back to the first day he had heard the voice.
The light changed. When the people in front began to move, Jude followed.
He had not heard it yet today. He felt he ought to say that, too. If, after saying it had been going on for days, he told Leo as soon as they met that he had not heard it today, it might sound as though he was all right now. But he thought he would hear it again when he was home alone, and then he would start wondering what to say again. Part of the reason he had come out was that he did not want to wait alone until then. Even if Leo could not find out why it was happening, he wanted him at least to know what was still going on.
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The old factory wall ran a long way along the main road. Low buildings stood close together opposite it, with lit windows above the shuttered shops. At the mouth of the alley, Jude zoomed in on the map on his phone. Though he had reached the marked spot, he could not tell which door he should go to.
Leo stood in front of a staircase farther into the alley. He had taken off his glasses to wipe them, but rainwater dripping from his hair landed on the lenses again. When Jude approached, he put his glasses on and slipped his phone into his pocket.
“You’re really early.”
“Should I have waited until the time we agreed, too?”
“No. I only just got here myself. We just need to go up, take a quick look, and come back down.”
Leo pointed up the stairs. The light was on at the upstairs entrance.
The stairs led straight to the upper floor along the outside wall of the building. Beneath them were a small door and a short overhang. Jude folded his umbrella and stood it under the overhang. Beyond the railing, he could see the window of the house next door. Feeling that they would hear him there if he raised his voice, he stepped a little closer to Leo.
“What happened?”
“Someone who used to help out at the repair shop. He says he saw something strange at home.”
Jude waited for Leo to say more. Only after sending a message to say he was outside did Leo continue.
A woman the man knew kept coming to his house, he said. She had returned even after he told her not to come anymore, and he had reported her to the police before. But today, though the woman herself was standing still, only her shadow on the wall had moved.
“Is she still up there?”
“Yeah. He said she came over a little while ago.”
“Why did he call you, though?”
“I told him once about what happened to me. He wanted me to see if it was the same thing.”
Leo looked at his phone once more. No new reply had come.
Jude looked up the stairs. It seemed he would have to talk about his father after they came back down. Leo had said they only needed to take a quick look, so it would not take long. Jude felt a little relieved that someone else was experiencing something similar. Perhaps it would not be something Leo had never heard of before. He had come here thinking about how to explain what he had been going through for days, though, and now that they had met, there were more things he had to ask first.
“Will you be able to tell what it is once you’ve seen it?”
“I’ll have to see. I don’t even know if it’s the same thing I saw.”
When Jude nodded, Leo asked,
“Did you hear it today, too?”
“No. Not yet today.”
Jude glanced upstairs, then continued.
“But sometimes I hear a cough before I hear the voice.”
Leo stopped on his way toward the stairs. Jude tried to explain what had happened on the day Maeve was beside him. That time, the words had followed the cough.
◇
Something crashed over upstairs.
Both of them looked up. A woman raised her voice. They could not make out what she was saying. Then glass broke, and a short scream came down the stairs.
Leo ran up first.
“Call for help.”
Jude took out his phone. Rain had got on the screen, and he had to move his finger over it again. The door downstairs opened, and a man in a jacket came out. He was looking up, too.
When the call connected, Jude said he thought someone had been hurt. Asked for the address, he looked around the wall beside the stairs.
“What’s the address here?”
The man from downstairs held out his hand.
“Give it here. I’ll tell them.”
Jude handed him the phone. While the man gave the address, he went upstairs.
The front door was half open. Leo stood close to one side of the threshold, and Jude looked in from the landing behind him. Past the shoe cabinet was the living room, with light from a lamp farther inside reaching all the way to the entrance.
A middle-aged man stood inside the door, with a young girl beside him. A red burn marked the man’s left arm. Blood was running from the girl’s cheek. She seemed to have rubbed it with the back of her hand; red smears reached as far as her mouth. A young woman stood opposite them. One sleeve of her work clothes was folded back, and she was wearing only one shoe. The other lay overturned in a corner of the entrance, but the woman did not take her eyes off the man.
Broken glass was scattered from the living room toward the door.
“Look at me.”
The man pushed the girl behind him.
“She’s hurt. Please leave for now.”
The woman looked at the girl. Her lips parted a little, then closed. Her eyes moved from the girl’s cheek down to the back of her bloodstained hand. The woman started to reach toward her, but when the man drew the girl farther behind him, she withdrew her hand.
“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t come here to do that to her. I was startled, too… Wait. Don’t look at me like that. Hear me out. I’m sorry I came when you said you didn’t want me to. But if I don’t come, you won’t say anything to me. You have to at least tell me what I did wrong so I won’t do it again.”
At first she had been speaking while looking at the girl. As she went on, her gaze had returned to the man. The hand she had reached toward the girl gripped the end of her own sleeve. The fold loosened a little, but she kept holding it. When the man tried to move with the girl, the woman took a step as well. Unable to get past her, the man stopped again.
“Stop it. Is why you came really what matters right now? She’s bleeding. I have to get her to a hospital. Move aside.”
Leo pushed the door open and shouted,
“Let the girl out first!”
The woman did not look at Leo.
“That’s why you only have to tell me one thing. Don’t just say you don’t want me. Tell me why. What I should do. I can stop doing the things you don’t like. I can change. But if all you say is not to come, what am I supposed to do? How can I stop when I don’t even know where I went wrong?”
When the man tried to get around her by the wall, the woman moved with him. Keeping his injured arm against his body, he drew the girl back. The woman spoke faster.
“No, I’m not even asking you to tell me everything. Just one thing. Tell me one thing I did wrong. Then I can start with that…”
The man was looking at the girl’s face. She said she was all right, but he told her not to rub it with the back of her hand, took that hand, and lowered it.
The woman stopped speaking there. She opened her mouth again, but no voice came out at once. Until a moment ago, she had gone on talking even when the man did not answer. This time she listened to everything he said to the girl. Her grip on her sleeve tightened. While he examined the girl’s cheek, the woman watched his face and waited.
“Do you just hate me?”
The man looked up.
“Whatever I do? Even if I change? Then why did you ever…”
“I told you this isn’t the time for that.”
The woman closed her mouth. The man put an arm around the girl’s back and looked toward the door again. From where Jude stood, he could see the girl’s face between the two of them. She was not crying, only gripping her father’s sleeve. The blood running down her cheek had almost reached her chin. Jude moved aside. Leo took a step inside the door, trying to make room as well.
When the man tried to pass the woman with the girl, the woman turned her head.
“Wait. I haven’t finished.”
Her voice rose.
“If not now, when are you going to tell me? If you tell me to leave again, when will I ever get to hear what you have to say?”
The man kept moving toward the door.
Then something black came down the wall.
At first, Jude thought the woman had moved her arm. But her hand was down at her side. Only the hand cast on the wall lengthened along the doorframe, reaching toward the man and the girl. When the man stopped, the black fingertips stopped in front of the threshold as well.
The girl’s hand clenched around the man’s right sleeve.
“Dad.”
Jude pressed himself beside the door. Though he made more room, neither of them came out. The man was looking down at the black hand in front of the door. He seemed to be searching for somewhere he could step to avoid it, but did not try to take the girl over it. Jude looked at the threshold, too. He could clearly see what was blocking the way, but he did not know whether it was something they could touch and move aside.
Leo moved close to the wall.
“Just a moment.”
He reached out. His palm covered the black wrist, and his fingers closed around it.
The woman’s shoulder jerked backward.
The black hand stretching along the doorframe stopped. When the woman tried to turn, the outline on the wall lengthened, but the part caught in Leo’s hand did not move. The darkness blocking the threshold drew aside.
“Come out now.”
The man from downstairs passed Jude and went inside. Holding the phone in one hand, he supported the injured man’s back with his other arm. The girl gripped her father’s sleeve and stopped at the door.
Jude held out his hand to her.
“Come this way.”
When she did not take his hand, Jude supported her below the elbow. He tried to guide her a little toward the door, but she leaned the other way.
“Dad has to come, too.”
Jude loosened his grip.
The girl’s father took a step, holding his injured arm against his body. The man from downstairs supported his back, saying they could go out together. Only then did the girl move as well. Jude did not pull her arm, only supported her as she crossed the threshold.
Inside the room, the woman called to the man.
“Where are you going? You still haven’t answered.”
The man did not turn around. When the woman leaned forward, Leo took a step back as well. His hand remained against the wall.
Jude brought the girl out onto the landing. Her father followed, and even outside the door, she did not let go of his sleeve.
“They’re both out.”
Leo turned to look. Jude thought he would let go now. Instead, Leo pointed to the stairs.
“Go down a little farther. Not there.”
The man from downstairs stepped onto the stairs first and called to the injured man. Jude moved aside toward the railing with the girl as well.
Then the woman’s knees touched the floor.
The shadow reaching toward the door was drawing back in on itself. The long fingertips retreated to the woman’s feet. But the wrist caught in Leo’s grip remained on the wall. The woman tried to bring the arm on that side in front of her chest. Her shoulder trembled, but the arm did not follow.
Jude looked at Leo. His hand was still against the wall.
“Leo.”
The woman opened her mouth. Only a sound of breath escaped her throat.
“Let go of that hand.”
Jude spoke. Leo looked at the woman and opened his fingers.
The woman’s arm came back in front of her chest. Her body could not hold the position, and she collapsed onto her side. For an instant, a black outline remained on the wall. Its arm still outstretched. Though the arm of the woman lying on the floor was already bent.
Leo knelt down.
“Can you hear me?”
He peered into her face and asked again. There was no answer. Jude looked at the woman’s chest. He waited, but it did not move.
The man from downstairs looked back from the stairs.
“What’s wrong?”
“The woman’s collapsed. Please give me the phone.”
Jude took the phone and said the woman did not seem to be breathing. The person on the line told him to check something, and Jude repeated the words to Leo. Only after passing the same question back and forth twice did he put the phone on the floor and turn on the speaker.
Listening to the instructions from the phone, Leo placed his hands on the woman’s chest. As he put one hand over the other, his fingers kept splaying apart. He placed his hands together again and looked at her face, then bowed his head as the instructions continued. Jude stepped aside and opened the front door all the way. He pushed the shard of glass caught beneath it away with his foot and cleared a space for people to come in.
Leo began to count.
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