An excerpt from my new work....enjoy!
"Vanity, vanity – all is vanity."
Another Brixton preacher, doing his daily rounds in Brixton Market. She can hear him in the distance. It's the same sermon every day, and perhaps he's right. She had long thought Christians were vain, if it came to it: a religion based on shame, not honour, not self-reliance. A culture ruled by men.
Don't fool yourself – you're still ruled by men.
Every time Eva put on her make-up, her battle-paint, prepared herself for another 'date' with a stranger, she reaffirmed their hold over her. How could they be expected to respect a woman they had paid for? Chattel; her life in their hands.
"Hold on loosely to the things that are of this world. Hold on tightly to the spirit. Eternal life will be yours if you submit to His will."
Charlie said he had once been a famous boxer. He holds himself erect. His skin is ebony; his clothes immaculate. He is courteous; she's seen him pause his preaching for a sleeping baby.
"The road to hell is wide. The road to Heaven is narrow, and takes many twists. Yet, take ye the narrow path, for it leads to righteousness. Only the righteous are pure."
If he knew what I was he would label me Jezebel. There's no room in his liturgy for me, or the likes of me. It's not vanity, it is power; taking back control. I will not surrender to a vengeful God. I choose to send these souls to Satan. A small service...
As she walked down Brixton High Street his voice faded into the distance. By the time she reached Coldharbour Lane she couldn't hear him any more; his words drowned out by the traffic, the shouts of other preachers.
From the corner of her eye she caught a flutter of motion, almost out of range. She turned her head, tracking it, and spied the magpie as it perched on the cast iron railings across the road. Catching her gaze the magpie stared at her steadily, head cocked. Then it hopped down off the railings and sidled along the pavement, still watching her. Eva paused and then continued along the pavement. The magpie tracked her on the other side of the street, fluttering from perch to perch until she was halfway down the road, and then flew up to the rooftops, the better to get an angle on her movements.
The magpie was in the North quarter, associated with air, and signifying sleep, death, winter. She waited to see if it would land. 'If you come leftwise, and it calls before you, he is a doomed man on whom it calls thus.'
Back home they signified death. If you saw one on a house it was considered very unlucky.
Eva quickened her pace. She didn't want to think what it might portend; what she might be required to do next. She needed to see Charlie.
