Take Back the Skies Character Stories

FOX

FOX

The only light in William's room came from the dim lamp on the table beside his bed, but it was enough for the boy to read by and that suited him just fine. The small window showed a near-black sky, and even the lights from the rest of the city weren't enough to brighten his bedroom. It was late – later than he should have been staying up – but he was eight now, and that meant he was old enough to decide his own bedtime, he thought.

Bare feet burrowed under a pile of blankets, knees tucked up to balance his book on, William read with the barest twist of a smile on his face, the words so familiar to him now that he probably didn't even need the book there to know them. He'd read the book so many times, he knew it practically by heart.

He heart the faint ping of metal touching metal from the corridor and froze in his bed, before hurrying to stuff the book beneath his pillow and lurch for the lamp switch, lying down and pulling his blankets over him just as his bedroom door inched open. Shutting his eyes tight, he stayed as still as he could manage, pulse fast.

'I know you're awake, lad.' The voice was quiet and amused, but William kept his eyes closed, even when soft footsteps signalled the person getting closer. 'Come on, Will, love. It's time to stop reading and go to sleep, like you're clearly not.' William huffed, cracking one eye open to see his grinning mother standing beside his bed, arms folded over her chest and fiery red hair loose for once. She was dressed in sleep clothes, just about to go to bed herself. William sighed mentally; he'd have to work on a better alarm system. That hadn't been nearly enough prior warning.

'Wasn't reading,' he muttered petulantly, making her chuckle. She perched on the edge of his bed, fingers running through his hair – the exact same shade of copper as her own.

'Really?' she asked with eyebrows raised. 'So if I were to look under your pillow, I wouldn't find a book? And if I were to touch your lamp, it wouldn't still be warm?' Her tone was teasing; she wasn't angry with him for staying up too late. She never was. Whether it was because he wanted 'just one more chapter', or he was so engrossed in building something he'd lost track of time, she never got mad. Even on school nights.

'I was at a really good bit, Mum!' he protested, his smile widening as she reached for the book beneath his pillow. She rolled her eyes when she found it, giving him an exasperated look.

'You've read this book a thousand times now. Surely it doesn't still grip you so?' she asked, setting it carefully on his bedside table, next to the cooling lamp. The book was tattered, the cover half hanging off. William would have to ask his mum to repair it again soon.

'Good books never get boring,' he told her in his infinite eight-year-old wisdom, nodding sagely. She laughed, smoothing down his messy hair.

'Very true, love, but that doesn't mean you can forgo sleep for them! You have school in the morning.' As she spoke, William's jaw cracked in an unwilling yawn, making his mother smile. 'See, look, you're tired.'

'Not,' he insisted, though it was a lie and they both knew it. His mum leaned down, pressing a kiss to his forehead, then stood and pulled the blankets right up to his chin.

'Sleep well, dear. I love you.'

Eyes already drifting shut, William managed a tired smile in reply. 'Love you too.' He vaguely heard her creep from his room and nudge his door shut, plunging him into total darkness, before he was fast asleep.

***

The newscast screen looked a lot better than it had done when the government official had brought it into the workshop; it actually looked like a newscast screen now, rather than just a lump of metal and glass. There had been a small riot in one of the poorer areas of the city – about the war, of course, it was always about the war – and someone had thrown a brick through the screen. Why a single broken screen took higher priority over the many sections of broken tram system, William didn't know, but when he asked his father he was just told it was complicated.