The Key to Anchor Lake ✓

06 : The Anchor Lakey

4th September 2016

THE ANCHOR LAKEY: Episode 2

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Intro: A segment of Ludovico Einaudi's "Fly" is played on the piano over a track of rustling trees and whispering.

SUKIE:

Hi, and welcome back to The Anchor Lakey! Thank you to everyone who listened to the first episode last week; we weren't expecting much so it was pretty cool to see that our intro had over thirty hits. Shoutout to Mrs Hart for letting us advertise in the library!

OLIVER:

Cheers, Regina. You did us a solid, babe.

SUKIE:

Oli!

OLIVER:

I don't think she's listening, Sukes.

SUKIE:

Sorry about Oli, Mrs Hart, if you are listening. You know what he's like.

OLIVER:

What's that supposed to mean?

SUKIE:

Anyway! This is not supposed to be the Sukie and Oli talk show; this is supposed to be a companion to The Key to Anchor Lake, and I want to start this week's episode by announcing a book club, if anyone's interested. I thought it'd be cool if we could meet up in person to discuss the book, you know, hang out with like-minded people. If anyone's interested, I'll be at the café after school every Monday, starting tomorrow.

OLIVER:

Same, probably. If I don't have too much work.

SUKIE:

You wouldn't have too much work if you'd done your work when it was set rather than the week we go back to school.

[Oliver mimics Sukie. She laughs]

So. Back to the reason we're all here. Today I wanted to talk a bit about the impact Anchor Lake's history has had on all of us, and how it connects us all together in some way. You all know about my brother now, of course, and while I haven't spoken to everyone in town, I'm fairly sure everyone has a story to tell.

OLIVER:

Two of my great aunts died in the 1944 bombing, and a few of my ancestors died of Spanish flu in 1919, actually. I think if your family's lived here long enough, it's almost certain one of them died of the flu. And I think most families have lived here long enough.

SUKIE:

There's not much turnover around here. I think my parents are probably the last people to move to Anchor Lake and stay here, and they've lived here since 1988.

OLIVER:

Which means Sukie's parents were the last people to lose all their senses and make the heavily questionable decision to stay here and have a family. Not to shit on the town or anything, but ... why on earth would anyone voluntarily move here?

SUKIE:

I won't pretend I don't ask myself that every day. I think there's something slightly inescapable about a town like this. It's easy and it's comfortable, and while it may not be the most convenient place to live when there are two buses a day and the train station's eight miles away, there's a real sense of community here.