The Key to Anchor Lake ✓

15 : The Anchor Lakey

12th March 2017

THE ANCHOR LAKEY: Episode 25

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There is no intro. The episode launches straight into Sukie's voice.

SUKIE:

Hey, guys.

[Sukie yawns]

I know we just did an episode a couple of days ago but I feel the need to talk through my feelings right now. It's, like, one in the morning so Oli's not here – sorry, Oli, I'll make it up to you – and I'm half asleep, but I just can't stop thinking.

I've been reading this book over and over, as many times as I've been able to check it out from the library, since I was, like, thirteen. I'm not usually much of a reader, but this one hooked me because it's real. I know Oli used to have that theory that it's all fiction, or at least in some way fictionalised, but that's bullshit – sorry, Oli. Even if I couldn't check it against historical records, I'd believe it.

[Sukie yawns again]

I'm probably gonna regret this episode in the morning. Sorry in advance – I'm so tired but I can't sleep. I got a message this morning that the book had been returned to the library so I went and got it after school and I got hooked all over again.

[There's a pause and a sigh]

Okay, this is going to sound weird, but hear me out. These people that Mary writes about, I feel like they're my own family. Not literally, but I've surrounded myself with these stories for so many years and I've spent so many days and nights thinking about them that I feel like they're mine.

Maybe I'm just way too tired and should turn this off and put the book away, but my head's so full and it turns out the only way to empty it is to throw my thoughts out into the world.

There's something missing.

[There's a long pause, then the sound of pages being slowly turned]

I think I'm missing something. There's this niggle at the back of my mind every time I read this book, and it used to just be the question of who Mary is, which still drives me mad. But now it feels like there's something else. There's something I'm not seeing, but I don't know what it is because I can't see it. I just know it's there.

I feel like ... I'm in a boat, okay? Let's imagine I'm in a boat in the middle of Anchor Lake, and I can see the water and the oars and the mountains across the lake, and the island in the middle. I can see all the obvious stuff. But there's stuff under the water too. I know it's there – I can feel it when I trail my hand over the side of the boat, and I can see the water ripple when something hidden moves – but I can't see it. I don't know what it is.

Does that make sense?

The book is the lake. It seems simple enough on the surface – it's a sort of historical biography recounting the sad past of this town. Our town. But that's not everything.

I know it. I don't know why I know it and I can't prove it, but I'm sure there's something none of us are seeing.

I'm going to be so annoyed when I figure it out – or anyone, please, someone figure it out – because it will have been staring me in the face for all these years. But I just need to know. I have to know.

[There is the sound of pages turning again, and the rustle of Sukie rolling over in her bed]

I wish I knew who Mary was. Who she is, if she's still around. I have this sinking feeling that I'll never find out, and the mystery will go with her to the grave, or worse, it already has. I wish I knew something.

If you're listening, Mary, please give me a clue.

Please.

It's driving me crazy. And that's driving Oli crazy, because I'm like a dog with a bone about this and there's no end in sight.

[She sighs heavily and there is a quiet thump as she shuts the book and drops it onto her mattress]

Why did you write this, Mary? What did you want to achieve?

[Long pause]

Where are you now? What happened to you?

I feel like this was written as a warning. Maybe it was never supposed to be the cult hit that it's become. Maybe you just wanted to open our eyes; you needed to get us to see that this town is going to kill us. Is that what you wanted? Do you really believe there's a curse, Mary? Are you scared?

[Sukie spends several seconds breathing deeply]

I'm scared.

I'm scared of the unknown. Like the stuff that I can't see when I go paddling in the lake. I hate not knowing what I'm getting myself into, and I hate when I can't see round the corner, and it scares me that I have so many questions about this book and I will never know the answers.

[Sukie yawns again, and she goes quiet. When it seems like she has fallen asleep, there is the faint sound of her sniffing, as though she is trying to stop herself from crying]

Is this real? Maybe I'm wrong, I'm just inventing all these little mysteries and none of it's real. Maybe I'll go to the cemetery tomorrow and I'll see a grave for Mary S Nesbitt and that will be that. Mystery solved; there was no mystery after all. She lived and she died.

I don't think you're dead, Mary. I'm sure you're still around, somewhere. But I don't think you're here anymore. If you wrote The Key to Anchor Lake as a warning, as a way to make us see that we're in trouble, then you would have left. You would have packed your bags and left. Maybe you already did, before the book showed up. See how many questions I have? How busy my mind is? God, I'm so exhausted.

[The pages rustle close to the recorder when Sukie picks up the book again, flipping through from front to back, back to front]

There's no author bio. No photo. No dedication; no acknowledgements. That's what I don't get. You cared enough to write the book; this is your legacy, and yet there's no trace of you. You've removed yourself from this book as anything but the researcher, the one who cobbled together all of these words, and you left it for us to find. But why, if you were only going to leave?

I don't get it.

The list of things I know for certain is so pitifully small.

One: I know that this book came out in 2000, because the page at the back says Copyright Mary S Nesbitt 2000, and that's the year that it first appeared in the library. I have no reason not to believe that. Two: I know that Mary S Nesbitt is probably a pseudonym, because I have no evidence of anyone with that name every having been remotely involved in Anchor Lake. Three: I know that the events in this book happened. I have found proof, and I lost my brother.

That's it. Years of reading, and, what, twenty-five episodes of The Anchor Lakey? And I still know hardly anything more than I did when I started this.

I don't know why anyone listens to this. What are you getting out of it except me just going round and round in cir-

[Long pause]

Oh my god.

What.

Holy shit.

[Long pause, and the rustle of pages]

Okay, I don't know if this means anything, but I was looking at the book from a weird angle because I'm in bed and the lighting in here is crap, and I always thought the first page was blank, before the title page. But it isn't.

If you tilt it in the light, there's one word in really pale font.

Jane.

[There is a long pause amidst the sound of pages and bedsheets before the recording ends]

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