The Key to Anchor Lake ✓

24 : The Anchor Lakey

17th February 2018

THE ANCHOR LAKEY: Episode 71

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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, folks! Welcome to episode 71 of The Anchor Lakey, where today we will coincidentally be talking about the 1971 chapter of The Key to Anchor Lake!

OLIVER:

Aka, the chapter that completely undermines Mary's entire book.

SUKIE:

Hardly.

OLIVER:

Um, completely.

[Sukie huffs]

SUKIE:

What Oli's referring to is the fact that, as I'm sure most of us have noticed, this chapter sticks out a bit. It's the only one that doesn't follow the pattern that Mary has shed light on before, as the horrific bus crash that this chapter details comes just two years after the 1969 Moon Landing Massacre. First of all, I'll give you the rundown of events.

So, it's the middle of February in 1971, which is the height of winter up here. School was going back after the half term break, when the roads were iced over and snowed under after a spate of particularly bad weather. The closest school is about forty minutes from here via school bus, which collects students from Anchor Lake and a couple of other outlying villages between here and the school, on the other side of the mountains.

That first Monday back, a bus full of school children crashed in the mountains when it came off an icy corner and rolled down through the trees. When the emergency services were finally able to reach it, they found the bus driver dead, as well as sixteen of the children. There was one survivor – Betsy Martins, an S1 student.

OLIVER:

Plot twist: Betsy's parents had died just two years before, in a tragedy that does fit the pattern.

SUKIE:

Betsy was in the house when they were murdered on the twentieth of July, 1969, and she survived despite the murderer – Keith Hanlon, who was given a life sentence for twelve counts of first degree murder and later died in prison - kidnapping and murdering ten children whose bodies were later found. Somehow, Betsy escaped his notice, and lived to tell the tale.

OLIVER:

Well...

SUKIE:

Okay, she never told the tale. She was only a child when it happened, and she spent weeks in protective custody before Keith was arrested. But, basically, she survived. And when that bus crashed two years later, she survived.

OLIVER:

So, it's tragic. We know that for certain. It's unlikely, too. Those mountain roads are dangerous, but there are surprisingly few accidents because drivers are so cautious. But, I'm sorry, Sukes, I can't look past the fact that it's out of place. What's the point in Mary trying to convince us that we're doomed every twenty-five years if she's gonna throw this story in, like, oh, by the way, you're also doomed on random other years too.

SUKIE:

It's a story of hope, maybe? A story of survival, perhaps?

OLIVER: