The Father's House Read Free Page A

and corruption of non-followers was a very real thing. Lucy hadn’t fully appreciated that until now and she felt ashamed, because she had become increasingly irritated lately when Aunt Sarah went on and on about the saving of her soul.
    Reluctantly she climbed the school steps and the sun seemed to go in. She followed her fellow pupils down a wide hall, dark with wooden panelling. By the time she reached the cloakroom her stomach was churning and her throat tightening, just as they had done every school day since she first came here ten years ago. She hung her coat on a hook labelled ‘Lucy Copse’, returned to the hall, and joined a queue waiting to enter the assembly room in an orderly fashion. The boy behind her blew on the back of her neck and made her shiver. She swung her leg back as unobtrusively as she could and kicked out at him with her heel.
    â€œNo shuffling!” shouted a teacher.
    The children filed into assembly silently, class by class, row after row. The room was large and high-ceilinged, closed in on itself by dreary, grey window blinds. Several dangling light bulbs threw a cold, harsh light on about two hundred children from the age of four to sixteen. The headmaster stood on a platform at the far end of the room flanked by his teaching staff, his long black gown draped over his stout stomach like a musty old curtain. Behind him, across the entire back wall, was a mural painting of the Magnifico’s first Holy Envoy, his first representative on Earth hundreds of years ago. He was leaning against a rock with staring eyes and a sword pierced his bleeding chest. The message, ‘Martyred for the Sake of your Soul’, was painted in large black letters across the top.
    Those eyes would be staring, staring, at Lucy, wherever she sat. Today, to her dismay, a sinful question popped up in her mind. How could he have been martyred for the sake of her soul? He couldn’t possibly have known about her all those hundreds of years ago when she wasn’t even born. She pushed the question away, but his eyes still pierced her as though he could see her most secret thoughts.
    As soon as the pupils were seated and the shuffling and sniffing and coughing had faded away, the headmaster raised his hands high and they all stood up again. Lucy managed to shift her gaze away from the first Holy Envoy, and fixed it on the headmaster’s wobbling jowls.
    â€œThe Magnifico blesses you, my children,” he boomed with his eyes closed, his fat arms outstretched, and his head thrown back.
    â€œWe thank the Magnifico, Headmaster,” chanted the children.
    â€œThe Magnifico watches over you,” he thundered.
    â€œWe are grateful for his observance, Headmaster,” they responded dutifully.
    â€œSinners must be punished, for the sake of their souls.” His voice rose to a bellow then sank to a hiss.
    â€œThe sinners are grateful for his blessed guidance,” was the murmured reply.
    Lucy joined in the chanting but closed her eyes and tried not to look at the guidance cane which hung from a hook at the side of the headmaster’s chair. Any child who displeased the Magnifico would be beaten with the cane up on that platform in front of the whole school. Once one of the boys had whispered to Lucy that he’d heard it was illegal, and someone should tell the government about it. But Lucy knew that the Magnifico’s word was the true law and that anyone who reported it to the outside world would suffer the fire of the melting flesh.
    The thought of that fire burned constantly somewhere in the back of Lucy’s mind and she knew the guidance cane was important to the saving of the soul, but she cringed each time it was used on a fellow pupil. It was the same boys every time. David, who sat next to her in class, was one them. The teachers said he was ‘insolent’. Lucy liked him, though of course she couldn’t be friends with someone who’d had the guidance.