Inkerman Writers
a showcase of our work
Talking books candidate
Ally Finnegan
Wednesday
Ally Finnegan struggled into consciousness, everything was fuzzy and everything really, really hurt.
She tried to make sense of her surroundings, but pain overwhelmed her and she slipped into unconsciousness again.
Saturday
There were voices close by, gentle, careful, loving voices; and music playing. Ally tried to move, and speak, but nothing seemed to work. She couldn’t do anything and she was too tired and sore to struggle. She would tell them later, that she was glad they were there, that she loved them.
Sunday
Ally could see, not clearly, but she could see the white room, the machines, her mum sitting on the bed. She tried to remember, to make sense of what had happened, why she was here. There had been an accident. She and her mum had been on their way to her dance class in the car. It was Saturday morning. There had been a massive bang and the car had felt like it was flying, then there was screaming and panic...then nothing.
Her mum took her hand and said not to be scared, and that everything would be ok.
Thursday
Voices roused a wave of consciousness. Sometimes Ally thought she could hear her dad and her sister, and Gran once or twice. She heard her mum often, and sometimes Ally thought she could feel her holding her hand or stroking her cheek. Hearing 'Take That' playing made her wish most of all that she could wake up and start to get better, but her body, or her brain, had other ideas. mostly she could do nothing but sleep.
Friday
A lucid moment, Ally heard people singing ‘Happy Birthday‘, that was nice, someone’s birthday, it was hers in a week or so. She was going to be seven. If only she could join in and wish that person a happy birthday, they must be spending the day in hospital. That was so unfair. She would talk to them…later.
Sunday
Something had changed, When Ally came round she had begun to expect moments of wakefulness before the darkness came again, but found that today she actually felt much better. She didn't hurt anymore, and the tubes and drips and bags and clips had disappeared. She could see, clearly now. She saw her dad and her sister and a doctor and a nurse walking slowly towards the door. She was about to shout out to them that she was awake, when her mum put her finger on Ally’s lips and said.
“Hush sweetheart, they can't hear us. There’s nothing to be frightened of now that the pain is gone. I waited for you, but now it’s time to go.”
She held out her hand, and Ally took it in hers.
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About
DfC
The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.
Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.
DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.
Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org
Publications
Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.
Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com
The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from
The Inkerman Writers’ latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from
http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows
The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.
Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.
Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.
The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:
“Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.
“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.
“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.
“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”
The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3
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