Excerpt from Lark Ascending
by Silas House
Sometimes we gathered on the high rocks to watch the world spread out below us, the mountains fading away until they became sky, the lake below wide in daytime or streaked by the moon at night.
Once it was just the three of us up there. My parents and me. This was during that perfect time between summer and fall, when the nights were clear and warm, when the woods sang and chirped and cheeped. Sometimes there was howling and sharp cries. A cacophony of birds and insects and animals who had migrated there just as we had, seeking refuge.
There was no moon on this night, but there were so many stars that the sky was more gray than bluish black. We could see every star that ever had been. My mother explained how most of the stars we could see were already gone but we could still see their light. I saw three shooting stars in a row, slanting across the top of the sky.
“Before, we could’ve never seen a sky like this. Because of all the lights,” my father said. “Do you understand?”
I nodded. I was twelve years old by this time and I understood everything. Or at least I thought I did. I understood that my father was not just telling me that we were able to see more stars now because of the greater darkness. He was also telling me that there was a positive even in the worst situations. My father was saying we had to latch onto moments like this to keep from giving up.
Not long after that, my parents told me that Sera and I weren’t allowed to go off into the woods by ourselves anymore.
“We’re not ever alone,” I said, thinking this was ridiculous. “Arlo is always with us.”
“Sometimes you have been alone, though,” my father said. “Listen. From now on you can only be with her if someone else is there, too.”
“It’s not safe,” my mother interrupted before he could say more, clenching her jaw, and then I knew why, but I wanted them to say it aloud.
“What’s happened?” I asked, although I thought I knew. “Tell me.”
My father took hold of my upper arms and put his face close to mine. “Promise us,” he said. “Promise us that you won’t go anywhere alone with Sera.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not safe, and that’s all the explanation you need,” my mother said, angry. She didn’t like back talk. “Mind us.”
“Do you understand, Lark?” my father asked, his dark eyes so close I could see flecks of gold in them. As always he was the gentler of the two.
“If Sera were to have a baby, Lark,” my mother said, but then I didn’t think I could stand to hear her say any more, so I ripped myself away and ran into the woods, down the paths that I could have navigated in complete darkness, running until I was up on the high rocks and found Sera sitting there, alone. Her mother had had the same talk with her today. She had taken Arlo with her so she could get away, then told him to leave. He was swimming down at the creek even though we were never supposed to swim alone.
We sat looking out across the mountains as clouds striped and unstriped the sun, decorating the endless trees below us with jagged shadows. “They don’t want us to be alone,” she said.
“They told me.”
“They’re afraid you’ll knock me up,” she said, “which is hilarious.” She laughed, turning to me. A rectangle of sun fell directly across her eyes. She leaned in quick and put her lips on mine. One soft touch. I hoped that my mother had followed me down the trail and would catch us.
Sera pulled back and drew her forearm across her mouth, disgust on her face. “God, that was stupid,” she said. “I just had to do it because they told us not to.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “I don’t mind.”
“I know you’re in love with my brother.”
“Don’t say that,” I whispered. I had the urge to cap my hand over her mouth, but I didn’t, knowing she would throttle me. “Don’t ever say that out loud.”
“Not like there’s anyone around to hear us, Lark. Nobody’s going to come and take you away here.”
I went silent. I had known who I was for some time now, of course, but Sera speaking it out loud made it more real. I looked down at my hands and was aware of my breathing, which felt like small blocks of air that came from far down in my lungs before being exhaled.
Sera scooted closer to me and laid her head on my shoulder, leaning against me. “It’s all right,” she said, whispering now. Not because there was anyone to hear, but only because she hesitated to break apart the quiet I had fallen into. “Nobody knows except for me, and I’m not saying a word.”
“He doesn’t?”
“Not yet,” she said. “But he will.”
“How obvious is it?”
“Not so much. I’m just incredibly perceptive,” she joked. “So, if you two fall in love and become a couple, you’ll have each other, but you will have to take care of me when I’m a dried-up old virgin stuck on this mountain in my eighties. Never been kissed except one pitiful time by my brother’s lover. Jesus, I knew our futures were bleak, but this is ridiculous.”
I put my arm across her back, and she snuggled in closer. We sat there watching the sky change without speaking, but she couldn’t stand the quiet. She stood and put her hand out to pull me up. “Time to go. Let’s walk back together and tell them we had sex, just to fuck with ’em.”
Excerpted from Lark Ascending by Silas House. Copyright © 2022. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Algonquin Books.
