first published in the collection Painted Devils in 1964 and 1990 in The Unsettled Dust – read by Reece Shearsmith
Aickman writes with subtlety, it is often what he leaves unsaid that makes his stories so unsettling and memorable. That is the case with the Russian family celebrating in an old, abandoned house in this story.
A land surveyor walks a piece of property on rural southeast Finland, because a large land-holder wishes to purchase it. At night, he comes across a series of abandoned houses which seem to be hosting joyous family celebrations. In one, he encounters a young boy who can’t speak English, but who insists on giving him a coin.
After subsequently learning that they once belonged to Russians who threw extravagant parties, but were eventually forced out because of political unrest, he returns to the area and finds an abandoned house so blood-stained he can see outlines of bodies on the floor. A ghost story, perhaps…but whether or not the man met ghosts or itinerant Russians is never made clear.
The 60s were Aickman’s greatest period, and this is one of his best, appreciated all that much more as I am in that part of rural Finland right now.
Normally, I should have supposed the house to be empty, but it was not so. There was a fence around the garden, a heavy wooden paling, something with the weight and solidity of the wooden railing across the footbridge. Even so, there were gaps in it, and there was also a gate, which was lower than the rest of the fence. I had been creeping along the fence looking through the gaps, but it was across the top of the gate that I saw a woman sitting among the tall grass and in all that mist. She was not a young girl, but she had very fair hair, tied up at the back of the head. She wore a loose brown dress and she was doing something with a machine of some kind, not spinning but possibly weaving, or possibly something quite different.
Typical of Aickman, a master of description, the use of commonplace settings, everyday events and ordinary interactions build an atmosphere that is unexpected and unsettling. He wrote nightmares.. scenes from some of his stories stick in the mind and won’t let go.. not what everyone wants, but I certainly do.
My GoodReads score 5 / 5
Leave a Reply