Days Like This by Alison Stewart

layers that were in place now. Once, there had been no need for air-conditioning because the old house walls were enough to keep in the cool. During really hot spells, the heat would gradually work it’s way into the corners, filling them up until a cool change came.
    Now change never came. The air inside was always cool and humidity-controlled.
    Despite the heat outside, the lock on the door was cool to Lily’s touch. Lily tightened her grip and turned it. It moved easily. She released the lock and waited. Nothing happened, but maybe that was because she was holding her left arm behind her back to keep the bracelet well away from the opening. She didn’t exactly know what the bracelet would do if she went outside, but she was determined to find out. The outside air descended on her, incredibly hot and alive. Surprisingly, it smelled dusty and Lily rubbed her nose and tried not to sneeze.
    Behind her was the silence of the house, full of stale air hanging between sterile walls. From the open door she could only see the front fence and it’s high gate.
    On each side of the high front gate clipped camellias stood in terracotta pots with seashells embossed on the front. Plants were trained in patterns up the fence. Lily knew the plants only survived because of her family’s water privilege. Lavender bushes and gardenias and roses tumbled together, but even that tumbling looked carefully disciplined. It wasn’t hard to spot her father’s unimaginative hand.
    It was a miracle he’d left the native fig with it’s smooth, cool branches that she used to climb with Daniel. Lily would’ve thought the falling leaves would’ve spoiled the look of Pym’s perfectly manicured garden.
    Lily knew she couldn’t stand in the doorway forever, but still she hesitated.
At least I’m not too afraid to admit to being afraid
, she thought. She was afraid of her bracelet. She was afraid of how cold her parents were and she was afraid she’d never see Daniel again.
    She moved her left arm cautiously towards the open door. Heat stroked her skin and she wriggled her fingers. She stepped forward. The toes of her shoes touched the edge of the doorstep. With a deep breath, she stepped outside, looking up at the vast blue sky.
    A deafening wailing filled the courtyard. Lily covered her ears, but dropped her hands when she realised the noise was coming from her bracelet. She staggered back, but the screeching followed her and now pain joined the noise. The bracelet was tightening around her wrist. Lily inserted a finger under the plastic to try to stop the tightening. The bracelet bit into the soft pad of her index finger and she had to yank it free.
    How could she stop it cutting off her hand? Already her fingers tingled and her hand was filling up with blood.
    She stumbled backwards inside the house and slammed the door, wrenching at her wrist, tearing at the skin with her nails, trying anything to rip off the bracelet, but it continued to tighten. Lily fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face.
    Pym came down the hallway.
    ‘Do something. Get it off me!’ Lily screamed.
    He didn’t move and now her mother joined him, running lightly down the corridor. Alice followed, her face white. She turned her own bracelet around and around, as if she was worried it would crush her wrist, too. Skin bulged up around Lily’s bracelet and blood began to ooze from her wrist.
    ‘Dada, make it stop!’ Alice shouted. She threw herself down beside Lily and grabbed at her wrist.
    Their father just stood there, watching.
    ‘Pym …’ Their mother put her hand on his arm, the top half of her body leaning towards Lily. ‘Pym,’ Megan said again, more intensely, as if finally she’d found some of the empathy that had gone missing all those years ago. Alice heard it, too.
    ‘Make him take it off, Mumma, make him,’ Alice pleaded.
    Lily could barely breathe; all her senses were focussed on the pain. She curled her body over her hand and cradled her