In the small circle was the house

[fabiadrake]

And then there was ‘the Rat Man’, who visited the Old Medicine House to lay traps, moving from room to room with a growing sense of disquiet. Rounding a corner, he turned whey-white: he’d found his initials carved into a beam, despite never having visited the area. He’d played in the house as a child when it was located 18 miles away. Later in his life, returning from Dunkirk on a train of wounded soldiers bound for an unknown destination, he wiped his sleeve over the misted glass. Framed in the small circle was the house, and he knew he was almost home.

—Narrative Framework: Alan Garner’s Old Medicine House