Accident

When Mervyn Davies fell down stairs and broke his neck, his son Philip was not saddened. Many a night he had been awakened by banging on the partition wall between his bedroom and that of his sister. Megan was two years older than Phil; well developed for her fourteen years. He would hear their father’s cough as he closed the door, followed by the creak of the floorboards. Pressing his ear against the anaglypta, he would listen to Megan’s sobs. It was early on a January morning, when Phil leapt from his doorway, startling his father who lost his balance.