Paintshark (7 page)

“I’m hungry, are you?” Apollo nodded. “Is there anywhere around here that does a good all-day breakfast,” Mr Tidy asked. Apollo glanced around to see if he recognised a café amidst their surroundings – he didn’t.

“Listen, I don’t have my phone on me, but I could write down the number of a great café that does an all day breakfast, if you ring ahead they can hold it for you?” Apollo took out a pen and scribbled a number down and handed it to Mr Tidy. “Take this number and put it in your phone.” Mr Tidy took out his flip phone and with a flick of his wrist the case opened, he carefully slipped the piece of paper on the phone and slammed the phone shut.

“There. Done.”

Apollo stood with his mouth twitching, not entirely surprised at what he had just seen.

“When I said, ‘put it in your phone’ I meant…” He paused and saw that the look on Mr Tidy’s face meant that he had long checked out. Apollo rolled his eyes. “I’m stunned that we’re on the same money.”

Felcey pulled up to his house in his battered old car and reached over next to him. There wasn’t a passenger’s seat next to his driver’s seat, as he didn’t have many friends, Felcey had removed it and put in a storage shelf for his comic books, the shelf was full of comics which he had just bought and he reached over, heaved them out and closed the door.

His mother thought it was a strange request to get his Uncle Marvin, the mechanic, to take out the car seat for him and told her son on many occasions but after a while the realisation that there wasn’t anybody knocking on the front door to take him out for a game of football or a girlfriend to take to the cinema or go dancing with, she relented with her earlier rants.

Felcey went through the front door and shouted out, “MUM, YOU HERE?”

The voice that replied wasn’t his mum’s and wasn’t female, he looked to the ceiling in annoyance.

“SHE’S NOT HERE.”

It was his stepdad, Lewis, champion slob and the bane of his life. He walked into the living room to find Lewis sat on the sofa with a plate of food on his lap and engrossed in a television programme, the adult barely acknowledged his stepson, who took a step back into the adjoining kitchen.

“Where’s my mum?” Felcey listened to his step-dad wolf down some food before hearing an answer.

“She’s at work, there’s a note on the table.”

The young man picked up a note on the kitchen table and his eyes scanned the paper in a incredibly fast fashion before looking into the oven – it was empty. Felcey took a confused step back and scratched his mop of hair…and then turned angrily to Lewis.

“THAT’S MY DINNER YOU’RE EATING.” Lewis didn’t even lift his head from the screen. “Was that yours? Didn’t know.” Felcey waved the note in his hand. “IT SAID SO IN THE NOTE.”

“Did it? I don’t go round reading other people’s notes.” He shifted his weight towards Felcey. “Besides a grown boy like you should be getting his own dinner, not relying on his mummy.”

Lewis noticed the bag of comics leaning by the kitchen table leg. “What’s in the bag? Or do I have to ask? Why don’t you grow up and leave those comics for kids, you stupid idiot.” Felcey sighed and grabbed the bag and walked out of the room and upstairs.

“COME BACK HERE, YOU FREAK, YOU’RE NOTHING, YOU’RE A WASTA SPACE, NO WOMAN’S GONNA WANNA BE WITH A GEEK.” Lewis pulled himself off the chair and walked to the foot of the stairs still shouting at Felcey before something else caught his attention, there was liquid on the floor, footprints of it came from the front door, through to the kitchen and back out heading upstairs, Lewis frowned and shouted up the stairs.

“YOU’VE STEPPED IN A PUDDLE AND BROUGHT WATER ALL OVER DA HOUSE, CLEAR IT UP, NERD, OR I’LL TELL YA MA.”

Felcey either really didn’t hear the shouts from Lewis or chose to ignore him but he didn’t check the bottom of his shoes, he simply ran to his room and slammed the door behind him.

None of his online friends were available to speak to so he reached for his binoculars and looked out of his bedroom window at his neighbour’s house, there was a girl slightly older than him who lived there and Felcey often spied on her when she was in her shower, a few weeks ago she entered a singing contest on reality TV called ‘Sing or Sink’. She failed her audition and hadn’t been heard of since. She had a mane of red hair and she was called Tamzin. She had signed the relevant paperwork and all her parents could do was to either hope somehow she had survived the vast networks of reality TV dungeons or that she’d had a quick painless death, either way they were powerless to do anything, as was Felcey, so he put the binoculars back, it was an instinct thing. He jumped on his bed and started to flick through his comics, when the itching on his arms came back, he scratched again and looked at his skin, a white liquid oozed through his arms.

This made him jump up and again he wiped his arms, the liquid was seeping through his fingers making his comic wet.

Felcey yelled, causing Lewis to yell back, “KEEP IT DOWN UP THERE, FREAK.”

When he got off the bed Felcey noticed the puddles of liquid footprints in his room. It was early evening and the sun still blazed up high, it hadn’t rained for days.
So where did the puddles come from?
Felcey thought. He rubbed his fingers together and they were still wet, he sniffed and squeezed them and more liquid trickled out. Scratching again he put his fingers back to his nose and gingerly put them to his lips, his tongue probed around his forefinger with the liquid on it. Felcey snapped his lips and his eyes blinked a few times as he thought he recognised the taste in his mouth, thinning out the traces of the moustache he thought was growing above his lips he tried it again. His eyes slowly widened. “No way, man.”

Kimberley loved the water and she knew the water felt the same, it was a love/hate relationship and even as her lungs filled with water and craved oxygen she didn’t panic, she couldn’t see as the chlorine stung her eyes but she kept them shut and kicked hard and let her hands pull the water behind her with authority, the very thought of giving up was not an option and with one final push she burst through the water’s surface.

Her lungs ached and she gasped and spat out the water, she had been underwater too long and coughed longer than usual, but after a while she recognised the sounds around her, the kids splashing around, the parents shouting, she spat out the chlorine water and looked around. She was still at her local swimming baths and the glorious sun even in the evening still shone brightly. Treading water, Kimberley made her way to the pool’s edge and heaved herself up onto the side. Reaching for her phone that lay upon her towel, she wiped the water from her eyes and began to send a text.

HEY GIRLFRIEND WOT U DOING? @ SWIMMING POOL AT THE MO, WANT TO HOOK UP L8R? SEE A FILM MAYBE? COULD BE FUN L.O.L!!!!!

After a few moments Kimberley’s phone lit up and vibrated and she read Cassandra’s reply.

HIYA. AT WORK RIGHT NOW AND HAVE TO GO TO LIBRARY TO RETURN A BOOK AFTERWARDS BUT SHOULD BE OK. TEXT YOU L8R…AND DON’T CALL ME GIRLFRIEND :(

Kimberley hid her phone back under her towel and returned to the pool, her arms were itching again like this morning and she scratched them both and hoped the water would soothe the rash on them.

It didn’t and the water now seemed to make it worse, as she bobbed up and down it was harder to use her arms to stay afloat and scratch them at the same time. Kimberley felt hot as well now, her head was hot, she was burning up and her throat was sore; everything was spinning. She coughed out water from her mouth and wiped her eyes. Looking over her shoulder no one had noticed her coughing fit and in a swimming pool it wasn’t exactly unheard of to cough after an intake of water. Panic was beginning to set in.

For a moment she swore her hands had turned yellow, she gasped for breath and her hands had definitely changed colour and they were boiling the water, a scream from behind her told her that someone else had noticed the water getting hotter and the sight of Kimberley’s glowing yellow hands had something to do with it, as the frightened girl came back up for breath amid all the shouts one little voice she heard perfectly, a little boy’s. “Mummy look, she’s burning the water.”

The little lad was right, Kimberley’s hands glowed bright red and were boiling the swimming pool water, the heat had no effect on her but the other swimmers
had
to get out or else they’d be boiled alive.

Families, couples, children crawled up the side of the pool as pandemonium broke loose, men and women fighting each other to get through the exits.

The panicking crowd screamed their way from the bubbling swimming pool, a teenage boy ran along the pool’s edge and lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground, he split his head open and groaned but the sight of a girl with yellow hands boiling up his local swimming baths, spurred him on to get up and turn to the frantic Kimberley.

“YOU FREAK, LEAVE US ALONE, YOU STUPID FREAK!” The teenager joined the other swimmers in their hurried exit of the local baths leaving Kimberley to haul herself out of the steaming swimming pool, she wept as she looked around to see the entire complex deserted, she looked down at her hands to see that they had returned to their normal fake-tan colour and her black nail-polish came back. Kimberley was shaking as she picked up her towel and her phone. The yellow glow had left her body and she trembled as she fiddled with her phone, she began to text.

PLEASE COME.

Kimberley still shook as she looked around to see if anybody else remained from the pool, the steam still rose as she vomited into it. Her phone vibrated as she had her head over the side.

STILL AT WORK. WOT NO LOL??!!

Kimberley pressed another button to ring her friend, wiping the water from her eyes and the sick from her mouth…waiting nervously for a reply, Cassandra finally answered her phone.

“Hello?”

Kimberley took a deep breath. “No, I’m not laughing.” She cried next.

Cassandra couldn’t stand her job, it was only part-time to give her some extra cash and keep her parents off her back but she hated it nevertheless. She was a waitress at Kebe’s Chicken Shack, a small chain of restaurants specialising in cut-price poultry.

The original name of the shops had the word ‘cheap’ in front of the chicken but it was attracting the wrong sort of crowd according to the owner and it was dropped, but they kept their tradition of singing to any customer whose birthday it was and this really got on Cassandra’s nerves. At least three times a shift, she was wheeled out with the rest of the serving staff and made to chimp around to sing and dance to every teething toddler and acne-filled face teenager.

She thought about making up an excuse to leave work early as she thought about Kimberley’s text and subsequent phone call afterwards, the poor girl sounded like she was close to tears, but said she couldn’t speak and would tell Cassandra when they met up later.

Seeing as Kimberley was already on her way down Cassandra thought is was probably better to stay at work anyway. She shook her head to empty her thoughts, an empty head was a prerequisite for working in the chicken shop, Cassandra was on greeter duties today and a family of four had stepped through the doors.

“Hey there,” she beamed falsely. “What can I do for you?”

It was a father, mother and two children. The dad, bright-eyed and happy seemed to be more excited about being there than his family were.

“Hiya, table for four, please.”

Cassandra smiled back, this time with warmth as she saw how buoyant his mood was, she manoeuvred her way through the taken tables and chairs to find four empty seats by the window, and sitting the family down, Cassandra gave each of them a menu and took their drinks order, the father got her attention once more before she left.

“It’s my son’s birthday too, can we get the ‘Mega bigger birthday bucket bonanza’ please?”

Her fake smile came back. “Of course you can.”

“But we didn’t reserve a table,” the dad said.

“It shouldn’t be a problem.”

She lifted up her sleeves and frantically scratched her arms, without even noticing the mother looking at her with a puzzled look on her face. The mother spoke in a cold, tired drone. “Something wrong with your arms?”

Cassandra dropped her hands to her side. “Nope, I’m fine, thank you.” She turned to the child sitting closest to her. “So is it this handsome boy’s birthday then?” The boy nodded and blushed. Cassandra leaned closer to the boy and spoke softly. “Then we’ll have to give you a special birthday treat. What’s your name?”

The boy spoke barely above a whisper. “Muskrat.”

“Seriously?”

The mum glared at her.

“Do you have a problem with the name I gave my son?” Cassandra shook her head. “No, I think it’s a lovely name.” The girl made an effort to look into Muskrat’s eyes to reassure him. “Right, now I’ll leave you to order your food and get your drinks for you.” Walking through the kitchen doors she threw her arms up in the air in exasperation. “WHERE DO WE FIND THESE PEOPLE?” The kitchen staff chuckled.

“We have a birthday, table five, boy’s name is Mudflap…no sorry, Muskrat.” She smirked at her colleagues’ shocked expressions. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Another waitress breezed in with eyes transfixed on a piece of paper, she shouted too. “BIRTHDAY; TABLE’S FOUR, SEVEN, NINE, FIFTEEN, KIDS’ NAMES ARE; AUBREY, KEENE, LINUS AND ZARA.”

With military precision Cassandra and a handful of other servers grabbed some comedy hats and went back into the restaurant. They went from table to table singing the ‘Birthday song’, children cheered and banged on the table when their birthday server approached, more kids entered the chicken shack and had to be entertained too, it seemed that day was every kid’s birthday and they all had a song sung to them accompanied by a special chicken dance.

Table five, with Muskrat and family hadn’t had their birthday song yet, the father waited patiently while his wife rolled her eyes and tutted while sipping her white wine. She filled her glass again and tapped at her watch to her husband who smiled back apologetically.