Algy's Peril

Although not entirely necessary, it might be advisable to read Algy's Peril first.

With lots of hugs and manly backslapping I saw Alan and Tricky off on the train from Paddington. They'd spent another three days with me at home and though we did go to a nightclub it was on the last night, not on the same night as we'd gone cruising. That night I collapsed and they took me home in tears, much to my eternal chagrin. The next morning they were both incredibly solicitous and kind and I didn't know how to react or how to handle them. The difference in our ages, though slight, had become more apparent and our friendship, strong though it was, subtly changed as they became real older brothers to me. How could they not? Even though they both told me that the three on the heath wouldn't have really hurt us, I knew different. I knew Alan and Tricky had literally saved me from a beating, and very probably rape. That they had saved me and that I'd frozen, immobile and terrified out of my wits, kept going around and around in my mind, souring my thoughts. "Algy, bro," Tricky said. It was the morning two days later and I was watching him dab at his newly pierced eyebrow with a tissue soaked in antiseptic. "Mmm?" I managed, very half-heartedly. He glanced at me in the mirror, then went back to his dabbing. "Algy, look, I ... fuck!” he said as the antiseptic stung him. I laughed. "Well, I would, but wouldn't Alan get upset?" "Ha!" he said, glaring fiercely at me in the mirror. Then he smiled and stuck his tongue out. "There you are! You laughed. The old Algy's back again." "Sorry Tricky." I said, the instance of the old me fleeing back behind the walls I'd raised. Tricky screwed the top on the bottle of antiseptic and turned to face me. "You've got to let it go, kiddo." I frowned. He knew not to call me 'kiddo', after all he wasn't that much older than I was. Alan, as the eldest, had the right, but Tricky didn't. I was about to tell him off when he continued. "Alan and I are worried about you. It was an awful experience, but you have to remember that nothing happened and we dealt with the problem. Besides, neither of us think it was really dangerous. People play out their fantasies on the heath, and those three were definitely playing at being dickheads." "Yeah but...." "No! No 'yeah buts'. Put it behind you, mate." He leant forward and took my hands in his. "You'll find yourself an other. A partner, a soul mate. You will. You've just got to be patient." "But you and Alan...." "Are very lucky," he interjected. "We found each other early. And ... and we love each other. It's down to fate mate." We chuckled and rolled our eyes in unison at his appalling rhyme. I sighed. "I know. I really do. It's just I can't get the image of those three coming towards us out of my head, hard as I try. And ... and I keep seeing a different ending. An ending with you and Alan lying battered and bloody on the footpath." Tricky chewed on his bottom lip and his expression became serious. "Maybe, er, maybe you should talk to a professional, Algy," he said after a moment’s silence. "Maybe an outsider’s point of view would help." "And just why is my boyfriend holding my best friends hand?" Alan said from the door. "Alan!" Tricky yelped, let go of my hands and was snuggled in his arms before I could blink. Alan had gone out that morning while the house was still asleep. I say the house but what I mean is Tricky and me, my parents having left for work at their normal time. Thankfully, my parents knew nothing of what had transpired on the heath and I'd sworn Alan and Tricky to silence on pain of, well, on pain of pain, really. My parents knew I was gay, and as we lived locally they knew about what occurred on the heath, too. But they definitely had no idea we'd been there, and they were the last people on earth I'd ever tell. Especially after what had happened. "I've got something for you both," Alan said once they'd finished their lip-lock. A lip-lock that had given me a raging problem. "Fancy making coffee, kiddo?" Alan said, peering at me over Tricky's head. "And as for you monkey boy!" he added, patting Tricky lightly on the bottom--which was because Tricky had somehow climbed up him and had his legs wrapped around his waist. Thinking of Tricky's flexibility and what it might let them get up to of a night did nothing for my problem. "Sure," I said, "I made some cold brew yesterday. Fancy that?" "Mmph," Tricky managed, his mouth buried in Alan's blond hair. "Oh, yeah!" "Umm," Alan said, his face turning red, "yes please." I tried hard not to laugh. He had the same problem I did and no way of hiding it. I got up, artistically covering myself with swinging hands as I slid past them into the hall. "I'll leave you two to it, then. See you, umm, in the kitchen." I took a quick peek over my shoulder in time to see the bedroom door close. * * * "They're beautiful, Alan," I said, admiring the ring on my finger and turning it slightly so it caught the light. He'd bought three rings made of platinum. On the outside of each three thinner individual bands intertwined, and on the inside, which was solid and glinted, 'ATA' was engraved. Each ring came in its own velvet-lined wooden box. They'd come downstairs fifteen minutes later looking a tad dishevelled. Alan had sat us down around the table and looked a bit embarrassed, as if he didn't know how Tricky and I would take being given a ring. For once in his life Tricky didn't make a witty off-the-cuff comment. In fact I was sure I saw his eyes watering as he examined his ring and then looked lovingly at Alan. "Why?" he asked quietly. "I mean ... I mean, I know, but I'd like you to say." He trailed off and blinked. "They're friendship rings," Alan said. "You're both as close to me as brothers and you, Tristram Seega, are my beloved. I thought getting us something in celebration was apt." He smiled warmly at us both. "I don't think I need to say more." Tricky and I sniffed. Then, as one, we got up and hugged Alan until he begged for mercy. Considering my fragile state of mind going clubbing with them that night was amazing, too. Though I didn't find anyone special I danced with quite a few guys and spread my wings a little. Mainly, we danced together and after the intense club atmosphere and the pounding music I felt in a much better frame of mind by the time we left. The next morning I went with them to the station. Tricky was going to spend some time at Alan's before he had to go home. I'd been invited too, but tempting though it was I didn't want to crowd them and become a spare wheel, so I said no. Besides, I had a plan: I was going to beat my fear of the heath. After all, when you get thrown off a horse the best thing to do is get straight back on and go riding. When I got home my mother flung a spanner in the works. "There's a family thing, darling," she said, almost as soon as I closed the front door. "Oh yes?" I said politely. After all I could hardly complain as my parents had put up with the three of us for the last week and had been very good about our odd hours. "Mmm, yes. Your cousins are coming to stay for a week. They're over from Australia." "Oh," I said. "Okay. When are they arriving?" We went into the kitchen where I made us an iced coffee. My mother sipped at hers, then contemplatively crunched at an ice cube. I'd met uncle Robert just the once at a family get together that had ended in a blazing row, and I'd never met the twins. Uncle Robert and his wife Celia had emigrated before I was born, and the row, as far as I could remember, had been about my other uncle on my mother's side, Cee, who lives in the basement flat. Cee's gay and I remember uncle Robert heartily disapproved. "Cee's due back soon, isn't he?" I said. "Won't that be awkward?" "Tomorrow," my mother said flatly. "But as Robert and Celia aren't coming I don't suppose it'll matter." "Ah," I said noncommittally. Robert Jnr., 'call me Rob,' and Josephine, 'call me Jo,' arrived in a taxi the next morning. They were the epitome of blonde Australian youth that's served up on daytime television and, at first, almost too polite to be real. Nice though, I thought, following the party as my mother showed them up to the spare room. Five months younger than me; they weren't identical twins but came pretty close in my mind. I faded out watching Rob's bottom as he carried his rucksack up the stairs in front of me and only came to when Jo punched me lightly on the arm. "Not you too," she said with an odd expression. I gulped and tried to feign misunderstanding. "Algy has to go back to school at the end of next week and he's got a lot of work to do, so you'll have to excuse him," my mother said cheerily as she demonstrated the pull out bed. The twins glanced at each other with some message I didn't get. "That's all right aunt Jane," Jo said. "Don't worry Algy, Rob and I have a few things we'd like to do anyway." "Yeah," Rob added. "We want to tour the museums and maybe get to see a show in the East End." "West End," I said, automatically correcting him, then felt myself blush as he smiled at me. "Mum's right, I do have a stack of prep to do for next term, but I'll take you when I can ... umm, if you'd like, that is?" "Sounds good, doesn't it, sis?" "Yep, dinkum." Jo said, and grinning, punched me on the arm again. It rained heavily for the next three days, though that didn't put Jo and Rob off going out sightseeing. The first day they did the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye-which took so long to go around, Rob said, that he thought he was going to wet himself-the South Bank and ended up at Madame Tussaud’s. They came back upset that the Planetarium had closed, and I felt an idiot because it had been me that had told them how fantastic the Planetarium show was. "Don't worry, Algy" Rob said. "There's now a Planetarium at the Greenwich Observatory. We'll see that instead." The twins had a wicked sense of humour that caught us all out on the second night. Cee had arrived back and came up to dinner. Rob glared at him as he sat down. "Dad says you're a pooftah," he said flatly, his face expressionless. I glanced at Jo who seemed to be examining something in her lap. My father harrumphed and my mother went white with anger. Rob and Cee stared at each other for what seemed like hours and honestly you could have heard a pin drop. Then Rob beamed and thrust out his hand. "Me, I don't care. Some of my best mates are gay." "Good one, kid," Cee said, and smiling, shook the offered hand. Sounding like a boiling kettle my mother exhaled and my father guffawed. Jo was grinning, too. All in all it was a very memorable meal. The twins visited the museums in South Kensington for the next two days, each night regaling us with their day’s events. They were expert at finishing each other’s sentences, too. The fourth day ended up a nightmare. I went with them to see a revival of 'The Rocky Horror Show' in the West End. The twins were major fans and I had to admit the show was fantastic. During the interval I went to brave the queue at the bar and get cokes. On the way back I saw them talking to one of the cast. Rob seemed to be arguing with him, and Jo's expression was one of shock, though by the time I made it back through the ever-plodding audience re-gaining their seats they were alone and head-to-head in whispered conversation. "Problem?" I said lightly, handing them their drinks. Rob looked at me oddly and Jo shook her head. After the applause faded and the last curtain came down Jo went to the ladies while Rob and I waited for her outside. The foyer was in darkness and the lights on the theatre’s hoarding had been switched by the time she came out. On a post-musical high we made fools of ourselves cavorting down Shaftesbury Avenue to Piccadilly Circus. After a while spent people watching we meandered over to Leicester Square and finally caught the last tube home. Our carriage mostly emptied at Camden Town though a few people were waiting to get on. I didn't pay them any heed as the train rumbled out of the station and we set off for Hampstead. We were singing 'Sweet Transvestite' in badly off-key harmony when I noticed that sitting further down the carriage a man in leather jeans, a studded leather jacket, and a Yankee’s baseball cap was watching me closely. A shiver ran down my spine as I recognised him as one of the three from the heath; the one who had got away, who had shrugged at me, then run. I looked away from him fast, studying him in the reflection in the window glass, instead. Now, he was frowning and chewing his bottom lip as if unsure I was who he thought I was. Then he took off his cap, scratched his head, and I saw he looked younger than I'd first thought and had a nasty bruise on one cheek and a plaster above his right eye. He replaced the cap, stood up, and looking directly at me, walked slowly down the aisle towards us. I froze. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. I wanted to disappear, like Alice, to Wonderland. I didn't care if there was a maniacal red queen or a bunch of vampires waiting to devour me provided the man went away and didn't come one step closer. I looked fixedly down at my friendship ring and prayed for a miracle. Where the fuck were Alan and Tricky when I needed them? "Algy, you're shivering," Rob said, his voice full of concern. "Are you okay, cobber?" I turned to him but couldn't answer. The man got closer and I shuddered, as panic set in. How was I going to explain him to the twins? What could I say to my parents when they found out, as they surely would once we got home. I drew in a big breath. After all, if I yelled at him he might run away again ... would he? Holy hell, why had I ever.... He walked straight by us and stopped by the doors, waiting, as the train slid into Chalk Farm. An eon later the doors slid open. He got out and walked down the platform. Like a moth to a flame I followed him with my eyes. As he passed our window he turned and mouthed 'sorry' at me, then carried on walking. After what seemed another eon the doors closed. The train jolted and sparked as it pulled out of the station gathering speed as it entered the tunnel. I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. It was short lived. "Who was that, Algy?" Jo asked. "And what was he sorry for?" Rob added. "Umm, fucked if I know." I said, then opened my eyes and saw their disbelieving expressions. "No, really. I have no idea who he was." "Really?" Rob said. "Then why are you so freaked out?" "Look, this is London. London, and not some small town where everybody knows everybody. London's full of weirdos and most of them, it seems, like to spend time on the tube. "Shit Rob, you were only saying an hour ago that Piccadilly Circus was full of strangely odd people. They've got to go home sometime, huh?" "I guess," Rob said. "Man, the dude had loads of piercings. Think he's gay?" "Could be," I said, desperate to get him off the subject. Jo was being awfully quiet, too. "Though it might be that as we've just seen The Rocky Horror Show we're ... what do they call it? Projecting. After all, we're in that sort of a mindset." I laughed, but even to me it sounded false. "Are we?" Rob said. "Yeah, I guess. But I still reckon he was gay. He probably thought you were someone he knew. I wish we knew why he apologised to you." "Mmm, me too." I said, feeling sick, yet grateful that the man hadn't started apologising on the train. Nobody said anything until we pulled into Hampstead station. The journey up to street level in the lift was silent too and the party atmosphere that had blessed our evening seemed to have evaporated. We walked out of the station onto the pavement, home a five minute walk away. "Guys, I'm not tired," Rob suddenly said. "Isn't there somewhere we can go for a walk, like a park or something?" "No, it's too late and there isn't a park for miles," I said, glad to be truthful. "There's Hampstead Heath though. That's like a park, isn't it?" Jo said, looking at me. I felt myself flush though I was sure they couldn't see in the poor street lighting. "I thought you said...." "It's a heath not a park, Rob," I snapped, then lightened my tone on seeing his hurt expression. "There's a difference. Besides, it's late and the heath really isn't safe at night." "Hampstead Heath's a cruising place." Jo said. "A cruising place?" Rob waggled his eyebrows. I could have screamed. They were winding me up, they had to be. Or if they weren't then the night was turning into an early nightmare. "Look, I'm tired and I'm going home to bed." I said flatly, turning on my heel and walking off down the hill. I fully expected them to follow me. They didn't. By Flask Walk I turned around to see where they were, but other than a lone figure standing by the station entrance the pavement was empty. The twins had vanished. I cursed under my breath and pulled out my phone. Its screen was blank and I was about to curse again when I remembered everyone had to turn off their phones before going into the auditorium. I switched it on and waited as it booted, hoping the twins had turned theirs back on, too. Then I rang Rob. "It has not been possible to connect your call," an automated voice said, "Please try later." "Fuck!" I cursed and tried Jo's number. "It has not been possible to connect your call...." "Oh ... damn me." The choices were obvious. Either they were messing with my head and had gone home the other way and would be sitting around the kitchen table asking, wide eyed and innocent, where I'd been, or they really had gone for a walk on the heath without any idea of.... No, Jo knew people cruised the heath. She'd said as much, and if she knew that then surely she'd know how dangerous it was. I was pretty sure she was straight as she'd told me about her boyfriend back home, but maybe Rob was gay. He and I hadn't compared our love lives as guys are wont to do. Whatever their reasons, I was sure that people trying to get a bit of open air nookie weren't going to take kindly to two young tourists observing them. And what if the twins ran into the three that Alan and Tricky had seen off? I turned around and started back up the pavement towards the road to the heath. The figure was still standing outside the station entrance as I approached, and it walked hesitantly towards me. "Algy?" Freaked, I stopped stone dead. It was the leather guy from the tube. The one that had run away on the heath; the one that had got off the train at Chalk Farm and mouthed sorry through the window. How the...? "How the fuck do you know my name?" I said, glaring at him. He was definitely younger than I'd thought he was. Close to my age, and though he was wearing leathers and trying to look hard, somehow he seemed anything but. "I followe...." "And how the fuck did you get from Chalk Farm to here so fast," I steam-rollered over whatever he'd started to say, "and why? WHY?" I was livid. I'd never been so angry and clenched my fists ready to deck him if he came a nanometre closer. "Look, I...." "And who the fuck...." "If you let me get a word in edgeways I'll tell you," he said, and huffed. That floored me. We stood statue still in silence, me glaring and him straight faced. Then he ran his hand through his hair in a rather cute albeit self-conscious gesture and took a deep breath. "Look, that thing on the heath. I, erm, I didn't really know those guys and I should never have hooked up with them. I had no idea what they had planned or I'd have run a mile. Honestly. And as for knowing your name. I, erm ... well, I followed the three of you back to the pub and heard that bloke Alan call you Algy. You've got really good friends, by the way." I nodded as he continued. "Then today I saw you in the stalls at The Rocky Horror Show. I wasn't sure at first, and then I convinced myself I was imagining things, until the blonde girl called you by name at the beginning of the intermission. Then I wasn't sure what to do, but I knew I had to apologise. So, erm ... so I followed you.” For all his hesitancy he spoke in a smooth calm tenor and I found I was watching his lips, certainly more than I should have. I blinked, then made a decision. Alan would have kittens, but Alan wasn't around. "You have me at a disadvantage. You know my name but I don't know...." "Jake," he said, with a small smile. "Jake Smith." And all I could think of was that he had a really cute smile. I held out my hand and said "Algy Catvern." He looked at my hand then up at my face and as his smile became a grin his hand shot out and clasped mine. It was a proper handshake, too. Firm and warm rather than flacid and damp. It lasted the perfect length of time, too. "Thank you for that, Algy," Jake said. "I can't tell you how bad I've felt. I've had the most miserable few days since almost meeting you on the heath. Erm, are we good, then?" "I think so," I said, and smiled back at him. "Look, I don't mean to presume but I need some help rather badly." "Sure, a quid pro quo, anything," Jake said, "though if it's money you need I don't have much." "Money's not what I need," I said. "I've lost the two I came with, the two from the theatre, and I was wondering...." "They went up towards the heath," Jake said. “You came up in the lift and as I ran up the stairs I was kinda out of breath, so I waited inside the station as you split up. You went left and they went up Heath Street." "Crap! I've got to find them." "I'll help," Jake said. "So, where would they have gone?" "How should I know? I've only been there the once." "You mean ... you mean that was your first time?” "Wasn't it obvious?" I said, rather bitterly. "I guess, with spectacular hindsight, yes. But those two? How well do they know it?" "They're my cousins from Australia. They've never been there before." "Never?" Jake almost squeaked. He looked shocked. "Then we'd better get a move on 'cause they could get themselves into a lot of trouble." He grabbed me by the hand and towed me back up past the station where we started up Heath Street at a fast clip. Apart from how nice Jake's hand felt holding mine all I could think of was what Alan and Tricky would say when I told them. We’d made it to the top of Heath Street by Whitestone Pond when I finally decided they'd claim I was delusional. "West Heath vale or East to the ponds?" Jake muttered as we stopped, slightly out of breath. "Hmm?" I'd almost forgotten why we were there. "I was wondering where they would have gone." "Oh, probably wherever the guide book suggests." "They're gay, too, then?" "No! Oh, I don't know," I blustered. "Jo's got a boyfriend I think." "So he’s gay?” "Jo is short for Josephine," I elaborated. "Rob's the boy." "Just antipodean curiosity then?" "I don't know!" I said. "It was Jo who said it was a place for cruising. I told them it was dangerous." "You've no idea, Algy. We'll go in by Whitestone, then." We crossed the road nearby the darkened and closed pub where Alan and Tricky had calmed me down before taking me home, and entered the top of the West Heath. It was almost a cloudless sky and the moon nearly full so it wasn't hard to see where we were going. A footpath meandered steeply downwards from the grass verge, disappearing into darkness; it vanished in a grove of trees. We were halfway to the trees when I froze as, unbidden, the terror of my recent experience came flooding back. Was I mad? I was being lead by the hand of a guy who three days ago was in a group who had nearly attacked us, and if Alan and Tricky hadn't been there god knows what might have happened. For all I knew Jake Smith, who had followed me all the way from the West End, might be carrying a bloody great butcher's knife under his leather jacket and planning on carving me up in the dark of the woods. Worse still, nobody knew where I was. Was I really such an idiot? In the quiet of the night my phone sounded hideously loud as it rang in my pocket. I used the interruption to drop Jake's hand and take a step away from him as I pulled the phone out. The caller display said 'Rob'. Smiling with relief, I answered. "Where are you, mate?" Rob sounded worried. "Looking for you two on the West Heath near the pub," I said, glancing over at Jake who was texting someone. "Where are you?" I turned slowly in a circle to see if I could see them. "Near your place, waiting for you." "But Jake said you'd...." The phone was snatched out of my hand. "Sorry, Algy," Jake said in my ear as I angrily turned towards him. There was a loud snick of a switchblade and I froze, terror gleefully taking over my mind. Jake walked around in front of me, terminated the call, and stopped, the silvered blade pointing at the ground. "Why?" I managed. "Because, Algy. Just because." He sounded tired rather than triumphant and I wondered if he did this sort of thing a lot. "Sit down, please." He gestured to the ground with the blade and I sat. He took a few paces back and started texting again, this time using my phone. I started ever so slowly sliding to the left, keeping my eyes on Jake as he worked the unfamiliar keyboard. I'd got nearly ten feet and was about to get up and run for it when he sent the text and looked up. "Nice try, Algy," he chuckled, closed the distance and sat down facing me. "What are you doing?" I asked. Then, "I take it your name isn't Jake, or Smith?" He sighed. "Shut up, Algy. We're waiting." "What? For Godot?" I said and laughed. I was being held against my will at knife point and I was beginning to lose the terror I'd felt as anger and outrage took its place. "Done Beckett have you?" "School production." I said. I thought that if I could scoot forward a bit I could kick the knife out of his hand, then hit him and run. The road wasn't far and there was still a fair bit of traffic. Damn, I wasn't craven, was I? why was I being such a wuss. He wasn't any bigger than me. "School production, eh." Jake said. "I bet you go to a really nice school, don't you?" "I suppose," I said. "What are we waiting for, if you don't mind me asking." "Polite too," Jake said, not answering. Then, almost under his breath, "Way to go, Jake. Fuck it all up before you give yourself a chance." We sat in silence for a minute or two, the sound of the traffic on the heath road and the occasional hooting of an owl helping me to keep sane. Jake was getting nervous and kept tapping the knife on his knee, which in turn made me nervous, too. Then my phone chirruped, the sound for an incoming text, and without thinking I reached for it. My hand slid down the blade of the knife and I yelped in pain as Jake jumped to his feet. "Are you fucking mad, Algy?" He said, anger intermingled with concern, which I thought was odd. "Christ almighty! Here," he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a bandana. "Wrap it in this. Don't worry, it's clean," he said then looked down at my phone. The cut was across my palm and though I didn't think it was very deep it was still bleeding badly. I flicked the folded cotton bandana out then wrapped it around my palm feeling sorry for myself, and stupid for not putting a time lock on my phone. Footsteps behind me. Rather than turning I looked at Jake who seemed angry, then he blanked his expression. "So yah fuckin' got 'im then, Jakey," a deep voice said. It was my worst nightmare come real. "Sid?" A nasally voice shouted from across the hill. "Over 'ere Bri, and keep the noise down ya cunt!" Sid bellowed back, and I thought Jake chuckled. Little and large; side by side Brian and Sid stood looking down at me as Jake got to his feet. "I owe you for me sore bollocks, shitter," Sid spat at me. "Lucky fer youse theys still work." "Unlucky tho, cos na there are three of us." Brian said. "Na, Not me." Jake said, and his voice sounded odd, rougher, which fleetingly I thought strange. "I've done wot youse asked, now let me bruvva go like youse said." "Soon, Jakey son, soon," Sid said and patted Jake on the cheek. "Let's fuck the cunt first. You knows youse wants to." "Na," Jake said, shaking his head. "Na, not me, Sid. 'e’s all yours. Tell me where me bruvva is ‘n’ I'll be orf." "Whadda ya fink, Bri? Fink 'e'll squeal?" Sid mused. Even if I'd wanted to I didn't have a chance to warn Jake before Brian hit him hard in the kidneys. With a grunt of pain Jake dropped to his knees where, chuckling, Sid kicked him hard in the stomach, then he leant over and gave him a sloppy kiss as he groped his crotch. "We got us a twofer, Bri," he said, taking out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and lighting a couple. He handed one to Brian and they both took a deep drag. "Are you...." "Shut the fuck up, cunt!" Brian punctuated with a kick that caught me hard on the thigh. I wanted to scream so I did. Something caught me on the back of the head and I saw an explosion of stars. I was dragged. I was bundled into a hard darkness. I remember fractured images and voices; Jake screaming; flickering lights; a young boy's gagged and frightened face; gaffa tape on skin; nakedness; oil. With stealth they and the police came to rescue us. With sirens, batons, tasers and eventual panicked snivelling capitulation from Sid and Brian, they achieved it. They: my cousins, Rob and Jo. * * * When I finally and properly came to I was in a twin bedded private hospital room. I rose up from dreams that were at once both terrifying and comforting. I'd been saved. High up in the corner of the room a small television mutely played cartoons. Slowly, because my bruises and cuts were extraordinarily painful and I didn't want to rip out the IV line, I turned to look at the other bed. Jake, his face worse than it had been when I'd last seen him, had his arms behind his head and was looking at me blankly. "Thank you," I said. "Thank me?" He said in a voice devoid of emotion. I watched a tear creep down his cheek before he sniffed and wiped it away. "You're mad, Algy. You're here because of me." "Yes, but you saved me," I said, knowing the logic was flawed but not doubting its truth. He had saved me, my subconscious was certain. Jake sighed. "Whatever makes you happy. My brother's safe, that's all I know." He looked away and I drifted off to sleep. The next few days were confusing. I had a lot of visitors including Alan and Tricky-who gave me an earful, my parents-who went ballistic, the twins-who had extended their stay, and the police. The thing was, except for the belief that Jake had saved me, to begin with I had no idea of what had really happened or why. It was like I'd woken up in the middle of a surreal farce, with a lot of whispering. The police, in the shape of a portly middle-aged detective sergeant called Harris, were upset I wouldn't give them an immediate statement that would see Jake behind bars. So, to begin with, were Alan and Tricky and my parents. The following morning, surrounded by friends and family, the doctor released me. "You've had a rough old time, young man. The cut on your hand is not deep and is well bandaged. You've got two broken ribs, three cracked ones and a plethora of bruises. You also have some internal bruising, which will be painful but is not a problem. The worst was the concussion, but as we've monitored you and you appear okay there's not a lot else we can do for you here. Frankly," he chuckled, took off his glasses and started polishing them, "we need the bed. Anyway, bed rest at home is always preferable." "Where's Jake?" I asked Jo as Tricky and Rob fought over who'd get to push my wheelchair. Alan was quietly talking to Cee and my parents had buttonholed the doctor about my medication. The other bed had been empty and freshly made when I'd woken. "Your parents had the hospital move him," she said quietly. "Are you going to tell me what the hell went on?" "Mmm, later. When we get you home," she put her finger to her lips as Tricky won and whooped until a passing nurse gave him a filthy look and told him off, which made everyone laugh. We travelled home in two vehicles, Cee, who kept giving me knowing looks, taking my parents with him. I was helped out of the wheelchair into the front seat of my mother’s car and the others got in quietly and waited until Cee and my parents had driven off. Then Alan turned to me and started. "What the hell were you thinking Algy! Are you...." "Leave him be, Alan," Tricky said. He was sitting between Jo and Rob in the back and sounded as serious as I'd ever heard him. "It wasn't Algy's fault." "It wasn't Algy's fault?" Alan sounded bemused. "I never said it was. It was that bastard Jake and those two other fuckers who...." "No!" I interrupted, "It wasn't Jake's fault either." Alan stared at me then closed his mouth with a snap. I turned, slowly, wincing at the pain of my ribs, and looked at Jo who was grinning at Rob. "Jo and Rob will explain everything," I said, “that’s the least they can do.” I couldn't help but smile at my cousins’ horrified expressions. "Umm, how much do you know?" Rob asked. "Not everything, but I think I've got a fair idea of what went on." "I wish I did," Alan said. "I suppose Cee's involved?" "Only in that he's being decent and keeping your parents out of it," Jo said, "but that's not going to last long once we get you home." "They know I'm gay." I said, managing not to whine. I didn't want to face my parents and have to explain anything, especially with all my friends around. "Yes, and now they know you went on the heath and nearly got kidnapped, too." "Shut up Tricky!" we all echoed. "Well Jo, the floors open for an explanation," Alan said. Briefly, Jo looked at us all. Then she took a deep breath. "The other night Algy, Rob and I went to see The Rocky Horror Show in the West End," she began. "During the intermission when Algy, sweetheart that he is, went to get us drinks, Jake, who works backstage at the theatre, came over and talked to me." "Us," Rob said. Jo nodded. "Yes, us. See, I was wearing my rainbow bracelet, so he knew it was safe." "Rainbow bracelet?" Rob and I said together. Jo rolled her eyes. "Yes." She pulled her sleeve back and displayed it. "Men are so observant, don't you think?" she giggled. "Jake had recognised Algy from a few nights before when...." "Yes, we know about that," Tricky blushed. "Thanks." "I think it was while we talked that he had the idea, but he didn't tell me until after the curtain came down." "When you went to the loo for an hour?" I asked. Jo nodded. "Mmm. It took him a while to persuade me. It's why I was so long, sorry." "Wait. So this is all your fault, Jo?" I said, bitingly. "No, the blame is mine too." Rob said. "Jo told me the gist of it while you were dancing around Eros in Piccadilly." "Anyway," Jo said, "Jake knew where we were going 'cause I told him." "And on the tube?" I said, thinking back to the terror I'd felt when he'd walked past us in the carriage. "When he mouthed sorry through the window?" "Yes, before he hopped back on the next carriage." "Were you both laughing at me?" I whispered, remembering the terror I’d felt. They shook their heads and had the decency to look embarrassed. "I know what it's like, Algy," Jo said, touching her bracelet. There were a few moments silence before Alan cleared his throat. "And then?" "And then we arrived at Hampstead station," I said picking up the narrative. "I wanted to go home but he," I pointed at Rob angrily, "said he wanted to go for a walk and asked about a park. And she," I pointed to Jo, "she said she'd heard of a heath. A park, I ask you! Fuck! How stupid was I?" I purposely twisted in the seat so my ribs screamed at me, the pain dulling the anger I was feeling. "Heh, not knowing I’d been set up I even walked away towards home thinking they'd follow. Of course when I turned to see if they were with me they'd vanished and I was left to walk back up the hill, slap bang into Jake's arms.” I turned away from them all and looked out of the passenger window, tears running down my face unchecked. What had I been thinking in the hospital? Getting aroused at the thoughts of that bastard Jake's hands running over me. I was deranged. I obviously needed help. The thing was, sitting there in the car as miserable as sin, I was getting hard again at the thought of him. Worse, my subconscious was screaming at me to trust him still when it was plain and obvious that was the last thing I should do. Damn it, I couldn't even trust my cousins who without a by-your-leave had set me up like a fish ready to be kippered. A hand slid across my back and squeezed my shoulder. I sniffed. "Thanks Alan. See, I really thought Jo and Rob had gone up to the heath. I thought it was up to me to save them.” "When you phoned, Algy, we were standing outside Hampstead police station," Jo said in a timid voice. "And when Jake texted we went in and started the ball rolling." Rob said, equally subdued. "They had a team ready to go." "I ... I don't understand. A team of police ready to go?" "Mmm. We weren't expecting that, either. Jake didn't say exactly what would happen, but apparently you'd upset the wrong people, really bad people, and Jake saw it as a chance to sort them out. Also, they had his brother and he...." "Wait, wait ... what? His brother? I don't understand." "Which is why we're trying to explain," Rob said before Jo could open her mouth. "When you three went out on the heath you guys not only trounced two cruisers, but two psychos as well." I frowned and tugged at my ear. "There were three of them, not four." "No, there were two. Brothers in fact and in crime, and both of them nasty, vicious bastards. Gay and psychotic is not a good combo to piss off. Jake was there under duress as they had his younger brother captive in their house." "What? This is getting more convoluted than Lost. Remember I've got concussion. I think I'm heading for a relapse." "Jake is adopted." "It doesn't surprise me." "No he's not, Rob. He's ... what's that other thing they do?" "Foster?" Alan suggested. Jo smiled. "Yes! He’s fostered. Jake and his brother are fostered to those other two and...." "Don't be daft. Jake's too old to be fostered and...." "He's only just seventeen and his brother is twelve." Jo said. Rob nodded. "You seriously mean to say that those three on the heath were a couple of foster parents and their charge?" Tricky said. He who, remarkably, had been quiet as a mouse and following the conversation like an avid tennis fan. "Yes," Jo and Rob said in unison. Jo continued, "they wanted you two badly. Among the nastier types that frequent the heath, they had a bounty on your, umm, balls. But you'd both gone home. Vanished. Algy, however, lives locally. Jake had told them that much by mistake. So when he saw Algy almost miraculously sitting in the stalls of the theatre he had a chance to do something. He said it was like a sign from god. Only, umm, he doesn't believe in god." "You know a lot about him," I said, feeling somewhat jealous. She nodded. "Mmm, we've talked." "Finish it, please," I said. I was bone tired and I wanted to go home and think. "Well, you know a lot of the rest. Jake texted his foster parents to tell them he had you, then he texted us and we informed the police. We didn't arrive in time to stop them on the heath, but the police had their van under surveillance and that's where it all ended." "Ah," I said quietly. The vague images spun out by my subconscious made much more sense now, especially the frightened bound boy and the innate sense I had that Jake was a hero, not a villain. "Umm, in the van, I was wondering, was there ... oil?" Jo reddened and Rob wouldn't meet my eye. * * * We got home and Cee and the cousins protected me from parental inquisition as I hobbled upstairs to my room. I closed the door and slowly stripped, goggling at the dark bruises that covered my body. It was no wonder I was feeling so rough and in pain, even though my ribs were tightly bandaged in snowy white linen. My hand was bandaged, too. I thought back to Jake’s anguish as I'd cut myself on his switchblade. He'd been trying to save his brother and mete out vengeance on those two thugs. I could understand that and it was good, but he'd done it at my expense and I wasn't sure what I thought of that. It wasn't fair, but then he didn't know me. Then. On the other hand my cousins did know me, so why hadn't they involved me in the plan from the start? Did they think I wouldn't have gone ahead with it? Or did they think if I'd known I'd have stuffed it up? Naked and wincing with every move I pulled back the duvet. I sat down on the crisp fresh sheet. I was home. My parents and friends loved me, but what of Jake? He was shunted around foster homes and only had his brother and his responsibility to care for him. In his situation would I have done the same? I lay back, pulled the duvet up to my chin and turned off the light. Jake. I'd thought he was older, and yet seeing him in my mind’s eye sitting opposite me under the moonlight on the heath, I could see he wasn't. Oil. They'd been going to rape me. I knew it, but nobody else ever would. They'd stripped us naked and Jake had been screaming such invective at them I'd been terrified for him. Then they'd beaten him and his bound young brother had screamed too. And, and then when they came for me he'd covered my body with his to protect me as the bastards blows rained down. Jake had knowingly put me there and yet he'd saved me too. What did I feel, what did I owe? Jake. Tomorrow. One way or another, tomorrow I'd find out. The End. Thanks to CP, my ever kind, ever generous, editor, without whom this story would suck. Needless to say any mistakes are mine. ***** Thank you for reading Algy's Peril 2. I really hope you enjoyed it, and go on to read more of the excellent fiction available on the AwesomeDude website. Though AwesomeDude is an amazing free resourse and doesn't charge, it does have continual expenses. So if you can donate even a tiny amount to help the site we'd all be grateful. And if you can't, please don't worry. ***** The original 'Algy's Peril' was written for Midnight Dude: Selected Readings, an AwesomeDude Books Anthology with 17 short stories and a novella. If you'd like to buy a copy either in paperback or as an eBook (epub or .mobi), then HERE is the place to go. The book helps support the AwesomeDude website. ***** Feedback would really be appreciated. Either in the AwesomeDude forums or email me if you'd like to. HOME © Camy - all rights reserved http://www.awesomedude.com/camy/algysperil2/index.php

"After The Move"

Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 13:24:27 -0700 (PDT) From: rtbrno65@yahoo.com Subject: After The Move 1

By Brian Roberson I Telly stood on the sidewalk next to the residential street holding a suitcase. He looked up at the sky with a perplexed expression on his face. Everything that was supposed to be there was there. The pale yellow sun was sitting high in the western sky. There were some puffy, fair weather cumulous clouds sitting in the sky like fat little Buddha's. To the east, a waxing gibbous moon was hanging orange and low in the horizon. There was no wind and all around was silent, except for a solitary crow that was harking away in a tree nearby. The sun looked pale and white, but the sunlight around seemed diffused and reddish. He looked around at the townhouses that surrounded him. They looked very modern, but also very old at the same time. Some were in pristine condition, others were decrepit, some were burned out or looked like they had been abandoned for decades. They were all triangular shaped, with brick trims and cedar board sides. Some were blue, others were brown, others red, or green, or grey, or so decrepit that they no longer had any paint on them. Some were very large, others were much smaller. All around the houses were trees here and there, some which towered high up into the air. There were cedars, pines, maples, oaks. Car ports stood along both sides of the streets. They were open ended car ports with spaces for seven cars in each. There were open parking spaces between the car ports, with spaces for another five cars. There was plenty of parking. Cars of various sorts were parked in the ports. Cars from the 1950's, cars from the 1980's, cars from every decade were represented. Some looked like they hadn't been driven for years, others looked brand new and well cared for. Telly looked all around him. The houses seemed to go in every direction, crowding themselves into the surrounding hills, snaking up and down hills and valleys. Telly could see a huge, 300 + foot radio tower in the distance, it's red light on the top blinking on and off like an eye. He could hear a river bubbling away in the distance. He crossed the street and walked past the car port. He found himself in the middle of a communal area. To his right was a grassy quad area with two crab apple trees, and a large metal pipe arching out of the earth and back down again, a gauge of some sort was on the side of it. To his left, and to his front, were houses. There was a small wooden park bench. Red Bricks made up the floor of the central area, and a small fountain was playing in the middle. He then heard a door open in a house that was just past the second crab apple tree to his right. He saw an old lady emerge from the house, walking a black, shaggy dog on a leash. She guided the dog into the grassy area. Telly walked along the sidewalk and soon found himself facing the woman. She had on a dark pants suit with a white sweater and glasses. Her hair was grey and she looked quite old. "Excuse me? I was wondering if you could help me. I just moved here, but I don't know which house is mine. Can you help me, perhaps?" "You don't know which house is yours? How the hell do you not know which house is yours? That has got to be the most ridiculous thing I`ve ever heard!" The woman snapped while the dog stared at Telly with almost total disinterest. "I...don't know...which one...it is..." Telly said, his narcolepsy starting to seize him. He staggered around with his eyes half shut, his ears ringing and the colors flickering in and out of a fuzzy black and white buzzscape. "Don't know where your house is! You shit kid!" Telly could hear the old ladies voice echoing through his head. "Maybe if you actually looked you would see where your house is. Oh you idiot! You lying idiot! Liar! Liar! LIAR! LIARRRR!!!!!" He was now seeing an image in his mind of a frantic Springer Spaniel dog writhing and barking in a front of a window. The dog was becoming more and more agitated and crazy. Telly started screaming and tearing at his hair in his mind while he staggered and swooned around almost completely unconscious. The world was fading in and out of a dark field and he soon felt himself plunging into a deep, black abyss, screaming at the top of his lungs in absolute terror as he fell. Telly suddenly snapped out of the narcolepsy attack. He had having more and more of these attacks ever since The Move. Sometimes he would have as many as five a day, assuming that it in fact WAS a day that he was thinking back to. He would often have frightening visions during the attack. He looked up and saw that the old lady and the black dog were both gone. He then decided to go into the house that he was standing right in front of to see if it was his. It was a large, three story brown house with several windows of various sizes all over it. He went into the small courtyard in front of the house and opened the door. Inside he saw all of the familiar furniture that he was used to seeing, so he knew he had to have the right one. To his right was a kitchen, and he saw his father sitting at the kitchen table. He had a teapot in front of him, and he was sipping on a cup of tea while smoking a pipe and reading an afternoon newspaper. "Hello, Telly. Have you had a busy day?" His father asked. "Dad! How can I possibly know an answer to that question!" Telly shouted in anger. "I'm just trying to make conversation. " His father replied. Telly then dropped his suitcase to the floor and went to a cookie jar in the corner of the kitchen. He pulled out a package of Fig Newton's, pulled a few out of the package, and began eating them at the counter. "Do you want any tea?" Telly's father asked. "No Dad! I don't want any tea!! Why are you asking me that when you know I'm just going to say no?!" Telly screamed. "Doug? Is that Telly?" Telly heard his mom say from upstairs. "Yes, Doris! Telly is here now!" Doug shouted back. "Doug is that Telly?" Telly said in a rude, mocking voice. "Telly, don't be rude towards your mother, please?" Doug whined. "I suppose I'm going to have to go find my room now?!" Telly snapped bitterly as he picked up his suitcase and stomped up the stairs. Telly found an empty bedroom. "Telly?' He heard behind him. He turned around and his mother was standing in the hallway. Telly slammed the door in her face. "AUGHHHHH!!! YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY!!!BOTH OF YOU!!! AUGHHHHHHH!!!!!" Telly began screaming at the top of his lungs in a total rage. He was then hit by another narcolepsy attack. He clutched his head in his hands and began staggering around the empty room as the scene began fading in and out. In his mind he was still screaming, but he was actually flailing around the room like a mannequin in a boat stuck in the middle of a hurricane. "Telly? I need to talk to you. Can I come in?" Telly could hear his mother's distorted and echoing voice bouncing around the room and into his head. The sun was streaming through the uncurtained window. "Telly?" He heard his mother say again. Her voice was reverbing like she was speaking through a ballpark PA. Telly finally spun down to the ground like a top and lay unconscious on the floor right next to his suitcase. **************************************************************************** Telly was taking a walk behind the houses. There was a small road that ran behind there, beyond was an endless, slightly hilly plain that went all the way to the horizon. To the left of the road, a thorn hedge with barbed wire meshed through it ran parallel to the road, dividing the road and the steppe land beyond. It was then that a short, fat kid of about twelve or thirteen came along walking a small white whippet dog. The kid had a crew cut and a swarthy, Mediterranean appearance. Telly recognized the kid as Marion Dunstan. Telly also realized that he was no longer 24 years old, but was now fourteen. "What's up, Hemorrhoid?" Marion asked. "Nothing." Telly said. "My parents are both working. Wanna come over?" "Sure." Telly said. The boys walked off while Telly watched from behind. He was 24 again and was watching his fourteen year old self walk off down the path with Marion Dunstan towards Marion's house a short way down the path. He tried to remember what Marion had wanted to take him to his house for, but he couldn't remember the reason. He followed closely behind the boys, darting behind trees and bushes to avoid being seen. He looked to his right and the old lady and the black dog were behind one of the houses, watching the boys walk off. He heard a buzzing, looked up, and saw a large hornets nest up in a tree. Large black hornets were buzzing in and out of it. He then moved on down the road and wound up right behind Marion Dunstan's house. It was the last house in the row, a dirt path leading up to the street ran between it and the next row of houses. He crept behind the house and looked into the glass sliding door that was behind the house. There, he saw himself sitting on the couch with Playboy magazines spread out around him. He had his pants and underwear down around his ankles. The fat kid Marion was on his knees in front of him, giving him a blowjob while he sat with his head back. Telly recoiled at the sight of this unwanted childhood memory that he was suddenly seeing, put his hands on his head, and began staggering toward the dirt path. The narcolepsy then hit him and he crumpled to the ground immediately unconscious. Telly woke up a short time later. The sun was still hanging in the sky where it had been the whole time. He had a splitting headache. In addition to the narcolepsy, The Move had also been causing him splitting headaches. They usually didn't last long, so he got up and resumed his walk down the path. He soon found himself in a small glade, with a giant oak tree, a cherry tree, and a group of pine trees providing a small canopy. A small spring was gurgling out of the ground, and the water flowed down into a valley beyond where it drained into a creek, which itself drained into a large river that was flowing through. The back of the townhouses were still to his right. After emerging from the glade, he found himself in an open area. The row of townhouses cam to an abrupt halt at a steep hill, although the path continued on past them. He saw two women who were working on what looked like a large garden. One of the women, who was older, didn't even notice Telly. The other one woman, who looked around 18 or so, stopped what she was doing and stared at Telly while clutching her hoe in her hand.. Telly thought she was very beautiful. He gave her a small wave and she immediately dropped her hoe and began walking quickly towards the last house on the end. "Hey, wait! Wait!" Telly called out as he began running up the hill from the path towards the blue painted house. As he began stepping around the garden, he froze when he saw a man sitting in a chair on the back porch, watching him. "Please step no further. This is a sanctuary." The man said. The woman walked quickly behind the man, opened a sliding glass door, entered it, and slid it shut behind her. "A sanctuary?" Telly asked. He looked at the man in the chair. The man looked like he had to weigh at least 400 pounds. He wore a white xxl knit shirt, a pair of jean shorts, and white sneakers with no socks. He looked absolutely huge. In one hand he held a bottle of beer, in his other hand he held a small fan. "Yes. A sanctuary. We are a sanctuary from the likes of you. I would appreciate it if you would please leave. There is nothing for you here." "The likes of me? What do you mean?" "I don't have the time today to explain it to you, assuming that you don't actually know the answer. I have a sneaking suspicion that you do." The man said as he fanned himself with one hand and took a swig of beer with the other. "I...I don't know. All I know is that ever since The Move I've been having these horrible headaches, or I pass out." "Well you got off easy then! Some of us are still trying to clean up the mess that YOU made!" The Fat Man snapped. "That's why we're all here in this house. Don't come around here and try to come off like you're one of The Lost ! I can smell a Phony from ten kilometers away! Don't toy with me!" "I'm...I'm not lying. Why does everyone think I'm LYING!?" "Because after The Move everyone has been lying! Do you really require all of this to be explained to you?" "I don't understand...I don't know what's happening..." The Fat Man's features softened up a little. "Well...maybe you are one of The Lost." The Fat Man then stared at the ground a little, then looked up. "Tans Hansell!" He suddenly yelled out. "What...?" Telly replied. "Oh, I'm so sorry...you ARE one of The Lost." The Fat Man said. He then got up out of his chair, waddled over to Telly, and put his arm around his shoulder. He looked as though it was a struggle for him just to stand. "I'm sorry, but you have to be careful nowadays. Come, come inside. There's a home for you here, if you want a home." The Fat Man then put his arm around Telly's shoulder, and gently guided him into the house. End Of I Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:27:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Roberson Subject: After The Move Part 2 "After The Move" By Brian Roberson II The Fat Man lead Telly through the back door and into the house. The inside was dark, there were no lights on. All around were children of various ages. Boys and girls. They were everywhere. They were sitting on sofas and chairs, two were playing with Hot Wheels cars in front of the stairs. They were sitting in groups on top of tables, in chairs, and on the floor. All were dressed in grungy looking clothes. There had to be at least a dozen in there. They all stared at Telly in silence, except for the two little boys playing Hot Wheels. Telly was looking through the crowd of children for the beautiful young woman he saw, but he didn't see her anywhere. "What is your name?" The Fat Man asked. "My name is Telly." "Children! This is our new resident! His name is Telly! Please attempt to treat him with respect!" The children simply stared apathetically. "How old are you, Telly?" The Fat Man asked. "I'm twenty four." "Well, that makes you our oldest resident then! Aside of course from me. I'm close to double your age. The children here range from the ages of six to...well, twenty four! The oldest until you arrived was Catherine. She's twenty. She's the one that you were chasing after when you arrived at our door!" "Where is she? She's beautiful." "I'm sure she would be impressed to know that you believe that." The Fat Man said sarcastically. Telly then began to feel woozy, so he turned around and stepped back outside. The Fat Man followed him out to the porch, and sat back down in the chair. "Catherine helps me run this place. She was actually the very first to move in. I'm sure she's somewhere in the house assisting with the children, or the chores. That's all she ever really does." "Uhhhmm...I really should tell you...uhh... what's your name?" "You can call me Big Bill." "OK, Big Bill. I really should tell you that I already have a place to live. I live here with my parents. I'm about twelve houses up that way." Telly said as he pointed in the direction he had come from. "Do you now?" "Yeah, I really don't need a place to live, and to be honest, if I did, I probably wouldn't want it to be here." "Are you sure that that you really live there?" "What do you mean?" "Are you really sure that you live with your parents?" "Why wouldn't I be sure of that?" "Are you sure that it's not that THEY live there, and you don't?" "Why should I believe that?" "We have several children here who's parents live in this neighborhood, but the children don't live with them. The Move was tough on a lot of families. Some of them stuck together, but just as many didn't. You might live with your parents, but you don't LIVE with them." "Big Bill, who are what is Tans Hansell?" "Are you sure that you don't know that?" "I'm pretty sure, I guess." "Tans Hansell is the peddler." "The peddler?" "Yes. He's the peddler. If you haven't seen him yet, and I'm almost completely sure that you have, then you will soon enough. Chances are that you just aren't associating the name with the man." Telly then began feeling another narcoleptic attack seizing him. He grasped his head and began to stagger around. "Sit down on the ground until it passes so that you don't smash your head open on the patio, will you please?" Big Bill said calmly as Telly staggered around. Telly then sat down on the ground, slumped over on his side, and lost consciousness. ****************************************************************************************** Telly eventually woke up, and he was in the same spot. He sat up and touched his head, mainly to make sure it was still there, if nothing else. He saw that the sun was still in the same spot in the sky where it had been the whole time. He then heard a noise behind him and quickly turned around. He saw that Big Bill was gone, but that he was not alone. Sitting on the patio was a dark haired boy who looked about thirteen or so. He was surrounded by furs of different kinds, which were strewn on the ground around him. Telly saw the boy gently rubbing a mink stole over his face. He put it down and neatly folded it up. He then took a mink coat that was next to him and started rubbing that against his face. He then heard a commotion in some trees that were across the dirt path behind the house. A group of seven or eight crows were gathered in the large tree that faced the house and were squawking away. Telly looked up at the roof and saw two crows facing the tree. One of them gave out a harsh croak and they both flew off. Telly saw that the boy was now rubbing one side of his face with the mink coat, and the other side of his face with a fox fur coat. Just then, a red haired boy the same age came out with some fishing gear, put it down, and sat next to boy, and started rubbing his own face with the fur. "Why are you guys doing that?" Telly asked. "I don't know, probably because it feels good. " The first boy said as he rubbed his face. Just then, the back door opened and Big Bill came waddling through. "Evan! Take your furs inside so that they don't get dirty out here!" He said as he sat down on the chair. The boy then got up, grabbed the furs, and ran into the house. Telly saw that he only had a t-shirt on and nothing else, his white butt mooned him as the boy ran into the house. "And put some pants on too!" Big Bill yelled after him. The red headed boy then got up and closed the glass door. "Telly, this is Michael. He's going down to the river to catch fish. Perhaps you can go with him and help out." Big Bill said. "I gotta extra pole if you want." The boy said in a thick southern drawl. "So you guys have to fish and catch all your own food?" Telly asked. Big Bill laughed. "No! We go to the store for that! Haven't you ever gone fishing before?" "I have, just not here." Telly said. "Well you should go with Michael anyway. I don't like him being down at the river by himself. Some very strange things can happen there." Big Bill said. Just then, Evan, the fur boy, returned with two additional poles. He had put on a pair of shorts and some sneakers, and he had the mink stole around his neck. "I...brought...you a pole...Telly." The fur boy haltingly said. Telly was suddenly seized with an intense blast of heartburn. It was so intense that he almost wanted to induce vomiting right there and then. He was concerned that the vomit would burn his mouth when it came up, so he kept it all down. His stomach felt burning and miserable. "OK, thanks, I guess." "Come on, let's go." Michael said. The boys began walking down the hill behind the house and took a sharp right. Telly followed and soon found himself scaling down a rock face which was right next to the house. At the bottom, he found himself in a large, marshy area, and he headed towards the river. The boys walked side by side and were rubbing the fur stole on their faces as they walked briskly through the wet, marshy land towards the river. They then saw a wooden bridge that went over the creek and crossed it. It was right at where the creek drained into the river. Telly noticed that it had become very overcast and misty. They soon arrived at the river. It was about 50 yards wide, and it's swift current made a dull roaring noise. By now the mist had thickened considerably. The tangled limbs of trees, most of which were dead, were hanging all around. He looked over at the boys, and they were both frantically rubbing the stole over their faces and looked like they were about to start fighting over it. Just then, a big wall of mist came in and enveloped everything. He could barely see three feet in front of him. The sound of the river seemed to be all around him, and he became disoriented. "Michael! Evan! Guys! Where are you?" He yelled out, but didn't get any response. "Guys! Where are you?' He then started hearing voices from a large crowd in the distance. The voices were all angrily shouting, crying out, and cursing. They began to get closer and closer. Telly gasped in panic and started running in the direction away from where the voices were coming from. He ran through the thick mist, crashing into branches and tree limbs as he went. The voices were closing in behind him. He then realized that he was crossing the bridge over the creek. Once over the creek the mist thinned out considerably, and he saw that he was once again in the open area. The sound of the river and the sound of the voices behind him intermingled into a single wall of sound. Soon, he heard footsteps on the wooden bridge. He turned around, and to his horror, he saw a mob of people running out of the mist and over the bridge, coming right after him. They were all running on all fours, like gorillas. They were laughing and shouting and yelling as they came after him. Telly saw that they were regular looking people of all ages and from all walks of life. Many were wearing party hats. They all appeared to be enraged, however, and they were coming at him full speed. Telly turned around and tried to run away, but it was as though he were trying to run through water. Soon, the mob overtook him, and he wound up on the ground trying to curl up into a little ball as he was surrounded by the crowd, who leaned over him yelling.. "You're a liar!" One woman cried. "You lie! You lie!" An old man shouted. "Liar! Liar!! Liar!!! A group of children screamed. "You liar!" A man said. "LIAR!!!" Yet another man said. Telly put his hands over his ears and screamed at the top of his lungs. Soon, a thick flock of squawking crows flew over head, blocking out what little sunlight there was. Telly then gave a gurgling shriek and began running full speed towards the path as the crowd silently watched. He then ran full speed back to his house, entered in a panic, and slammed the door behind him. "Hello, Telly. Have you had a busy day?" His father asked him as he sat at the kitchen table with his newspaper and his pot of tea. "LEAVE ME ALONE! WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!!" He screamed at his dad just before he ran upstairs. "Telly? I need to talk to you." He heard his mom say behind him. He turned around, and she was standing in the hallway behind him. To his horror, he saw a skull where his mother's head should have been . He screamed in terror and slammed the door. He then looked outside, and the sun, which had been in a fixed location in the sky the whole time, suddenly and rapidly sank, and the world was plunged into darkness. End of II Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 18:29:57 -0800 (PST) From: rtbrno65@yahoo.com Subject: After The Move part 3 "After The Move" III Telly sat terrified in his still unfurnished bedroom as darkness enveloped everything. Some streetlights in front of and behind the house flickered on. He could hear his parents snoring away in the adjoining bedroom. He stripped down to his boxers and lay down on the floor and tried to get some sleep, but needles and pins began pricking him in the back as he lay there. He also felt like he was being bitten by insects. He decided to try to masturbate, but his penis shrunk in his hand and tried to retreat into his pubic cavity as he did so. Eventually he became frustrated and got up. He climbed the stairs up to the third floor of the house, which was a large, single room with a high ceiling and a creaky ceiling fan that was whirling about above. He went to the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the large balcony. Outside, all was dark. The plains behind the house all stretched on into blackness. The path behind the house was illuminated by sodium street lamps that were placed every couple hundred yards or so. It was because of a street light nearby that Telly was able to see the man crawling towards the house on the path. Telly was looking down over the railing and he saw a long haired, bearded man crawling along the path. He was moving in a slow and slithering manner along the ground. Telly thought that he reminded him of Gollum the way he was moving. He then saw the man look up at where he was standing on the deck. He then slinked over to where the house was, and to Telly's horror, he began to shimmy up the drainpipe. Telly quickly ran inside and locked the sliding glass door. He then remembered that his bedroom window was unlocked. He began running back down the stairs as he heard the man trying to open the door. He got into his room and locked the window just as he heard the man land with a thud on the roof to the dining room that was just below his window. The man was trying to get the window open as Telly ran out the room and down the stairs to the first floor to make sure all the doors were locked. As he went to the sliding door in the dining room and locked it, a face suddenly appeared in the window. It was the face of an infant, except that it was horribly distorted. It looked puffed up and had huge, bugging eyes. Telly screamed in horror and recoiled away from the window. Just then his dad appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "Telly? What's wrong?" Telly turned to him in a rage as the hideous looking face continued to stare into the window. "What's wrong is that you don't understand me! You never have!" Telly then went to the front door and he ran full speed out into the street. Eventually he found his way back to Big Bill's house. By then the sun was up and the surrounding neighborhood was bathed in sunshine. As he stood in front of the house, the front door opened. To his pleasant surprise he saw Catherine emerge from the house carrying a laundry basket. She stopped in her tracks and stood still while she stared at Telly. "Hello Catherine." Telly said after a few seconds. "It is Catherine. Right?" "Yeah. It's Catherine. I guess Big Bill told you?" "Yeah, he told me." "Well he never could keep his big, fat, stupid mouth shut. You're in my way." "Sorry..." Telly said as he moved out of the way. "So where are you going?' "To do the laundry, duh." Catherine said as she walked away. Telly turned and started following her. "So where do you do the laundry, Catherine?" "There's a house over here that no one lives in, and it has a washing machine and a dryer." Catherine replied. "So how long have you lived here?" "Since The Move. Just like you. Just like everybody." "So where's your family?" "I don't know. Who cares?" "I don't really understand what The Move is." "That's because you're one of The Lost. I can't stand talking to you people because you're too stupid to realize what's totally obvious." Catherine then crossed the street and entered a vacant house by it's rear door, which was unlocked. Telly followed her inside. There was a washer and dryer sitting in the vacant living room. Catherine opened the lid and began putting laundry into the washing machine. "So what is it that's so totally obvious that I'm missing?" "You woke up today, right?" "I...I don't know." "Well you're awake now. Right?" "Yes...I guess..." "So why don't you know that you woke up today when you're awake right now?" "I...I don't know..." Catherine took a box of Tide that was sitting next to the washing machine and poured some of the powder into the washing machine. "See? This is why I can't stand talking to you people. You don't know anything. Even if someone explained everything to you from the beginning, it would be as though they were speaking Chinese or something." She then turned on the washing machine and water could be heard rushing into it. "I'm sorry...I can't help it..." Telly said. He was starting to feel one of his narcoleptic episodes coming. "Look, do you see that over there?" Catherine said as she pointed behind him. Telly turned around, and in the floor of the vacant dining room, was a round opening about the size of a manhole that was filled to the top with water. "Yes." Telly said as his eyes blinked open and closed. "You have to jump into it." "Why?" "Ughhh...'why' `why' `why' ! That's all you know how to say!" Just jump into it. Jump into it now!" "I'm not jumping in unless I know why!" Telly yelled. He could feel the attack fully coming in, and the surrounding room was fading into black. "Goddammit because you have to! Don't worry! It'll take you wherever you want to go!" Catherine's voice echoed through his head. He then felt her push him from behind and he plunged into the dark water with a splash. Less than a second later he was sitting on a front porch facing a deserted street. The sun was setting in the west and he was sitting on the porch with several other people. To his left, on the ground by the porch, was a similar round opening filled with water. He then heard a woman coughing next to him. He quickly turned and saw Connie Garko sitting by him. She was sitting on the porch in a pair of jean shorts and t-shirt, smoking a cigarette. "Hey Connie." Telly said. "Oh. Hi Telly. Good to see you again." She said in a heavy New Jersey accent as she drew on her cigarette again. She was in her early fifties, blonde, and had freckles all over her face. She, her husband, daughter, grandson, and son in law had been his next door neighbors once. "So where's Max?" Telly asked. Max was Connie's husband. "Who knows? Who cares?" Connie replied. Just then one of the other people on the porch got up. It was Joey, Connie's four year old grandson. He was wearing a t-shirt and a dirty pair of underwear. "Grammy I have to go inside." The boy said. "Do you have to go potty?" She asked. The boy nodded in affirmation. "Hi Jo Jo." Telly smiled at the boy with a wave. "Hi Telly" The boy smiled and waved as he pronounced Telly's name "Terry". He then turned and rushed into the house. The other two people on the porch were a woman with black hair who was talking loudly to a bearded man who bore a striking resemblance to the man whom Telly saw climbing up the side of his house earlier. "Who are they?" Telly asked Connie. "How the hell should I know?" She replied apathetically. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing here." "If you don't know why you're here then you need to go somewhere else." She said as she flicked her cigarette out into the road. "So I need to go back in there?" Telly asked while pointing to the hole ion the ground with the water. "You can if you want but I wouldn't. Those water portals are bullshit. They only take you where you think you want to go. They don`t take you where you need to be." Connie replied. "There's a creek out back!" The black haired woman replied loudly as she got up. "It'll work much better! Come on! I'll show you!" She then grabbed Telly by his hand and they ran to the back of the house. Behind the house was a small creek. It was rocky and had an unpleasant smell. "So what am I supposed to do?" "Go into the creek and run! Run! Run as fast as you can! When you can't go any faster, then dive in!" "But it looks shallow." "It doesn't matter! As soon as you can run no faster, then dive in! Dive in head first! Go ! GO! Run!" The woman laughed. Telly stepped into the creek and started running as fast as he could as the woman laughed and cheered behind him. All around him were tires, rocks, old books, bottles, and the odd diaper or two. As soon as he could run no faster, he dived head first towards a group of rocks. He then found himself in the hallway of a house. He could smell dinner cooking in the kitchen. A large Doberman Pinscher came into the hallway, saw Telly, and turned around and fled in fear. Telly could sense that he did not belong in this house, and didn't know the people, so he snuck out of the house as quickly and as quietly as he could. Outside he found himself on a street. Houses and shops lined both sides while passerby scurried past him. Cars and a couple of busses lumbered slowly down the street. He crossed the street and began walking down the sidewalk towards a group of about ten people who stood watching something on the sidewalk in a circle. When Telly approached the group, he saw that they were all surrounding a colorfully dressed man who was selling items out of a large trunk that he had. He was a blond man in his twenties, stocky and slightly overweight with acne and stringy blond hair that went down just to his shoulders. He was wearing a pork pie hat, a collared shirt, and a pair of shorts and sneakers, all of which were colorfully tie-dyed. He was pulling various items out of his trunk as he spoke to the crowd in a high pitched carnival huckster- like prattle. The items ranged from tire irons to cheap perfume to an actual brick of pure gold. "Ladies and gentleman! I present to you! A bottle of the finest perfume ever to be produced in Tangiers! A fine gift for your ladies and a pleasant surprise for your gentleman!" The peddler barked as he held up a small bottle of perfume with an atomizer attached to it. "It's piss!" A man in the crowd laughed. "Au Contraire my good Sir! This is of the rarest and the finest quality! It was the private stock of an actual Sultan with a harem of twenty! Only this and this alone, was good enough for his lusty flock! Perhaps it can have the same effect for you!" The crowd laughed as the peddler held the bottle out to the man. "Okay I'll take it. What do you want for it?" "You may have this as a personal gift from me! Just be aware that I may require a favor from you in the future!" "Don't do it!" A black man in the crowd warned. The peddler scowled as he handed the perfume to the man. "Pay no attention to my sable friend here! He is still mad about his losses to me in a game of chance!" "All of you, walk away now while you still can! You can't trust Tans Hansell as far as you can throw him! I trusted him once too! Save yourselves from his web of deceit!" The Black Man shouted to the crowd. Telly then realized that this was the Tans Hansell that Big Bill had spoken of. The crowd all smiled at each other and half of them walked off. "Well thanks a lot! You ruined my sale!" Hansell shouted at The Black Man. "Don't worry, Tans. You still have all these other pigeons. They're probably Lost. You can sell them anything, they`re so goddam spaced out and clueless." The Black Man replied. Telly looked around him. There were several other men and women besides himself who had stayed around. They all had blank expressions, a couple were smiling, and one woman appeared to be having a narcoleptic attack like the one's he had. "You, Sir!" Hansell said to Telly with his arms out. "You look as though you are in need! What is that I can provide for you/ Would you like a house? Or a car? Perhaps an item or two from my trunk?" "Oh sure, go for the stupidest looking one." The Black Man said. "No...I...I... don't really need anything now." "Oh come come! Everyone needs something! I can provide whatever it is that you want. Just ask! If it's not in my trunk, I still may be able to provide!" "I...I want Catherine to like me..." "Catherine is a sweet girl! I would like to have her myself! However, she belongs to Big Bill. They might not be lovers, but they are as tied together as is possible to be! Catherine does all the chores in that house. She cares for the children, she does the laundry, she cooks, she makes sure that Bill always has a cold beer on hand! She will never part from that! " Tans Hansell replied. "Hey Man! Did you really just try to get Tans Hansell to pimp for you? " The Black Man laughed. The rest of the crowd laughed to except for the woman, who collapsed unconscious onto the pavement. "You ask me for something that I cannot provide." Tans said. Telly looked down sadly at the pavement, turned and walked away. As he walked off he heard Tans coming up behind him. "Wait! Wait good Sir! " Telly turned around and saw Tans standing next to him. "Here, take this!" Hansell then put a small object in his hand about the size of a golf ball. It was wrapped in wax paper. Telly opened it and saw a burnt, carbonized object. It looked like a piece of metal that had subjected to extreme heat. "What is this?" "It's what you need. You don't realize it now, but you will." Telly then watched as Hansell turned around and returned to the crowd, shouting and pitching like a carnival barker. Telly looked at the peddler , then back down to the object, which he placed into his pocket. He then turned around and began walking away in the direction he had been going in before. He soon got past the buildings and saw that he was in a big traffic circle. Beyond he could see that all the roadways were choked with cars that weren't moving. Some of the cars had been abandoned, some on the road and others off. People were wondering around in a daze. It was then that he realized that he had to walk home. He turned in the direction of where he was pretty sure his neighborhood was, and started threading his way through the abandoned cars and the dazed passerby. End Of III

rabu 21 11 12

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selasa 20 11 12

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minggu 18 11 12

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satrus

chaCHA zona jeffry aku tidak pintar berburu. aku hanya bisa menunggu. aku tak tahu bgmn mrk bertiga masuk dlm hidupku. kunikmati kebersamaan mrk hanya sekejap saja. aku tak tahu bgmn mendatangkan mereka kembali. aku hanya berharap tuhan bekerja dengan caranya agar menjodohkan mereka bertiga denganku. sdh berapa tahun aku bergentayangan di dunia ini? sdh berapa kali aku tapah hati? tapi tak pernah kurasakan yg seperti ini. sakitnya ruar binasa. aku harus memperbaiki fisik ragaku agar semua org itu takluk dlm pelukanku. cintai aku seperti aku mencintaimu hambakan aku seperti aku menghambamu aaku takkan pernah selesai mencintaimu ccinta ini takkan habis oleh waktu hanya tuhan yang tahu aaku akan selalu menunggumu zina tak lagi mengobati lluka orang tak lagi indah di mata nikmat tak lagi terasa aaku hanya mendamba jangan kau tinggalkan aku eengkaulah seluruhku fana tak llagi kupunya fikir tak lagi kurasa rrasa yang semua sirna yyang mana yang terus mendamba

A Very Educational Game

AwesomeDude Home Gee Whillickers Home

by Gee Whillickers g.whillickers@gmail.com This little story was inspired by a question in the Awesomedude.com forums about how you can tell if someone likes you. I decided to answer this way. Hope you like it. "Yeah, but how do I know?" repeated Luke to his friend Byron lying beside him on the living room floor. Luke's fingers continued to dance over the XBox360 controller, "It's not like I can just go up and ask him. It's just so unfair!" Luke punctuated this last with a nice headshot on his enemy. Luke's brother Jared, sitting behind them at the dining room table, heard the enemy, who sounded like he was about ten years old, say a very bad word through the XBox Live interface. Jared wondered if his little brother had remembered to turn his mic off. The kid he just killed might be getting a bit more schooling than he bargained for. Jared tried to ignore his brother and friend, and turned to the next page of his calculus book. "I dunno,” answered Byron, “you just know, I think.” He seemed to be having no more difficulty than Luke playing the game while engaging in what was, for thirteen year olds, a rather heavy conversation. "Easy for you to say. You like girls. With boys it's different," Luke said. Then he said, "Fuck!" which had nothing to do with the conversation and everything to do with the fact that he just got blown into about four thousand and eight little bloody pieces by the ten year old, who had apparently re-spawned. They could hear the little guy giggling through the speakers. Jared continued to ignore them, swearing and all. "Aren't you guys supposed to have, whaddyacallit, gaydar?" asked Byron. "Nah, I think that's just something on TV. So, how do you know when a girl likes you, Byron?" Byron's fingers mashed a button or two before he replied, "Well, I dunno...you just do!" Jared couldn't stand it anymore. He closed his calculus book loud enough to get the younger boys' attention. "Well, since obviously a guy can't actually study around here," he pretended to glare at them, "I might as well let you guys know all the tricks to getting laid...errr, I mean to finding true love." Byron and Luke grinned at Jared, their attention drawn away from their game. "Think about it guys. Use your heads. You already know more about this than you think. What does someone do when they like you?" Byron and Luke looked at each other. Luke said, "I dunno. I guess they don't avoid you?" Byron giggled. Jared rolled his eyes. "Don't think negative, think positive. What do they do?" "Well," said Byron slowly, thinking out loud, "I suppose I can tell if a girl likes me because she seems to be around me more, and then...yeah...they usually giggle a lot more than usual, and smile a lot. And, like, make lots of eye contact. And laugh at my jokes. And want to talk to me and listen to me." "Nobody laughs at your jokes, doofus," said Luke with a shove. "Do too!" answered Byron with a shove back at his friend. "See, told you that you already knew," said Jared. "So, then, what about you, Luke? How do you know if a boy likes you?" Luke blushed a bit, but answered, "Well, I dunno. Maybe, I guess, it might be kinda the same?" "Bingo!" said Jared, standing up. "Think about it. If this boy, whoever he is, likes you then you watch for that stuff. Eye contact. Blushing and smiling. Laughing more than usual. Going out of his way to spend time around you. Doing little nice things, like picking up your pencil when you drop it, before you can. Stuff like that. If he's doing that, then do the same back. See what happens." "Isn't that, like, flirting?" asked Byron. "Bingo again. Told ya you know. Now, Luke, it's maybe a bit harder for you." Jared ignored the younger boys' giggle at intentionally taking that comment the wrong way. "Not that kind of harder, numbskulls. I mean, harder because you not only don't know if he likes you, you don't know if he's gay. But still, I'd think it's much the same thing. At least Drew seems to think it is." Drew, Luke and Byron knew, was Jared's best friend. And he was gay too. "When you flirt long enough, the flirting tends to get a bit more, uh, flirty. More obvious. Usually obvious enough that someone feels safe enough to take a risk to ask the other person out. Or whatever." Luke and Byron laughed at the 'whatever.' "Now," Jared finished. "Forget that game. Let's go into the kitchen for some ice-cream." All three boys got up and began walking towards the kitchen, just as a voice came from the speakers behind. A ten-year-old voice. "Thanks guys! That was a very educational game." Then more giggling. All three boys looked at each, then said in unison, "Fuck!" AwesomeDude Home Gee Whillickers Home http://www.awesomedude.com/gee_whillickers/a_very_educational_game.htm

kamis 15 11 12

pg dijemput untung- k pedurungan jemput dian- k ponorogo by mobil- sarapan d solo- mpe ponorogo beli sate n pecel- jemput eyang- balik k smg- diner d salatiga- alhamdulilah selamat mepe smg- walo kesenggol bis- trus pertama kali lewat tol ungaran- pertama kali lewat jalur tawangmangu- thx u lord-

rabu 14 11 12

pg k wrg- k unaki- thx u lord- siang k kos- k putu- k lela- k mol nyari powerbb, spatu, kado buat mhssw- k gramed- k es krim floria- k kos- k putu- thx u lord- mlm k burjo- thx u lord-

selasa 13 11 12

pg k wrg- k unaki- thx u lord- siang k kunci- k kos- k unimus- ngajar- maksi- ngajar- thx u lord- sore k alfa- thx u lord-

[Halloo!]

I'd been shopping, though it was more to get out of the house for a breath of fresh air and a walk than a real shopping expedition. I'd ambled around the second-hand-come-antique emporium, then gone on to the co-op and bought a couple of packets of half-price biscuits. From there I'd popped into the Azmart, a shop run by a nice bunch of Iraqis who had come to England to escape the war. They offered halal meat, had shelves stacked with Arabic labelled what-have-yous which seemed to me to be very exotic, and cheap smuggled cigarettes. Jamy - probably not his name, but the approximation we'd agreed on - grinned at me, his gold tooth glinting devilishly, as he handed me a packet of blue face lights. Grinning back, I waved goodbye and wandered up to the seat on the public plaza where I settled down to people-watch. As daylight faded into twilight time they came and went: couples hand in hand, kids in tribes, dealers, panhandlers, skateboarders, reprobates, upright sorts and all the others. From maudlin mothers holding screaming kids with push chairs carrying more, to those indefinable hard to place members of the human race. If you spent enough time they all moseyed by, sooner or later. From the pretty to the drear, from the outrageous to the mere normal. I found it entertaining to create stories about them, to pick individuals, mould their characters and have them play out scenes that would curl toes - though truly only they and their gods knew their lives and what they got up to behind closed doors. People-watching is endlessly fascinating, though had it been colder I might not have stayed as long. Nonetheless, eventually, it started to get cold and I was thinking of leaving when my phone chirruped. I pulled it out, saw it was an email and was about to read it when someone sat down close beside me, right within my personal space. The seat was circular, set around the base of a young stunted tree that, because of its location amid unseen traffic fumes, was probably never going to grow and mature. Curious as to who would be crass enough to sit that close, I glanced at the person beside me and saw a young man. Maybe late teens; maybe early twenties. He was angled away from me, intently looking down the high street. Then he turned. He looked directly at me, and smiled. "Odd, isn't it?" "What?" I replied, frowning as I hadn't meant to be spotted looking. After a drawn-out moment, during which my frown faded and his smile became a grin, he answered. "Humanity, of course. Humanity, with all its foibles, angst, and peccadilloes. So vibrant and exciting, yet seemingly half asleep." He nodded at me, his grin fading. I liked his grin. I liked that he'd talked to me, and wanted more. I cleared my throat. "Have we met before? You seem… somehow familiar." "We might have. But if we haven't, we have now," he said as he got to his feet and walked away down the street towards the station. I say 'got to his feet,' but it was more that he was sitting and then he was standing. Instantaneously. Open mouthed I watched him go, then, unable to stop myself, I stood up and followed. I was drawn. Utterly, viscerally: as if I'd met an adult Pied Piper. I felt that if I didn't follow I'd be making a cataclysmic mistake. Yet if I did…. The street lights flickered as they came on, casting long shadows behind those walking up from the station. Still, I could see him in the near distance and I wasn't worried as it seemed I was catching him up. Then he vanished. I stopped, blinked to clear my eyesight, then walked across the pavement to look from a different angle. A crowd of revellers spilled out of a pub to the right, their laughter counterpoint to the distress that now swamped me. It was ludicrous. I didn't know him; hadn't even met him, yet there was something…. I jumped as, with a clatter, the metal shutters on the newsagent's window beside me slammed down. "Are you alright, sir?" the elderly newsagent asked. He looked concerned. "Yes, yes I'm fine." I said and began walking again, aware the old man was following me with his eyes. I'd not gone two steps before he called after me. "Be careful sir." I stopped and turned around. It seemed an incongruous thing for him to say. Now, the newsagent was looking worried and kept glancing past me, up the street towards the station, towards where the young man had vanished. "Careful? Of what?" I asked. "Him." The old man said. "Him. But if you must, be honest. Please, be honest. He plays around the corner shop." I turned to look. When I turned back the newsagent had gone inside, the small metal entrance door in the shutters was closed, and the shop's light, that had spilled cheerily onto the pavement, was reduced from a sliver to darkness. Crossing back to the side of the road where I'd last seen him I walked on toward the station, the desire to get home warring with an ever growing and urgent need to see him again. "Halloo!" the young man said, stepping out of the corner shop like a surreally beautiful jack-in-a-box, and standing in front of me. "Want to come on a journey?" He quirked an eyebrow. He wasn't entirely blocking my path so I looked at him briefly, caught the slight smile and twinkling cerulean eyes, before I side-stepped and stumbled on towards the station. I hadn't gone five steps before I was inwardly cursing my stupidity. I stopped. Stopped and stood, feeling foolish as I began to shake with emotion. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to dance and sing and cry with joy; yet above all these I wanted to turn on my heel and scream, 'YES! I want to journey with you.' Roiling emotions were crucifying me. I felt them physically, my heart pounding in anticipation and clenched in the pain of certain truth. Eventually - a second, a minute, an hour? I know not - I chose, and turned. Slowly, frightened, but determined to face what I realised was my innate nature - which seemed to include an unquestionable and raging desire for this total stranger. The street was gone. He stood bathed in ethereal light, his wings wrapped around his naked body like an open overcoat, revealing more than was decent, his foot tapping in irritation. "Jesus Christ, Jack. Here we are again. How many turns of the goddamn wheel will it take you to realise who you are? How many times are we going to trip the light fantastic and play this game, Jack? Hmm?" "I got there in the end." I muttered. "Yes, I suppose you did. Too late though," he said, as he took my hand. "Maybe next time." * * * Together, they watched from their flat above the paper shop as a ball of coruscating light flew heavenward. Shortly afterwards, amid a crowd of gawping onlookers, a gurney was loaded into an ambulance, its flashing lights turning the end of the street disco. "Heart attack," the shopkeeper said to the newsagent. "Mmm, maybe," the newsagent mused. "Maybe. 'To each in their own time,' that's what he told me." "Pardon?" The shopkeeper said. "Oh, nothing, sweetheart," the newsagent murmured, as he leant over and gently kissed his beloved on the lips. Yet again many thanks to C.P., my ever patient editor. He rawks, though he'd deny it. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone - I'm mean like that! Please consider donating a little dosh to keep AwesomeDude.com alive. As most of us are skint I know it's difficult. But the price of a couple of beers, once in a blue moon, isn't a lot for such a wonderful place to hang out. Or, you could buy a copy of Midnight Dude in either paperback or eBook. The proceeds go directly to help the site AND you get a great book to read! Donate HERE - paypal button at the top of the page on the left. Buy Midnight Dude HERE Oh wow! look! It's a blue moon! ;) * * * Feedback would really be appreciated! Either in the AwesomeDude forums or, if you'd like to, please email me. HOME © Camy Sussex - all rights reserved http://www.awesomedude.com/camy/halloo/index.php