Silent, The Party And After

Two Years Earlier, Gavin

A pretty rubbish party all round. Kids throwing up or making out in corners. Moody hoodies.  Philippa's  secretive behaviour.  And now all this with Terence Harlesden's sons, Steve and Scott.

I felt drunk, dizzy. So cold. Dripping rain. The sea making loads of noise in the background, like a monster coming to get me.  Mist on my breath. Fingers frozen. Toes.  Monster toes. And that awful déjà vu again... been here before, lying on the floor of an old fairground...people laughing, jeering.

I must have dozed off. I stood up. The fairground was empty now, apart from a trio of hoodies hunched down on the floor in a group hug. Philippa had gone and I couldn't see Steve's brother Scott either.

I felt this tap on my foot. Glanced down. Another little kid in a hoodie grinning at me. Younger than Steve and his mate.

'What do you want?' I said.

'I'm Pete,' the little boy said. 'Scott and Steve's brother. Yeeeh,' he squealed, and jumped on me.  

***
One o'clock in the morning. The return walk to the House was dream-like. Pete told me he'd climbed out of his bedroom window to get to the party. He insisted on walking me to Lyme House, even though I told him to go home.  He didn't say much on the way. He seemed to be in a sulk about something.  Another little kid appeared, although I couldn't remember when exactly. They walked either side of me, sharing a cigarette. They offered me drags on their cigarettes. No, cheers, I told them.  The boys couldn't have been any older than nine or ten, but I was used to this sort of thing from last summer spent on a south London estate when kids of all ages had roamed the streets at all hours, their parents uninterested.

Back at the House, we all banged fists and they ran off. I continued on down the long driveway, pausing suddenly.  

A sound. Like crying. Coming from the wooden shelter in the Remembrance Garden at the back of Lyme House.

I went to investigate.

The honey-blonde waitress Philippa and I had seen by the sea railings earlier.  Hunched over a phone, wiping away tears.

'Are you okay?'

'Do I look okay?' she said.

'I'm sorry.' I stood there silently, like an idiot. 'Okay  if I sit down?'

'Suit yourself,' the honey blonde waitress said.

I sat next to her. 'I saw you by the railings earlier. I went over but...'

She started to cry again. 'I was waiting for Arthur but he really upset me...'

'What?' Weird.  I'd just come back from a party where I'd met two of Arthur's grandsons, Scott and Pete.

'Nothing,' the girl said. 'I'm just a bit upset. Forget what I said.'

'Hey, what's up?'

'Isn't it obvious?' she said. 'This place. I hate it.'

'Yeah, me too. Everyone's mad here, aren't they?'

'Everyone. Apart from you and me.' She giggled. 'You're quite cute.'

'What?' I said, taken aback.

'Like a teddy bear.'  

More giggling. The girl rested her head on my shoulder.

We spent a while like this, neither of us speaking.