"I know what you mean." He listened to the drone of city centre traffic drifting over the wasteland and abandoned houses waiting for demolition. "It'll be good, a fresh start."
"Do you think it will work out?"
"I know it will." He wondered if he could tell her why he was so sure; saying it out loud made even him feel like he was crazy; and he'd been through it. "Come on, let's walk." He took her hand and began to lead her in the direction of the house.
She looked uncomfortable. "Your dad-"
"He's at one of his meetings, wishing we still had an empire."
The familiar streets were thankfully empty, adding to the wonderful illusion that they were the only people left in the world. Away from the wasteland the air was a little fresher. They turned down the hill from the imposing big houses towards the line of pokey semis where Lee had lived all his life. It felt odd to think he might not walk down there again. He'd miss his mum, and Kelly, but not Mick; he'd be happy if he never heard Mick's voice again.
"When are you thinking of going?" Sunita asked.
"Now. Tonight."
"Oh."
He couldn't tell her that his stepdad's beetle-browed cronies might act after they'd finished their rebel-rousing for the night. They had to be as far away as possible from Brum before everything blew up. But even though he didn't say anything, he could tell from Sunita's response to the tight deadline that she understood the dangers.
"Mum and Dad will understand," she said confidently. "I'll call them once we're on the road. They'll be asleep when I get back to pack. Though you know, things aren't so different between us. They both wish I was with a boy who knew the Koran back to front."
He shrugged, said nothing. There were always too many people wanting to interfere in everybody's life.
Sunita slipped her arm through his and gave it a squeeze. "We'll never be able to agree on the music for the car, you know. There'll be me with my Groove Armada and Basement Jaxx and you with some ancient old toss like The Redskins or one of those other old fogey bands you like. I don't know how you got into all that stuff. Most of them were playing before you were born."
"You've got to appreciate the past to know where you're going."
"You've been reading books again, haven't you? I told you it was bad for you." She smiled, but it drained away once she realised they were standing outside his home. Over the year her imagination had turned it into some kind of nightmarish haunted house, the place where all bad things originated. Even on the few times she'd been into the empty place there'd been an unpleasant atmosphere mingled in with the cheap cigarette smoke and smell of fried food. "Are you sure he's not in?"
"He never misses a meeting." Lee led her round the side of the house. The small back garden was in darkness; a few items of clothing still fluttered on the washing line.
"What about your mum and Kelly?"
"They'll have stopped off for a drink after the bingo."
"Lee, why are you bringing me here?"
"There's something I want to show you. To put your mind at rest."
"About what?"
"That everything'll be all right." She still seemed unsure, so he took her hand and tugged her towards the shed in the shadows near the rear fence. It was much larger than average. Mick had put it up when he was thinking about breeding racing pigeons, but he'd never got round to that, like so many other things in his life.
"You don't want to get down to it here one more time, do you?" she said with a sly smile.
"Wait and see." They stepped into the darkness of the shed and its familiar smell of turps and engine oil. He took her hand and waited a couple of seconds before saying in a clear voice, "Come out. It's me."
In the dark Sunita looked at him in puzzlement; she could feel his hand growing clammy. "Who are you talking to?"
He hushed her anxiously. He kept his gaze fixed firmly on the back of the shed and when he didn't get whatever response he had been expecting, he tried again, a little more insistently. Still nothing. "Please," he said finally. "This is Sunita. I told you about her. She's okay, you know that."
He waited for another moment and then sighed. "We better go," he said reluctantly.
Outside, she gave him a peck on the cheek. "It's a good job I love mad people. Now are you going to tell me-"
"You better not laugh!"
"Of course not."
"Promise?"
"I promise, idiot. Now get on with it."
He bowed his head with the odd, wincing expression which she knew signalled deep embarrassment. "It started a couple of weeks ago. I kept hearing noises in the shed."
"Noises?"
"Yes, you know… voices. They kept chattering in there. I thought some smackheads had broken in, but every time I went to check there was no one in there."
"Ooh, spooky!"
"Yeah, that's what I thought. But then last week there was someone there."
Sunita eyed him askance, trying to predict the punchline. "Who was it?"
He rubbed his chin, obviously not wanting to continue. Finally he said, "Do you believe in fairies?"
"Fairies?" She burst out laughing.
"You said you weren't going to laugh!"
"Sorry, but… You can't be serious!"
He looked away grumpily.
"Okay, go on!" she said, tugging at his sleeve. "What did they look like?"
"They looked like fairies! Well, a fairy. Small, pointed ears, green clothes. It was just like one I'd seen on a book I had when I was a lad."
It took him another ten minutes to get her to take him seriously, but eventually she accepted it. "Okay, there's been a lot of strange stuff going on all over. If you say fairies, I believe fairies," she said, bemused. "So there are, really and truly, fairies at the bottom of the garden."
"I don't know why I even bother with you," he sighed. "Just listen then, if you're not going to believe me. I tell you, I thought I was going loopy to start with, but every time I went in, there he was, so I had to accept it. And we started talking." He snorted with laughter at the ridiculousness of the idea. "I told him all about you, about my dad, about… well, everything."
"I bet he had a good fairy laugh at all that," she said bitterly.
"No, actually. He said his people always looked after young lovers. 'Simpletons and those in love,' that's what he said." He laughed. "Same thing, I suppose. Anyway, I told him I was going to leave town and he said not to worry, everything was going to be all right for us."
"So where was he just?"
Lee looked troubled. "I don't know. He's been in there every time I've been in recently. Maybe he doesn't appear if there's more than one person…" His voice faded away as he recognised how stupid he sounded. "Or maybe all the stuff with Mick really has turned my brain to jelly."
"Jelly boy!" She danced a few steps ahead before he could pinch her; instead he swore forcefully. "Okay, okay!" she laughed. "But there's one thing I never could quite work out as a girl. Can you really trust fairies?"
From the darkened lounge Mick Jonas watched his stepson and the Paki bitch step into the shed, obviously for a quick touch-up, and he was still watching when they headed back towards the road. He quickly switched on his mobile phone and hit the speed dial. "They're on their way now," he said in his thick Birmingham accent. "Follow 'em till they're outside Brum then get 'em off the road. You can do what you like to the cunt, but just give our Lee a good fucking hiding. Teach him a lesson." He listened to the voice on the other end for a second, then added, "If you want to use a can of fucking petrol on her, pal, you do it. Just make sure Lee doesn't get burned up. The old woman would kill me."
He switched off the phone and lit a cigarette before lowering his overweight frame into the frayed armchair he had made his own. He felt a triumphant burst, that he'd got one over on his lefty, Paki-loving stepson who thought he was so fucking superior. But Mick had seen him sneak the suitcase out and store it in the boot of his old banger. He knew what the little shit was planning.