When Mackenzie was laid up with flu I kicked around with Stevie but I was bored pretty quickly. After pummelling him a dozen times and beating him at every race, I lost interest. I liked Stevie, but it didn’t work just the two of us and Devil. We needed Mac. He brought out the best in us.
Stevie and I were just sitting on a wall, kicking our feet, and I was all wound up, like I could just shoot off into the sky like a rocket. I kicked the wall and looked at Stevie, thinking maybe I could pummel him again, but got bored the moment I thought of it.
‘When, Stevie? When d’ya reckon Mac’ll be better?’
He didn’t respond, just shook his head. He was staring over at some kids playing Buttons. He had this faraway look in his eyes. It hadn’t occurred to me that Stevie could be just as sick of me as I was of him.
We kicked the wall some more, then he was gone. Just a vague ‘I’m just gonna—’ and he was running down the street to the Button kids.
I didn’t know what to do, so I got down and circled them, looking all aloof and too mature for it, but then I muscled in.
‘You kids can’t throw for shit.’
I got beaten by this little runt of a kid, a kid even runtier than me, with shit-hot aim. Stevie, he seemed to be enjoying himself, even won a few buttons. I just huffed and scuffed my feet and thought about pummelling the runtier-than-me kid but couldn’t really be bothered in the end. Instead, I just ruffled his hair like David did with me, but he didn’t even pay me attention.
‘Kid, you can’t throw for shit,’ I said, drawling it out like some cowboy in the movies, but no one was listening and Devil was all laid out in the street in the sun snoring like some old man.
‘When d’ya reckon Mac’ll be better, eh?’
No one was listening and I’d had enough of these runtier-than-me kids. I left Stevie to it, winning his buttons, finally good at something. I heard later that he got really into it and cut off all the buttons on his parent’s clothes, even his dad’s Sunday best. He got a hiding for that, so he stopped playing Buttons and came back to our den like nothing had happened, bringing some scrumped apples like a peace offering and trying to tell a story about how he got captured by Martians.
Devil and I, we just wandered down the street, leaving them to their buttons. I thought maybe I could find David and we could go see a film, but he wasn’t home. He worked fixing cameras at weekends so I took Devil along to see if David was there, but he was busy. He pressed some money into my hand and said get lost, Goblin, I’m working, and he winked at me and I left.
‘Just you and me, eh kid?’ I said to Devil with my cowboy drawl.
David had given me enough for the cinema, so I thought I’d go to the matinee but it was just some romance so we went to the Underground instead.
‘Let’s go on an adventure, Devil. Let’s explore and find treasures.’
We often skipped the tickets, never got caught. I could ride for hours on the Underground, hopping on and off, sitting in the station watching all the people.
We caught a train to Kensal Green. Pigeon had told me all about the cemetery, so off we got and off we went, exploring.
As we walked through the grand entranceway, under the arch, there was a change in the air and I felt a bit sick with the heavy smell of flowers.
‘This is the in-between realm.’
I walked on, pretending like I was monarch of this in-between realm, returning after years of exile to claim my throne. Devil bound down the path, chasing shadows and squirrels.
‘Devil, you’re ruining it. How can I be a snooty king when you’re showing me up?’
I followed Devil and we were lost among the gravestones, turning down one path, then another and another. I kept to the shade, the trees providing shelter from the late afternoon sun. I looked out across the gravestones with their ivy armour and wild flowers erupting between them, insects shimmering in the sunlight.
Devil leapt across the path ahead of me, chasing a squirrel, the squirrel’s arching jumps besting Devil’s sloppy leaps. It spiralled up a tree, leaving Devil below, barking, whining.
‘Ssshh! You’ll wake the dead.’
Devil lost interest in the squirrel and worried a bumble bee tumbling drunkenly on the path. I pulled him away and we walked further into the cemetery. We came to a big path that led to a pillared building. Devil cantered ahead of me and I walked towards it, feeling my skin tingle. We ran up the stairs and between the pillars, reaching the door. I pulled on it, but it was locked. We explored the outside of the building, running down a pillared corridor. I weaved my way in and out of the columns, chasing Devil who easily out-ran me. He suddenly stopped, snuffling and scratching at something. I caught up to him, ready to save him from a sting, but it wasn’t a bee, it was a foot.
‘You found treasure,’ I said.
I lifted it. Devil pawed at me, before catching the sound of a leaf scuffling down the path in the breeze. He jumped on it, looking up at me with pride. I smiled at him and cradled the foot in the palm of my hand. It looked like a crow’s foot. The leg bone had been stripped clean. The foot arched neatly, each toe ending in sharp, glinting talons. I decided it was a magic thing that would protect me and give me powers. I clutched it in my hand and wandered after Devil. We left the pillared building and headed to the cemetery boundary. I pushed Devil on to the wall and climbed up after him. The canal lay below, the sunset injecting it with orange and reds.
‘The water runs red, Devil-dog. It’s red with the blood of the enemies of this in-between realm.’
Devil jumped down and threw himself into the water. I stayed on the wall; I didn’t know how to swim. I watched Devil as he followed the ducks who snapped at him and launched themselves into the air, leaving him behind in seconds. Darkness fell, turning the water black.
‘It’s the time of water snakes, Devil-dog. We must go, or they’ll pull us down to drown in the darkness.’
I coaxed him out and we went back into the cemetery, Devil dripping water along the paths.
We slept there that night and many other nights. I kept a treasure box in one of the mausoleums, a box full of old coins, dried up worms, the crow foot, David’s teeth, a teddy bear, pigeon wings, an old broken doll I found in the street, and little things I had sneaked from ma; old jewellery, needles and thread, discarded make-up, a half-empty cigarette pack. We returned again and again, but never told Mac or Stevie. This was our world. We were the Goblin and Devil of Kensal Green.
After the first night we spent in Kensal Green, Groo was waiting for us in my bedroom. Groo was around one year old and belonged to Mr Fenwick, my neighbour. Mr Fenwick was from Scotland. He’d fought in The Great War and had stayed in London when he returned from the front. That’s all us neighbours knew about him, as he was a right curmudgeon and would mostly grunt at you if you asked him anything about his life. Mr Fenwick hadn’t given Groo a name, just called her The Cat. He said he got her to catch mice and rats, but she was useless. I named her. I called her Groo, short for ‘groomer’, short for ‘terror groomer’ because she terrorised Devil. She loved him, but at first I wasn’t quite sure and neither was Devil. She’d come round a lot, sneaking in a window, or brushing past you at the door so quickly and silently you weren’t even sure it was her or a mischievous breeze tickling your skin. ‘That’s sure no breeze,’ I’d say to Devil as we went into our room and found her on the bed, waiting. Devil would join her, tired from a day of adventure and they’d curl up together. I’d try to find some space to lie down and read my book, my limbs tangled up amongst paws and tails. I’d read, listening to their huffy snores and I’d drift off to the rhythm. Waking up in the middle of the night, I’d find David had put a blanket on me and Devil was sat at the end of the bed, his ears pinned back, his eyes wide with worry as Groo groomed him. If he moved an inch, she’d hiss and lash out and he’d settle back down with a whine.