‘Maybe.’
‘It is.’
‘Probably.’
‘It’s Nazis.’
‘Oi, you! Get out!’
I turned, spitting out of the side of my mouth. A man stomped towards us, carrying a shovel, sweat dripping.
‘What’re you up to, eh?’
I squinted up at him.
‘The Nazis have come,’ I said.
‘Get lost, boy. And you. That your dog? It’ll end up in here soon enough.’
I kicked his shin and spat at him, my saliva still mixed with sick. He took a swipe at me, but we ran, Mac swearing at him, calling him a fat German bastard. He just stood there, rubbing his leg, watching us run off.
‘The Germans have come.’
That’s what we told Stevie.
‘They’re spies. They’ll kill all our animals. You heard what he said about Devil, Mac. They’ll burn and bury them. They’ll release millions of rats and there won’t be any cats to eat the rats and they’ll spread a plague, like before, like back in the olden times.’
Stevie looked frightened.
‘I’m sick of your stories,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I’m just sick of them.’
‘It’s not a story,’ I said. ‘Look,’ I said.
I held out Ruby. I shook her, as if that proved something. Stevie backed off.
‘Get it away from me!’
‘It’s Ruby,’ I said. ‘The Nazis killed Ruby and all the other pets. It’s real, we saw. Eh, Mackenzie?’
Mac shrugged and said, ‘He looked like an ugly German but he didn’t sound it.’
‘I know, he’s a spy. He’ll have practiced our accent.’
‘Yeah, probably a spy.’
‘We’ll go back and we’ll take pictures and show everyone the Germans have come.’
‘I dunno,’ said Stevie.
‘They have our den. We can’t just let them kill animals and have our den and bring plague rats.’
‘Yeah,’ said Mac, ‘but who wants pictures, Goblin? We’ll capture him instead. How about that? We’ll go in and we’ll capture him!’
‘Ayaiaiaaaai!’ I yelled.
‘He sure looked a fat German bastard, a stupid rubbish German spy and we’ll get medals for finding him out, eh Goblin?’
‘For definite, Mac. Come on, Stevie, you gotta come. We’ll get medals, the three of us, and we’ll meet the king and eat in the palace, a huge feast for capturing the Germans and stopping the rat plague.’
Stevie still looked uncertain, but smiled. He joined in our war cries and bowed down before me as I laid a stick on each shoulder.
‘Sir Knight Stevie, Saviour of the Realm, Preventer of Rat Plague and Capturer of Fat German Bastards.’
He puffed out his skinny chest.
‘I salute thee,’ I said.
They both stood to attention.
‘I salute thee,’ they chorused.
‘But first we’ll leave Ruby at old Mrs Summers’ house.’
‘I thought you were going to bury her.’
‘I’m going to leave her on Mrs Summers’ step so she sees what the Nazis have done to her Ruby.’
I went into Mrs Summers’ garden, Mac and Stevie keeping Devil outside the gate so he wouldn’t make a fuss. I laid her down on the top step and said a short lizard prayer.
‘We’ll get those Nazi bastards,’ I said to Ruby. ‘I promise.’
I joined Mac, Devil and Stevie and we raised our sticks and ran for the worksite, yelling. On the way I saw my neighbour Miss Campbell in her garden with her dog Betty. I ran up to her gate.
‘Keep her safe, Miss Campbell!’ I yelled. ‘There’s Nazis killing the pets. You keep Betty safe.’
Miss Campbell looked startled as we ran by. The streets were emptying as the blackout darkness approached. By the time we reached our den we were tired out and the fat German bastard was gone. The fire had been extinguished and most of the animals had been thrown into a pit. Stevie looked sick.
‘I thought it was a story,’ he said. ‘I thought Ruby had been hit by a car or something.’
‘We told you the Germans had come,’ I said, and he nodded, looking up at me like he was just a little frightened kid. And he was. That’s all he was, all we should have been.
‘Come on, we’ll hunt the fat German bastard, we’ll hunt him down.’
I persuaded Stevie but I was deflated. I wanted to be back home, curled up on my bed, watching David smoke, listening to his records. I knew the fat German bastard must have gone and we should be gone too but I turned it into a game, another adventure story.
‘C’mon, Stevie.’
We heard voices coming from beyond the animal pit, behind a mound of rubble.
‘The Nazis,’ I said. ‘They’re still here.’
Stevie fidgeted, looking over to the worksite exit, barely visible as the sky darkened.
‘Creep,’ I said. ‘We’ll creep and sneak! Like spies, we’ll sneak up on the Nazis and we’ll capture them.’
Mac nodded, clasping his stick.
‘Ssssshhh!’ I said to Devil. ‘We’re being spies.’
He got down on his belly, mimicking us.
I knew Stevie wouldn’t come, so I said, ‘Stevie, you be lookout, okay? You just stay right here and you be lookout.’
He nodded, and we hunched down flat, creeping along the ground, Devil huffing by my side. We crept past the animal pit and round the mound and there they were, five Nazis.
I raised the camera and we fell like Alice down the rabbit hole tumbling in the darkness hail thee O lizards in the darkness in the depths hail thee who art in the darkness. In a moment, in a second, with a click, it was over.
Edinburgh, 16 July 2011
The phone rings and rings and rings and there’s Queen Isabella but she isn’t there she’s in London you’re in London not here not here in this room all shadows and dim orange light. I search the whole house on my hands and knees checking under beds in cupboards no whisky no whisky here or there and I lie on the floor watching spectre-Monsta, kerlumpscratch, kerlumpscratch, pretty monsta dead thing but you’re not here you’re in London buried dug up tagged and filed. You’re not here, Monsta, you’re evidence. I spy with my little eye in the darkness in the depths red wine buried in a cupboard and I feed myself one glass two and three. Back to my desk and here I sit and here I say I’m sorry Devil I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry.
London, 6 September 1939
I was trying to stem the blood flow and I needed to get away.
As I’d clicked the shutter there was a loud bang and I fell back as if slugged, unsure what I’d seen, unsure what had happened. Devil barked furiously and there were two bangs one after the other, a strangled whine on the final blast. I scrambled up and saw Devil on the ground. I thought it was the sound that had sent him flat and was about to call him and run when I saw he was leaking red. I heard yells and the sound of rubble scattering, but the muddy light made it difficult to see and all I knew was that I needed to get Devil somewhere safe.
I hoisted him into my arms, holding him tight to my chest and I floated like the Martians, with ease and precision. The rubble was no obstacle. I knew my way through this land in the darkness. I knew it better than anyone. It was Devil who had given me our way out the day we played Frankenstein’s monsta, Martians and Nazis with Mac and Stevie. He’d disappeared, following the rat as I lay impaled on that spike.
I found the spike and I twisted round, falling on my arse and sliding feet first through the hole I’d seen Devil disappear into that day.
You saved us, I said. You’ve saved us both. It’ll all be alright.
I laid him down and pulled off my shirt, my hand gliding across his body, sliding through the blood. I tied the shirt around him, laying my hand across it, willing the bleeding to stop. I could feel his faint heartbeat. We were in the darkness, our protection, our realm, the kingdom of the lizards. Hail thee O lizards hail thee in thy kingdom down below.