You all right? asked Dominic.
I’m OK. Benjy was sitting on the edge of the bath in his Tarzan pants and his skateboard top. I’m just a bit sad.
You’re tired, that’s what you are. I’ll do your teeth for you.
Ouch.
Well, keep your mouth open.
There were bottles and boxes arranged along the window sill like a little alien city. Moisturiser, dental floss, an electric toothbrush, cyber-man bubble bath. He slalomed between them in his space scooter.
Spit and swill.
What’s a tampon?
You don’t want to know.
Are they like condoms?
Seriously, you do not want to know.
Is it a sex thing?
No, it’s a lady thing.
Dominic shepherded him to the bedroom. Benjy got under the duvet and fidgeted himself into a comfortable position while Dominic picked up The Gate Between Worlds from the carpet. So…They took off their boots.
‘Jacket, too,’ said Mellor.
‘But I’ll get cold.’
‘You can be cold or you can be dead,’ said Mellor. ‘Now take it off and leave it on the ground next to the boots.’
Joseph shivered. The dogs were getting louder. ‘Are we going to swim?’
‘We walk through the shallows,’ said Mellor, ‘over to the rocks. The dogs will lose our scent and the Smoke Men will think we’ve drowned or swum to the other side. Quickly. Into the water.’
♦
Did I miss something? Dominic paused in the doorway.
Daisy and Richard had an argument about religion, said Angela.
He was showing off, said Louisa. The way men do.
I resent that, said Alex.
You’ll be exactly the same, said Louisa. It sounded almost flirtatious.
Dominic touched Daisy’s shoulder. You OK?
I’m fine. Though in truth she felt a little unsteady, like when you sliced a finger chopping vegetables.
Benjy all right? asked Angela.
Out like the proverbial. He surveyed the room. Where’s Richard?
♦
He thought, for a moment, that it was a minor hallucination, an orange firefly in the dark of the woodshed that vanished almost as soon as he saw it. He froze. That breathless adrenaline clarity. Someone was in there. The moonlight dimmed and brightened with the passage of clouds. A wisp of smoke trailed from the gable. He did a rapid calculation. Melissa. He should have let it go. Don’t ask, don’t tell. But his control over various things had slipped during the day and he disliked the idea of backing down. He walked round to the open side of the woodshed. He expected to see where she was sitting but the interior was filled with a sheer and impenetrable darkness. Melissa?
Hello, Richard. Her voice made him jump. Fancy meeting you here. Disembodied completely.
The orange firefly appeared. You’re smoking.
No shit, Sherlock.
Smoking is not good for you. He should have planned this better. But the smell…What’s in that cigarette?
She blew smoke towards him and it bloomed into the moonlight. Want a drag?
Put it out.
Go on. That knowing voice, sexual almost. Help you relax.
I said…
Richard, said Melissa, with amused patience. The effect of the marijuana, perhaps. You are not in charge of me.
It was obvious to both of them that he had already lost both the battle and any means of honourable retreat. Let’s see what your mother says about this. He turned away.
Oh, come on, said Melissa, she’s smoked enough of the stuff.
I sincerely doubt that.
Melissa laughed. Jesus, Richard, there are so many things you do not know about my mother.
He wanted to step into the dark and slap her face. The thought scared him. He moved slowly backwards as if he were carrying a tray stacked with glasses. We shall talk about this later.
♦
They have two orchestras, said Louisa. Swimming pool, climbing wall. But her friends live miles away. She needs a chauffeur, basically.
The front door thumped shut and Richard walked into the room. He looked punch-drunk. Melissa is smoking marijuana in the garden and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, apparently.
Louisa closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Angela and Dominic looked at one another. Were they allowed to find this funny?
So, anyway…He had expected a bigger reaction. Then he saw Daisy and realised how dishonourably he had treated her and how this mattered more. He deflated visibly. Angela poured a coffee from the cafetière and slid it towards the space on the bench he had vacated ten minutes earlier. He sat down. I apologise for my behaviour earlier.
That’s all right, said Daisy, though she was thinking mostly about Melissa, the drugs, the rudeness, how symbolic it was that she was sitting outside in a cold dark place. If only she were able to look up to the light then Daisy could reach down and take her hand.
It was very bad manners. I’m sorry.
The front door clicked and thumped again. Melissa passed across the yellow rectangle of the lit hallway waving at them. Nighty-night, campers.
Louisa got to her feet. I’m going to have words with that girl. And she was gone.
Dominic patted Richard on the shoulder. She’s a teenager. Your job is to be completely and utterly in the wrong.
♦
The Smoke Man ran towards him, roaring and swinging the spiked mace around his head. Benjamin pulled the flintlock out of his pocket and fired. The Smoke Man’s mask cracked and the brown gas hissed into the cold air. He screamed and fell to his knees. Nizh…Nizh…He grabbed the pipe from the breathing tank and shoved it directly into his mouth, sucking furiously.
♦
No, Melissa, you listen to me. I know I can’t tell you what to do. You have made that abundantly clear. But if you try to drive Richard away…I was treated like a doormat by my parents. I was treated like a doormat by my brothers. I was treated like a doormat by your father. I am happy for the first time in my life. Richard loves me. Richard respects me. Richard is kind to me. If you destroy this, I swear to God…
My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast;
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger,
At whose approach ghosts, wand’ring here and there,
Troop home to churchyards. Damned spirits all
That in cross-ways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone,
For fear lest day should look their shames upon;