Mandible

by Ian Woodhead

Common sense was subjective anyhow, everybody knew that. He spotted movement down below. The shop door opened and the boy left the shop. He nodded in approval when he spotted the carton of milk in his left hand although he wasn't that impressed when he noticed the chocolate bar sticking out of the kid's back trouser pocket. He told his temper to calm the fuck down.

  Tony stopped by the side of the road and waited for a bus to trundle past. Andrew felt the shaking up here. He suddenly grabbed the side of the window. It wasn't the bus causing that! Andrew ran over to his chair and threw himself in it, grabbed the sides and clenched his teeth while waiting for it to stop. He so wanted to close his eyes but that had only made the sensation even worse the last time this happened a couple of days ago.

  “Jesus Fucking Christ!” he moaned.

  The shakes continued for another couple of seconds before diminishing. Andrew wiped his forehead, clamped down on the urge to vomit and did his best to contain the utter terror which still ran riot around his body.

  “That was a good one. Better than a roller-coaster, they are,” said Nelson, walking past his chair. “Quite strong, maybe even the strongest so far.” He sat down in his spot. “I hope you've given those cards a good shuffle.”

  Andrew managed a brief nod.

  “Oh yeah? Well, I hope you don't mind me double checking, you know, just to be totally sure.” He picked up the cards and started to shuffle them. “Tony's back, by the way. He got in seconds before the tremors started. Looks like you were right, by the way. He did come back with the milk.”

  Those tremors terrified him. In fact, they did more than just that. Andrew had known terror. In the first few months inside, him and terror became the best of friends, almost intimate lovers, thanks to a certain warden who was best pals with the uncle of one of the lads who Andrew hospitalised. The warden didn't do anything to him. Mr Ward wasn't that dumb. Instead, he made sure that Andrew ended up sharing a cell with Harry Johnstone, the local psycho. Harry had family outside who needed looking after and Mr Ward was only too happy to send anonymous money packages to his family in return for a few favours. Harry didn't mind. He liked working with his hands.

  The shaking and vibrations caused by whatever the hell it was under the earth sent Andrew's body into an almost complete shutdown. He remembered his mum having a phobia of spiders and as stupid as it sounded, her reaction when she spotted some little brown eight-legged beast in the bathroom was exactly how he felt. Was it even possible to have an earthquake phobia?

  Tony entered the room, slopped two teas on the floor beside the two men and went back to his place by the window. He didn't bother looking out, instead, he slid down to the floor, leant against the wall and dug out his phone. Two seconds later, the boy’s thumbs were dancing across the glass. That would be him quiet for the next few hours then. Tony loved his phone games. In fact, it seemed to be the only thing that made him use more than his usual emotion of miserable bastard.

  What would he do if there was another tremor right in the middle of doing the job? He'd be fucked. Hell, they all would, meaning he'd end up back in HMP Fulton and back under the watchful eye of Mr. Ward. Shit, that could not happen.

  “Are you going to play your hand, Andrew?” Nelson smiled, showing him his blackened teeth. “You could fold, if you like. I'm cool with that. As long as you agree to give back everything you stole from me.”

  “Like that is ever going to happen. And, for your information, you old fucker, I stole nothing. It was all won fair and square. Ain't my fault that you're crap.” He picked the cards from the table, threw away two and glanced at his watch. They had one more hour to kill before they needed to move. Now that he'd recovered, he fully intended to clean Nelson out. After that, Andrew wanted to persuade the miserable bastard standing by the window to join in. He wasn't an idiot. Tony did know how to play. The kid learnt inside, from him, when something just terrible happened to poor Harry Johnstone and this new kid ended up being his cellmate for his last remaining six months, until the parole board decided that, in their wisdom, this poor reformed ex-bank robber was no longer a threat to the public.

  Andrew received a pair of nines. If his luck continued to hold, that crappy phone of Tony's would belong to him before the hour was up. “Okay then, Nelson, let's see what you are holding.” He threw the twenty quid that he took from the old man a while back, into the pot. “Or you can fold, if you like. I'm cool with that too.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  A question answered

  She felt like such a bloody idiot when she ran over to the nearest stall and leaned over the counter, to discover the holder on his hands and knees. He looked up and blinked a couple of times before kneeling up. “Are you okay there, love?” he asked.

  Ellis nervously smiled at the young man before shaking her head. “No, I'm fine. Sorry.” She beat a hasty backwards retreat while spotting the heads popping up past the counters of a jeweller's stall and a comic book stand. Jason and her had even talked about the council posters which went up around the city a couple of days ago, advising all members of the public to go down on their hands and knees in the event of another tremor to avoid falling over. It also mentioned getting away from any buildings too. She guessed the stall holders believed that didn't apply to them.

  Halfway towards the meat and fish quarter, Ellis spotted a familiar and very welcome young man frantically waving at her. When she didn't immediately respond, he climbed on top of one of the children's rides and waved even harder. That soon stopped when the two old women she saw earlier stood in front of the ride. Ellis giggled at the sight of those two frail women giving her boyfriend a piece of their mind. She leaned against the side of a handbag stall with her arms folded and waited for them to finish.

  “You could have saved me from their harshness, young lady,” said Jason, a moment later after managing to get away from the women.

  “I'm a little shocked that you didn't get their number. You've always said that you wanted a foursome.”

  “Wait, did you really say that or am I in the wrong reality again?”

  “Hush up, Jay. You love all the attention. It turns you on.” She took his hand while watching the two women vanish into a café next to the Black Lotus bank. She hoped they found their magical tea in there, it might help them calm down. “Now that you've finished chatting up a couple of mature ladies, perhaps you'll now tell me why you had to see me during my lunch break?”

  He nodded. “How long do you have left before the workhouse beckons?”

  “I took my full hour and spent twenty minutes of that grabbing food and shoving it down my neck. I'll let you do the maths.”

  “Right, so what? You have a couple of minutes left?” He grinned and gave her hand a tight squeeze. “Come on, young lady. This is going to slay you!” Jason led her through the large covered market, walking past stalls selling everything from second-hand goods to genuine Indian antiques. This place had everything and anything. Except for, perhaps, a shop which sold a decent cup of tea. Oh, and designer shops, big name brand outlets, and all the usual chain-store places. For all that stuff, the average Bradfield shopper went to the new mall. Until the council closed it down.

  Now that the tremor had gone, the market began to fill up again, making it increasingly difficult to get anywhere fast. It made progress harder, due to Jason taking her straight to the area where most of the youngsters hung out.

  He pulled her past the large retro arcade hall, the mini cinema and the row of ethnic take-out stalls before stopping in front of the single empty stall in this sector. “There you go, what do you think, Ellis?”

  “Think of what?” She gave the decrepit old shack a single cursory glance then looked past the eyesore and spotted a stall selling Polish food. That wasn't here the last time she walked around the market. It didn't look all that busy and...

  Ellis spun around when the penny finally dropped. “No, no way, Jason. Please tell me that you're not thinking about renting this broken down old thing, that th
is is another one of your dumb jokes.” She didn't need his affirmation to know that he wasn't having her on.

  “We talked about this, Ellis.” He tried to grab her hand but she pulled it back. “Hell, I seem to recall you were all for me starting my own business.”

  “For crying out loud. I didn't mean this. I thought you were thinking carrying on working with your dad but branching out and doing a few jobs on the side, you know, creating your own set of contacts and building a reputation before starting out on your own.”

  He sighed. “You really don't listen. Ellis, how many times have I told you how much I hate being a sparky? The last thing I want to do is to follow in my dad's footsteps.”

  “But the money is good, Jason. Plus, you're really good at it. Why change?”

  “Do you want a list?”

  She finally took his hand. “Jason, what I want is for us to be together, to have our own place and be happy.”

  “Well then, there you go!” he announced. “We're both on the same wavelength. Ellis, look. I know that it's a bit rundown right now but it'll fix up. Plus, it'll cost next to nothing to sort out. Those contacts you just mentioned. I have plenty of those. I could get this stall looking far better than all the others on this row and all it'll cost me is a few quid and a round or two down at the Hope and Anchor.”

  Ellis forced herself to look at the damned hut again. “What exactly are you intending to sell in your brightly painted hut?” She waited for his reply. When he failed to respond, her heart sank even lower. Ellis turned into the biggest grin she'd ever seen. He looked like some kid who'd just won a toy shop in the Lottery. Which, she guessed, probably wasn't that far from the truth.

  Three years separated her and Jason Langley, but sometimes it felt like a lifetime. Her boyfriend had achieved more in his life than she could ever imagine. Jason had visited most of the continents before he reached his teenage years, thanks to his father's previous job. At the age of eighteen, he joined the army and in those five years of service, he faced combat in two arenas.

  Yet, she knew none of this when they first got together, a few months ago. All Ellis knew back at that party her mate dragged her to, was she really wanted to get to know the over excitable young man who was currently dancing on the dinner table with a colander on his head while juggling four eggs when she arrived.

  They had hit it off almost immediately. Perhaps it was the child-like innocence she saw in those big blue eyes that attracted her to him or that ability he possessed to make everyone around him feel so at ease? Even her pretend parents approved of her latest catch, that alone had to be a first. Jason even got on with her pretend father, so much so that the old man even took him up into the loft to show off his model railway layout.

  She should have known right at that point, from the way Jason's eyes lit up at the sight of all those scale model locomotives, that her boyfriend and her pretend dad shared something in common. Jason was a toy collector. This little factoid presented itself when he finally brought her home to meet his lovely parents and he used this opportunity to show her his own man cave, only his room looked like he'd just cleaned out half a dozen toy shops. He sat her down and showed her his Hot Wheels collection, his thirty year old Transformers before he allowed her to gaze upon his Lego mini-figures.

  Ellis now understood why she saw the eyes of a child fixed into that beautifully shaped head.

  “You are thinking of selling toys?”

  He nodded. “Obviously. What else would I sell? Look, I'm not talking about all that other cheapo, knock off crap that all the other toy stalls in here sell and not the overpriced rubbish that the two shops in the new mall sell either. I'm going to fill this stall with toys from yesteryear to appeal to the customers with oodles of cash and with that far off glint of nostalgia in their eyes. To the parents who cannot understand why their kids want them to hand over a tenner for some brightly coloured plastic egg which contains a shitty little doll which probably costs 20p to make.” He glided his fingers down the wooden wall. “I want to give them back a piece of their childhood that they thought they lost.”

  “You mean you want to sell stuff to people just like my pretend dad.”

  He nodded again. “Absolutely, this city is full of people just like him, Ellis.”

  “I fucking hope not,” she muttered.

  “You don't approve?”

  She didn't need to look at his face to know she'd just ripped out his heart. The underlying tone was right there in those words. It took a great deal of effort not to start yelling. God, that naïve optimistic streak of his could really get on her tits. Ellis noticed the vendor from the next stall was beginning to take an interest. “Please, don't come over here,” she whispered. Having an audience would only make him worse.

  Ellis turned. “It's the risk, Jason. That's what I'm concerned about. What if it fails? Right now, we need a bit of stability in our lives. Especially if we are going to live together.”

  “So, it's a risk. Living your life is a risk.” He took both her hands. “Ellis, listen to me. We only have one shot at life, and if my rather brief experience of it has taught me anything, it’s that if you see an opportunity, then reach out with both hands and reel that sucker in!” Jason wrapped his hands around her back and gave Ellis a gentle squeeze. “This will work, I guarantee it.”

  “You don't know the first thing about operating a market stall.”

  “So what? I didn't know how to fire a weapon until they showed me. I didn't know anything about being an electrician a few years ago. I didn't even know how to wire a plug. Don't worry about it. I can learn.” He released one arm and used it to wave at the vendor next to them. “Hi there, how are you doing?” he shouted.

  Ellis pulled him away, groaning silently. “I need to get back to work. They're in the middle of a big order and are watching us, making sure that we’re not taking the piss with their break times.”

  “It's like being back at school, Ellis. Do you think you'll get detention if you're late?” He waved at the vendor again before leading her away from the empty stall. “I wouldn't give you detention, my love. I might smack your bum a couple of times though.” He chuckled. “But only if you smack mine after.”

  She stopped walking. “You're really serious about this?”

  “Totally. I really do want you to smack my bum.”

  “How about I punch you in the face instead? Christ, will you quit it with the fooling about?” Ellis knew she was close to tears.

  Jason abruptly dragged her towards the retro arcade and sat her down on the wooden bench outside. “You told them, didn't you? I mean about us finding a place.”

  She nodded. “How did you know that?”

  “It was on the front page of the Daily Mail this morning. How do you think I knew? I take it they weren't too happy about it?”

  “What do you think?” Ellis couldn't hold them back. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I don't get it. What is wrong with them? I thought they liked you, Jason. It's just not fair.”

  “It wouldn't have made any difference if you walked in one day with some spotty, foul-mouthed druggie and announced that you and Malcolm were emigrating to China. The reaction would have been the same.”

  “Malcolm?”

  He grinned. “Why not? I knew a lad in Afghanistan called Malcolm who wasn't impartial to a bit of powder. Look, never mind all that. The point still stands, Ellis. It's not me and it isn't you either. Taking you on was the biggest risk that your adoptive parents ever undertook. Most people really don't like change, they embrace the familiarity. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just how we're built. They were young when they adopted you.”

  “Not that young.”

  “They were both in their late thirties, Ellis. That's still young, and twenty-four years later, that familiarity has grown from a groove into a deep, steep-sided valley. They can't face the thought of you not being around.”

  “You have got to be shitting me, Jason. They both can't stand me.”


  “That's bollocks, and you know it. They love you very much.”

  “Yeah, right. They have a funny way of showing it.” She stood up. “I've got to go. I'm going to be late.”

  He pulled her back down. “Listen to me, Ellis. When your dad found you, covered in blood, he honestly thought you were dead, that they had killed you. Just as the intruders killed your real parents.”

  Ellis went white. “How did you know that?”

  “They brought you up as their own, Ellis. Cared for you, protected you and gave you everything you wanted. Including love.”

  She was still reeling from what he'd just said. Her pretend parents had always been open and frank with how she came to be in their care but nobody else knew. They moved to Bradfield a few months after the incident. Nobody here knew who she was. “Jason, how did you find out? My pretend parents wouldn't tell you, that's for sure.”

  “I'm a man of many talents, as well you know, my darling.” He stood up and pulled Ellis to her feet. “I promise I'll tell you tonight. Right now, I need to get you back to work, as I'm sure you don't want detention.” Jason took her hand. “Don't worry about your parents, they will come around. It'll take some time, that's all. I'll work my charm on them. That'll help speed up the process. I'll show them that I'm worthy for you, that they can pass on the torch to me without fear of it going out.”

  “Jesus. You make me feel like I'm a possession.”

  “You are to them. You're their precious jewel.”

  All this heavy talk had given her indigestion. Maybe she shouldn't have had all that spicy food earlier. “Can we talk about this later?”

  “Absolutely. How about I take you to a nice restaurant after work? The Bella Toni off Record Street? That'll be nice and empty after eight.”

  “Can't we just go to the pub instead?”

  “We can do that too, if you like.”

  “Thanks. Will you walk me to work?”

  “That's the plan, Ellis.”