Angel Blood

by John Singleton

  He rushed out of the room.

  When he returned he was in jeans and T-shirt.

  ‘Nice one,’ said Nail. ‘Cool.’

  Kenno shrugged. ‘Real genuine Levis.’

  ‘Fell off the back of a cowboy?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘From Wild Bill Coddy, maybe?’

  Kenno half smiled. ‘Look, Nail. Are you serious about doing some place over? I mean if Coddy finds out…’

  Nail wasn't really. He just wanted to put the frighteners on Kenno. He wasn't going to get himself banged up in youth custody. In Garvie he had all the custody he needed.

  He smiled.

  ‘Tell us, Nail, please.’

  ‘The Post Office. Now get yer stocking hood and yer shotgun and follow me. We're going up Scootie Hill to case the joint.’

  Kenno didn't move. Not the PO. Mrs Korder ran the place. She was a nightmare. Step out of line and she'd have yer guts for tartan ribbon.

  ‘No,’ said Kenno. ‘She'll kill us.’

  But Nail was gone.

  3

  I open my eyes and hear the echo of my breathing.

  I know what it is.

  They've put me in a mask. Trank gets to your lungs so they put you on oxygen case you fixy out while coma-ed.

  I lift my head a bit.

  It hurts.

  The plastic rim is pressing into my cheek and the strap has caught some hair at the back and it squeals as I move.

  I try to remove the mask but my arm is trapped.

  I know why.

  They've put me in the hugger. I'm here till the duty nurse comes and unties it.

  Are they in the day-room, the others?

  I listen.

  Nothing. Everywhere is silent. Moose is sleeping. Stuffed and tranked for life.

  *

  I try and squirm round to lie on my side but the hugger hurts my skin so I go still again.

  Then I go cold.

  What if they've all gone takeaway? Maybe Cough Cough was right about the nurses not caring any more and about germs escaping and radiators left to gurgle and die and the TV going.

  None of the cameras are red-on. Don't they care either? What's going to happen to us?

  This is trank panic, I know. Cough Cough says it's the after-effects. But I can't stop the questions fluttering about in my head. Things are trapped inside me. They are saying things in my head.

  Nasty things.

  About Chicken Angel and lumpies. About Cough Cough and his pippi-little pulmonaries. About me and my lips blooding out.

  I don't know. I don't know.

  More things are getting trapped. It's more trank panic inside my head. What's going to happen to the four of us? says a very loud voice. What are we doing here? shouts another. Why doesn't anyone tell us? How long have we been here?

  I clasp my hands over my ears, close my eyes.

  Questions fluttering, fluttering. It's Cough Cough's fault. He started it. All those flutters about Doctor Dearly and things going downhill. He's opened the door and let the flutters in.

  I do some deep breathing like they say on the wall charts for fizzio.

  In, out. In, out.

  Each breath leaves with a deep ping sound.

  I open my eyes again. The white strip lights are on low. Well within the safety margin says Doctor Dearly. Don't want to SENSITIZE that skin unnecessarily.

  I look up at the clock.

  Eleven.

  4

  Opposite, above Chicken Angel's bed, high on the dark wood wall, its eye staring straight at me, is the camera. It's red-on. They're checking, see if I'm coming out of coma. TRANQUILLITY as Cough Cough calls it. That's one of his jokes.

  Trank to you, CC.

  As I stare at the wall opposite I suddenly notice the Weather Eye is open. It's looking straight at me and it's bright blue.

  If Tin Lid sees that she'll fixy out and it'll be trank all round again. Hypo double dozie.

  I only have to think hypo and I get the shiver. Always starts in my arms.

  I've got to keep calm. Stop the shiver coming, because if the shiver comes in the hugger I'll go onion skin and then I'll have a blood out and Tin Lid will fixy over that.

  I take a deep breath like they say in fizzio.

  Tin Lid mustn't see the Weather Eye. It's Lolo's fault. It was her turn to keep the Eye shut. Why hasn't she done it?

  Then Tin Lid comes in. I take a deep breath.

  ‘What are you wheezing for?’ she says.

  ‘The hugger's too tight,’ I say.

  She says nothing and puts two fingers on my neck. In the Bin this is how they measure your heart echo.

  She examines my eyes. It's always the same. Echo then pupil DILATION.

  She nods.

  I'm OK.

  ‘It's all right. You don't have to breathe so much. You're not drowning.’

  She takes off the mask and unstraps the hugger.

  I struggle upright.

  Tin Lid pulls back the blanket. ‘G4,’ she says, ‘you're smelly. Shower.’

  The bed is wet and as I slide on to the floor Tin Lid is already tearing off the sheets and bundling them ready for the san team and the soil tub.

  My legs are wobbly.

  Tin Lid walks into the day-room.

  I slide across to Lolo's bed.

  I look underneath. No sign of the bit of wood we use to put out the Eye. The knot. That's what Cough Cough calls it. It's like the eye he says. The hole is like the SOCKET, the knot is the eye. I say the hole is the EYE because you can see things through it. Cough Cough just shakes his head. But I'm right. You can see the weather. That's why we call it the Weather Eye.

  I reach under Lolo's pillow.

  Nothing.

  I turn and look through the door into the day-room. There's no sign of Tin Lid.

  Then I reach under the mattress and there it is.

  Still no Tin Lid.

  I climb on to the bed.

  I wait for my heart to slow and then I stand up. My legs are shaking but I can reach the Eye, just.

  I put the knot in place and push it right in.

  ‘G4, what do you think you're doing?’

  Tin Lid strides over and shocked I fall back on to the bed.

  ‘It's the mouse,’ I say. ‘The mouse. I saw it run up the wall. It's come to eat us. All of us.’

  Tin Lid closes her eyes. She has no time for stupid mice.

  I pretend to shake.

  She can't decide if it's after-trank DELIRIUM or me having one of my dreams.

  ‘I think it must be one of my dreams,’ I say. ‘Doctor Dearly gives me tabs for them,’ I say. I know if I say Doctor Dearly it'll stop Tin Lid. Stop her in her tracks. Doctor Dearly is as good as a tab when it comes to stopping Tin Lid.

  ‘We need Jack the Cat to catch this mouse,’ I say. ‘It was a giant, big as Moose.’

  Tin Lid shakes her head. ‘Get out. Get washed. Tabs, huh. What you kids need is a good shaking now and again. Wake you up.’

  I slide off the bed and walk slowly into the washes.

  I sit down on the pot.

  And smile.

  I've daftied Tin Lid.

  I've saved the Weather Eye.

  5

  Sometimes when we're sure the cameras are red-off and we're not tranked out Lights Out stands on her bed, takes out the knot and puts her finger through the Eye so she can feel weather.

  ‘What's she doing?’ said Cough Cough first time she did it.

  ‘She's touching the sky,’ said Chicken Angel. ‘She says the sky has soft skin, like X-Ray's.’

  When Cough Cough and I do the weather I look out and if it's white cloudy we say it's mashed-potato weather.

  If it's raining we say it's pee-pee weather.

  If it's grey we say it's sock.

  Chicken Angel doesn't like the Weather Eye at all. It lets in the Outside she says. It's only clouds I say, and rain and stars.

  I think about the weather. I used to think that
Africa was just outside. I used to think when the wind moaned down the chimney under Moose it was hyenas howling in the distance. But it's not. Africa's a long long way from here. Even further away than London.

  Outside is Scotland. Mrs Murdoe told us that. It comes right up to the walls of the Bin. That's how near Scotland is. Is Scotland in the Outside or is the Outside in Scotland? Cough Cough once asked me. As if I would know. Does it matter where it is? I said. And he said it matters a lot because if we could find out where we were we might be able to go away. We could get a map he said. The library had maps. Maps showed you how to go away. And I said go away for what? Where? Why? And he said because… because… and neither of us knew. We just looked at each other. We were both frightened. I started shaking. It felt like something was fluttering inside me. I could see Cough Cough was the same.

  Go away? Outside?

  It's different now, as CC says, we're not littles any more and the Outside of Scotland looks OK. I'd still prefer to be on the Inside though. Because of the wild animals. Lolo says they're outside all the time. Sometimes when the wind bangs at the shutters she can hear the wolves howl, and the squeal of littles hurting, and the roar and hoot of beasts and the hum of huge wings in the sky. When Lolo says these things I think Inside's best.

  If she hears those littles squealing she gets very AGITATED. Chicken Angel has to hold hands over her ears but she still knows. She shivers for ages.

  Cough Cough says in the Bin we're like meercats in a burrow, warm, yes, but blind and dark of mind.

  And the Weather Eye throws light down among us, I say. It's a burrow-opener, an eye-opener.

  If Tin Lid ever finds out about the Eye we'll all fall down the trank burrow soon enough like the girl Mrs Murdoe told us about who fell down a rabbit hole.

  I go to the bidet and wait for the water.

  One thing worries me. If we stay here all the time in our burrow will we miss the Sky Boat? Mrs M told us about the Sky Boat. It flies over the main she said. I asked Cough Cough what a MAIN was. It's the earth he said, everywhere. So the Sky Boat flies everywhere. And people get on and it flies away with them. Mrs Murdoe said one day we will all go in the Sky Boat. It's a great ride she said. And when the boat is full, when Chicken Angel and Lights Out and Cough Cough and me are all aboard, we'll sail away over the main and into the starry sky forever. That's what Mrs Murdoe told us a long time ago.

  I haven't asked Cough Cough about the Sky Boat recently because I don't think he believes it exists. I think he thinks it's one of those stories they tell littles to stop them being frightened of the night. Maybe it is just a story like Jack the Cat.

  Except he's real.

  CHAPTER 5

  Morsing Mrs Murdoe

  1

  The bidet's not working so I go into the shower.

  Another thing Cough Cough found in the library was Maiden China. He came down with it one day. In the evening when the cameras were off he brought it out. ‘Look what I found,’ he said.

  It was a little cream-coloured clock.

  Lights Out touched it. Then she squealed a bit.

  ‘What's wrong with her this time?’ said Cough Cough impatiently. He never liked Lolo doing a bit of a fit and moosing his moment.

  Lights Out morsed Chicken A.

  ‘She says there's something trapped inside.’

  Cough Cough sighed. ‘There's always something trapped somewhere with her,’ he said.

  ‘No there isn't,’ said Chicken A. ‘If Lolo says something's inside she's right.’

  Suddenly the clock started ringing. Cough Cough fumbled with the knobs on the back and stopped the sound before the duty nurse heard it and came wanting to know what was going on.

  Lights Out was whining quietly and morsing.

  ‘There's a bird trapped inside. It was singing to get out she says.’

  Lights Out reached forward.

  ‘Let her have a listen, Cough Cough.’

  Reluctantly CC handed the clock over and Lights Out put it to her ear.

  She morsed again, fast this time.

  ‘It's got a heart. She can hear it beating faintly, like a mouse tapping its paw.’

  Cough Cough made a grab for the clock. Lights Out held it close to her chest.

  ‘Oh, let her have it then,’ he said. ‘It's only a daftie clock.’

  It was me called it Maiden China. Since I had the best eyes Chicken Angel asked me later on about the tiny writing on the clock face. What did it say?

  ‘Made in China,’ I said.

  ‘Maiden China,’ said Chicken A. It sounded like a beautiful princess out of her fairy book.

  Lights Out wanted to open the clock and let the princess out but we couldn't get the back off. She was near another fit when she found she couldn't free the little prisoner.

  So later on after light-out Chicken Angel told Lolo the story of the princess who been turned into a bird by a wicked witch and locked in a clock. But the witch couldn't silence the princess's beautiful song and stop her calling for help. And if we promise to help her escape and keep her away from the witch's talons said Chicken Angel to Lights Out, she will be our guide and friend alarming us of danger, warning us of enemies.

  Lolo promised, took her tab from Chicken Angel and fell deep asleep.

  One day Chicken Angel asked Cough Cough why the clock was called China. Cough Cough, who didn't really like secrets and therefore wasn't good at them, said china was stuff you made plates out of and cups.

  ‘That can't be right,’ said Chicken Angel. ‘Plates are made of plastic.’

  ‘And china.’

  ‘China's a place beyond Scotland,’ I said.

  ‘How do you know that?’ said Cough Cough sharply. He didn't like it if I knew more than he did.

  ‘Because I saw it on The Natural World when they did “The World of the Panda”. The panda is a black and white bear and lives on misty mountains.’

  ‘Like Jack the Cat's an elephant,’ said Cough Cough.

  2

  Today, after the shower, I cream my hands and put on my gloves and trackies. Then I check out the day-room. Tin Lid is sorting out the waterhole so I go back and climb on to Lolo's mattress.

  I check on Tin Lid again.

  No sign.

  Lights Out can always tell when Tin Lid is coming. She can hear the crackle of her legs as she walks and the creak of her uniform. Then she warns us by pattering her hands. It's like the flapping of trapped wings, ear-catching. Like the time a bird came down the chimney right under Moose's nose. That flapped everywhere till Tin Lid hit it with a pee bottle.

  I look out through the Weather Eye.

  I'm astonished.

  The very first time all I saw was part of a tree. It was right next to us, growing up the walls outside and hiding everything beyond. It was all green green leaves, green green all over. ‘Nothing but trees and sky just like the Amazon,’ I said.

  But not any longer.

  The tree's gone.

  Now I can see forests and animals and some houses, and on the nearest hill I can see children running and swinging on things. They run faster than we do. I can see one child swinging on a rope and climbing and swinging. He's like one of the monkeys. He's swinging and swinging. He's loving it. Dancing on the rope because he's just loving it. Now he's climbing higher and he's swinging on one arm and now he's falling. Something thing must have scared him.

  He looks just like us. Except he's not wearing trackies and he's much stronger than us. Because none of us could swing like that. They must be giving him supplements. And some of the other children are jumping about too so they must be on supplements as well. Or maybe they're lucky. Maybe they've got good pulmonaries and lots of skin.

  I close my eyes.

  I've started trembling and shivering.

  It's the leopard. He could be lying in the bush, in the scrub, panting and hungry. That monkey boy probably knows. That's why he jumped. That monkey boy better be careful.

  I quickly put the
Eye back and climb down.

  Just in time.

  Because Tin Lid and a Hyena Man come in wheelchairing Chicken Angel and Lights Out.

  Lights Out and Chicken Angel have been to tests. Had a primary probably.

  I stare at them.

  Tin Lid helps them into bed. She says they are allowed to stay there till second tuck-in.

  Lights Out curls up and puts her head under the pillow.

  Chicken Angel stares across at me and half smiles.

  Her eyes are bright yellow.

  3

  Nap time is over.

  Lights Out is sitting up. She is cross-legged and her head is bent slightly forwards. She is very still. I wonder if she's had after-trank like me.

  Suddenly she swings her legs over the side of the bed and stands up.

  She walks across the dormie and stops in front of Mrs Murdoe. You can just see Mrs Murdoe's face, there, smiling, in the wood. It was Cough Cough first noticed her. He told Lights Out that she'd come back. Lights Out told Chicken Angel, who told me, but I already knew from Cough Cough that the face was there. It's true. You can see her eyes, dark knots in the oak, and her hair in the falling grain. It's amazing. To think she's here keeping eyes on us.

  Whenever we've got trouble we talk to Mrs Murdoe. She's listens. We always do what she says. She's always right. I don't know what we'd do without Mrs Murdoe. Once when the tabs they gave Lights Out were making her sick she asked Mrs Murdoe what to do. ‘Flush them down the toilet,’ she said. And Lights Out disappeared them down the pan like she was told and she was OK after that right away. Then when we first found the Weather Eye we asked Mrs M what if the Outside would get in? ‘Don't worry,’ she said. ‘Jack the Cat will stop anything bad coming through.’ She was right. Nothing bad from the Outside has got in. Except sometimes Jack comes through, but he's a friend.

  No one else knows about Mrs Murdoe being in the dormie. They can't trank her. Not Tin Lid. Not Doctor Dearly. Not the Hyena Men. Not any of them. Stick hypo in Mrs Murdoe now and she wouldn't feel a thing.

  So, Lights Out is morsing Mrs Murdoe.

  According to Chicken Angel, who is watching, she is telling Mrs Murdoe about Pippi. And how Tin Lid took Pippi away. Can she help find Pippi? Can Mrs M send the leopard to find Tin Lid?