Angel Blood

by John Singleton

  We eat in silence. I notice Lights Out is spilling and messing her trackie top. For someone without eyes she's usually good at eating. But she doesn't like eating animals and she knows it's chicken in the broth. She only eats the dumpling and Tin Lid tells her she's stupid, broth is nourishing and good for skin and bones.

  She sends her to bed.

  Lights Out shuffles out looking over her shoulder at Tin Lid. Sometimes her no eyes make her look very very sad and lost and alone. Then I want to hug Lights Out, cosy cosy her.

  But she killed Cough Cough too so I can't.

  I sit for a long time looking at Moose.

  Don't blame Chicken Angel he says. Pulmonaries don't last forever. None of us do. Cough Cough said we should get out of here I say. Moose snorts. What for? The Outside is no place for kids like you.

  But Lights Out wants to go to the sea I say, and if we escaped out we could do that. She wants to swim like a seal, like a fish.

  She wants to have her head examined says Moose. Take my advice stay where you are.

  But Cough Cough said.

  Moose interrupts. Cough Cough was off his trolley he says. Dozied up to the eyeballs. Didn't know what he was saying. But I do. And I say stay where you are. That's what I do. Nothing like staying where you are.

  I'm thinking Moose is right when I hear shouting coming from the dormie.

  I rush in.

  3

  Lights Out is crouched on her bed whimpering.

  Tin Lid is standing in the middle of the room and holding up Lolo's book. She wants to know who's been hiding it and why we have ignored Doctor Dearly's orders. Had we forgotten books were banned? Or were we trying to defy Doctor Dearly and undermine everything he has been doing for us. I want to ask what DEFY means but of course I daren't do that.

  No one says anything. I'm wondering whether to say it's mine so Lights Out doesn't get tranked for having a book when Tin Lid shouts again.

  ‘And what is that?’

  She is pointing at the Weather Eye.

  I'd forgotten to close it up.

  ‘What is it?’ she repeats, biting on each word.

  ‘The Weather Eye,’ says Chicken Angel.

  She turns on me. ‘Don't just stand there. Get to your bed.’

  Then she returns to Chicken Angel. ‘Weather eye? What's that?’

  ‘We look at the weather. If it's clouds we say –’

  Tin Lid interrupts her. ‘And how long's this been going on for? Explain. Explain.’ She seems very angry about the Eye. If I was as strong as Moose I'd kick her hard.

  Chicken Angel looks at me. Tin Lid sees this and turns round. She points a finger at me. ‘Do you know about this?’

  ‘Yes. Mrs Murdoe said we could look out. We would learn things she said.’

  ‘Well, Mrs Murdoe's dead and gone. Forget her. I want to know why you've kept this secret. It's forbidden to look on the outside. Why have you been so underhand?’

  UNDERHAND?

  We've never heard of underhand. And I think of Cough Cough. My heart saddens. He knows what underhand means.

  ‘It was just a game,’ says Chicken Angel. ‘That's all. Just a game.’

  ‘It's dangerous looking outside,’ says Tin Lid. ‘It's going to be covered over. I'll tell Security. What is it with you lot?’

  She waves The Golden Treasury at Chicken Angel. ‘This is the last book you'll ever see.’

  She stands there in the middle of the dormie for a moment, letting her words sink. ‘IIf I ever have another piece of your…’ She never finishes.

  A strange sound stops her.

  It's like a bell ringing and ringing.

  ‘What's that?’ she shouts.

  She looks across at Lights Out.

  It's coming from her bed.

  My heart stops.

  It's Maiden China, the princess crying to escape.

  It's the clock, and it's ringing and ringing and Lights Out is fumbling to stop it.

  Tin Lid runs over to her bed and rips back the sheets.

  She grabs the clock.

  ‘Where did you get this from? You stole it. You stole it.’

  Lights Out shrinks from her, mewling and mewling.

  ‘Right, that's it,’ says Tin Lid. ‘We don't want thieves in here. No wonder it costs so much to keep this place going. Now, you stupid girl, I'm going to teach you a lesson.’

  She throws the book and the clock down on the bed and reaches inside her trouser pocket.

  ‘No. No,’ cries Chicken Angel. ‘You can't trank her. No. Please. Please, nurse. No trank. No trank.’

  I slide my hand down and under the mattress and reach for Cough Cough's hypo.

  4

  Back at Coddy's Nail found Kenno vibrating to AC/DC.

  Kenno didn't believe Nail's story about the leak and the plumber but he didn't say anything. One day he'd get his own back. Nail wasn't that smart he couldn't be screwed.

  Nail for his part was kicking himself.

  Hadn't he agreed to meet Natalie and wasn't he due to pick up Kenno's mum about the same time?

  Well, he'd have to leave early and pick up Nats on the way. They'd deliver Ma Kenno and cruise down the pub. Then he remembered he had to make another delivery to the Naz guy. Well, Nats would have to live with that. Now if he could persuade Kenno to plug himself into four hours of prime-time telly instead of going to the Bin place he'd be away.

  Kenno wouldn't do it for less than a fiver.

  ‘If I score tonight you're next in line,’ said Nail trying to force a discount on the five quid.

  ‘Up your bum,’ said Kenno.

  Which reminded Nail he hadn't had the money off Coddy for the previous night's drop.

  5

  Natalie was late.

  ‘Let's move it,’ he said as she got in the van.

  ‘Funny smell. This the best you've got?’

  ‘The Merc's in the garage. Paint job. Nice gear,’ he said eyeing her red leather jacket.

  ‘Thanks.’

  Nail checked the road. ‘We're going to the Bin,’ he said.

  ‘Better be good as the Garvie,’ said Natalie.

  ‘It's as good as it gets,’ said Nail. ‘It's full of dafties and NHS rip-offers and body-tights.’

  ‘You mean the kooky kiddie place? Well, mister, you sure know how to entertain a girl.’

  Nail bounced the van down a narrow lane. ‘Exhaust's going. Another Coddy mess-up.’

  He gave the engine a bit of a rev. It growled back.

  ‘We've got to pick up Kenno's ma and do a delivery for Coddy. Ask no questions. And just remember you're Kenno's sister and you're training to be a nurse for handicapped kids.’

  ‘Disabled,’ said Natalie.

  ‘Unabled,’ said Nail.

  ‘Destabled,’ said Natalie.

  ‘Bungled,’ said Nail.

  ‘Gargoyled,’ said Natalie.

  ‘Hunchbacked.’

  ‘Notre Damned.’

  ‘Defects.’

  ‘Recalls.’

  ‘Retards.’

  ‘Freaks.’

  ‘Mutants.’

  ‘Muppets.’

  ‘Morphs.’

  ‘Mongs.’

  ‘Deletes. The nurses call them deletes.’

  ‘Why?’

  Nail shrugged. ‘Because they're mistakes?’

  ‘That's cruel,’ said Natalie.

  Nail slewed the van round a tight corner.

  ‘Are we late or something?’ said Natalie. ‘Only I don't want to go into a lorry and come out a vegetable.’

  ‘Or unabled,’ said Nail.

  ‘Or lego-ed.’

  ‘Lego-ed?’

  ‘In bits,’ said Natalie. ‘I don't want to lose any bits.’

  CHAPTER 17

  Tin Lid Gets It

  1

  Lights Out is trying to get off the bed but Tin Lid has her by the wrist and is dragging her back. All the time she is trying to pull the hypo out of her pocket.

  S
he'll break her little wrist like this.

  I pull my hypo out, take off the cap.

  Chicken Angel has seen me.

  Tin Lid has hers out. It's a ready one. All she has to do is flip the cap off.

  Chicken Angel is hitting Tin Lid.

  The alarm is still ringing.

  I'm trying to put the needle into the capsule.

  I look up quickly.

  Chicken Angel is standing on her bed swinging her notebook at Tin Lid.

  Again and again.

  Suddenly Tin Lid swings her arm and hits Chicken Angel. She crashes against the bed head and slides down.

  The notebook drops to the floor.

  Chicken Angel lies slumped on the pillow, not moving.

  My hand is trembling. I push the needle in far as it will go and pull out the plunger.

  I watch the plunger.

  I watch Tin Lid.

  She's bending over Lights Out holding her down with a hand on her chest. She's pulling the hypo cap off with her teeth.

  I slide down and lurch across the dormie.

  I ram my needle into Tin Lid. Right into her backside up to the hilt – shove her hard and push all I can on the plunger.

  She's off balance and screaming and I get most of it in before she throws me backwards.

  I stagger away and she comes screaming at me.

  I slide to one side and snake under Chicken Angel's bed.

  I can see Tin Lid's on her knees and moaning.

  She is searching for me. Her eyes are wild.

  She's seen me.

  She crawls beside the bed and grabs at me. I kick at her and escape out the other side.

  Kneeling, I look over the bed.

  Chicken Angel is very still.

  The alarm rings and rings.

  Tin Lid has staggered to her feet. She's got the hypo back. Her eyes keep opening and closing.

  Behind her, standing on the bed, is Lights Out.

  In one hand she has Maiden China, singing singing.

  Slowly she raises an arm.

  ‘I'm going to kill you for this,’ says Tin Lid to me. Her voice is slow and the thin of her eyes is all white.

  Lights Out reaches out and touches Tin Lid on her cap, very gently gently. Then she brings her arm down and smashes the clock right on the top of Tin Lid's head.

  Tin Lid slumps to the floor.

  The alarm stops.

  ‘What's happened?’

  It's Chicken Angel. Lights Out helps her get up.

  Chicken Angel shakes her head. Then she sees Tin Lid on the floor, her white cap turning satin red.

  She puts a fist to her mouth. ‘She's moosed. What have you done?’ she says staring at the floor.

  Lights Out speaks. ‘Broken the clock,’ she says.

  It's true. It's not ringing.

  Chicken Angel smiles. ‘Oh, I feel so funny.’

  ‘It was Tin Lid,’ I say, ‘She hit you.’

  ‘Then it serves her right,’ says Chicken Angel.

  We all look at each other.

  ‘They'll kill us for this,’ says Chicken Angel at last.

  ‘What shall we do?’ I say, knowing that there's only one thing left for us to do.

  ‘Go and find the Sky Boat,’ says Lights Out.

  ‘Go to the sea. Yes, we must. Like Cough Cough said.’

  At least we could do that for him I think.

  Hypo Tin Lid then use the key card for the door CC had said.

  I run to my bed. Pull the key card out from under the mattress.

  We get trainers. Put trackies over our jamas. Suddenly we are thinking very cool, very Mrs Murdoe.

  Then I hear a deep old voice in my head.

  ‘Stay where you are. Say it was an accident.’ It's Moose again.

  No Moose. Not this time. Have to go.

  What about the cameras?’ says Chicken Angel.

  All three of us drag Tin Lid down between the two beds and push her out of sight under Lolo's.

  It exhausts us.

  We rest for a moment, all wheezing.

  ‘We have to hurry,’ says Chicken Angel. ‘Someone might come in.’

  ‘Don't forget the key,’ she says.

  ‘Don't forget your story book,’ I say.

  2

  Next thing we are out in the corridor. Up the steps to the library like Cough Cough had said. We start to climb the stairs.

  It takes a long time. Each step we have to wait for puff. We've never climbed stairs before so it's not surprising it's hard.

  Chicken Angel is the slowest of us, which is strange because she's the best of us all at walking and standing. Even Lights Out is better than her on stairs.

  *

  The library is full of books, more than we've ever seen, but most of all it has a big window and the panelling is open and we can see the Outside. It's huge. Bigger than the Outside we can see through the Weather Eye. It stretches and stretches. We're bound to get lost there. It's so COLOSSAL.

  ‘Come away,’ hisses Chicken Angel. ‘They'll see us.’

  ‘Shall we wait till dark before going down the fire escape?’ I say.

  ‘If we stay here they will find us,’ says Chicken Angel.

  I sit down in a big red chair. Perhaps we should have stayed in the dormie, in bed, warm, cosy cosying ourselves.

  Too right says Moose.

  Too late he adds.

  3

  They drove up to the security barrier. Dougie stepped out and raised his arm. Nail wound the window down, said Nats was Kenno's sister. Dougie nodded OK.

  He waved them on.

  They were just entering the car park when the alarm went off. It screamed from the wall above them.

  ‘Close the window,’ shouted Nail.

  From a distance came the sound of a police siren growing louder and louder by the second. For a minute Nail thought they'd been suckered.

  But the siren faded and the night filled with silence again.

  Nail eased the van up to the green door.

  ‘What's going on here?’ said Natalie.

  ‘Deliveries,’ said Nail. He got out and tapped on the green door.

  Waited.

  Tapped again.

  Nothing.

  He swore. Where the hell was Naz?

  This time he knocked.

  ‘Watch those noddy cameras,’ he said to Natalie as she got out of the van.

  ‘What we delivering?’

  ‘Tights. And don't ask,’ he said.

  Still no Naz.

  ‘Look, Nats.’

  ‘It's Natalie. I've told you before.’

  ‘Look, Natalie. Do us a favour. You're waiting for a guy called Naz. He knows we're coming. You don't have to do anything, just open the van, give him the white boxes.’

  ‘What're you doing?’

  ‘Going to Security. Picking up Kenno's ma. She goes mental if we're late. And I don't need attention like that at the moment.’

  Nail left.

  4

  He waited outside the Security entrance.

  No Kenno's ma, just the whine of an ambulance in the distance.

  Nail decided to ask questions.

  Inside he stood beside a high counter set in the corner of the dark panelled Lodge hallway, a space hung with huge paintings – grouse shoots and heather-rimmed waterfalls – and giant antlers and the heads of snarling wildcats and swords and shields and a sweeping staircase attended every step or two by a white marble figure of some ancient goddess holding up a torch for whose flame was substituted a large electric light bulb.

  ‘What do you want, laddie?’

  Security.

  ‘Come to collect Mrs Moodie.’ He nodded at the other jimmy sitting at a desk behind the counter. He'd been on duty the previous night. ‘Kenno's ma, remember? I came last night.’

  The man nodded but said nothing.

  Then Nail noticed one of the monitors. A woman was lying down on a bed. She looked asleep. She looked like Kenno's loving ma.

/>   He froze.

  It was Kenno's ma.

  ‘What's happened? What's going on?’ said Nail.

  ‘We're not sure. Some accident.’

  Nail leant over the counter. ‘That looks like her.’

  ‘Who is this?’ said a cold voice.

  Nail turned round.

  ‘Laddie come for Mrs Moodie, Doctor Dearly.’

  ‘Get him out.’

  ‘Hey, Mister Doctor. I want to know what's going on. That could be my friend's ma lying there looking like she needed a funeral.’

  ‘Just who are you?’ said Dearly.

  ‘Nail, hard as. And I'm Mrs Moodie's taxi.’

  ‘Well, Mister Nail, I'm Doctor Dearly, chief medical officer and senior administrator here at Bin Linnie. Now, you can just turn round and take your taxi with you. You are not needed. Mrs Moodie has had an accident. She's going to make a full recovery. She'll be home tomorrow. We'll call you if we need you. Now leave, please.’

  Nail hesitated. The man had an unblinking way of looking that made you feel you were being scoped. It made Nail feel he had to apologize for himself.

  Maybe it was because Dearly was tall and thin and had a scrubbed look to him. He seemed antiseptic, sterilized, as if he washed in disinfectant and not soap. His metal-framed glasses, his creaseless tie, his precise manner of talking, the way he sneered ‘Mister Nail’ like it was a virulent new bacteria, all said: I'm a doctor, you're a pusie.

  ‘What sort of accident?’ said Nail. ‘I need to know. Everyone will need to know, Coddy and Kenno.’

  ‘You will not need to know. No one will need to know, not until I say so. I will decide who to inform and when. Now either you leave or I get Security to remove you.’

  Nail shot a last glance at the monitor. It was Kenno's ma all right. Bandaged round her head and drugged out by the look of her. Someone had bricked her he was sure of that.

  ‘Make me,’ he said.

  Dearly's head jerked. His eyes swivelled and locked on to Nail, black and reptilian. Slowly Nail backed off instinctively.

  *

  ‘Get out,’ hissed Dearly. ‘Get out.’

  Back at the van he said to Natalie as he slid behind the wheel: ‘Someone has planked Kenno's ma.’

  ‘Yer what?’

  ‘And don't expect Coddy to weep cannies over it.’

  ‘Planked?’

  ‘Yeah, she's had some accident. Some creep of a doctor says she'll be right tomorrow.’ He turned the ignition.

  ‘What about Kenno?’ said Natalie. ‘Does he know?’