Angel Blood

by John Singleton

  3

  Nail spun round. There at his window, mouthing mouthing, was the bloodied face of X-Ray.

  He tapped on the window and disappeared round the back.

  Natalie jumped out.

  Nail saw a fingerprint of blood on the glass. He got out and started to walk, off the track and into the firs. ‘No. No,’ he kept saying to himself. ‘No. No. No.’

  In his mind he was standing behind an observation window looking at a tiny baby fed with tubes and drips slowly turning purple. Gradually he realized the baby's head was turning towards him, its eyes pleading.

  But he couldn't help. He didn't know what to do.

  In his panic he pushed against the glass so it wobbled and then his mother grabbed him, and took him away.

  And the baby's face had X-Ray's eyes.

  4

  Natalie found him minutes later sitting on a fallen tree trunk head in hands.

  ‘They're QK,’ she said. ‘I've cleaned them up again. But Lights Out doesn't look good.’

  Nail said nothing.

  ‘What's up?’ she said.

  No reply.

  ‘OK. OK. It's my fault. I'm sorry about just now. I think what you did back there, I mean getting us away from those security people, was amazing, just amazing. Absolutely nailsome.’

  She waited.

  Nail looked up.

  ‘Does that do it? I've apologized. Now it's over to you.’

  Nail was puzzled.

  ‘Jeez,’ cried Natalie exasperated. All she wanted was for him to get up, put his arms round her and give her a hug. A big soft bear hug. She didn't know why but that's what she wanted. More than anything, in the whole of Scotland, the world, the universe.

  Instead she got a real surprise.

  ‘I saw the baby dying,’ said Nail. ‘He had that look in his eyes, like X-Ray has sometimes. Like the one with those wingy things has.’

  ‘Chicken Angel,’ said Natalie.

  Nail nodded. ‘Like X-Ray had just now when he looked through the window.’

  ‘What baby?’ said Natalie uneasily.

  ‘The baby my mother took me to visit. I was five or six.’

  ‘Her baby?’

  Nail nodded.

  ‘Your sister? Brother?’

  ‘Brother.’

  ‘And he died?’

  Nail nodded. ‘He went purple and I couldn't help him. I couldn't stop it.’

  Natalie could see the tears in his eyes.

  ‘He turned over and died.’

  Natalie took Nail's hand. He drew it away. ‘He bloody died, girl. And we did nothing. We used to visit the grave. Talk about closing the door. We took marmite sandwiches and my mum cried for a bit and then we went home on the bus. Then we stopped going and my father left and my mother gave up. Maybe she blamed me because I survived. That's what they say isn't it. The one surviving gets the blame.’

  ‘So you feel bad about your brother and guilty.’

  ‘No, it wasn't my fault, was it?’

  ‘No. No, of course it wasn't but deep down you probably feel guilty. And that's what's making you…’

  ‘What?’ said Nail.

  ‘Uhhmm. Hard maybe. Hard so you can control all the emotion. Hard because deep down in your heart of hearts you're blaming yourself and punishing yourself for letting your little brother die.’

  Nail stared at Natalie, mouth open. ‘How do you know all this?’

  ‘Psychology is one of my GCSEs. And anyway women understand these sorts of things.’

  ‘My mother didn't.’

  ‘And that makes you angry and that's why you enjoy violence because it's a safety valve for all your anger and that's why you don't trust women. They frighten you because they might betray you and hurt you like your mother did.’

  Nail shook his head and started to laugh.

  ‘Frightened? Me?’ he said. ‘I'll show you frightened.’

  He stood up, drew Natalie to him, put his arms round her and kissed her.

  ‘Now,’ he said, drawing away. ‘How frightened was that?’

  ‘I'm not sure,’ said Natalie. ‘Better try again.’

  5

  Chicken Angel and I are standing watching them.

  ‘Are they fitting?’ asks Chicken Angel holding on to my arm. I notice her voice is husky like it goes when you wake up after too much dozie and she is leaning on me like her legs are a bit watery.

  Nail and Natalie are grabbing each other.

  Chicken Angel grips me tighter. ‘He's going to Hyena her,’ she says, terrified.

  Natalie girl goes very mouse, quiet as a book.

  Nail boy does gently gently on her face.

  She puts her arms round his neck.

  They gently gently lips.

  ‘Good picture,’ says Chicken Angel. I put her arms round my neck and we gently gently lips as well.

  Then we stop and Chicken Angel has my blood on her lips.

  Nail boy and Natalie girl are still doing gently.

  So we do some more too.

  Then Nail boy sees us and comes over and says it's time to go.

  So we all pee pee and get back in the wheelie.

  I'm sitting in the front with Nail boy. The sun's behind us so it won't squeal me much.

  I'm holding on to the sides of the seat.

  The girl is in the back looking after Lights Out.

  ‘Why did you run away?’ I ask. ‘Is it because you don't like blood? Doctor Dearly doesn't like blood. That's why he wears skin gloves.’

  ‘Yeah, well, blood's not my favourite thing,’ says Nail boy.

  The van slows down suddenly because of an animal and I fall forwards and bang my head a bit.

  The skin on the top of my face splits and blood comes out. Just a bit.

  Nail boy wants to stop but I say no.

  ‘Where's the eyes?’ I ask.

  Nail says, what eyes?

  I say the wheelie's eyes. It must have eyes to see the animal and stop from killing and eating it.

  Vans don't eat things he says.

  One ate the princess I say.

  Nail boy smiles.

  I don't think he understands about princesses.

  ‘Gently gently the wheelie,’ I say to the Nail boy. ‘Lights Out is…’ I feel my eyes fill with tears. ‘Lolo is… Lolo wants to ride on the Sky Boat.’

  ‘She will,’ he says. ‘Trust me.’

  ‘What's trust?’ I say.

  Nail boy says nothing.

  ‘Don't you know?’ I say.

  ‘Course. It's what friends have. It doesn't let you down. Trust is when you don't tell lies.’

  ‘What are lies?’

  ‘You don't know what a lie is? Come on, kid. Everyone knows what a lie is.’

  ‘Not me,’ I say. ‘We never had them in the Bin.’

  ‘Don't kid yerself. The Bin is one great big lie. You were right in the middle of the biggest lie in Garvie Town. For all I know, the biggest lie in Scotland.’

  ‘No one told us that,’ I say.

  ‘Well, that's the thing about lies. No one tells you. Lies always look all innocent. They never look like lies.’

  ‘So,’ I say, ‘lies are bad?’

  Nail boy nods. ‘Double dearly bad, X-Ray. If you nick an apple and then say you didn't, that's lying, that is.’

  ‘What's nick?’ I say.

  ‘Steal, lift, snatch, borrow. Got it?’ he says sounding a bit like Doctor Dearly.

  ‘What's steal?’

  Nail groans. ‘Were you born yesterday?’ he asks.

  I don't know when I was born. I shake my head. I know we were littles once.

  ‘If a lie doesn't look like a lie, Nail boy, how do you know it's there in the first place?’ I say to him.

  Nail slaps the steering thing. He looks like Tin Lid when she gets annoyed and slaps the table in the day-room.

  ‘You just do sometimes,’ he says. ‘Trust me, X-Ray. Not always. Some you see, some you can't. It's a matter of practice. If you tell
a lot of lies you soon learn to see them around, I suppose.’

  ‘So everybody tells lies to see if everyone else is telling them.’

  ‘You know, you're a right pest, X-Ray. Did anyone ever tell you that? And I'm not lying.’

  I cough up some chesty stuff, wind down the window and spit it out.

  ‘You don't like us, do you, Nail boy?’ I say.

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘No. That's a lie. You call us retards. And Natalie says that's another one of those lie things. We are not retards. Or deletes like Tin Lid says.’

  ‘What are you then?’ he says.

  ‘Kids like you and Natalie.’ Then I say, ‘You know, we didn't like you at first. Chicken Angel said you were like Doctor Dearly. Lights Out said no, you were pippi inside.’

  Nail boy does another groan. The wheel thingie spins in his hands and we skid round a bend.

  ‘Now you've saved us from the Hyena Men again we think Lights Out is right, you do have pippi inside. Now we like you.’

  ‘You're only saying that because you want me to take you to the sea and the Sky Boat.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because that would be a lie.’

  ‘Of course,’ he says. ‘Stupid me.’

  We're jumping along under the trees like those daftie RODENTS we saw on The Natural World and I start to feel moosed. Next thing I know Nail boy is lifting me out and taking me round to the back of the van. He lays me down on a blanket and I hear him talking to Natalie girl.

  I don't think they know how to get to the sea.

  Lights Out knows. She can smell it. But she's dozied out. In deep moose-time.

  6

  Natalie was looking through the windscreen at the black spars of the fir branches. Ship's rigging, she was thinking.

  She pressed her fingers softly to her lips.

  ‘I liked that kissing, that gently gently,’ she said quietly to Nail. ‘Did you?’

  He did. Yes, he definitely liked doing gently gently. Lips, yes. Hands, yes. And elsewhere? Everywhere? Yes, yes, yes.

  Natalie gave him a look.

  She could see what he was thinking.

  ‘No way,’ she said aloud.

  But there was maybe in her mind.

  ‘What?’ said Nail all innocent. ‘I was only wondering! Not asking.’

  He had more than maybe in mind.

  Then it struck him. They were motoring through Scotland and he hadn't a clue where they were going. ‘We need a map,’ he said.

  ‘Oh,’ said Natalie a little disappointed. He seemed in a hurry to change the subject. But he was right of course. Why hadn't they thought of that before? Too much Hyena and Dearly and sick kids and jumping the jaws of dogs for starters.

  ‘We could be going in any direction,’ she said. ‘Back to Bin Linnie even. We've been up and down round and round. And… and we've hardly had any sleep.’ Suddenly a night in a warm bed back at her aunt's felt worth turning round for.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Nail. ‘If we don't make the coast soon the Sky Boat will have gone without us.’

  ‘Didn't that Murdoe warden guy say something about a Visitor Centre?’

  Nail grunted. ‘We're in the middle of nowhere at all.’

  Suddenly he braked.

  ‘What's up?’

  Nail nodded ahead.

  CHAPTER 24

  Blackmail

  1

  Across the road was a gate. Parked on the far side was a green Land Rover. Standing beside the vehicle watching their approach was a man.

  ‘Go back. Go back,’ shouted Natalie.

  Nail stopped.

  She looked at him. ‘Well, what are you waiting for? It's them, isn't it?’

  Nail shook his head. ‘No. It says Forestry Commission on the door. The guy's a warden.’

  Natalie swallowed hard. ‘He's coming over.’

  Nail wound his window down.

  The warden said nothing. He glanced at Natalie then walked round the van and returned to stand beside the driver's window.

  ‘You're trespassing, laddie. This is forestry land. No public right of way.’ He leant closer peering in, scanning the interior and frowning at Natalie.

  ‘We were just going to the sea,’ she said weakly.

  ‘And got lost,’ added Nail.

  The warden stood up.

  ‘Where you from?’

  ‘Garvie.’

  ‘Funny way to go to the sea. Took the scenic route, did you?’

  Nail nodded slowly. He knew the warden was after something.

  ‘Thought you'd see a bit of nature?’

  Neither Nail nor Natalie answered.

  ‘See any deer?’ the warden said casually.

  ‘Saw a heron,’ said Natalie.

  ‘Look, let's stop beating about the bush.’ The warden's expression hardened. ‘We get townies like you up here without a clue, after deer.’

  Nail raised his hands. ‘Not us.’

  ‘I can report you to the police, you understand that don't you? Now, mind if I see what you got in the back, just to be sure?’

  ‘Sure?’

  ‘Sure you're not lying.’

  Nail looked at Natalie.

  ‘We've a right to search suspected vehicles.’

  ‘Suspected?’ said Nail. ‘Suspected of what?’

  ‘Poaching! Now please, the keys.’

  ‘It's not locked. There's nothing in there. It's only –’

  Suddenly a loud ringing interrupted him.

  Maiden gobby China again thought Nail. Every time.

  ‘What's that?’

  By now Natalie was out. ‘It's the kids,’ she said.

  ‘You got kids in there?’

  ‘We're taking them on holiday. To the seaside for the day.’

  ‘For the day? It's nearly four in the afternoon.’

  Just then they heard the back door of the van open.

  The warden stepped back and Nail got out.

  2

  From round the back of Nail's wheelie bin a small figure appeared. It was X-Ray, his lips and chin smeared with blood.

  ‘Oh, my God!’ said the warden. ‘What's wrong with him?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said X-Ray. ‘I've got this special skin. Doctor Dearly says it's photosensitive. It's very thin. I'm not allowed to go out in daylight.’

  ‘But why's he bleeding?’ the warden whispered to Nail. ‘Why's he no hair?’

  ‘Ask him,’ said Nail.

  The warden bent down face to face with X-Ray and noticed the scabbing on the kid's head and the wormy veins running under the shiny skin.

  ‘No need to be afraid, kid, I'm a forest warden.’

  ‘A Hyena?’

  ‘No.’ He looked up at Nail.

  ‘It's just a word he uses,’ said Nail. He turned to X-Ray. ‘It's OK. He's one of us.’

  ‘Now where are they taking you?’ said the warden.

  ‘To find the Sky Boat.’

  The warden looked at Nail again.

  Nail threw up his hands.

  ‘Is it one of these rides you get in a fun fair?’ said the warden to Nail.

  X-Ray looked puzzled.

  ‘He doesn't know what fun fairs are,’ said Natalie joining them.

  ‘It takes us to heaven,’ said X-Ray.

  ‘We're all family,’ said Natalie. ‘This is my little brother's birthday and it was going to be a special treat, going to the sea. He doesn't get out much because of the sun. And now it's all ruined.’

  Nail looked at her. Was this another Oscar coming on?

  The warden turned to X-Ray. ‘Is this true? This your big sister? Is he your brother?’

  Say yes. Say yes. Say yes thought Nail. It's just a little lie.

  X-Ray licked his lips and slowly nodded. ‘Yes, but the Hyenas in the big wheelie tried to hit us and we all went bang bang and I started bleeding and Lights Out cried and Chicken Angel and I cosy cosied.’

  Just then a phone rang in the warden's vehicle
and he ran to take the call.

  Natalie turned to X-Ray. ‘Well done, kiddo,’ she said hugging him. He pulled away. ‘Sorry, I forgot. Your skin. Sorry. Sorry.’ She took out a tissue and wiped his lips.

  X-Ray looked up at Nail. ‘That was a lie, wasn't it?’ he said. ‘About me being your brother.’

  Nail smiled. ‘Put it this way, X-Ray, it wasn't your lie, it was Natalie's. Let's say you just borrowed it. And it means we can now go and find the Sky Boat. No wardens. No Hyenas. Get that.’

  ‘It was still a lie. And I've never told a lie before.’

  Just then the warden came back.

  ‘That was a call from my colleague. He's bringing some people in. Their vehicle's broken down. Punctured radiator, blown gasket. Forced off the road they said.’ He stared at Nail. ‘Were you involved in this in anyway?’

  Nail shook his head. But he was thinking fast. The Hyena Men again! They needed to get out.

  ‘It's just with your little brother saying that stuff about a big thingy trying to hit you and going bang bang,’ said the warden.

  ‘He's got a great imagination,’ said Natalie hurriedly. She too realized that the Hyenas were coming. ‘He tells stories all the time.’

  The warden waited a moment. ‘Well, just to be sure we'll wait till they get back here and then we can clear it all up, eh?’

  Natalie let out an involuntary gasp.

  Nail swallowed hard. Get the Hyena pack back on the scene and they were dead meat.

  ‘And someone's broken into the caravan up by Loch Inchie. And that's nothing to do with you either, I suppose?’ There was an unmistakable edge in the warden's voice now.

  Nail thought quickly. The caravan reminded him of Murdoe. Did he say he was Chief Ranger? Maybe he could help.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Chief Ranger Mr Murdoe said we could use it for the kids to rest up.’

  ‘Mr Murdoe said that. You know the Chief Ranger?’

  Nail nodded. ‘Phone him, check it out.’

  ‘I will.’

  The warden went back to his vehicle.

  Hurry, hurry said Nail to himself.

  ‘We'll never make it now,’ said Natalie. ‘They could be here any minute.’ She looked back up the log track.

  No sign yet though.

  Nail watched the warden talking into his phone.

  ‘Come on. Come on.’

  Eventually he returned.

  ‘Well?’ said Natalie. ‘Please, please, the little boy's really sick now.’

  ‘He says you're just about the stupidest kids he's ever met. And to get shot of you ASAP.’