All Sorts of Possible

by Rupert Wallis

  Frank picked a bloody finger out of his lap and held it up, making a face to Jiff, who was laughing hysterically.

  Lawson dropped to his knees and his head lolled forward on to his chest, the stump of his arm still outstretched as though being offered up for inspection. He began to shake and cough and he raised his head, and, when he opened his eyes, he smiled, apparently unaware of his missing hand.

  But then, slowly, his smile reversed, becoming the mirror image of itself, and he began to shake, his cheeks draining whiter and whiter. He tried clutching his arm to his chest, cupping his remaining hand round it, below the stump, and rocking it like a baby.

  ‘Help me,’ he whispered. ‘Help me.’

  But no one moved as Lawson’s stump pumped more blood down his arm.

  ‘Who’s got my money, Lawson?’ asked Mason calmly.

  Daniel knew that Mason’s white handkerchief was on the floor beside Lawson. He knew he was kneeling down and picking it up. And he knew he was wrapping the handkerchief round the man’s arm, fumbling with both ends of what was to become a simple knot to try and stem the flow of blood.

  But he did not seem to own these movements. They just seemed to happen of their own accord.

  As soon as it was tied, the handkerchief was already soaked, leaking crimson drops on to the floor. When Lawson put out his good arm to try and steady himself, it collapsed at the elbow as soon as he put some weight on it and he hit the carpet with a grunt. He lay on his side in the shape of a question mark, a fierce line pumping in his throat, looking up at Daniel through narrow-slitted eyes.

  There was so much blood it was eating up the carpet.

  And sitting in all that red was the silver signet ring.

  When Mason crouched beside Daniel and touched the top of his shoulder, the boy flinched, and Mason had to grab him tight with one big hand so he didn’t topple over. The man picked up the ring from the floor with a tissue he had plucked from a box on the sideboard. ‘Go and get a glass of water from the kitchen,’ he said softly. ‘We’ll ring for an ambulance.’

  24

  When Daniel reached up a shaking hand for a tumbler in the cabinet, his mind was scrambled with different thoughts.

  There was blood on the back of his hands and he set the glass down so he could rinse them off under the cold tap. He scrubbed the skin with a washing-up brush until it was red and sore. The pain focused him down to a single thought that was clear and bright and hard, just like the tumbler beside him on the worktop catching the daylight.

  He shut the kitchen door as quietly as he could and pulled out a wooden chair from the table and wedged it underneath the handle.

  Go, said a voice inside him. Run. But Daniel made himself walk slowly to the back door and open it quietly . . .

  . . . birdsong and sunshine and a long stretch of lawn.

  The garden was bordered by a tall wooden fence on all sides and he searched for the best way to climb it.

  ‘DANIEL?’ shouted Mason from the hallway.

  Daniel stood with his foot raised like a tightrope walker waiting for the right moment to step out on to a high wire as he looked for a way out.

  ‘DANIEL!’ came Mason’s voice more urgently. ‘Don’t go doing anything stupid now.’ Behind him the door handle wiggled vigorously, but the chair held it fast. And then a great force thumped against the door and the whole frame shuddered as the chair legs wobbled. Another crash came and two bright splinters popped out like fangs from the white painted wood around the top hinge.

  Daniel spotted a compost bin positioned beside the fence and knew it was his way up and over.

  ‘Daniel, I know who you are. Everyone does after what happened to you. And I know where your dad is. Addenbrooke’s Hospital, right?’

  Daniel put his foot down. The sunshine warmed his face, but he was deathly cold inside.

  ‘I’ll have to pay him a visit if you don’t open this door. So let me in, little piggy, or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow it right down.’

  Daniel wanted to step out on to the grass. To run home back to his aunt and tell her everything. But he couldn’t. Not after Mason had mentioned his father. So he pulled the back door shut and turned round and picked up the tumbler from the worktop and filled it from the tap. He carried it in a wobbly hand and pulled away the chair.

  Mason was standing in the hallway, hands in his pockets. So casual was his stance, he could have been waiting for a bus. He took the tumbler, drained it and put in on the sideboard, wiping his mouth with his hand.

  ‘Lawson’s dead,’ he said simply and then he turned round, making for the front door. ‘You’re coming with me.’

  Daniel grabbed the edge of the sideboard to steady himself. He opened his mouth to ask if Lawson was really dead. About what had happened to the ambulance. But he found himself asking a different question. ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘I thought we’d visit your dad now. Say hello.’ Mason opened the front door and he seemed to grow even bigger in the daylight that flooded in from outside.

  Daniel walked towards him, glancing into the sitting room as he did so. Lawson was on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, not blinking. Daniel looked away quickly. His legs were nothing but air. But he managed to make it out through the open door where he drew in great looping breaths that tasted of sunlight and green leaves and warm red bricks.

  ‘Don’t worry about your mess,’ said Mason, shutting the front door. ‘Frank and Jiff’ll clean it up.’ He cupped a big hand to his ear. ‘What’s that?’

  Daniel said nothing. Mason leant further towards him as if he was trying to hear something very quiet.

  ‘Thank you,’ whispered Daniel.

  And Mason beamed. Slapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  25

  ‘He’s being kept in a coma for now,’ said Daniel as he sat beside the bed. He clutched his father’s hand tight because he was afraid that death might drag him away at any moment like it had done with Lawson.

  Mason nodded approvingly. ‘So the papers say. I saw a piece about you both on the local news too.’ He clamped a big hand round Daniel’s shoulder and squeezed gently, like a caring uncle might, then leant forward to observe the calm face looking up at him from the pillow. ‘I’m jealous he’s getting so much rest. It’s hard work being me.’

  Mason slumped into the chair opposite, lifting up his feet and placing one over the other on the bed. The pale leather soles of his black shoes were dimpled with black and green marks. He smiled and waved to the nurse at her station and she looked away.

  ‘How much do you think a nurse gets paid?’ Daniel shrugged. ‘Not enough is the right answer.’ And Mason sighed as if he was managing all the worries of the world.

  ‘What do you want?’ asked Daniel quietly.

  ‘Blimey, how long have you got?’ Mason laughed at his own joke and then he plucked the silver signet ring from his pocket and held it up, his right eye scrunching tight and the other one staring through it at Daniel. ‘I want you to tell me where my briefcase of money is for starters.’

  ‘I’m not like Lawson.’

  ‘Neither of us is. Not now.’ Mason turned and looked through the ring at Daniel’s father like a jeweller inspecting something of great value. ‘Not even your dad.’

  ‘I didn’t do anything to Lawson,’ replied Daniel softly. ‘It wasn’t my fault.’

  Mason hid the ring in a big fist. He looked around the room and then smiled and nodded as if another person was sitting to his left. ‘I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about, officer. The last time I saw Mr Lawson he was with a boy about so high with mousey brown hair. I recognized him too, you know; he was the one who fell down that sinkhole. The one in the papers. Sad business that. And with his dad too. Do anyone’s head in, something like that. Least it would me. Send me la-la. I might go and see a psychic too, a charlatan like Lawson, a defrocked vicar who dabbled in the occult, to try and find some hope in such an awf
ul situation. Anyway, officer, maybe you should speak to the boy if you’re looking for Lawson.’

  Mason grinned at Daniel, pleased with himself as he rubbed at an itch through his trouser leg. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘I think that means we have an understanding, don’t you?’ He raised his eyebrows and waited for Daniel to say something, but the boy kept quiet. ‘Marvellous. So tell me again about you and Lawson, how it worked.’

  ‘I don’t know any more than what you saw or what we told you.’

  Mason licked his top front teeth like they were made of barley sugar. ‘Then run it by me again. Let’s see where we go from there.’

  ‘Lawson told me we could make the fit. He said I could help him do things he hadn’t done before. I don’t know anything about it except there’s something inside me. Right here.’ Daniel tapped his chest. ‘Lawson plugged into it like a power cord, and when he did I could feel it happening, warm and golden inside me.’

  Mason’s mouth flickered. ‘And that felt good, you said.’

  ‘Yes. Like everything felt better all of a sudden. Like the fit was something really special and meant to be.’

  Mason nodded and then his eyes narrowed. ‘But whatever happened to Lawson means you didn’t fit as well as he thought?’

  ‘I don’t know why. One moment it was all OK and then the next it . . .’ Daniel tried not to remember how it had been or what had happened to Lawson. He put his hands together to stop them shaking. ‘It just shut off,’ he said quietly.

  Mason tutted. ‘I told you Lawson was my go-to guy for the weird. The strange. Whatever you want to call it.’ He raised his hands and clasped the back of his head. ‘So I guess that means now you are, Daniel my boy.’ When Daniel looked up at him, Mason just shrugged. ‘You’re going to fill the vacancy on my books.’

  ‘But I’m not like Lawson. I told you I can’t do the things he could. I can’t tell you where your money is.’

  ‘So find someone else like him. Someone who can plug into you like Lawson did. Somebody else to make a fit with, but a better one.’

  ‘I don’t know anyone like that.’ Daniel felt a black panic rising in his stomach that was making it difficult to breathe. He glanced at his dad and wished he would wake up so everything could be normal again. But the machines just went on blipping and beeping and his father lay there as if nothing untoward was happening at all.

  ‘You’ll find someone,’ announced Mason. ‘I have every faith in you, Daniel. There are other psychics in the world. My mum was one. She did things you would never believe. And believing it all keeps me top of the pile because people in my line of business tend to be cynical about such things. Lawson was a marvel who helped me no end, bless his cotton socks.’ Mason clicked his teeth as if he was remembering a favourite pet and then sat back in the chair. ‘I’ll give you three days to find someone else.’

  Daniel shook his head. His body drooped as he turned away.

  ‘Look at me, Daniel.’ And Daniel dragged his eyes back to the man. ‘You want your dad to wake up, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And I want my money back, which means we can do a deal.’

  ‘You can’t do anything to help my dad.’

  ‘No I can’t.’ Mason’s big hands made a boulder in his lap. ‘But you can keep him safe while he’s lying here by working for me.’ Mason smiled when Daniel’s jaw began to tick. ‘So that’s what you’re going to do. You lost me a good man, someone I relied on to help with certain things, little projects of mine. So it’s only fair you take up the slack. Lawson was using his talents to search for something very special I want. An antique flask. So, as soon as you find someone to make a fit with and locate my money, then I’m hoping you can get a fix on that flask too. The money can just be a test. A way for you to learn more about this fit and how it works. You want to know as much as you can, don’t you? About this talent of yours?’

  Mason braced himself against the chair and something in his spine crackled. ‘Course you do. Back at the house, you and Lawson mentioned making the fit to help your father. So don’t try telling me you don’t want to find someone else now that Lawson’s gone.’

  Mason moved forward to the edge of his seat and inspected Daniel’s father again, tutting and shaking his head.

  ‘If your dad has to stay on a ventilator after the doctors try to wake him up, they’ll start asking questions about what’s best for him. They’ll want to know what he would want to happen and talk to you about what’s in his best interests. They’ll listen to you. But it’ll be their decision about what to do, not yours. They have the power of life and death.’

  Mason sat back in his chair and grinned like a toad. ‘I’ve seen how it happens on those documentaries on the telly. I’ve got a plasma screen. Fifty-two inch. You can learn anything watching that. I love tucking into a takeaway in front of it and expanding more than just my mind.’ He slapped his gut. ‘So how about it, you working for me for a bit? Finding my money? That antique flask too? And helping your dad. We can both get what we want, Daniel.’

  The boy stared at Mason, saying nothing.

  ‘Tell you what,’ suggested Mason brightly. ‘You find someone and I’ll break the bad news to them, tell them they’ll be working for me too, do the hard part for you. I’m good at that. Telling people what to do.’

  Daniel shifted in his chair, but stayed silent.

  ‘I’ll take that as a resounding yes then, shall I?’ Mason tousled Daniel’s father’s hair. ‘You’ve got a good son there. Isn’t that right, Daniel? You’re a good lad, aren’t you? Do what you’re told.’

  Daniel looked from Mason’s grin to his father’s soft white face. ‘Yeah,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m a good lad.’

  Mason nodded. And then his voice dropped. ‘Stay away from Lawson’s house. There’s no need for you to go back there now.’ He kept staring until Daniel nodded that he had understood. ‘Good lad.’ And Mason clapped his hands and laughed. ‘See!’ he shouted at Daniel’s father. ‘I told you!’

  26

  His aunt was sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea. The sink was a bright tub of chrome. Daniel could smell the bleach. There were lilies on the old oak table, sitting in a tall green vase he had never seen before.

  It was like coming back to her house not his.

  ‘We’re going to have to get you another cellphone,’ she said, pulling the sleeve of her cardigan down over her watch. ‘I was getting worried. You’ve been out all day.’

  ‘Me and Bennett lost track of time.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad you’ve got someone you can speak to. I’d worry if you didn’t.’

  Daniel stayed sitting at the table as she prepared supper because he did not want to be alone. He watched as she went round the kitchen, never going to the wrong cupboard or drawer for anything, which made it seem even more like her house. They talked about her work in California. She said she had her own start-up that could tick along without her so she could be in Cambridge for the whole of the rest of the summer holidays if necessary.

  ‘What’s it like there?’ asked Daniel as they sat down to eat.

  ‘Maybe you’ll come see for yourself one day.’

  Daniel kept asking as many questions as he could think up about her life on the other side of the world because, whenever there was a lull in the conversation, he imagined Mason peering in through the window, grinning at him, or Lawson lying on the floor beside him, the bloody stump of his arm raised.

  ‘What’s wrong,’ asked his aunt when she noticed Daniel staring at his empty plate yet again.

  ‘Nothing. I’m just tired.’ He pinched a lily petal between his fingers and felt how smooth and delicate it was. ‘We’ve never had flowers before,’ he said.

  His aunt just smiled and nodded and then she cleared her throat. ‘I had a call from the hospital today, updating me on your father. There’s been no change. But then I suppose you know that. The charge nurse said you went to see him. She said you looked so sad sitting there on yo
ur own.’

  Daniel nodded, remembering how Mason had whispered something to the nurse at her station to make her laugh before handing over a fold of twenty-pound notes and telling her he wasn’t really there. It made a lock click shut in his stomach, trapping everything about Mason inside him.

  ‘Daniel, did you really see your friend today? I’m only asking because I don’t want to think you can’t be here with me, that you’re uncomfortable with me being around.’

  Daniel put his hands flat on the table to help himself breathe. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I didn’t see Bennett. I’m sorry I lied.’

  ‘So what did you do all day?’

  ‘I just mooched around town,’ he said quietly, his toes flexing so tight inside his trainers he thought the seams might pop.

  ‘On your own?’

  Daniel nodded.

  Before she could ask anything else, the phone rang and Daniel sprang up to answer it and listened for a moment, and then shouted down the line in a rage that it was nothing to do with miracles at all, that he had been cursed instead, before slamming the receiver back down in its cradle.

  ‘I’m having the number changed,’ said his aunt. ‘They just keep ringing.’ She poured another glass of red wine and took a sip. Cleared her throat. ‘Daniel, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Let people believe what they want about what happened. All that matters is you. How you process it. So you can start to come to terms with it all.’

  ‘I don’t know why any of it happened.’

  His aunt nodded as if she understood. ‘I can’t even begin to imagine how terrible it must have been for you down there. But if you want to talk to me, about anything, then you can because it’s not healthy keeping everything bottled up. It’ll rot you on the inside. That’s what bad experiences do. Hollow you out and fill you up with all the questions you can never answer.’

  She reached forward and lifted up his dirty plate and stacked it on to hers. ‘We’re family, Daniel. We’re all we’ve got. So we need to stick together. If you want to tell me anything, you can.’