House of Straw

by Marc Scott

  ‘I am sorry, I got that wrong, OK. I just thought that maybe, if we got the chance to talk again, we could, I mean, that I could understand. I didn’t expect all these people, I thought it would be a private room.’

  ‘A private room! Do you live on another planet or something? You know you are not so out of place in here, missy, this prison is full of weirdos. Just look around you, these women are murderers, druggies, thieves.’ Poppy moved closer and raised her voice. ‘Stalkers!’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I saw you there, at the sentencing hearing. That was you wasn’t it, sitting next to Danny?’

  ‘I went there to support you.’

  Poppy laughed. ‘God give me fucking strength, support me! You really don’t have a clue, do you?’

  ‘I tried to persuade Kayleigh to drop the charges before we knew how you were going to plead.’

  ‘That’s your friend, the mouthy one, from the restaurant?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Stupid bitch, she was asking for it. I warned her, I told her to keep her fucking beak out of it.’

  ‘’You fractured her cheekbone, Poppy, she is scarred for life. Don’t you feel any remorse at all?’

  ‘Oh, boo-hoo-hoo, poor fucking Kayleigh. Tell you what, I will make her a ‘get well soon’ card in my workshop and send it her if it makes you feel better.’

  Bree was slightly angered by her sibling’s heartless comment but persevered. ‘You pleaded guilty, to everything!’

  ‘As if I had any choice.’

  ‘It was GBH wasn’t it, grievous bodily harm?’

  ‘You were there, you heard everything.’

  ‘But he was OK, that Cameron guy, apart from some broken bones and scars, he wasn’t damaged permanently?’

  ‘If he has brain damage it is down to all that poisonous shit he puts in his body, not down to me.’

  ‘The newspapers said he was in some residential rehab centre in Portsmouth or Southampton or somewhere down there. They said he was recovering well.’

  ‘Another fucking waste of tax payers’ money. Cameron is a lost cause, he will never get off the gear.’

  ‘Five and a half years, they sentenced you to five and a half years, so you will be out in half?’

  Poppy laughed. ‘Don’t kid yourself, missy, these bastards are never going to let me out of this place now.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They have got me now, they will find a reason to keep me in here this time, trust me.’

  ‘Because of what happened before, to that young kid?’

  ‘Young kid?’

  ‘Billy Keyes, the young boy that you, well, you know, what you did, I read about what happened.’

  Poppy sat back in her chair and looked around the room. She was angry, she didn’t want to show it, but she was seething inside. ‘Don’t believe everything you read in the papers, missy.’

  ‘You killed him! You stabbed him more than twenty times. He was only a kid, barely seventeen, I read it, the whole story, it was all over the internet.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, poor innocent Billy fucking Keyes, what an angel!’

  ‘Well, what’s the truth then?’

  Poppy laughed and looked her visitor straight in the eye. ‘You couldn’t handle the truth, missy.’

  ‘Try me.’

  Poppy pondered for a few seconds. Maybe, she thought, maybe this was her chance to get rid of this nuisance in front of her. She decided to give the girl opposite the full uncensored version of events. She leaned forward, she wanted her newfound stalker to hear every word clearly. ‘Billy Keyes was a grade A cunt,’ she said, gritting her teeth. ‘His brothers ran the Marfield estate with an iron fist and Billy was their recruiter.’

  ‘Recruiter?’

  ‘He gave schoolkids free booze and fags to start with, and then introduced them to free weed, sometimes ecstasy. Before long he had them hooked, got them onto harder stuff – coke, spice, crack – fuck, some of them poor kids were on brown before they were fourteen years old.’

  ‘Brown, that’s heroin, right?’

  ‘Wow! I am impressed, missy is learning fast.’

  ‘For free?’

  ‘Get real, missy, nothing is for free in this life. Once those kids were hooked on the gear, the Keyes brothers could charge what they liked. Kids were giving away their Nintendos, selling their designer trainers, stealing cash from their parents. They would do anything for their next high.’

  ‘Did you buy drugs, I mean did you buy from him, from Billy?’

  ‘Sometimes, the brothers ran the Marfield, you had to travel miles to get your fix elsewhere.’

  ‘Is that why you killed him? Was it an argument over drugs?’

  Poppy took a deep breath and clenched her fists tightly. ‘I had a friend. Don’t look so surprised. She was a good friend, she gave me a place to stay, looked after me and all that.’ Poppy paused for a few seconds, she never found it easy talking about Nikita. ‘She had her baby taken away by Social Services, so she was on a massive downer, that little kid was her whole world. So she needed something, something to help her, something to make her pain go away. She didn’t have any money, the Social had sanctioned her benefits, she had been on the rattle for four days. She told me that Billy was going to fix her up, he would give her something. I begged her not to go, I pleaded with her, I knew what he was like. She had no money, she would do anything to score that day, I knew it would be favours.’

  ‘Favours?’ Bree asked.

  ‘Blow jobs, sex, blow jobs. Fuck, what it must be like to live in your little world!’

  ‘So what happened, did she go there?’

  Bree could see the rage building in Poppy’s face as she continued her story. ‘So the ‘angel’ Billy Keyes gets her to blow half a dozen of his mates on the Marfield for a bag of brown.’ Poppy paused again as the memory of that day came back to haunt her. She bit her lip hard and continued. ‘They filmed it, on their mobiles, his fucking mates, they all filmed it. Her fucking blowbang show was up on the internet before she had wiped the last drops of spunk from her face.’

  ‘Is that why you…?’

  Poppy suddenly snapped. ‘She died, you fucking idiot! He gave her a bag of bad gear and she fucking died. After his mates had finished with her Billy threw her a bag of bad shit and she used it all, she died.’ Bree could see how much her sister had cared for the girl she was talking about. ‘They found her the next morning in an alleyway. She was lying there amongst the dog shit and chip wrappers. My friend, my only fucking friend in the world and he killed her. He humiliated her and then he killed her.’

  Bree was shocked. ‘Jesus! I didn’t know.’

  ‘That’s why I sliced that no-good cunt up. I did the Marfield a favour, good riddance to bad rubbish. Fuck Billy Keyes! I hope he rots in hell!’

  Poppy could see that her visitor was too shocked to respond. Maybe she would finally leave her in peace now and drop all of this ‘long-lost sisters’ nonsense. ‘They don’t print shit like that in the Guardian or Times or whatever newspaper you read, do they?’ she asked.

  Bree still had questions, she wanted to know everything. ‘Why did the media crucify you? Why did they all want you to go to prison for life if that’s what really happened?’

  ‘I had a good brief.’

  ‘What!’

  ‘My brief said that if I told the court that I was high on drugs and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, it would be a seven-to-ten stretch, diminished responsibility or some shit like that.’ Poppy mimicked her submission to the court at her murder trial. ‘Oh, look at me, judge, another poor victim of drug addiction. I would never have done it if I was clean. Please help me, I am just a victim of society.’ Poppy laughed. ‘And it worked for me. The jury never got all the facts, they never got to hear the real reason I did it. So the public all
hated me, they wanted me to be shoved in a loony bin for the rest of my life. But the jury said, ‘Poor little cow! She didn’t know what she was doing.’’

  ‘And were you, were you high, when you stabbed him?’

  Poppy’s eyes narrowed and a sinister smile cracked on her face. ‘I knew exactly what I was doing when I carved up that fucking weasel, trust me. The only high that I was on was revenge.’

  Bree could not believe how brazen her sister was, telling her the reason she had stabbed Billy Keyes to death, as if she had been describing a trip to a shopping centre. It was strange, Bree should be in total shock, but rather than feel scared she was somewhat in awe of her sibling. She wanted to know more, she wanted to know much more about this side of Poppy’s life. ‘So, the guy at your flat, this Cameron fella, he was your boyfriend?’ she asked. Poppy didn’t answer, her attention was once again drawn to the girl and her visitor at the table to the side of them. She could hear them talking about her. Poppy stared full on at her fellow inmate before blowing her an imaginary kiss. The girl swiftly turned her head away, but not before Bree had caught a look at the other side of her face. It was covered in bruises and her right eye was half closed. She looked as if she had been in a boxing match. Bree said nothing to her sister, it didn’t take Einstein to work out that this girl was not exactly Poppy’s best friend inside the prison.

  ‘Your boyfriend!’ Bree asked again. ‘You were going to tell me what happened, that night, after you left the restaurant.’

  Poppy stretched her arms. She was becoming tired of her sibling’s questions. She did, however, have one of her own. ‘That night, in the restaurant, when you were there with your friend, the gobby one, was you being brave or are you really that dumb?’

  Bree knew what she meant, but in truth did not know the answer herself. ‘I knew you couldn’t hurt me, Poppy, I knew that you wouldn’t hurt me, not once you knew that I was really your sister.’

  Poppy stared at her opposite number for a few seconds before letting out a small laugh. ‘You have balls, missy, I will give you that, you have balls, but don’t kid yourself, you really don’t know anything about me at all!’ Despite the fact she had acknowledged her sister’s bravery, Poppy still felt the need to correct her sibling. ‘And I have told you before, missy, we are not sisters, we are only half-sisters.’

  Bree was aware that the time was passing fast. One hour visiting time was never going to be long enough to ask all the questions she had in her head. She changed the direction of the conversation. She was eager to learn more about the man who was responsible for bringing the unlikely duo together. ‘What was he like?’ she asked. ‘Your father, my real father, what was he like?’ Poppy pondered on the question for a moment before declaring, ‘He was just a waste of space, a selfish waste of space. Trust me, you were better off not knowing him.’

  ‘But when you were younger, did he, I don’t know, did he ever take you to ballet lessons or come to watch you in school plays or stuff like that?’

  ‘Why is that important to you?’

  ‘I don’t know, I am just curious. I know you say he was a waste of space but there must have been good times, it can’t have been all bad?’

  Poppy smiled. ‘I don’t think you want to know what he was really like, missy. Let’s just say, he wasn’t your average dad.’

  ‘Did he ever hit you?’

  ‘Sometimes, just, you know if I made too much noise or answered him back. It was the drink, once he was on the drink, it was best to just keep out of his way.’

  ‘He was an alcoholic?’

  ‘I only really knew what other people have said about him. He dumped me into care when I was eight. I didn’t see him much after that.’

  ‘Is that why you don’t like to talk about him?’

  ‘You have got a lot of fucking questions, missy. Let’s just leave it there, you were better off not knowing him.’

  Bree paused for a few seconds. She could see that Poppy was not going to discuss her childhood. ‘You did go though?’ she asked. ‘To his funeral, you did go, didn’t you?’

  Poppy leaned forward and sneered at her opposite number. ‘I am surprised you were not there, wrapped up in some black Gucci number for the occasion, you seem to love all of this family reunion shit.’

  Bree shook her head. ‘No, I didn’t even know where it was. Was he buried or cremated?’

  ‘Cremated,’ Poppy said and suddenly laughed out loud. ‘Fuck, he was even late for his own funeral, the car with his box in went to the wrong crematorium. Now that was funny, it was worth the day out just to witness that shit.’

  Bree noticed that the two guards were now looking at their watches. Time must nearly be up. She knew that this would be the last time she would see her sibling. She did not want to go without letting her know that her father also had a son. She started a well-rehearsed speech. ‘I get it, Poppy, I get what you have been through, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t…’

  Poppy interrupted Bree’s patter, she was clearly angered by her sister’s comment. ‘You get it! You get what?’

  Bree quickly realised that her comment had not gone down well. ‘I didn’t mean to…’

  ‘No, missy! Don’t come here with your perfectly painted nails and your designer fucking coat and tell me you get it. You don’t get it! You could never get it! You could never walk a fucking day in my shoes or have lived through what I have. Don’t stroll in here like ‘Lady Shit’ and tell me you fucking get it!’

  Bree began to backtrack, she tried to explain but only made things worse. ‘I want to understand, Poppy, I want to try to understand why you, I mean what you, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to, I am just trying to understand.’

  ‘Well don’t! My life is my life, it has fuck all to do with you!’

  ‘I am really sorry, Poppy, I say things sometimes without thinking. It has been a really tough year for me.’

  ‘Tough? Yeah, sure it has, what happened? Did your round-the-world cruise get cancelled or something?’

  ‘I lost my brother, my twin brother,’ Bree said, looking down at the table. ‘My brother, he was our brother, a year ago, a year ago today.’

  ‘Lost?’

  ‘He died, there was a terrible accident.’

  Poppy shrugged her shoulders and looked around the room again. She didn’t have any words of comfort for her visitor. ‘What do you want me to say, ‘sorry for your loss’? I never knew him.’

  Bree wiped a tear from her eye. ‘He would have liked you, Jamie, he would have loved your free spirit and your ‘fuck everyone’ approach to life.’

  Bree sneered at her sibling’s revelation. ‘Oh right, I get it now, so twin bro has fucked off and left you and you want me to replace him. That’s why you were so desperate for me and you to be best buddies, that’s what all this sisters bullshit is about!’

  ‘No, I just wanted to know you, to say I had met you, that you knew about me and Jamie.’

  ‘Life don’t work like that, missy, shit happens, people die. You can’t just replace your brother with some fucking random girl that happens to have come from the same spunk that you did.’

  It was Bree’s turn to be angry now, Poppy had overstepped the mark. ‘You can’t replace Jamie!’ she snapped. ‘No one can. He was my life, he was my whole world. Mock me all you like, Poppy, but don’t say anything bad about Jamie.’

  Poppy sighed and slumped back into her chair. ‘So, I guess that’s a card for your mouthy friend and a sympathy card for dead bro. Fuck, I am going to be busy in the workshop this week!’

  Bree was fuming. She had finally had enough of her sibling’s put-downs. She reached forward and grabbed the bandage on Poppy’s arm, squeezing it tightly, watching her sister’s face twist with pain. ‘I told you, don’t ever speak bad of Jamie, do you understand?’

  Poppy winced as Bree tightened her grip and she felt a pain s
hoot upwards through her arm. ‘Woah!’ she said. ‘I have touched a nerve and suddenly missy has grown a backbone. Now let go of my arm before I rip those cute fucking eyes out of their sockets.’

  Bree stood her ground, gripping tighter on her sister’s injury, watching her stern face twist as the pain intensified. ‘Do you know,’ Bree said, ‘I came here today hoping that I might get the chance to find out more about you, maybe make the peace with you. I thought you would at least listen to what I had to say. But no, something in that sick fucking head of yours wants to shut everyone out, people that may give a shit about you, people that might care!’

  Poppy moved in closer to show her sibling that she held no fear, the look of pain on her face swiftly replaced by one of rage. They were now just inches apart, they looked full-on into the opposite’s eyes, searching, deeper and deeper in the other’s soul. It was a strange experience, it was as if they were both staring into a hollow mirror, each seeing the thoughts of the other, embedded at the end of a long dark tunnel. ‘I am not scared of you,’ Bree said, finally releasing her grip on her sister’s arm. ‘I will never be scared of you, Poppy.’ Neither of them moved and no further words were spoken. It seemed as if they had found something in that last exchange, something disturbing. Neither of them knew what it was. It sent a chill running through their bones.

  Suddenly, the sharp tone of the bell in the corner of the room broke the stony silence. The sound indicated that the visiting hour was over, it was time for Poppy to leave. Within a matter of seconds most of the inmates began heading one way, while their visitors headed off in the other. Some romantic gestures and heartfelt promises were made by the parting couples, a young child burst into a flood of tears as his mother waved him goodbye. Poppy had been the last to arrive in the visiting room and she would be the last to leave, kicking her chair backwards and heading for the queue of fellow inmates without so much as a ‘by your leave’ for her sibling.

  As she joined the huddle of prisoners preparing to exit the side door they had arrived from, Poppy looked back at her visitor. Bree hadn’t moved, she was still sitting at the table, her head bowed, a forlorn figure. Her newfound bravado seemed to have disappeared and been replaced with a look of total rejection. Suddenly Poppy called out to her, her voice echoing around the walls of the emptying arena. ‘Hey Rhianna, Brianna, whatever your name is, it’s time to leave, you can go home now.’