by Gina Keliher
Thankfully, he gets off at Knightsbridge. Our stop too. He’s looking around as if completely lost, a small town boy in the big city?
He’s stood right in front of us now, at the top of the stairs, partly blocking other passengers from exiting the station. He is definitely a first time traveller to London. Only sightseers do that. We’re right behind him, “So, Harrods or Harvey Nics?” I ask loudly.
He turns to face me with a look of total desperation. “Can you help me? I’ve no idea where I’m going!”
The next couple of minutes fly by. It’s hard to explain how those with pure Beings are drawn to us. They don’t know why, but they feel comfortable with us and subconsciously realise we’d never hurt them. We’ve introduced ourselves to him and vice versa. His name is Glen, he’s just moved to London and it’s his first time shopping - he wants to buy some souvenirs that he can send to his family. I’m amazed that this is happening so easily. No wonder Adrian said we have to look after those with pure Beings. He’s a really nice guy but gullible. We could be anyone!
I watch Poppy. The young man walking beside her is completely transfixed by this bubbly person who he has only just met. She’s chatting away as if they’ve known each other years and I can see she is literally inhaling his Being. I hear her telling him all the best places to shop, what to buy the women in his family and then that we’re all going to the Green Man for lunch, dress forgotten, and would he like to join us?
“What do we do with him?” I ask Stefan.
“No idea, we need Annabel, unfortunately, so I’ll call her and you two entertain him. No man in his right mind is going to walk away from you two. Besides, I need to cool off for a second. He’s making me hot.”
I’m still laughing as Poppy and I lead the way into the Green Man, while Stefan goes to make the phone call to Annabel.
Poppy turns to me and says, “Glen recently completed his doctorate in the US and does some bird thing.”
He smiles sheepishly. “I’m not a bird watcher.”
He seems to want to explain – I’m guessing he’s tried to explain this to Poppy without success. “I’ve actually just been for an interview with a research institute that will allow me to carry on my work with the H5N1 virus.” I know my blank expression is asking a hundred questions. “Avian flu?”
Yes, “I’ve heard of bird flu.” So I nod encouragingly.
“I know in my heart that one day we’ll have a cure.” He says passionately, pushing his broken glasses up his nose with his little finger. “I’ve been studying, testing and working on an inoculation for it and I hope to carry on my work here.”
Wow. Which is more amazing, the fact that he’s definitely a pure Being, or that he went for an interview without shaving? I wish we could have been in that interview and shared some of his Being with his interviewers. We can do that. It’s like borrowing a little of them and injecting it into others. People instantly realise they’re in the presence of someone who will make changes for the better.
Stefan catches up with us and tells us he’s called Annabel and Robbie. Robbie was caught up on the underground because there’d been a suicide on the tracks at the last station. Go figure.
Chapter Three
We’re all seated in the Green Man. It’s one of the best pub’s in London – well, in my inexperienced view, of course. And apparently it was the first pub ever to open in a department store. It’s also not the easiest place to find as it’s in the basement. Or the lower ground floor, if you want to be precise.
Robbie shows up a few minutes later and as Annabel jumped in a cab, she arrives shortly after.
Poppy excitedly tells Stefan and Annabel about Glen’s research. Of course, he has to correct her on much of it, but it’s not long before we’re all up to date.
I look around the table. Robbie looks incredibly healthy, Poppy looks like she can smell freshly baked bread, Annabel looks satiated as she senses through taste and Stefan looks hot. OK he always looks hot, maybe I should say he looks like he’s enjoying the best summer day. And I’m almost blinded by the purity. We all look incredibly happy and it’s radiating out to others in the bar. This is what pure Beings do.
Annabel and I excuse ourselves for a moment. We’re going to ‘powder our noses’, which of course means we’re planning on talking about Glen the bird man.
“I’ll place a call to a friend of mine that I know from my relief work in Sudan. He’s not exactly in Avian flu research but he knows all the big fundraisers for all the research facilities in the area. A couple of calls and Glen will get the job.”
“Wow. You know everyone!” I really didn’t mean that to sound that condescending. “You really are invaluable to the team, Annabel.” Condescending and a fake smile. There’s definitely a reason why I didn’t go into politics!
“I know.” She replies modestly, oblivious to it all.
Phew. I got away with that one.
Glen’s really likeable. He’s chatting away now and it feels like we’ve all known each other for a lot longer than half an hour.
His glasses are definitely broken, and that little habit of pushing them up his nose with his little finger started out cute but is beginning to get annoying! But his passion for his career is inspiring. Sometimes, Robbie sounds like this after a kill. Excited and motivated. Eerie.
After an hour or so, and a few plates of sausage and mash and fish and chips later, Annabel and Robbie make their excuses and leave. Annabel will go back and update Adrian while Robbie will collect Luke from school and follow her to Adrian’s.
Stefan is telling funny stories. Poppy is gazing at him with adoring eyes and then leaning towards Glen and breathing in. Loudly. You know Glen’s going to go and buy ten bottles of whatever aftershave he’s wearing later.
“Well I guess I’d better be leaving soon.” Glen says quite sadly, standing up. “It really was wonderful to meet you all.”
Stefan does the man thing and shakes his hand.
“We should exchange numbers at least.” I say, “We need to meet up again and find out if you get the job.”
Glen nods eagerly, and a few moments pass where we’re all giving and tapping in numbers to mobiles. As we watch him go, I say to Stefan, “He connected with you. He’ll call you first out of all of us, so you must keep us all in the loop.”
Chapter Four
Poppy and I live in Wimbledon. We’re all very lucky in that money will never be a problem. All that are ‘Gifted’ will have at least one ‘Gifted’ parent. And as we all have pure Beings, generally our families have members who hold positions of power and trust, which come with financial reward, generally a really big fat financial reward. Having exceptionally rich ancestors has helped us all maintain our secret. And we’re not stupid with our money. I know for a fact that if Glen gets the job in research, I’ll be investing there, anonymously of course.
I’m in the supermarket by my house, picking up a frozen pizza for dinner.
“Alice? Alice Shaw is that you?”
I turn around and there he is. My first crush and he’s still beautiful. That’s a lie. He’s hot now.
“Jason? Is that really you?” This comes out horribly squeaky and fake when I was trying to sound sexy.
“You are as gorgeous as ever. Wow, has it really been, what, 5 years since I saw you?”
Jason Burford. Long Legs Jason. No longer skinny and lanky, now filled out, broad shouldered and downright handsome. He had a crush on me, and didn’t hide it very well. And I had a crush on him but hid it amazingly well.
And he just said I was as gorgeous as ever. I am literally going weak in the knees and I’m petrified I’m going to collapse. Please mouth say something and make it something good.
“I’m just getting dinner.” Duh. What was that?
“Beer!” I turn to see Adam Jones walking toward me with a case of beer under each arm. “Alice bloody Shaw!” he says loudly, “Aren’t you all grown up then?” Adam has the face of an angel but he was always a
bad seed that was inevitably going to get worse as he got older.
I’m completely lost for words. And I feel sick. I’m shocked that no one else can see the cloud surrounding Adam, his Being is damned. This frightens me as there are children in here, normal people going about their day with no cares in the world. I’m also calculating the risk of killing him here, right now, in the middle of aisle 7.
“Adam.” I squeak.
“It’s a small world.” Jason laughs. I look back to him and he must see the shock on my face as he asks, “Are you ok?”
No, I’m not OK. I’m looking at Jason’s Being now, and it’s not damned, but its pretty damn close. I remember Jason being the very lightest shade of grey, as close to white as possible. I suddenly feel claustrophobic. I’m surrounded by darkness and it feels like the world is closing in. With a huge effort, I turn my ability off. Before me stand two men, one handsome, one attractive, and both with smiles on their faces. They look like ordinary men. In fact, they look like ordinary teenagers with beer and sausages and burgers. They’re obviously planning a barbeque; an extremely normal thing to do on a gorgeous day like this.
I still feel queasy.
“We’re having a BBQ.” Adam says, shrugging the beer as if I needed an explanation. “Wanna come?”
“No but thanks for the invite. Just grabbing something for dinner and planning on a quiet night in front of the TV.” I say as politely as I can muster, waving my frozen pizza around.
“Sorry Adam,” Jason turns to him, “but there is no way I can let anyone eat that for dinner. Here,” He thrusts burgers and sausages on top of the already overloaded Adam, “I’ll catch up with you later.”
I’m speechless. Did he just invite me to dinner?
“How about you grab a couple of steaks and I’ll cook. Sound good?”
“Um, yes sure. Great.” Not really sure but seeing as Adam is wandering off muttering to himself and I’m left with a hot guy who called me gorgeous, what the heck?
“Poppy, it’s me. I need your help.” I whisper
“You sound as if you’re calling from a bathroom. Can you get better reception?”
“No. I am in the bathroom”
“Gross.”
“Shut up and listen. I’m at home with Jason. Jason first love Jason. Jason Long Legs. And he’s a really dark shade of grey. What do I do?”
“Is he still cute? I always thought he’d grow up to be really sexy.”
“He is sexy but he’s a dark shade of grey for goodness sake!” She can be exhausting sometimes.
“Well sweetie, all you can do is figure out what he’s up to.” She’s whispering to me even though she doesn’t have to. I’m the one locked the bathroom. “If he’s going to turn into a damned Being I’ll kill him for you if you can’t. Or you know Robbie will.”
“It’s Jason!” I whisper vehemently, “I don’t want him dead, and he was with Adam Jones. Remember him?”
“How could I forget?”
“He had a damned Being, Poppy!”
Silence from the other end of the phone.
“Did you hear me?” I whisper.
“Well of course, I heard you! Good heavens. You have managed to get yourself in a pickle.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Have dinner! There’s nothing else you can do right now, is there? Now get out of the bathroom and back to your date and I’ll think on this.”
“When will you be home?”
“Probably Saturday. Mummy is having a ‘do’ on Friday night. I think it’s only a small one. 60 or 70 people so it won’t go on late.” Lord and Lady Howard have the best ‘do’s’ I’ve ever been to. It’s like every Jane Austin ball come to life. Bet Poppy wishes she’d bought that ‘darrrrrling’ dress now.
“Ok. Love you. Have fun and say hi to Lord and Lady Howard from me.”
“Will you ever call them George and Margaret? You’ve known them half your life!”
“Bye.” I don’t think I’ll ever call a Lord and Lady by their first names.
“You ok in there? You haven’t even tried my cooking yet?” Jason’s voice comes from beyond the bathroom door. It makes me jump and I almost lose my mobile down the toilet.
“Fine, just freshening up.” I lie. Great, on top of everything now he’s thinking about my bowels.
“Mm smells gorgeous.” I’m being honest now.
We sit down to eat and the steaks taste as good as they smell, if not better.
How do you ask someone what went wrong with their life? How do I even tell him I know that something is wrong? That hanging around with the likes of Adam has probably changed the intensity of his Being?
“So, what have you been up to these last years?” Lame, but it’s a start.
“Well, we moved to Cardiff, as you know. Finished school, with great grades I might add, and I moved back here about 6 months ago after Dad died.”
“Your Dad died? Oh gosh, I’m so sorry.”
“He was ill. It wasn’t a huge shock. Mum went off the rails a bit after that, and I just couldn’t stand living with her, so I came back here.” He shrugs, but my look must make him feel like further explanation is needed, “I have a great bunch of friends up here that I missed. And then I hooked up with Adam again, I’m much happier here.”
“Adam. Has he killed anyone yet?” I didn’t mean that to sound so cutting, but why disguise my hatred for him? Adam was the school bully, who for as long as I can remember loved picking on the younger kids and stealing their lunch money. The older he got, the worse he became and I even heard he stole a teacher’s car once.
The look on Jason’s face is incredulous.
“That’s a weird question isn’t it?” His voice has definitely got that shaky laugh thing going on, trying to make light of something that isn’t. If this was a first date I don’t have to worry about a second.
“Sorry. But he was a bully and a thief and basically no good. I don’t suppose he’s changed much?”
Jason smiles, but it’s one of those smiles that don’t touch the eyes. “Let’s talk about you and me. What have you been up to? You look great. This house is great. Are you still hanging around with Preppy Poppy?”
I hate that term. So she’s preppy but in a good way. I can’t help but feel defensive. But I lashed out at his friend so I should have expected this. Taking a deep breath to control myself, I say, “Yes. She actually lives here with me now but is back at the manor for a ‘do’.” We both laugh at this and it breaks the tension. Poppy’s birthday parties or ‘do’s’ will always be remembered as the most outrageously lavish affairs and so completely over the top. But the best fun ever for kids.
We relax into more casual conversation talking about parents, family and pets. He’s working part time at the local mechanics - good, I need an oil change. What am I doing, he asks? That one always stumps me as I don’t have to work. It’s obvious that Poppy will never work but as I was brought up without the flourish I always wonder should I do something part time. I also wonder if I had a ‘real’ job would I kill my boss. Everyone always says they’d love to so I assume lots of them have damned Beings.
“Oh you know, just looking for the right opportunity or deciding whether to go back to college.” This usually works.
“Sometimes I wish I’d stayed in school. But we’re always in such a rush to grow up and break away.”
“Break away?”
“Yeah. Being told what to do, when to do it.”
“Good job you didn’t sign up for the army!” I add.
He laughs at this, and for a brief moment, I think his Being paled. “Alice you’re still the most beautiful and funny girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.” He’s leaning towards me. Oh no he wants to kiss me. What if I have to kill him next week? Think! Do something. Run.
“Well it was nice seeing you but I really must get to bed.” I bolt up faking a yawn before realizing it’s only eight o’clock. Pathetic. But by now he probably thinks I’m a little weird anyway.<
br />
“You are still playing hard to get, I see. But that’s ok, maybe next time. How about Saturday night?”
I am so thrilled he actually wants to see me again after my blunders and bathroom break that I say “Sure, that would be great” before I even know I’d opened my mouth.
“Pick you up at 7? Or would you rather earlier if you have to be in bed at 8?” He teases.
“7‘s fine.”
I close the door behind him; do a little wow-he’s-hot dance and then sit down in front of the TV wondering how I should go about killing his best friend.
Chapter Five
It sounds flippant to say that we kill people with damned Beings, but it really is as simple as that. That night of my sixth birthday, my mum woke me up. My yellow glow-in-the-dark alarm clock told me that it was just past midnight. I think it was the first time I’d been awake so late. Mum crept into my room and was sat on my bed, smiling, her finger placed gently on her lips. “Be quiet, darling,” she said. “We don’t want to wake the house up.”
I followed her downstairs and into the kitchen. To my surprise, Uncle Thomas was sitting at the kitchen table with a small glass of orange juice ready for me. I loved my uncle dearly. I remember him being huge, but I suppose to a six year old, all grown ups are.
He wasn’t my real uncle. He was a close friend of Mum and Dad’s.
“Your Mum tells me that you saw the Being of the magician today?” he asked.
I nodded, holding my glass of juice two handed.
“And your Mum tells me that she explained to you about what we do?”
“Do you see them too?” I asked.
“I sense them differently, I can hear them. It’s like thunder and lightening happening at the same time.” That was scarier to me than the darkness I saw. I wasn’t afraid of the dark but thunder and lightening?