A Stranger Leaves Chapter 2 by Adam Parry

 

two

 

Ash’s Dad was asleep on his end of the sofa, but not for long as Max 2 barked her usual terrified greeting at the sight of Ash.  Now that Dad’s moustache had grown thicker since the last time he saw him, he somehow suited it. He grabbed a mug of tea and asked Ash why he was here.

‘I haven’t seen you for a bit.’

‘You saw me two weeks ago,’

‘I just brought Lara up to see you before they went to LA and Vegas. I was out of my body at the time.’

‘No. Why are you here now?’

‘I’ve come to see you.  Don’t worry I have no ulterior motives.  I just missed you.’

They sat in silence. Then William said:

‘Get yourself something to eat and make me a cup of tea, no milk.’

Ash remembered when Helen got so very hot and she was drenched in sweat. She started to panic as she didn’t know what was wrong. Ash with a sense of familiarity gently blew on her face, which seemed to help and she began to cool down and lay in peace for a while.

Ash stupidly put a few drops of milk in the tea, making the liquid look deep brown and murky.  He had stopped himself before he put too much in, but it still looked pretty bogging.  He took it through.  Max 2 darting up the stairs and barking like a terrified fox.  Back in the kitchen he got some Corn Flakes and came through to the sitting room after perusing his Father’s boxes and bottles of pills.  There were no Jellies.  Anyway, it was not his intention to snaffle any today, no, not today.

Without setting off the feral beast into a head-ripping bout of barking he made it to the toilet and back.  William unsteadily got to his feet. ‘You must have put a milky spoon in my cup.’ He went to make another for himself without another comment, but he slowly swept his feet along the hallway and said like a pale shadow of his rage.

‘You’ve left the drawer open and the toilet door shut.  How many times do I have to tell you...oh, I’m sorry it just keeps the heat in that way?’

They both lit up.

‘How’re you feeling?’

‘How the fuck do you think I’m feeling? I’ve had the shits since I woke up at six. But, thanks for asking.’

Ash put out his fag then went to get his bag from the steps which set Max 2 off. Ash swore.

William told his son. ‘I have to take a pill at ten. Put the telly on if you want.’

‘Do you want me to walk Max?’

‘Alexa said she would do it, she’s a bit later than usual. I’m going upstairs to get washed and changed. Save you from Max for a bit.’  He stuck the telly on for Ash as he knew he was unfamiliar with the remote. Ash channel flicked and found a found documentary channel, Eden, about a guy rowing across the Tasmanian Strait.

William called. ‘Can you get me the towels from the dining room? They’re on the swivel chair.’

Ash found them and took them up to him while the dog flew to the nearest corner.  Ash quickly retreated before he throttled the bark permanently from the mutt.  He smoked a couple of fags and had another cup of tea before William came down again with a t-shirt and jumper on, his jeans folded over an arm.

There was a knock on the door.  Alexa let herself into the kitchen. Ash said hi to her.  She lived two doors down.  Her family had lived in Dyce before they moved in. He cut her off at the pass.

‘Dad’s putting his breeks on.’ At least Max 2 was consistent and was once again barking insanely.

They both went through and William was fully dressed back in his seat on the couch. Ash told Alexa:

‘Max doesn’t like me.’

‘No. He bloody hates him.’

Alexa took a concerned look at William. ‘You’re holding your arm funny.  Have you had another of your mini-strokes?’

He looked defeated.

‘Yes. I think so.’

She managed to wrangle Max2 into a lead.  Ash didn’t move lest the dog was too scared to go out.

‘I’ll take her just now,’ she said. ‘You’ll take her later, Ash, eh?’

‘Yes.’ Ash started watching TV again. Helen had a little heart tattooed on her shoulder, he said he liked it. She had another tattoo on her thigh star shaped edged with grey. I don’t like that one, she’d said. Neither did he, but kept it to himself and he had kissed her heart.

Now that he’d woken up and got dressed, taken his pill and had five fags William seemed to have cheered up a bit.  Ash breathed a sigh of relief – at least a ten-minute break from dog.

Somehow, they got into a conversation about Singapore.

‘Your hair was so blonde back then in the sun it turned white. Your Mum lost you in the market and was shitting bricks until you appeared on someone’s shoulder.’

‘I always used to get lost. Especially in Edinburgh.’

William scowled.

‘I have to take another pill at eleven, then we can go to ASDA – my second home. I’m waiting for a router, but if it doesn’t come soon, we can just go over.’

‘Did you get caught out by the petrol panic?’

‘I didn’t know it was going on until after the fact.’

Before Alexa came back William told him how he nearly drowned off the coast of Malaysia.

‘We were all pissed, big party of us, even some officers. So bright spark that I am I went for a swim.  The next thing I knew I was a mile off shore cos of the currents.’

‘I nearly drowned for ten fags.’ Ash launched into a lengthy spiel, but was caught short by the return of Alexa and the anxious canine. She bounded upstairs as if breathing the same air as him was intolerable. Alexa left also.

Ash got up and stubbed out his latest fag in the ashtray beside William.  On the table beside it he saw a bonny gold pocket watch.

‘That’s nice. Did you just get it?’

‘No Mum gave it to me.’

‘Your Mum or my Mum?’

‘Yours. Helen. I’m going to get a sandwich. Do you want anything?’

‘No,’ but Ash followed him through to the kitchen. Straight away through the dining room door he saw the new Sunflower watercolour painting William had recently done. ‘It’d look good in a yellow frame.’

‘You can have it if you want.’

‘Thanks,’ but he did not take it that day.

‘Do you want these?’ His Dad proffered him a hundred John Player Blues.

‘Yes, thanks.’ Ash put them in his bag.  He took out his camera.

‘I’ve some photies to show you.’ Before William stopped him, he said. ‘That’s her.’

‘Who?’

‘The girl, Helen. And then there’s this other one.’ He showed his Dad a picture of her sister’s wooden garden chair with an ephemeral hominid shape, vaporous like a ghost about it.

‘What’s that?’

‘It’s a ghost,’ he laughed. ‘No. I think I was sitting in the chair smoking and when I took the picture the flash must’ve highlighted the smoke.’

‘Can I eat now?’

Ash put away his camera and wandered back through to the sitting room.

‘You up for a trip to ASDA?’ William said coming through unsteadily. ‘I need some milk.’

‘I’ll go over for you.’

‘No, it’s alright, I want a coffee in the cafe.’

‘OK then.’

William got Max 2 leaded and handed his son the lead.  Twice Max slipped out of the collar.

Ash said. ‘Shit!’

‘Let her get in front of you,’ William said and slipped the collar back over her head. ‘Third time’s a doozy.’ This time they all got together to the car and William coaxed the dog into the car eventually. At ASDA car park they got a convenient space. Anywhere nearer the shopping centre they would’ve been blocking the automatic doors. First stop. The Fag counter. Ash got some gas and skins; his Dad checked a stack of Lotto tickets.

Ash remembered he needed a new wallet. ‘Why don’t you sit in the cafe and I’ll get you what you need. I remembered I need a wallet.’

‘What happened to your old one?’

‘Long story,’ Ash mumbled.

‘I need to go in and get some fish.’

Luckily for Ash the last wallet for sale in the vast shopping centre was hanging on a rack waiting for him.  Then he wandered about ASDA not really knowing what he wanted and if he did where to find it. A bonny black lassie served him and he went to William at the automatic checkout.

‘You’re a coward,’ he laughed. ‘Even I can use these fucking things.’

Finally, they got to the cafe. William got his usual coffee. Ash had a roll and sausage and a hot chocolate.

‘Is that all you want?’

‘No, but it’s what I got.’ He almost devoured the roll in two gulps. O that was good. Not as good as when she had kissed his ear.  He’d got the gas because the orange clipper she had left behind had gone out the day before. Even though he had about a hundred and fifty others he regarded this one as special like the Olympic flame that should never be allowed to go out.

When his Dad was ready they went back to the car and he asked him to take the dog over the field to the house.  Max 2 was as surprised as Ash as they skirted the football pitch and over toward the primary school.  She kept looking back at him as if someone less despicable had morphed from being Ash the monster. To try and make it up to her for whatever crimes he had obviously committed on the dog he ran with her over the field back to the house.

‘I’d better get a bus soon. I’ve the mini-shrink to see at 3.30.’

‘Who?’

‘Simone, the CPN.’

‘Oh. OK.’

Yet they had another couple of cups of tea before he left.

‘Chilly,’ he said to the woman at the bus stop. ‘Have you waited long?’

‘5 minutes.’

Just then the 21 turned round the bend about the old folk’s home.

He had to stop himself from crying the two--hour journey back to his bit.