The Red to My Grey

by William Dudley Berridge Tuckey

  “It’s not like that; this is more than curiosity…I can’t shake the feeling there’s something really important I have to know, something I have to find because you aren’t able to tell me.”

  “That’s enough from the both of you, I’m not entirely sure what you mean to each other, but you shouldn’t fight. Trust one another; don’t try to hide everything from each other,” Charlotte said sternly before an argument could break out and the two of us went quiet. Dinner was relaxing enough apart from our parents being giddy beneath the table when granny wasn’t looking, something I wish I hadn’t saw either. Both Angel and I excused ourselves from the table while Celia went on to yell at them for their behaviour. The hospital was a tiring experience, so it didn’t take long to fall asleep even with all the noise in the dining room. Angel seemed to have calmed down over the course of the night and the next morning came to us more easily than usual with a goodbye to Charlotte as she departed for the Fellbroke metro station to start her journey home. I had assumed she was a resident somewhere inside the city but as it turns out she lived in the country and was just visiting Sophia. With her gone, both Dad and Sophia would become even more restless. I felt most sorry for Celia as her patience was always running thin. I managed to keep out of trouble for a little while onwards, even keeping Johnson’s need to follow through in line long enough to relax for a bit. I could tell the next few days would be my time off from chaos, so I would gladly use them to the fullest.

  Chapter Five

  After almost a week straight of work, I had a day off. I was pretty exhausted and just wanted to stay home. However, Angel had already made other plans for the both of us. It was an early morning start to the day as she dragged me out of bed. By the time I came to my senses, I was already boarding a train heading to the other side of the city. Angel sat cheerfully beside me while I was still out of it. She hummed along to the music playing from the speakers at each end of the cabin. We got off at the south end plaza which was packed with people; she led me by the hand towards a fancy café based inside a luxurious courtyard decorated by roses growing from the sides of the hedges. The trees stood tall and seemed out of place in the hustling city that never slept. She called for a table of five and we were brought to the centre table, making us the centre of attention also. The staff and customers all stared at Angel as she fed the happily chirping sparrows breadcrumbs. She was wearing one of her nicer outfits she got from Em. Everyone’s staring left me feeling quite uncomfortable, considering I wasn’t entirely sure why we were even at the café. I looked to Angel to see her face brighten up even more so than usual. I turned around to see Dan, Em and someone I didn’t recognise right away. There was a young woman, an oddball of one at that. She wore a striped black and white dress, mascara, glossy dark blue lipstick and she had long dyed blue hair reaching down to her waist and its shade matched her lipstick. She stood out just as much as Angel did and much for the same reason, she was beautiful.

  The moment I recognised her, I screamed out her name in shock, “Kitten?”

  “C-Celia’s brother?” she screamed back, and her face went blank before she attempted to escape. Em dragged her back to her seat and Angel looked at me curiously.

  “Kitten?” she asked softly. The oddball girl blushed up and laughed nervously.

  “My name’s Catherine but my friends call me Cat and his sister called me kitten for that,” she explained while pointing at me.

  “Cat was our model for the store before I found you, Angel. She said she’s good to start working again, so you two will be doing shoots together.”

  “Nice to meet you, Cat; let’s work hard.”

  “You too. So, why’s he here? Did you drag him along Danny?” she asked while glaring at him and I.

  “Oh yeah, Wade and Angel are a couple, she’s even living with him,” Dan teased her while he fidgeted with Em’s hair, which she seemed to be overly enjoying despite having so many eyes on us.

  “You could do better,” she remarked sharply. I flicked her on the forehead for it. It was a tense atmosphere until the waiter came around. We ordered our food and then went back to the agitated conversation we were having.

  “Kitten, what’s the deal between you and Celia anyways? It’s been a while since the two of you have done anything together, right? I haven’t heard her talk about you in ages either.” She looked depressed after I said that, but she shrugged it off anyway.

  “I’ve been busy. I caught up with her the other week; she told me she’s been having a bad time at home lately. Something about some lady flirting it up with your dad, like he’s completely under her spell or whatever. I can’t believe he’d just go for a lady like her even after what she did to Celia.”

  “Sigh. That’s an understatement. Celia definitely has it the worst out of both of us,” I replied in an exhausted tone and Angel giggled under her breath while she played with the sparrows on her shoulders as she listened to us.

  “I wouldn’t mind paying her another visit. So, is it alright if I come home with you?”

  “Absolutely not,” I said sternly as I shook my head.

  “Wade! She’s your sister’s friend who wants to help her. You can’t just turn her away,” Angel whined innocently. Dan laughed until he fell out of his seat and rolled on the grass holding his sides. At this point, everyone was definitely staring.

  “They’re not just friends, they’re lovers. They’ve been like that since they were eleven, then again Cat looked like a little emo boy back then.”

  “What?” she screamed and looked to Catherine who was completely silent.

  “I want to see my – my girlfriend okay!”

  Dan laughed some more at the sight of the discomfort on my face as he tried to climb into his chair. Em had her hand on her forehead as if she regretted bringing him. She then exploded with another outburst.

  “I can see why you’re into girls. Guys can be jerks! This was meant to be a nice, quiet, relaxing day out, but no. These two have to act up and cause a scene in the middle of everyone!”

  Dan petted her head as she took deep breaths. Em was kind of scary when she was mad. The other tables were completely quiet and didn’t dare speak as I looked around us. The waiter nervously approached us with our meals; they quickly set our food down and left us.

  “Sorry, Em,” Angel gently apologised.

  “For what? You didn’t do anything. Now eat up; your food will get cold.”

  We all went quiet for a little bit after Em’s outburst, but we still had fun. The courtyard was a relaxing place to have a meal. I felt as if we had all settled down enough, so I asked Dan and Em a question.

  “Hey, how did you two meet by the way? You said you met when we were finishing high-school?”

  Em made a face I hadn’t seen before, and Dan laughed as if he was trying to hide his embarrassment.

  “He told me I was cute while I was working at a family restaurant, so I dragged him inside the pantry…I got fired of course.”

  “You’re so bold Em!” Cat praised her.

  “That’s kind of romantic I guess,” Angel struggled to find any on the other hand.

  “Solid work, Dan,” I teased him, and he nodded while downing his food.

  We had our food and went back into the busy plaza. Angel suggested that we all have a look around and meet back up at the left entrance near the metro station. Angel went to grab my arm and drag me away for herself, but Dan put his hand on my shoulder and gestured that I go with him instead.

  “Sorry Angel, I think Wade needs some bro time though,” he said light-heartedly with a smile on his face.

  “I guess that’s okay then…” she replied softly before Cat and Em dragged her away from us and we had some free time to ourselves. I turned to him in suspicion.

  “So, why did you want to get away from them?”

  “It’s Em, she’s a handful. She’s hard to take care of when I’m by myself with her in public. She runs around towards anything that even slightly catches h
er attention. Besides how long do you think it’s been since you and I have got a chance to hang out?”

  “Yeah, I guess it has been quite a long time, you must have been busy with her this whole time then. You sure she’ll be fine with the girls though?” I asked out of concern.

  “Yeah, she’ll be fine, she’s their boss. She’s not going to act up in front of them too much.”

  “Alright, let’s go then.”

  We walked through crowds of people towards a street performance. The performance was more disturbing than entertaining. It was a re-enactment of the bloodied eye murders from several years ago, screaming women being slashed and stabbed by a man with red eyes wearing an overcoat.

  “This is really lame; let’s go hit up an arcade or a café or something,” Dan complained as I tried to catch up in the story of the horrid play.

  “Yeah, this is all over the place, let’s go,” I said as I turned around to bump into someone. I looked down to see a teary-eyed girl that looked around fifteen. I apologised but she started crying anyway. Dan laughed at me and passers-by stared at us.

  “Hey, I said I was sorry, there’s no need to cry.”

  The girl wiped her tears away, but her lips still quivered, and her eyes retained their sad expression. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m lost. I don’t live here in Fellbroke. I’m from Aubrey; it’s a small town a couple of hours on the train from here,” she spoke in a mature tone, but her voice was sweet and innocent.

  “So, why are you here then? That’s a bit of a trip from home,” I asked in hopes that I could help her.

  “It’s kind of a secret…I mean it’s personal,” she corrected herself to sound more mature.

  “Well we can’t exactly help you if we don’t know what you’re looking for,” Dan added while keeping a smile on his face.

  “It’s just really hard for me to talk about it to strangers…”

  After I heard that, something in my head was telling me that something didn’t add up, even if she was from the country. A teenage girl wouldn’t have this much trouble asking for directions. I asked her how old she was and the question caught her off guard as she took a few seconds to answer.

  “I-I’m ten. I know I may not exactly look like it, but it’s true…I’m in fifth grade.”

  Dan collapsed to the ground laughing his ass off and I was speechless, unsure of what to say at the risk of hurting her feelings.

  She crossed her arms and pouted as tears started to well up in her eyes. “Relax. We got your back,” I said half seriously as I watched Dan pick himself up off the ground. I didn’t realise what expectations would come from those words as I rested my hand on top of the young girl’s head.

  “I’m looking for my parents…well my mum anyway, she came here to Fellbroke a few weeks ago without saying a word. I asked around the train station back home and the workers there told me they saw her last heading here.”

  “Geez, this is like some run away child crap. Shouldn’t we go to the cops or something?” Dan whispered in my ear and I shoved him away from me.

  “Why so they can just send her back home? If she came all this way, we may as well help her out.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “Are you in any sort of rush to go home tonight? Because I know a detective that can probably find your mum; he’s good at his job but he’s usually pretty busy. I can probably contact him for you tomorrow morning and he’ll organise an interview for you.”

  The girl’s eyes widened up and she had a radiant smile on her face.

  “You can really do that for me? But where am I gonna stay? I don’t have a lot of money, so I don’t think I could afford a hotel or anything like that.”

  “You can stay at my house,” I said without thinking and Dan punched me in the arm.

  “Dude, phrasing!” he scolded me as we watched the young girl’s face blush right up.

  “Oh, I mean I live with my girlfriend, sister and my parents, so I didn’t mean to give you the wrong idea.”

  She then nodded silently and went on to accompany us while we enjoyed our break before we met up with the girls. We walked around for a little while, telling jokes and stories from back when we were teenagers. The girl didn’t say much but she couldn’t help herself from laughing as we fooled around. She was also excited to see all the different stores around this part of Fellbroke. She pressed her face against the windows of clothes, jewellery and shoe stores as we passed them. We kept an eye on her and when we felt hungry again, we called her over to us so we could grab a bite to eat. We went to a pizzeria and sat out the front of it, staring up at the clouds that floated aloft overhead.

  “Not many days like this anymore, right?” I said after downing a glass of cold water.

  “You said it, man; it’s been too long since we’ve done this kind of stuff.”

  We had a pizza between the three of us and I went to pay for us after we were finished; the girl took out a small blue wallet with a cotton elephant stitched onto the front of it.

  “Don’t worry about it, it’s on me…what’s your name? I’m surprised I haven’t asked already.”

  “It’s Nami. I know it’s weird for me to have a foreign name and all,” she answered somewhat insecure about it.

  “I think it’s cute. It suits you.” Dan then punched me in the arm again for being too friendly with her. After all, she was just some random girl we had picked up off the street. Looking back on my behaviour I can see why he was concerned. We left the pizzeria and went to meet the girls near the metro station. When we arrived with Nami tailing behind our feet, the girls looked at us as if we had committed a crime except for Angel who hugged her tight with a smile on her face.

  “Angel let go of her! Danny, where’d you and Wade find her? Why is a girl her age walking around with a couple of twenty-year-old men?” Em unleashed another outburst and Dan scratched behind his head anxiously while trying to laugh it off. Nami spoke up for us and we both looked to her in relief.

  “I-I was lost, they said they could help me find my mother.” However, after explaining how old she really was to them, Em turned around and put her hand on her forehead and I couldn’t help but feel guilty for upsetting her.

  “Why didn’t you go to the police?” Nami let out a loud sigh after her attempt to help us failed and Em went off some more. I then went to explain how I planned to take her to the detective and Em calmed down after that. It was around two in the afternoon when we boarded the train home to our side of Fellbroke. The walk home was entertaining enough as the three girls chattered amongst themselves while I yawned and thought to myself how I was going to sneak back to bed, knowing that both our guests, Nami and Kitten, would cause a stir. We arrived home to Sophia and Jason lounging around in the living room and Celia was on her laptop at the kitchen table. Kitten snuck past our parents behind Celia and covered her eyes with her hands.

  “Guess who,” she whispered in her ear. Celia then turned around and caused quite a scene as she screamed at Kitten at the top of her lungs in excitement.

  “I see you’re here for another ‘visit’ Cat, long time no see,” Dad said to her as he got up from the couch. Kitten spun around to face him with heated determination within her eyes. She addressed him sternly, making it obvious she wanted something. He went on to humour her request.

  “Let me live here with Celia,” she demanded confidently.

  “Absolutely not,” he replied in an equal tone of authority.

  “Then let her move out with me,” she demanded yet again.

  “No. You’ll get her into trouble.”

  Kitten stood shut down and worn out as Dad went back to talking with Sophia who was laughing under her breath. Celia didn’t care so much for the outcome of the conversation but saw it more or less as a romantic gesture. Her usual lack of patience and short temper seemed non-existent as she hugged up to Cat with a sweet, love-struck smile on her face. It was pretty entertaining to watch not just for me, but for everyone and i
t distracted everyone from the true elephant in the room. The two girls went on to catch up and I went to talk to Dad about Nami who hid behind me as I got his attention. With it came Sophia’s; she peaked her head over the couch to listen to me, her eyes widened up and a dim shade of grey felt as it were hovering over her. Nami had only a glance at her and her face went from shy to practically glowing.

  “Mum!” she screamed as she ran up and hugged her; the entire room went silent waiting for a response. But there was only silence as Dad stared at her with cold eyes.

  “Why are you with these people? Why did you run away?” Nami asked persistently; she still wasn’t mature enough to understand just how much of a daunting situation it was for everyone in the room.

  “Sophy…explain yourself,” Dad said in a shaken voice. Angel went over and led Nami back to me and we comforted her as all of this went on.

  “I’m so sorry Jason…I can’t expect you to forgive me,” she broke into tears and her normally strong sense of presence faded from her. He held her in his arms, knowing if she was this torn up it was something crazy hard on her to deal with.

  “Talk and I’ll listen. You know that, we’ve been this way since we first met,” he wiped the tears from her eyes, but they continued to fall.

  “She’s why I ran away. She’s our child, Jason. I fell pregnant, but I couldn’t tell you. I was too ashamed since I was still with Sinclair. I couldn’t tell anyone. Nami is your daughter.”

  Dad went silent while Nami looked at both him and her mother in shock, not knowing what to say or do. It felt like an eternity before I decided to speak up and break the silence.

  “That’s enough. Don’t throw it on him all at once. Calm down a bit and we’ll sit down and talk this all over. Nami, follow me and Angel, let’s chill for a bit until your mother comes to her senses.” It wasn’t polite, but I felt as if I had got my message across.

  “Wade, don’t talk to her like that! You have no idea what she’s been through,” Dad reprehended me as I tried to walk away.

  “But I know what you’ve been through, so try and appreciate the fact that I’m trying to look out for you,” I responded sharply and brought Nami to our room. I’m pretty sure everyone split up and left Dad and Sophia to themselves after that. Nami was also pretty shaken up after the experience. She sat quietly on our bed staring blankly at the carpet. Angel sat next to her and hugged her while I rested behind them in the middle of the bed. “You alright? Is there anything you need that might make you feel better?” I asked as I stared up at the ceiling.