Broken Toys

by Jackson Lear

  “You can’t do that!” She grabbed another jar in response. “I wish for Josh’s jar to lie.”

  Anthony grabbed a jar of his own. “I wish for Josh’s jar to tell the truth.”

  “Tell us,” said Josh.

  “Tell us!” said Anthony.

  Amanda looked from one face to the other before casting her eyes down at the two jars in her hands.

  “And you have to tell the truth,” said Josh.

  In barely above a whisper, and without lifting her eyes, Amanda sank into the truth. “I wished for us not to move.”

  Josh and Anthony shared a perplexed look. “Huh?”

  Amanda gently nodded. “I heard my dad say the commute to London is too long. He wants to move closer to work.”

  A silence fell over the threesome. It ended only when Josh handed his jar to Amanda. “Wish it again.”

  Anthony raised his to his lips and whispered. “I wish Amanda stays.”

  “Me too,” said Josh, over every jar in their collection.

  Amanda smiled weakly as she fought back a lump in her throat. Maybe the powers that be would answer, maybe they wouldn’t. Either way, a quiet voice in the deepest recess of her soul reminded her she was simply playing with empty jars in the back of a friend’s garden.

  There came a quick double beep from a car horn. Josh sprang to his feet. “My mum’s home. You wanna come over? We can do finger prints.”

  “Okay,” said Amanda, perking up.

  Anthony sighed and stared back at the collection of empty jars. “I can’t. My Auntie Peta’s coming over and I’m not supposed to leave the house or garden.”

  “Peter’s a boy’s name,” said Amanda.

  “I know.”

  “We can stay here for a little while,” said Josh.

  “All right,” said Amanda.

  They continued reading the future for another fifteen minutes. Josh’s mum came out and told him to get undercover before the rain started.

  Josh bounced to his feet again. “Who’s coming over? I’ve got some new comics.”

  Amanda broke into another smile. “Which ones?”

  “Well, really, they’re old, but I just got them. They’re from my uncle. He says he got them from my dad.”

  Anthony strained himself as he tried to figure out what Josh was talking about. “You mean really old comics?”

  Josh shrugged. “Beano stuff. And Mad Magazine. Some Batman as well. I haven’t seen them all yet.”

  “Your dad read comics?” Amanda asked, as she stared in disbelief.

  “That’s what my uncle said. My dad made me promise not to throw them out.”

  “Is he going to read them too?”

  “Dunno. Maybe.”

  “But he’s a grown up.”

  “I know,” said Josh. “You want to see them?”

  “Yes!” said Amanda, now desperate to see what kind of bizarro world Josh’s family lived in.

  Anthony, meanwhile, slumped back on the grass. “I can’t. I have to clean my room for Auntie Peta.”

  “You can come over later,” said Josh, offering his friend a consoling look as though this evening would be the greatest test of hardship in all of Anthony’s life.

  “I’ll try,” said Anthony.

  His mum, though, wasn’t buying any of it. First Anthony had to put away his toys, then he had to learn how to be a good host by greeting his aunt warmly and taking her jacket, something which his mum made him practice over and over again. Then he had to tell his aunt all about what he did in school. ‘Nothing’ was not a good enough answer.

  Peta was onto her second bottle of wine when Anthony went to bed.

  A park separated two suburbs within Luxford. To the east was Portal Close, home to a thousand houses packed with roommates and young couples. To the west was Banyew, where the focus shifted to extra bedrooms and backyards. Most of the children in Banyew had the whole park to themselves. The rest had parents who refused to let their little darlings out of sight even for half an hour.

  Claire and Zoe sat on the bench next to the undercover barbecue pit. Josh, Anthony, and Amanda were on the roundabout with Charlie who held on for dear life. Josh and Anthony took turns spinning everyone around. As soon as the roundabout came to an abrupt halt they all had to run to the swing post and back without falling over.

  “Practice makes you better!” insisted Josh.

  Zoe saw her brother take a couple of tumbles but at least Amanda was there to help him up.

  “Janelle’s a bitch,” Claire said.

  “Claire,” Zoe said. She had discovered that adults had the uncanny ability to hear entire conversations even though they were nowhere in sight.

  “Well, she is, and she shouldn’t be lying to everyone she sees.”

  Zoe braced herself for the speech that was about to come, that Claire and Janelle used to be friends until Janelle found a new best friend and now won’t talk to anyone she considers to be beneath her.

  Meanwhile, with one hand on the roundabout and ready to spin them all around again, Anthony looked to the end of the park and blew out a sharp breath of air. “The weirdo is back.”

  Amanda glanced across. A scruffy boy in clothes that were far too big for him was walking towards them. In his hands was a battered white shoebox. “Who’s that?”

  “Don’t know,” said Anthony. “We saw him the other day.”

  “He lifted up Claire’s skirt,” said Josh.

  “Why’d he do that?”

  “Dunno,” said Josh. He grumbled louder when the boy came closer. “No, don’t go over!”

  It was too late. Amanda sauntered forward, or as forward as she could manage while fighting the effects of being flung around on a roundabout all afternoon. She stopped in front of the dandruff-ridden boy and glanced at the shoebox. “Hey. I’m Amanda.”

  The boy seemed to look right through her and made no effort to respond.

  “Do you go to school here?” Amanda asked.

  “No,” the boy said, so quietly that Amanda wasn’t entirely sure if he said anything at all. All he did was simply stare through her chest.

  “So where do you go?”

  “I don’t,” the boy said.

  Amanda caught a whiff of the boy’s breath. His clothes smelled as well.

  Josh wandered over to provide some kind of protection. After all, he had seen a kung-fu movie over the weekend. “You don’t go to school?”

  The boy forced a blink, commanding himself to pay more attention.

  Anthony came over. Charlie hurried after him.

  “How old are you?” asked Amanda.

  The boy shook his head.

  “You don’t know?” Josh said. The boy was halfway in height between Anthony and Charlie, so Josh assumed he was seven. Or a tall six year old.

  “When’s your birthday?” Anthony asked.

  “Myurfday?” the boy said, slurring everything into one word.

  Anthony nodded to Amanda. “Told you. He’s weird.”

  Charlie glanced at the shoebox and edged closer to Amanda.

  “Maybe you’re asking the wrong things,” said Amanda, glaring at her friends for being impolite. She turned back to the boy. “Do you want to play?”

  His eyes widened in surprise. “Okay.” He then stared at them, waiting for further instructions.

  “You can put your box over there by the swings,” Amanda said.

  The boy did as he was told.

  “Don’t let him play with us,” moaned Anthony.

  “Be nice,” said Amanda. “My cousin is challenged and he needs clear instructions. Maybe he’s the same.”

  “Or he’s Welsh,” said Josh.

  “Don’t be rude,” said Amanda.

  “They shag sheep.”

  “No they don’t,” Amanda said.

  “And what did he say? Myurfday?” Anthony asked.

  “If he doesn’t go to school then maybe he actually is challenged, so be nice to him.”

  Josh and Ant
hony felt the sting of guilt as Amanda was probably right. The boy put his box down near the swings and walked back to them. Charlie pulled away from the new arrival and decided to wander over to his sister.

  Amanda led them all back to the middle of the playground. “Now then, we take turns on the roundabout, spin around, then run over there and back again. First person back wins.”

  The boy nodded. “Like before?”

  “Yeah,” said Amanda, “like we were playing before.”

  Josh and Anthony didn’t hold back on showing a grimace.

  The boy looked across to the swings. “What about my frog?”

  A moment of unease hit Amanda. Things that jumped around unexpectedly often caused her to leap about herself.

  “He’s nice. He doesn’t bite.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Frog.”

  “Frog? You named a frog, Frog?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I have a cat named Bilby,” said Josh, hoping to get any kind of reaction out of the boy other than a spaced-out stare. Unfortunately, the weirdo simply shifted his attention onto Josh and kept it there like he was only capable of looking at the last person to speak and would remain looking at them until someone else piped in.

  Amanda studied the boy carefully. Her cousin had once hit her without provocation. She was careful to avoid a repeat of that event. This one had yet to even smile. He simply stared at everyone dead in the eye without shifting his gaze, nor did he seem to fully understand what was happening around him.

  “Come on Amanda,” Anthony moaned, as he climbed back to the roundabout.

  Charlie had just been turned away from his sister and was on his way back, sucking on two fingers of his left hand.

  Claire was off in girl-world, complaining about Janelle stealing all of the boys and revealing secrets that the girls told each other while on a sleepover. The problem was, Janelle wasn’t at that sleepover, so someone else in their group was the snitch.

  Claire craned her head over to see why everything had gone quiet. Then she found the culprit. “That little shit.”

  “Ewwww! That’s gross!” Amanda bellowed, as she looked like she was trying to rid herself of what must have been an Amanda-sized spider web. Even Josh and Anthony were backing away. Charlie, though, stayed with the dishevelled boy and stared into the box.

  Zoe narrowed her eyes into a deep focus. It was time to get involved. Claire followed.

  “What’s going on?” Zoe called out. The boy looked up from a spaced out stare while Charlie shied away in guilt.

  “Make him go away!” Amanda shouted.

  Zoe raised herself up and was ready to go into full blown adult mode. If Amanda had decided it was too much then Zoe was going to force that little punk to leave. She and Claire stopped behind Charlie and stared into the shoebox.

  “That’s a toad,” Zoe said, in complete surprise. Then it clicked; the boy had adopted a disease-ridden slime-covered creature.

  “Oh god, really?” Claire said. Her stomach contorted in disgust. She peered into the shoebox. Zoe was right. A fat toad was breathing in the corner, surrounded by paper towels and cotton wool.

  “His name is Frog,” said Charlie, in the hope that Zoe would warm up to the animal.

  “No, seriously, that’s a toad, not a frog,” said Zoe. “And get away, they’re covered in disease.”

  “He’s no disease, he’s my friend,” said the boy.

  “Oh yeah?” asked Claire. “Did you buy him in a pet store or did you find him on the ground?”

  “I saved him from the railway,” the boy said.

  Claire shook her head. “Then it’s a toad and not a pet and they’re covered in the Bubonic plague. Get rid of it now before–” she reeled around and shrieked. “Zoe! Charlie! ” Claire pointed in fright as Charlie started sucking on his fingers again.

  Zoe slapped her brother’s hand and pulled it out of his mouth as quickly as possible, which startled Charlie to the point where he nearly burst into tears.

  “Charlie, did you touch that thing?” Zoe asked.

  “... No ...”

  “Charlie, I’m serious, did you touch it?”

  Charlie sniffed. His sister knew the truth.

  “He likes to smile,” said the boy, now holding the toad in both hands and pointing it up at Claire and Zoe like they were expected to kiss it.

  “Ewww! Piss off!” shouted Claire. She slapped the boy’s hands as hard as she could and saw the toad leap to the ground.

  “No! Catch him!” screeched the boy. The toad bounded away, desperate to avoid the boy chasing it. “Don’t let him get away!”

  The toad headed towards Amanda. She yelped through another full body shiver and ran out of the way.

  At least for Josh and Anthony it was certain that no one liked the scruffy boy anymore, regardless of how challenged he was. They watched him dive after the toad but it slipped through his fingers and leaped towards freedom.

  Zoe had to slap Charlie’s hand out of his mouth again, causing him to lose his usual preventive measure against crying. “I have to take him home.”

  Claire looked over to Anthony. “Come on, we’re going as well.”

  “I didn’t even touch it!”

  “Anthony! I said we’re going!”

  Anthony sulked forward. Things were a lot better when there was no Charlie and no ... whatever his name was.

  Josh and Amanda followed. As they left the park Josh looked over his shoulder. The little twerp was busy picking up his empty shoebox before turning to stare at the people leaving him.

  Charlie spent the next few days with his head in a bucket and running a fever. His mother threw a fit when Zoe told her about the toad and she demanded to know who this kid was so she could give an earful to his parents. She called around but no one knew who the boy was, nor had they even seen him walking about.

  Charlie played up his illness for all it was worth. Zoe worried herself to death for not being fast enough to get her brother out of danger. One day she shouted at Charlie for faking a still upset stomach. Then she demanded the return of one of her prized ponies that had gone missing. She didn’t play with it anymore but she still cherished the porcelain animal she got from her grandma when she was two. She shouted at Charlie for taking it. He swore an oath that he had no idea what she was talking about.

  The day before school started again, Josh, Anthony, and Amanda were exploring the creek near the train tracks. As before, Josh and Anthony would stay on at Banyew Primary School while Amanda was returning to Aubrey’s. Josh was still itchy from the barber’s. His mum told him he could grow his hair however he liked once he was eighteen and had joined the circus. Until then, it was the school-boy side part all the way.

  Josh looked up from his SAS survival guide. “Okay, we’ve set two rabbit catches and a bird trap. What next?”

  Anthony and Amanda peered at the book Josh had found on his dad’s bookshelf.

  “Bow and arrow?” Anthony asked.

  “Don’t you dare,” said Amanda.

  “Why not?”

  “Do you remember shooting yourself with that potato gun?”

  Anthony stood up straighter, now bordering on being offended. “Yeah?”

  “Well that was a potato. And it was this big.” Amanda squeezed her fingers down to an infinitesimally small point.

  “What of it?” Anthony asked.

  Amanda fired back towards Josh. “No bows and arrows. Ever.”

  “How about we build a compass?” Josh suggested.

  “That’s better.”

  After half an hour of trekking through the trees and swinging sticks around like they were swords, the threesome came to a halt.

  “Hey, check it out,” Anthony said, with a quick point of his stick. Nestled at the base of a tree was a white shoebox, soaked and beaten from enduring a month’s worth of rain and sun. Like before, air holes had been punched through the lid.

  “Oh no,” said Amanda, backing away
immediately. “Noooo, no, no, no, no. That thing better not still be in there.”

  “Would it be worse if it was out here?” Josh asked. That made Amanda look all around for an escaped toad.

  “It’s been there for ages,” Anthony said. The box broke apart the moment he poked it with his stick.

  Amanda checked over her shoulder to see if the owner of the box was watching them. “Do you think he’s nearby?”

  “Nah. He never left this thing if he could help it,” said Josh.

  Anthony flicked the stick against box and popped the lid off. Then, like he had descended through an asylum of screams and horrors, he fell silent.

  “Is it gone?” Amanda asked, as she hid behind Josh. “Please tell me it’s gone.”

  The stick in Anthony’s hand slipped to his side and shuddered against the ground. There was suddenly not enough air in the world for him to breathe. Josh peered over to see just how bad it was.

  “What is it?” Amanda asked. “Is it dead? I’m not looking if it’s dead.”

  Josh looked back at her. Every ounce of humour disappeared in an instant. “It’s time to go.”

  “Why?”

  Josh slapped Anthony across the shoulder, breaking his horrified stare. Anthony winced and rubbed his shoulder. “That hurt.”

  “We should go home,” said Josh.

  Amanda kept an eye out in case whatever was by the creek was going to come and chase them through the trees and eat them before they made it back home. She tried not to believe any of that was real, but it certainly felt real when one of her friends stumbled along in an almost catatonic state while the other was trying to talk some sense back into him.

  “I thought we were going to the bridge,” Anthony mumbled.

  “We’ve been to the bridge,” Josh said.

  “Don’t you remember?” asked Amanda.

  “Wasn’t that why we came out here?” Anthony asked.

  “Yeah, we did it an hour ago,” Amanda said.

  “Oh.”

  Josh shot Amanda a look. It was definitely time to get Anthony to an adult.

  Amanda pulled back on a sniff. A girl from her class last year had diabetes. Sometimes she blanked out and couldn’t remember things. Even worse, she was forbidden to go to anyone else’s house as she would stuff herself full of chocolate and eat what she had been denied at home. All she did was stay indoors so she could be supervised at all times. Anthony better not have diabetes as well.