A Fluffy Tale

by Ann Somerville

  “I…uh…wanted to see if you were serious.”

  “Mr Ledbetter, you’re a prick.”

  To his surprise, the man only grinned. “Yes, I suppose I am. But you turned up, and that impressed me.”

  “So, what, do I get a medal? You’ll stop being so nasty to me?”

  “I'm never nasty. I tell people uncomfortable truths. They don’t care for it much.”

  “Especially when you’re so snotty about it.”

  Ledbetter’s smile slipped. “You know what to do now. You should buy a better pair of shoes of that brand I mentioned, and a heart rate monitor. There’s a club who run in the park. If you join them, you’ll get a lot of advice. I need a shower. Good day.”

  Julian caught his arm. “Wait! Are you angry with me?”

  The man’s eyes were shuttered, revealing nothing. “I’ve done what’s necessary, you’ve demonstrated a commitment to good health and Pyon has already benefited. There’s little more I can add. I see no reason to detain you further.”

  “But…” Julian frowned in perplexity. “Why don’t you have breakfast with me? My apartment’s just around the—“

  “No, I don’t think—“

  “Or there’s a coffee shop that does healthy stuff—I checked. Come on, you can’t tell me you’ve got something more important to do at six am.”

  “No.” But the man still looked as if he wanted to bolt. “I need a shower and the café won’t be open…” He stopped and smiled suddenly, confusing Julian completely. “See? Told you they’d be friends eventually.”

  Julian looked down and ahead. “Oh. Oh!” Pyon was licking Linis who sat sedately as he was groomed, looking as if it was merely his due. Pyon’s eyes were half-shut in apparent ecstasy. “See? If you go home now, poor Linis and poor Pyon… Come back to my place. It’s tidy, I swear and I’ve got all the healthy stuff you could want.”

  “I…I really don’t think it’s appropriate. You’re an assistant.”

  Julian gritted his teeth. “And you’re a snob. Pyon, come on—we’re not good enough for his highness, apparently.”

  Pyon bounced over, looked at Julian and then Ledbetter, and meeped as if distressed. “It’s okay,” Julian said more gently, picking him up. “Come on, let’s go home and eat.”

  He started to walk away, but stopped when he heard a very faint, “W-wait.” He took another step. “Please?”

  He turned. Ledbetter held Linis in his arms, but though his kem was calm and unruffled, the host was not. “I…that was rude of me. I didn’t mean…it’s not that you’re not good enough…I…”

  “It’s only breakfast.”

  “I’ve never done that before.”

  “Breakfast?”

  “Not…uh…not socially.”

  “Oh. Well, I’ve never been jogging before, so we’re even, right? If you don’t come, then I’ll be at a disadvantage and that would be rude.”

  “It would?”

  “Oh yes,” Julian said, tucking Pyon up onto his shoulder and coming back to grab Ledbetter’s arm.

  But the bloody man still resisted. “I don’t even know your surname.”

  Crap, this guy was uptight. Julian stuck out his hand. “Julian Godwin, nice to meet you.”

  Hesitantly, the man accepted his gesture with his own big, long-fingered hand. “Uh, Zachary Ledbetter, same.” He shook Julian’s hand briefly, then let go.

  “And never Zach, right?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Julian grinned at his distaste. “Well, Zachary, how do you feel about poached eggs and wholemeal toast?”

  Ledbetter—Zachary—smiled rather shyly. “That sounds lovely.”

  Chapter 3

  They stopped at Zachary’s apartment—and how strange that he lived so close—so he could pick up a tracksuit to throw over his sweaty clothes. Julian would have been happy to wait for him to shower but the man seemed rather reluctant for anyone to come into his private domain, so he didn’t push. It was a big enough victory getting him to agree to breakfast, after all. A short walk after that and they came to Julian’s somewhat less swish apartment block. At least he’d cleaned up the night before.

  “It’s not as posh as yours, I'm sure,” he said, letting them into the apartment. “How long have you been there?”

  “Not quite a month. I only moved to the city recently. I wanted a place by the park and the agent found it for me.”

  “You own it?”

  “Of course.”

  Julian shook his head in amazement—the man didn’t look that much older than him, but he was already out of the rent trap. “Go sit. Tea? How many eggs?”

  If it hadn’t been for Pyon’s sudden infatuation with Linis, Julian thought that Zachary would have run after a single cup of tea. That he found the situation uncomfortable, was painfully obvious. But Pyon could be damn cute when he wanted to be, and he turned on the charm, enchanting Zachary and his kem both, pouncing from behind Julian’s arm, begging for a petting with little mewls, and chasing a ball of paper around the floor and finally curling around the thing as if it was an egg he was trying to hatch. Then he jumped back onto the table and demanded praise for his cleverness, which Zachary was happy to give him.

  Julian watched from the kitchen and grinned at Pyon grooming and teasing the sedate and regal Linis, winning a lick or two in the process and a lot of petting from Zachary. The man seemed to be unaware of the effect he had on Julian when he did that, and in the circumstances, Julian wouldn’t mention it. It didn’t seem the right time to bring it up.

  Breakfast was probably the easiest meal he could have offered, and eggs were one of the few things Julian already knew how to cook. They were both starving, so he served a stack of food—toast, poached eggs, melon slices and milk—which seemed to pass Zachary’s exacting standards. Zachary didn’t talk as he ate, but once he was onto his second cup of green tea, he relaxed a little. Julian felt he could ask him more about jogging, and how breakfast fitted in around that. He learned Zachary ran every day, usually in the morning, but never to work.

  “What about when it’s wet or cold?”

  “I can still run. If it’s truly vile, I use my building’s gym but Linis hates it.” He scratched between his kem’s ears. Linis yawned delicately, and lying beside him, almost on top of him, Pyon made a chirp as if he wanted petting too. Julian stroked his tail and resisted telling his kem not to be a greedy little sod. Pyon was almost drunk from all the affection he’d received this morning. Julian had a suspicion that his kem might even go home with Zachary if the man asked him politely enough—which he better not.

  “You know a lot about kems. Everyone else just takes them for granted.”

  Zachary winced, and Linis, apparently sensing his changed mood, moved closer and butted his head up against Zachary’s chest. Zachary picked him up and cuddled him close while Pyon pawed lazily at Linis’s tail. “It’s disgusting. Kems are as reliant on us as a child, and no one would treat a child with such disdain. Just because they can’t talk doesn’t mean they’re stupid. We know so little about them, and yet we feel free to dismiss them as nothing but extensions of our egos.”

  “No one knows what they are—or where they came from. Or where they go when we die either.”

  “They die.” Zachary’s green eyes were full of dark sorrow now and he rubbed his cheek against Linis’s head. “I know people like to think they’re reincarnated or they go off somewhere…but I think they die, like we do. So we have to give them as much time as we can.”

  Pyon meeped and ran back to Julian for reassurance at Zachary’s harsh tone. “Hey,” Julian said as he took his kem into his arms. “Don’t get upset.”

  “I can’t…I just can’t help it. The beautiful kems I’ve known who’ve died too soon because of utter selfishness of their hosts. Creatures with hearts and souls more pure than any human, lost because of idiocy.”

  Well this was taking a turn for the worse, Julian thought. The man looked about to burst into te
ars. “Lots of people die young through no fault of their own, you know.”

  “And lots of people pay no attention to the fact they’re responsible for another living creature and behave as if they can do exactly as they want. Their poor kems have no choice in the matter. I would never grieve for a human the way I have for those lost souls.”

  “You might. If you loved them. If your parents died, you would.”

  Zachary’s eyes turned from grief-stricken to icy disdain in a flash. “No, I wouldn’t.”

  “Oh. Sorry. You don’t get on with them?”

  The man looked away. Obviously a touchy point.

  Julian decided to drop the subject. “Um…more tea?”

  Heavy silence persisted for some time, Zachary stroking Linis with an absent expression, while Julian cleared up and discreetly comforted Pyon, who clearly knew something was wrong but just as obviously had no idea what.

  Julian made a fresh pot of tea and then nudged Pyon across the table back to his new friends. Zachary roused as Pyon climbed his arm up to his shoulder and meeped in his ear. “Oh, hello—are you feeling neglected? Linis, manners.”

  His kem stretched and yawned, and then climbed up Zachary’s arm to sit on his other shoulder. Julian grinned at the sight of the two kems bookending Zachary’s head. “You’ve won him right over.”

  “I did nothing. Linis is the one with all the charm. Not that Pyon isn’t charming too,” he added, reaching up and scratching Pyon’s tummy. Pyon squirmed with delight and tried to burrow into Zachary’s hair, his fluffy tail swatting the man in the face as he wriggled about. Zachary didn’t seem to mind the indignity in the least—and yet if a person had taken that kind of liberty…

  “He’s like another creature altogether. I wish I’d met you years ago.” Julian stopped, embarrassed, as he realised how that sounded.

  Zachary didn’t seem to notice. “I didn’t live here years ago, so you couldn’t have. At least you’ve started well. Just don’t become slack because it seems easier. You owe it to him.”

  “I know. I won’t.”

  “Good.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s eight o’clock and I’ve imposed long enough. I should go home and change. Thank you for breakfast…it was…pleasant.”

  “Surprised at that?”

  “Yes. I…yes.” He smiled a little shyly. “I…don’t know anyone here.”

  “Now you know two of us. Hey, I’ve got an idea. You said I’d be too sore to jog—but I promised Pyon I’d take him out to the country tomorrow, by train. Want to come? If you don’t know the area, then you could—“

  “Uh…actually, I'm busy.”

  It was said too fast for it to be the truth, or the whole truth, but Julian tried not to be offended. “Oh. Oh, right. Yes. Well, maybe next weekend or something. There’s a big country park about forty miles from here. You can get there by train. I keep meaning to go there when the weather’s good but I never get around to it. You’d like it.” He shut up—he was babbling.

  “I’m sure I would.” Zachary stood. “I…uh…I might be able to rearrange things. When will you be going?”

  “In the morning sometime? You could drop over and let me know after you go for a jog. Ring the bell or something and tell me. I can wait.” Damn it, he could just give the guy his telephone number, but he had a feeling that would just send Zachary running for the hills.

  “All right. I, uh…thank you for the invitation. And breakfast.”

  “Thank you for the torture.”

  Zachary grinned a little. “It’s fun.”

  “I bet. Let me walk you out.”

  Pyon rode on Zachary’s shoulder all the way down to the street, and only very reluctantly climbed back onto Julian at Zachary’s urging.

  “See you tomorrow, maybe?” Julian said.

  “Yes. Maybe. Thank you.” Zachary hurried away from him as if his arse was on fire.

  Julian was now convinced that the guy’s problem wasn’t that he was a terrible snob but that he was terribly shy. Which, wow, if Julian looked like that and had his advantages? Would really not be a problem.

  He turned to go back into the building. Pyon squeaked and then dematerialised—hungry, Julian guessed. It had been a long morning and it was still earlier than he would normally get up on the weekend.

  An engine revved and he heard a horrible squeal of tyres. Bloody traffic morons. That was the worst part of living on this—

  Then came a screech, and a dull, glassless thud. A second later a woman screamed.

  Not a fender-bender. The car had hit a person, not another vehicle. And the woman screamed again, this time for help.

  Zachary!

  He pelted down the street, desperately hoping he was wrong, that he hadn’t just heard—

  Near the corner crossing, Zachary lay in the street, bloodied and horribly broken and not at all alive. Already people were clustered around, one crouched at Zachary’s side. A car was stopped a little across the intersection, the driver surrounded by other people.

  Julian paid him them no attention as he dropped to his knees beside the too still body. “Somebody, call a bloody ambulance!” he yelled, staring desperately up at the sea of faces. “Call an ambulance!”

  Chapter 4

  They wouldn’t let him ride with Zachary to hospital but a nice woman gave him a lift in her car, following the ambulance as closely as possible, and offering words of comfort that Julian barely heard. His hands were covered in Zachary’s blood—a passing nurse had stopped to offer assistance, and Julian had done what he could using his own workplace first aid training, which wasn’t much. Identifying himself as the victim’s friend meant the paramedics asked him a lot of questions he had no idea of the answers for, then the police wanted more information. He could help them a little more since they wanted to know where Zachary lived and why he’d been on the street. But once Zachary had been loaded into the ambulance, Julian insisted on being allowed to go with him. The police let him leave—he wasn’t a witness, and there were plenty of other people who’d seen the accident who could help instead.

  “Are you going to be all right, love?” the kind woman asked as she let him out at Emergency. “You look very pale.”

  “I…uh…just need to know how he is.”

  “Then you go find out. Good luck—and remember, people can survive much worse things.”

  He watched her for a second or two as she drove away. Yes, people could survive worse. But they died in car accidents all the time, and Zachary had looked very bad. It had taken the paramedics a long time to stabilise him before they could load him up.

  His bloodied state raised a few questions at Reception but when they found out he wasn’t injured, he was told to wait with all the unfortunate friends and relatives of people being treated. The receptionist suggested that Mr Ledbetter’s family be contacted if Julian knew how to—but he didn’t. That ended his usefulness, apparently.

  It became clear this would take more than a couple of hours, and his filthy state had already drawn a lot of curious looks. He took himself off to the small public bathroom to clean himself up. The place smelled like urine and unpleasant chemicals, and wasn’t particularly sterile. The soap dispenser was nearly empty and he had to use half a dozen paper towels before he removed the worst of the blood from his clothes and hands.

  Pyon, who’d been so very good and kept himself out of sight while the worst was happening, now popped up and wanted reassuring.

  “You and me both, little guy,” Julian said cuddling his kem, staring at his reflection in the mirror and wondering if Zachary was already dead. And Linis too. His eyes filled suddenly. No. No, not Linis too. Not both of them. He’d only just stopped hating the guy.

  The waiting room was no one’s idea of a pleasant place to be. The television showed cartoons and then a series of inane soaps. Some of the waiting people stared at it slack-jawed, but most ignored it. There wasn’t much else to occupy the attention, and the bored wandered in and out to make mobile phone
calls, smoke or just get out of the foetid, sickly air inside. Julian didn’t dare leave in case someone called him to tell him about Zachary.

  It was two o’clock in the afternoon before he got any news at all, and that was only to tell him that he couldn’t have any specific information because he wasn’t a relative. “I don’t care—I want to stay here until he’s okay,” he told the doctor.

  “That’s going to be some time,” she said. “Mr Ledbetter’s uncle is flying in tonight and there will be some decisions about treatment to be made. You can’t do anything for him right now. Mr Ledbetter is unconscious and will remain so for at least twenty-four hours—no visitors either.”

  “I'm staying.”

  She sighed. “Up to you. But if you want my advice, you’ll go home, change, get some rest and come back tomorrow.”

  “What about his kem? Is Linis okay?”

  “Kems typically dematerialise when the host is injured. We haven’t seen his, but that’s not unusual. You surely know they can’t be injured. Now, please, I have other people to see.”

  He stood disconsolately as she walked away. Pyon meeped enquiringly and rubbed his face against Julian’s cheek. She was right—he did need to change and eat, at least for Pyon’s sake. But he’d come back here afterwards.

  He left a message at the office to tell them briefly what had happened—he had no idea when it would be picked up, but he didn’t care particularly since work was the last thing on his mind. Two messages on his own phone from friends, he ignored—they'd have to wait. He could email them later but he just couldn't deal with anything else now. Then he showered and changed, and ate a proper meal, and told Pyon to go inside so he could nourish himself properly. He felt fairly useless—he didn’t know Zachary’s family or friends so couldn’t tell them. The only thing he could do was swing past the man’s apartment building and let his neighbours know, but he discovered none of them had actually met Zachary. He delivered the information, hoped he wasn’t setting Zachary up to be burgled, and then he hailed a taxi and headed back to the hospital.