Skeletal

by Lee Hayton

  She glared at me for a moment, then grabbed my wrist and turned to go back upstairs. ‘Fine, then. Why don’t you come up and we can have a talk.’

  She slammed the door behind me as I walked through and sat on her bed. There was a muffled exclamation from downstairs, and Vila yelled out ‘Sorry,’ and then came in and sat on her desk chair. She stared at me and then sighed. ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘You knew that Michelle was going to be there. You knew she was going to attack me.’

  Vila looked down at the floor. She shifted in her seat. But she was already nodding her head before she stated, ‘Yes.’

  ‘How long before?’

  A shrug.

  ‘Is that why you invited me?’

  ‘Yes.’

  I felt growing frustration at the response. I breathed in, a deep breath, through my nose, and then let it out slowly between clenched teeth. ‘I was really hurt, Vila,’ I said. I tried to catch her gaze, but she kept looking down. ‘I’m not on the floor,’ I yelled out.

  She looked up, her eyes locked with mine for a second, but then she turned to stare out the window instead. Her cheeks were turning warm red. Her neck was flushed. ‘I didn’t hurt you. I didn’t touch you.’

  ‘No, you just invited me to a party knowing that someone else would. And you tried to get me drunk beforehand.’

  ‘It’s still not on me. You should’ve known better than to go out. You must’ve known that Michelle was out to get you.’

  ‘I didn’t know that you were.’

  She shook her head, but her neck flushed to a deep crimson. It was like an allergic reaction. An allergic reaction to facing up to herself.

  I thumped my fist on the bedspread. The sound was muffled, the sheets wrapped up the blow and took it away, but the movement caught Vila’s eye and she jerked back.

  ‘Why didn’t you warn me? We were meant to be friends.’

  ‘It was just a prank,’ she yelled at me, all composure gone. ‘It was just a prank, and you should’ve known it was coming. You’re so thick sometimes, Daina!’

  ‘Is that what you want me to tell the police?’ I yelled back at her. ‘Do you want me to tell them that you tricked me into going, despite knowing what they’d do to me? What do you think they’d say about your prank?’

  ‘And what’re you going to tell the police? That someone stole your clothing in a park? What am I, accessory to a clothing heist?’

  ‘You’re an accessory to rape!’ I yelled and burst into sudden hot tears.

  Vila shook her head in disbelief. ‘That didn’t happen. She just kicked you a few times. You can’t say that shit – that’s serious.’

  ‘You left me unconscious in a park, naked.’ I said and stared at her in mounting fury. ‘What the hell did you think would happen?’ I yelled and jumped up to shake her.

  I wanted to punch her and kick her. I wanted to drag her down through the mud and make her pay. Instead, I pushed her back into her chair and stood over her, my tears clogging up my ability to speak. Snot running down my face until I wiped it away.

  ‘You left me alone in a park with no clothes on, completely unconscious. How do you think I got home?’

  Vila shook her head. Instead of being fascinated with the floor, she was fascinated by me. Her eyes wouldn’t turn away.

  ‘Who did you leave there?’

  ‘Nobody,’ she croaked, then cleared her throat. ‘Nobody stayed,’ she repeated. Then she turned her head slightly to one side as though an invisible being was whispering something to her. ‘Paul was hanging around at the entrance to the park. He thought someone should check on you.’

  ‘Yeah, well. He checked on me all right.’

  Vila put her hands over her face. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she stated her voice firm. ‘You were fine when I left,’ she added.

  ‘When you left me unconscious,’ I corrected.

  ‘It was just a prank,’ she said softly.

  I felt so tired. All I wanted was to go home and get into bed. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten anything of substance. My stomach growled, and the pain felt like a low glow in my belly. ‘Why did you do it?’ I asked. My voice was low and flat. I didn’t even know if I wanted an answer anymore. I couldn’t trust anyone to tell me the truth.

  ‘I cheated on a maths test,’ Vila said in reply, just as I thought she wasn’t going to answer. ‘I cheated on a test and Michelle found out.’

  ‘When was this?’

  She looked to the corner of the room as if there was a slideshow of memory hanging there. ‘It was at mid-term. Just before. There’s an assessment that was worth 20% of the total mark. I couldn’t pass it on my own.’

  ‘You’re talking about April?’ I clarified, and she nodded.

  ‘So that’s the only reason you ever talked to me?’ I continued. ‘Michelle wanted you to be friends with me just so she could play a prank?’

  Vila’s eyes widened. ‘No! God, no. She only told me the week before. I swear.’

  I tried to read her, but I didn’t know anything anymore. No one was as they seemed. No one should be trusted. I nodded; however, this was a way back in and I was conscious that I couldn’t break this down just because I wanted to kill her. ‘So why did you leave me. You could’ve come back later.’

  ‘I couldn’t. Michelle made me leave. She told me if we didn’t get out of there she’d really hurt you.’

  I looked at her. The colour was starting to fade from Vila’s face. Her neck was returning to its usual warm brown. She met and held my eye. I could probably believe her. I wanted to believe her.

  They’re not your friends. They’ve been lacing your food.

  The thought carried so much weight that I swung backwards before catching myself. Vila was still looking at me, so I forced a smile onto my face and nodded. Her expression filled with relief.

  ‘It was an awful thing to do. I’m so sorry. If I’d known…’ She trailed off as she didn’t know what it was she would have known.

  I wasn’t about to fill in the details for her either. I’d talked about that once – never again. I held out my hand to shake. ‘Friends, then?’ I asked and she grabbed hold and gave me a shake and then a fist-bump.

  ‘Friends,’ she said. A smile lit up her face. ‘Would you like to stay for tea? Mum’s cooking about three times the amount we need at the moment.’

  My stomach lurched. Hunger, or fear. I rubbed the middle of my collarbone where the nubby ends were now protrusive. Surely her mother wouldn’t…?

  ‘No thanks. I need to get home to Mum. She’ll be wondering where I am.’

  The lie rolled out easily enough, but Vila’s small frown showed that it didn’t ring true. She let it go and tossed me a two-pack of Toffee Pops.

  ‘Have these then. You look like you haven’t eaten for days.’

  I couldn’t remember if I had or not.

  ‘Do you want to do something together tomorrow, then? Maybe go to the mall?’

  People. Crowds. Noise.

  ‘Sure, that sounds good. I’ll drop by at ten?’

  She nodded. Her smile was now all teeth, and I had to look away.

  As I walked into the lounge, I saw the shadow of Mr Fa'amoe. He must be standing just outside his office door. Making sure that I left? My stomach lurched again.

  #

  The Grey Man fell into step beside me as I turned out of Vila’s street. There weren’t any words spoken until I turned into an alleyway that was a shortcut through to my road.

  ‘Hard, was it?’

  I nodded and looked up at him. His face was hard to read. Closed off. I turned back to scanning the alleyway floor for broken bottles and twisted cans. When I was in standard two Jamie Sullivan had cut himself - through his shoe - on metal in an alley and had to get a shot as a precaution. I’d been hyper-vigilant ever since.

  ‘Tell me what you learned?’

  ‘I’m not cut out for this. That’s what I learned.’

  There was silence i
n response. It dragged out so long that we almost reached the end of the alley, and then I couldn’t stand it anymore. I stopped, and he stopped next to me.

  ‘I looked in his office. There were papers and a briefcase.’

  ‘What was in the briefcase?’

  ‘How do I know?’

  The silence again. It was uncomfortable and mean. But then I didn’t know why I was reluctant to tell him. After all, I’d forced myself to pry against my better judgement. Why wouldn’t I now tell him?

  Because he’ll make you do more. Because he’s mixed you up with someone else, someone who could do this.

  ‘There were more papers. That’s all. More papers, and some sort of stain. From his lunch probably.’ I forced out a laugh, but there was no humour behind it. I wanted to go home. No. I wanted to feel safe. And where felt safe now?

  ‘What else?’

  There was nothing else. There’d been nothing else I’d seen. But my mouth kept moving. Words kept forming. Information kept relaying. ‘The documents in the briefcase were different to the ones on his desk. His desk has something about the new vaccines for the ’flu season coming up. There’s also a summary of results from the first area to be vaccinated with the new MeNZB™ vaccine. Against meningitis. There were some bad reactions, but an estimate of a drop in expected meningococcal disease that far outweighed the side effects of the vaccine.

  ‘His briefcase had documents about chromosome structure. Or a particular chromosome structure.’

  I rubbed my forehead briefly. It seemed like information had just been placed there by a foreign body. I understood the words I was saying, not in depth, but in principal, but as to how I kept forming sentences and saying them I had no clue. I thought of the knowledge rays in Battlefield Earth – the entire history of knowledge beamed into your head with no effort to learn – and wondered if there was something aimed at my brain right now.

  ‘What chromosome structure?’

  I shook my head this time. But just as I was about to say I don’t remember I instead swung my bag off my shoulder and rooted around inside it. There was a small pad – an offering from a real estate agent, as though we’d ever be buying or selling property – and a pencil with the nib worn down.

  No pencil sharpener, but I bit into the wood on either side of the lead and splintered off enough strips for me to be able to make a mark. I drew a quick sketch of two oblongs joined together; one long, one short. Referenced bands marked their way down the capsules.

  I tilted the pad towards him, and he stared at it for a minute, two, not saying anything. Then he looked around us to make sure we were still alone and flipped the paper over so that the drawing could no longer be seen. He nodded at my backpack, and I tucked the pad and pencil back inside.

  ‘What was the stain from?’

  I frowned, and then brought up the image of the briefcase once again. The words, I don’t know were almost out of my mouth, when I closed my eyes and concentrated harder.

  ‘There was a small bottle, or phial, tucked into the top pocket. I could see the outline against the fabric. It had broken. Leaked. That was what caused it. The fabric was black so I can’t be sure, but I think that the liquid was blue in colour. There was a tinge of blue on one of the papers. It may have splashed it at some point.’

  The Grey Man tapped me on the arm. ‘You’ve got a knack for this. Even if you don’t feel right about doing it.’

  The sun was getting low in the sky. It hurt my eyes to keep trying to look up at him, so I stared down at the alley tarmac again instead. There was lichen: khaki, yellow, and grey. It grew on the rough concrete where the fences either side stopped the sun from shining. Life was so frivolous it would grow anywhere, whether it was wanted or not.

  ‘I don’t understand why you want me to do this. Why can’t you get someone else?’

  ‘There is no one else Daina. Only you. We wouldn’t,’ He paused, ‘I wouldn’t put you through this if it wasn’t necessary. It is necessary.’

  ‘Why me?’

  His shadow in the alleyway showed him staring at me. I kept looking down. ‘Daina, you know why.’

  I shook my head and felt tears welling up. My throat constricted and my eyes burned. I closed them and kept shaking my head.

  ‘You know you’ve seen me before Daina. You remember, don’t you?’

  A thump sounded that reverberated through the soles of my feet, and I reached out with my eyes still closed to grab hold of the corrugated iron fence to my right. The metal dug into my palm. This is not happening. I am not remembering. I have never seen this man before.

  ‘Daina, you need to get hold of those papers. You need to get a sample of whatever he’s carrying in his briefcase.’

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat and opened up my eyes. Colours flashed and burned and solidified in front of my eyes. The schematics changed; the road shrank and the pavement grew. A sparrow flew by, its tail elongating to a metre long, two metres long. The length of a rugby field.

  That’s not fair – I didn’t eat anything she gave me.

  But that wasn’t true. I’d eaten a biscuit from a sealed packet. Vila must have caught on that I wouldn’t eat anything open so she’d injected the drug into a sealed packet. A tear slipped from my eye. And I’d thought she would tell me the truth.

  ‘Daina. Do you understand me? It’s vital that we get those papers.’

  I shook my head. ‘I can’t. He’ll catch me.’

  ‘You have to think of something. Kill him if you have to.’

  I jerked my head up and caught his grin. Arsehole. ‘I can’t do it,’ I repeated and turned out of the alleyway into my road. ‘You’ll have to find someone else.’

  ‘There is no one else Daina, I’ve told you. You’re the only one who can do this.’

  I shook my head and carried on walking. He stood still at the mouth of the alleyway.

  ‘You’ve got the wrong girl,’ I whispered. ‘I’ve never seen you before.’

  Chapter Nine

  Daina 1994

  For a time, it seemed like she was going to faint. There were spots in front of her eyes just like there had been the previous summer when she’d refused to wear a hat outside to the A & P show and ended up in the St John’s tent with little memory of the day. She’d been looking forward to seeing the sheep, too. And maybe a lamb as little as she was.

  Daina sat down, her bottom falling straight into the warm wet patch that she’d created beneath her. The gun barrel still faced her, but now it was above her head.

  Her mother would be along soon. She’d sort this out. Whatever this was.

  She began to cry. The smell from the dead man was still in her nose. The taste of bile still strong and acid in her mouth. She’d been promised a nice picnic. A nice lunch in a nice place. As a treat!

  This wasn’t a treat. She wanted to go home. Right now.

  ‘Stop that,’ the man said above her. But it was too hard to stop. Daina’s shoulders shook with the sobs. Her face streamed with tears and then her nose started to swell up and block. She sniffled to try to clear it, but another wave of bile caught her as a result and she started to cry harder. Opened her mouth to let out a wail.

  ‘Now then, little girl. There’s no need to make a fuss. Where’s you mommy and daddy then?’

  That just made Daina cry harder. Her daddy was long gone, she was no longer even sure if she remembered him. And her mum was probably still asleep in the car.

  Earlier this had seemed like an added treat. She would be able to sneak away and do what she wanted to do. But the lake water had long since dried off her feet, and now she wanted her mother, and her mother wasn’t here.

  ‘Come on, there’s a good girl. You can’t be out here all on your own, can you? Where’s your mommy?’

  His voice had a thick American twang. Some of the words sounded so strange that it took Daina a moment or two to sort them out in her head. He was like the actors in the show on telly that she liked. The one where they got
to go swimming all the time in little red bathing suits.

  Daina’s tears started to dry up. She knelt and then stood up again. Her mouth and nose screwed up as she registered the warm cling of fabric. She’d wet herself and it had been years since she’d done that. She’d been three years old and in a mall and her mother had yelled at her. She’d yell at her again today.

  If she was still here.

  The thought made Daina’s throat close up again.

  Her mother had been in the car. The man must have come past the car to get here. If he didn’t know where her mummy was then either she wasn’t in the car, or the car wasn’t there either.

  What if her mother had left?

  What if she’d gone home and forgotten about Daina? It wouldn’t be the first time. Daina remembered her mother taking her to a friend’s house and making her go into Emma’s room to play. She didn’t like Emma, and she certainly didn’t want to play with her.

  When she went out of Emma’s room later, her mum’s friend was surprised to see her there. Apparently her mother had left – some time ago – and had forgotten that she’d brought her daughter over.

  She was driven home by a tight-lipped woman, and Daina was well aware that somehow this was all her fault. After that, Daina hadn’t seen the woman again, and Daina’s mum didn’t ever seem to go out to meet any friends anymore.

  At least in that situation there’d been a woman, however angry she’d been, to drive Daina home. Who would take her home this time if her mother had left? The man who was still pointing a gun at her?

  She shook her head. She didn’t know. The gun wavered and then dropped to the man’s side. Daina felt better about that. She’d seen guns on television a lot, but never in real life before. She knew that when they made a bang sound the person facing them fell down and sometimes they didn’t get back up. It didn’t seem like they were nice things to point at people, and that meant that this was not a nice man.

  The man knelt down so that he was looking her straight in the eye. Daina didn’t like that at all. She tried to look away, look back to the lake which had the pretty sun glinting off the surface of the water, but he grabbed her upper arm – hard – and she turned back to him.