The Vale - Chapter 6

 

‘What?’ I laughed nervously, then shrugged and said, ‘I don’t have anything like that.’

 

Adam shook his head. ‘Of course we don’t need a pass, we’re visiting somebody.’

 

‘Who?’ Marcus said, stepping forwards towards us so that he was just a few feet away and we could smell him. He smelled of soapy aftershave, damp and nicotine.

 

‘Our friend,’ said Adam.

 

‘What friend?’ He asked, twisting his face as if he didn’t believe us.

 

‘A boy from our school.’

 

Marcus nodded slowly, ‘Okay,’ then he pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me. ‘That’s your temporary pass,’ he said, ‘you’ve got three visits and you’ve used one up. After that you’ll need to apply. You need a passport for Kemble, your friend should have told you. It’s not like the other towers. You need to apply to come here…..at the passport office.’

 

I looked down at the scrap of paper he’d handed me. It was a chewing gum paper, Wriggly’s Juicy Fruit. I laughed a bit but he looked angry now. In an attempt to appease him I said, ‘Thank you.’

 

‘Where’s the passport office?’ Adam asked innocently.

 

Marcus made a strangely dramatic posture, stepping to the side and folding his arms. ‘Mine,’ he said, ‘the passports are only issued from mine.’

 

‘Do you live here?’ I pointed inside but his eyes were shining now and wide.

 

‘No!’ he yelled, ‘I live in the castle, everyone knows….fucking everyone!’ 

 

Adam and I were a bit in limbo now because we needed to go into Kemble tower but we really didn’t want Marcus following us. Thankfully we were interrupted by a frail elderly lady coming out of the door pulling a tartan wheeled shopper. She paused and gave Marcus a filthy look, he snorted, spat on the pavement and strode off with his hands in his pockets, taking great swinging steps like the committed maniac that he was.

 

We both exhaled with relief as we passed through the main door, listening for it to bang behind us. Dan was on the eleventh floor and we didn’t fancy walking but when the lift arrived, there was another threat in the form of a gigantic white German Shepherd dog lying down inside, taking up a large portion of the floor space and panting. It didn’t look aggressive, in fact it was almost grinning at us. Adam and I were simply shocked by its presence, we stopped dead and were reluctant to get in but Adam shrugged and made the first move so I followed. 

 

We stood still with our backs against the red wall of the lift, hoping the graffiti wouldn’t rub off onto our clothing and avoiding eye contact with the hound whose scent filled the space. Oddly, we didn’t even speak because it seemed somehow plausible that the creature, otherworldly as it was, might understand our words and report back to some mysterious higher power.

 

The layout was identical to my own block so I led the way along the corridor to Dan’s front door and knocked. He opened the door in his boxer shorts and t-shirt. ‘Wait,’ he said, then disappeared to his bedroom to put on some proper clothes. 

 

His flat was untidy, scruffy with textured wallpaper everywhere, it had a smell, a sort of mix of bolognese sauce, men’s deodorant and shit. Adam and I looked at each other and grimaced. We had reached a stage in our friendship where we could exchange basic information in the form of a glance.

 

My first impression was that Dan’s family was rough. It wasn’t that I was a snob, or even that my family were remotely posh, nobody was posh on our estate and if they tried to be then they were prize idiots but my parents at least had standards. My mum always kept the house very tidy and clean; she had a routine and worked through it efficiently, allowing herself enough time to sit and stare into space which was something she seemed to need.

 

My dad repaired or replaced anything which was broken, made sure we kept our rooms tidy and swearing was banned in our home. On a scale of one to ten for being rough, Dan’s family appeared to be an eight, whereas mine was a four and Adam’s was more like a two.

 

‘You alright lads,’ Dan burst out of his room like a gorilla. ‘You found me okay then?’

 

‘Well, you are just along the road from me ,’ I said, ‘but Marcus Whale was outside, he was weird with us and he hassled us on our way in.’

 

‘Oh just ignore him, he’s fucking mental. His dad’s coming out of prison soon, that’ll sort him out, he’ll be running errands all over the estate again.’

 

‘What’s he in prison for?’ Adam asked.

 

Dan scoffed. ‘Not sure. Everytime he goes in, he comes out with new qualifications… fraud maybe. Come on sit,’ he gestured to us to join him as he crashed down onto the sofa. ‘What shall we do?’

 

What can you do in a smelly flat with a small balcony? I had been excited about the prospect of Dan’s computer, his Spectrum because I didn’t have one and there was something about computers which fascinated me but I wasn’t sure if I felt safe inside his property. That was one of the problems with these flats, being so high up, you were trapped, you couldn’t just exit out of a window, or even the front door, there could be dodgy people lurking out in the corridors. 

 

‘Why don’t we play a game,’ said Adam.

 

‘No, no games. I’ve got some cans of cider or we could make a potion and chuck it down onto people from the balcony.’

 

‘A potion? What do you mean by that, a potion?’ I asked.

 

‘Stuff, I don’t know, whatever we can find, some curry powder, my piss, toothpaste, maybe my mum’s face cream.’

 

Adam and I were silent for a few seconds. ‘I don’t reckon we’ll get away with that for long,‘ I said.

 

‘That could land on my dad,’ Adam said.

 

‘Oh, okay. It’s just something Chris and I do when he comes over because it’s funny.’

 

‘Whose Chris?’ I asked.

 

‘You know, Chris Holt from school, he lives upstairs but he’s playing football today otherwise he’d be here. I hate being on my own. Sometimes I just chuck stuff at cars, ones I don’t like. I hate Vauxhalls but my worst car is a Morris Ital, my uncle’s got one, their fucking big and ugly. Do you want some crisps? We’ve got Space Invaders.’

 

Adam looked uncomfortable now, he shifted on his feet. ‘I thought you had a computer,’ he said.

 

‘Ah, that. My brother broke it, he spilled Lilt on it.’

 

I felt a weighted throb plunge through my body whenever I heard anybody mention their brother. It was the fact that I was unable to show my own brother off. I couldn’t talk about my wonderful, supportive brother, my twin and my rock. There was no way of describing his presence in my life without it leaving people stumped. 

 

I once went through a phase of mentioning my brother Gary to other children while I was at primary school but my classmates didn’t respond well, they either went silent or disputed his existence. The teachers got involved, then my parents and I ended up being in trouble. In trouble because my own twin was in another realm. 

 

I took a deep breath and said, ‘Well, what shall we do then?’

 

‘I don’t know,’ Dan shrugged as if annoyed with us.  ‘Why are you hovering? Sit down will you! Make yourself at home, we can watch T.V for a bit if you want and then drink some of that cider.’

 

Adam and I sank down deep into the sofa, either side of Dan who was holding a remote control, scrolling through channels. I placed my hand on the arm but it felt rough and some of the skin-like coating peeled off into my hand. ‘Don’t pick at that, my mum will kill us!’

 

‘I’m not.’

 

‘There’s nothing on, look, Gentle Ben, Saint and Greavsie, Points of View…we’ll just have to drink the cider.’ Dan got up, tripped over my legs and went to the kitchen. I heard him plonk down three glasses and pour some gassy liquid into them. 

 

The glasses were not even full. I was thirsty and I drank it far too quickly. It tasted just like the apple juice my mum got from the milkman, not quite as sweet. I’d never had alcohol and I began to feel dizzy almost straight away, my legs felt heavy and the swirls of thick paint on Dan’s ceiling began to spiral and spin a little. Adam and I looked at each other and began laughing uncontrollably. 

 

Now we’d all loosened up, we talked about school, our teachers, our families, we bonded and the next few hours passed by in a haze. We went out onto the balcony to get some fresh air but it was windy and cold. Dan became alarmed by the sound of screeching tyres down on the road outside.

 

‘Shit, that’s my brother! He’s come home early, just act normal,’ he said as he rushed over to the kitchen to wash the glasses and put away the bottle of cider.