When The Nightingale Sing

When The Nightingale Sing.

…shhh!
I’m behind you.
No not there, look to your left…bit more…there! Can you see me?
I can see you.
I’m by the window. Did you see the curtain move then? That was me.
NO! Don’t move…tehy’ll see you.
You have to get down on the floor; tehy can’t see you when you’re on the floor. Tehy think teihr clever but I’m smarter now. I know how tehy think. I’ve been watching tehm too.
I SAID DON’T MOVE!
Get down on the floor…lower…LOWER. No, not like that. Look…watch me.
You have to keep your body flat against the floor at all times…see. Make sure your elbows don’t stick up in the air…that’s it…otherwise tehy’ll spot you.
I’ve ripped up all the carpets and triple polished all the floors downstairs, so I can move around the house like this without tehm seeing me.
Tehy didn’t think I would think of a way to out think tehm…but I did.
Are you thirsty? You probably are thirsty aren’t you? I’m a bit thirsty.
Follow me.
Stretch you arms out like this with your hands flat on the floor…good, and then pull yourself forward, like so. You can push with toes if you need to. Keep your elbows down! That’s it. You’ll get the hang of it after a few days.
I won’t go too fast.

Oh and you get used to the headaches from the polish as well.

We have to be quiet in the kitchen because I forgot to shut the window when I was preparing the floor and I can’t afford to stand up and close it as tehy’ll see me. Tehy haven’t seen me for a week now. Ha…I bet teihr so pissed off with me.
NOT SO CLEVER NOW ARE YOU!!...shhh…shhh…ha.
Shhh…Do you want the red dish or the yellow one? I’ve been using the red one but you can use it if you want. It’s surprisingly easy to drink lying down don’t you think, as long as you don’t breath through your nose of course. If you bend your tongue in the middle, I find you get more water per lick.
I’m afraid I can’t offer you a great deal to eat. You see when I realised tehy’d seen what I…erm…when I…I just threw down the first things to hand from the cupboards for supplies without really thinking, so you’ve got a choice between dry pasta, baked beans, jelly cubes and, oh I’ve got a couple of pouches left…rabbit in gravy and…whitefish in jelly.
I ate all the poultry ones last week.
So, what can I get…what was that…? Shut up! Did you hear that…? Shut up!! Shit! Look, up there on the window ledge. One of tehm’s found me.
Look don’t lsietn to tehm right tehy’re liars
I dndi’t do anyhtnig she didn’t dservee she kpet qeustoining me and wtahcing me all the tmie waht was I supopesd to do FUCK OFF YA BEADY EYE’D FUCK
LEAVE ME ALONE you don’t udnretsand what it’s been like evryeady I haer tehm sing to ecah other aobut what tehy saw tehy sit up there taunting me making sure I konw that tehy konw what tehy’d seen each day when the sun rises one by one tehy all start twittering aobut me until the bushes and trees biegn to shake I srcaem at tehm scare tehm off but tehy keep cmoing back wtahcing me jduging me souhting out what tehy saw so erveynoe konws waht I did.
…shit…calm…calm…FCUK…calm…quick, follow me. If you startle it the ohtres will come down to watch. Move slowly. Keep low. Elbows down…Stop!
Don’t move… It’s looking right at you… Can you feel it as I do? Those dead black eyes, scanning you, judging you. Those eyes seem to look all the way into heart, your soul, your bones. Searching for the stains you hide away from the outside world.
Hold still…Quick! It’s looking out the window, move, MOVE!

Where are you…?…Friend? Ah, there you are. What’s that you say? If I stick to the skirting boards they’ll never see me. How come? Huh…of course, and all this time I’ve been moving across the rooms, no wonder I…you understand me so well. I mean I’ve only known you for three minutes and you can already see my way.

That was her problem.

She didn’t understand me, not even after six years of marriage. She was always asking me questions,
‘What are you doing?’
‘Why are you doing this to us?
‘Don’t you love me?’
‘What’s wrong with you?’
Question after fucking question… but never an answer, oh no! Every room I walked in she was already there, wtahcnig me. Even when she was reading I could feel her baedy little eyes following me around the room lkie one of tohse creepy pictures, but she’d always deny it. She awlays denied everything…but I kenw…I konw…I understood her, I understood what she was trying to do. She wntaed me to cnahge, to be like her, be the smae… but I understood her… just like you understand me.
You see, those eyes of hers followed me everywhere I went. They watched me when I drank they watched me when I ate they watched me when I cried they watched me when I screamed and they watched me when I drggaed her up satris they watched when I squzeezed her ncek and they watched me when I held her under the wtear and they watched as I plcuekd them from their skcoets and they watched me as I stamped and smashed them and…

I was free.

I sat for a while on the wet floor listening to the sound of my breathing in the silence, when Edgar padded into the room. He’d always been her cat ever since we first got him. His fat, pampered stomach brushed the floor, soaking up some of the blood and water. He sat in front of me for a moment and sniffed the air. His head turned as he looked to be searching for her scent. All of a sudden he leapt at me. I covered my face to protect my eyes, then slowly lowered them when he didn’t strike. When I looked, he had perched himself on the edge of the bath and was looking down in to the water. His nose twitched as he lowered his head towards her. With a loud hiss, he pulled his head away. He lashed out at me. I moved away from him as he spat and hissed. He jumped on to her chest which floated above the water and moved up to face and began licking at the holes I had made where her eyes had been. His purr filled the room as he buffeted her head with his. The wet blood matted his fur leaving one side of his face slick and dark.
Then I saw it on the windowsill, looking straight at me. Its little head darted from left to right as it looked at the bath then me the bath then me the bath then me. Edgar looked up at it and let out a growl I had never heard before. The brid didn’t flinch; instead it cocked its head and seemed to be listening. The brid began twittering as Edgar’s growl got deeper. It then dawned on me that they were communicating. As they talked they would glance at me in turns then face each other and continue. They were talking about me, about what I had done. I tried to creep up on it but it flew off back to its tree. I watched out the window as it told the ohtres what Edgar had said.
I beat the shit out of that fucking cat.
After that, one by one tehy all flew down to have a look at what I had done and one by one tehy all took tehir turn staring at me, judging me, watching me. From then on every time I looked out a window, one of tehm would be there. The trees would sway as tehy all gossiped about me. Whenever I walked past an open window or opened the front door teihr shrill conversations would explode into the room as soon as tehy saw me.
That’s why I took to the floor. The little fuckers can’t talk about me if tehy can’t see me can tehy. But I don’t need to tell you this, do I? You understand what I mean. You would have done the same thing. She would have driven you ma…to distraction as well. We don’t need to tell anyone ‘cause we’ve done nothing wrong, have we? A man’s home is his castle, right?
(ring-ring)
Excuse me. I better get that.
(ring ring-ring ring-ring ri)

775781…hello darling, how are you?...good, yeah I’m fine, well now anyway… oh it was nothing really, your mother called it ‘man flu’…yeah I know. She wouldn’t believe me when I said I felt ill and had to stay in bed…I know, she just laughed at me and said I was a big baby…ha ha ha ha…well she’s not laughing now…huh…she’s in bed with the flu that she said I didn’t have…yes I’m looking after her…of course, not that I should of really considering she wasn’t exactly Florence Nightingale with me…alright…I do…I promise. Look darling I better go, I’ve got some soup on the cooker for your mum and I can hear it bubbling…no, no you don’t need to come back…we’re fine, I can cope…don’t be silly, anyway from what your mum said last week, you need to concentrate on your Uni work…yes she told me…we’re fine…ok…I will do…love you too, bye.

...what…what’s wrong?
Why are looking at me like that? …what do you mean it’s not normal? … But she was taunting me. She was the one who started it…I’ve already told you, by watching me all the time…of course I had to, how else was I going to make her stop…what?...why?...she’s still upstairs in the bath…what are you doing?...who are you calling?...NO!!
…Sorry.
Does it hurt...? Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you so hard…about half an hour or so. I put the cushion under your head so you’d be comfortable when you woke up…well there’s no need to be like that…WELL FUCK YOU TOO!!
…Sorry.

…Christ your heavy…

…shhh…

…I thought you understood…

Hlleo aigan.
Don’t wrroy you’re not praaylesd, I’ve jsut teid you up a bit, you konw, for sfatey…well…my sfatey. I dno’t wnat you trhsahnig aobut. I’ve been so…look, tehre’s not mcuh pinot tlaknig as I can’t udnuersatnd you wtih taht tpae oevr your muoth. I’ve been so sutipd. I sohuld hvae piad mroe aettnoin to yuor eyes. I got so cuahgt up in the ieda taht you wree lkie me, I fogrot to chcek yuor eyes. Do you know, tehy say the eyes are the wnidows to a preosn’s soul and from the look in yuros right now, I can tell taht you’re jsut like tehm…and her. You tnihk I’m mad don’t you? You tnihk I’ve lost the plot, gnoe loco, due a tirp to the fnuny fram but in fact I’m the sanest pesron hree. I see tnihgs how they raelly are. I udnerstnad how poeple wrok, how tehy feel inidse and I konw how to dael with poeple like taht…like you…like her.
Can you haer them otuisde.
In the trees.
Tehy’ve got so luod.
Tehir singing for you now.