The Closet Caretaker

"Oh yes" she thought, "Let's see what daddy can do." She stands
there. Slender. Looking deep into his eyes before he sinks back behind
his bars. Ticking in his ears. Things like only he can think. Standing
there, looking up. Seeing only the stars.

"I wonder where India was today," thought Steven. The clock ticked
louder and Steven knew that it was three minutes before the hour. He
set the batteries that way as a signal that only he could understand so
he could sneak off a little earlier and scribble with his pencil
crayons while the others were still at a meeting.

And under his office was an ocean. Deep. Wide. With beautiful fish and
islands and mermaids and he dreamed of marrying the most beautiful and
living his life in the blissful waters of tranquillity.

That was his dream.

"Sad old man" she thought. There he was. Fallen asleep in front of the
telly. Left the fire on too long. He'll never learn.

Palm trees glistened in Steven's dream. He wandered here and there.
Looking at things. Tasting them. Holding them. And then he'd wander on.
No suitcase or anything. Just his shorts, vest and himself. And some
money to buy a Guinness.

He laid back and the bed bounced. He sat up.

"You were snoring your head off" she said, slapping her thigh in
frustration at not being able to hit him. He rubbed his eyes and
smiled.

"Back on planet earth" he thought. And he chuckled. Survival of the
fittest. A law of nature. Not decided by man, but played by him. Steven
got up and rubbed himself down.

"The lads 'll be round to play footy soon" he joked. She didn't get
it.

"You think you're so clever" she said.

A little earlier she'd been making a banana liquardo when the phone
rang.

"Look, love, it's me. The carbon is just starting to boil and I need
you to witness it". A voice she didn't recognise.

"I am not your wife," she said.

"No, I mean it, it's time and then the carbon will explode. It'll go
everywhere and then that's it. Lost. All that carbon I've been saving
up for years, spent, disintegrated. There are only a few minutes left".
Whoever it was put the phone down.

"Bananas!" thought Jane, "Lost up a tree!" She was furious. After all
she'd paid the phone bill the last two months and got no good calls. It
wasn't a good service. She had reason to complain. He was calling her.
She wasn't doing anything. She was innocent. He had the gun. "And" she
thought, "a catapult in his back pocket."

REFRESHMENT BREAK

That was so refreshing, ladies and gentlemen, that Steven won't be
coming back. I hope this doesn't spoil the wonderful evening we've had
so far. If you could all start to file out through the doors at the
back.

So, each muttering their own little curse, the audience one by one got
up and left. Miles walked out into the cold night air. He looked up at
the stars and heard Daddy's car on the gravel. He ran over and got
in.

"Great show tonight, Steven never came back after the bloody break,
will you have it?"

Miles Senior laughed heartedly at his son's joke.

But Miles Junior wasn't joking. He leapt forward grabbing the wheel.
The car skidded and banged into the wall of the bookshop. Daddy,
shocked, sat back in his seat.

"Miles Junior!" he shouted. But little Miles Junior had opened his door
and bolted. There he was, leaping and bounding up the lane. Running.
Feeling his pulse quickening. Reaching into the air, bright blue in the
last light of the day. Gone.

"Who cared if Steven was bloody dead?" he said.

But Steven wasn't dead. He'd been shipwrecked on a tiny Caribbean
island off the coast of Honduras. The people there were an odd mix.
They tied Steven up and sat next to him and looked deep into his eyes.
He was fixed. Awed. What could he do? He looked at them twice. He
walked past again. But he thought on and on until he couldn't think
anymore.

"The play!" he thought. He'd forgotten the play. He'd gone out for a
breath of air during the break and then he'd found himself running
through meadows. He rushed back but the caretaker was locking the
door.

"They've all gone 'ome" he said, "It's all finished. They've sacked you
and now they've sacked me for talking to you."

And they both vanished into a little puff of pink smoke.