Joey Sixknuckles
six on each finger
Ok, so this is a rough draft I wrote ages ago and have decided to start expanding on as I've got an idea of how to finish it (well I had an idea before, I just mean one I prefer).
Maisie bit into the juicy fat pink grapefruit, straight through its fleshy skin, she didn’t care about peeling it first. The pinkish liquid squirted over her face and ran down her chin dripping onto the lurid green plastic table top, forming a luminescent pool of pink goo. I folded the last of the pages from the yellow legal pad lying in front of me, into a paper aeroplane, and threw it into space. It curled out through the window over the golden sand and out towards the calm, almost flat aquamarine sea beyond.
Sally, Maisie’s old school friend came in from the bedroom we were all sharing, she had turned into tinfoil during the night again. Her skin and the pyjamas she was wearing sparkling in the early morning sunlight, tears of silver weirdly animated like the water in a postman pat episode poured down her silvery cheeks. I got up and wrapped my arms round her shoulders, hugging her tight; Maisie didn’t even notice she was biting greedily into her second grapefruit.
“Hey, don’t worry, the last time this happened it was only for a day.” It sounded trite, but it was true. Based on previous experience she would be fine.
“Yeah I know, it’s just such a shock, I’d started to think I was in the clear it’s been so long since last time.” Said between racking sobs.
“Come on, there’s a breeze outside, it’s perfect weather for kite flying. First though I bet you’re thirsty”. I knew the rough metal aggravated her throat.
I went to the fridge, one of those old fashioned chrome American jobs. Inside the only things were a purple bowl of grapefruit, lemons and blood oranges, and a carton of milk in the door. I passed the milk to Sally and she drank gratefully straight from the carton, some of the white pasteurised cow water splashed down the sides and joined the tears on the red and white tiled floor. I could mop that up later.
We left Maisie to her citrus obsession and went outside our small pale yellow clapboard two room house. The kite; a giant Chinese snake was where I had left it, in the undergrowth the stiff light green salt grass. I picked it up, and immediately dropped it in shock, as a real snake, a glossy scaled black and mauve diamond back slid from it’s resting place and slithered off across the dune.
We spent the next hour, Sally and I, running along the beach skipping through the gentle waves as they languidly washed up the dark wet sand, the crimson and turquoise snake streaming out across the sky above and behind us. Sally with a giggle scooped up seawater in her silver tinfoil hands and chucked it at me, I shouted in mock outrage and kicked water and soggy sand back at her. She dodged to escape and I grabbed her rough metallic wrist, pulling her towards me, she came willingly and threw her arms around me, we hugged again, until she stiffened and backed away looking over at the coast road that winds up to the town. I looked round and we watched Maisie, cycling by in her white tennis outfit on the shiny black old bike, thick red hair blowing out behind her as she cycled into the breeze. I don’t think she noticed us.
After she had vanished from sight around the cliff, I turned back; Sally had run off to the rock pools and was kneeling by one of them. I walked over to see what she was looking at. My yellow legal pad aeroplanes had been lined up in a row on the grey rock at the side of one of the shallow teeming pools, a tiny pink and orange crab was stood by each one, guiding little columns of dull crayfish and bejewelled seahorses onto the planes, we watched open mouthed, they didn’t seem to notice us. Once the planes were full, bulging with sea life, the crabs picked them up and launched them one by one onto the light zephyr that was blowing down the coast. Bobbing and weaving they spiralled heavily out to sea, leaving with the retreating tide.
Sally gave a squeal of delight, standing back up, she started pulling at her tongue, little bits of tin foil were flaking over revealing the dark moist red flesh underneath, I joined in, pulling the foil in strips off her smooth pale skin. Her flimsy tinfoil pyjamas tore easily and fell to the ground joining her erstwhile silvery skin. Until she stood naked and human once more before me, with just a few flakes stuck to her short blonde hair.
We went back to the house and dragged the old tin bath out. We took it in turns to bath in front of the copper kitchen stove. I lost track of time, but after what must have been a few hours the doorbell rang. Sally answered it, and called back to me in a hollow voice; I walked down the narrow, dark hall, she was silhouetted against the suns glare and beyond her I could only see a vision in white.
Our visitor was a dapper thirty something man in a smart white linen suit, despite the hot afternoon bronze skies above he looked pretty cool. He smiled passed Sally when he saw me.
“Ah you must be the man of the house” a statement, not a question.
I answered in the affirmative.
The corners of his mouth dipped turning the smile upside down and into a frowm, though his eyes never changed.
“I’m sorry Mr…?” a theatrical pause.
“Goldpower, Murray Goldpower”.
“Mr Goldpower, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but I’m afraid a small incident has rendered the town down the road uninhabitable, and this house is at the outer limit of the zone which the authorities have decided in their wisdom must be declared out of bounds”. The Man didn’t look very sorry.
Sally turned to me, her eyes wide as they met mine, we both said in unison.
“Maisie” we had last seen her riding off towards the town.
tbc
Fallen Fruit
Maisie bit into the juicy fat pink grapefruit, straight through its fleshy skin, she didn’t care about peeling it first. The pinkish liquid squirted over her face and ran down her chin dripping onto the lurid green plastic table top, forming a luminescent pool of pink goo. I folded the last of the pages from the yellow legal pad lying in front of me, into a paper aeroplane, and threw it into space. It curled out through the window over the golden sand and out towards the calm, almost flat aquamarine sea beyond.
Sally, Maisie’s old school friend came in from the bedroom we were all sharing, she had turned into tinfoil during the night again. Her skin and the pyjamas she was wearing sparkling in the early morning sunlight, tears of silver weirdly animated like the water in a postman pat episode poured down her silvery cheeks. I got up and wrapped my arms round her shoulders, hugging her tight; Maisie didn’t even notice she was biting greedily into her second grapefruit.
“Hey, don’t worry, the last time this happened it was only for a day.” It sounded trite, but it was true. Based on previous experience she would be fine.
“Yeah I know, it’s just such a shock, I’d started to think I was in the clear it’s been so long since last time.” Said between racking sobs.
“Come on, there’s a breeze outside, it’s perfect weather for kite flying. First though I bet you’re thirsty”. I knew the rough metal aggravated her throat.
I went to the fridge, one of those old fashioned chrome American jobs. Inside the only things were a purple bowl of grapefruit, lemons and blood oranges, and a carton of milk in the door. I passed the milk to Sally and she drank gratefully straight from the carton, some of the white pasteurised cow water splashed down the sides and joined the tears on the red and white tiled floor. I could mop that up later.
We left Maisie to her citrus obsession and went outside our small pale yellow clapboard two room house. The kite; a giant Chinese snake was where I had left it, in the undergrowth the stiff light green salt grass. I picked it up, and immediately dropped it in shock, as a real snake, a glossy scaled black and mauve diamond back slid from it’s resting place and slithered off across the dune.
We spent the next hour, Sally and I, running along the beach skipping through the gentle waves as they languidly washed up the dark wet sand, the crimson and turquoise snake streaming out across the sky above and behind us. Sally with a giggle scooped up seawater in her silver tinfoil hands and chucked it at me, I shouted in mock outrage and kicked water and soggy sand back at her. She dodged to escape and I grabbed her rough metallic wrist, pulling her towards me, she came willingly and threw her arms around me, we hugged again, until she stiffened and backed away looking over at the coast road that winds up to the town. I looked round and we watched Maisie, cycling by in her white tennis outfit on the shiny black old bike, thick red hair blowing out behind her as she cycled into the breeze. I don’t think she noticed us.
After she had vanished from sight around the cliff, I turned back; Sally had run off to the rock pools and was kneeling by one of them. I walked over to see what she was looking at. My yellow legal pad aeroplanes had been lined up in a row on the grey rock at the side of one of the shallow teeming pools, a tiny pink and orange crab was stood by each one, guiding little columns of dull crayfish and bejewelled seahorses onto the planes, we watched open mouthed, they didn’t seem to notice us. Once the planes were full, bulging with sea life, the crabs picked them up and launched them one by one onto the light zephyr that was blowing down the coast. Bobbing and weaving they spiralled heavily out to sea, leaving with the retreating tide.
Sally gave a squeal of delight, standing back up, she started pulling at her tongue, little bits of tin foil were flaking over revealing the dark moist red flesh underneath, I joined in, pulling the foil in strips off her smooth pale skin. Her flimsy tinfoil pyjamas tore easily and fell to the ground joining her erstwhile silvery skin. Until she stood naked and human once more before me, with just a few flakes stuck to her short blonde hair.
We went back to the house and dragged the old tin bath out. We took it in turns to bath in front of the copper kitchen stove. I lost track of time, but after what must have been a few hours the doorbell rang. Sally answered it, and called back to me in a hollow voice; I walked down the narrow, dark hall, she was silhouetted against the suns glare and beyond her I could only see a vision in white.
Our visitor was a dapper thirty something man in a smart white linen suit, despite the hot afternoon bronze skies above he looked pretty cool. He smiled passed Sally when he saw me.
“Ah you must be the man of the house” a statement, not a question.
I answered in the affirmative.
The corners of his mouth dipped turning the smile upside down and into a frowm, though his eyes never changed.
“I’m sorry Mr…?” a theatrical pause.
“Goldpower, Murray Goldpower”.
“Mr Goldpower, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but I’m afraid a small incident has rendered the town down the road uninhabitable, and this house is at the outer limit of the zone which the authorities have decided in their wisdom must be declared out of bounds”. The Man didn’t look very sorry.
Sally turned to me, her eyes wide as they met mine, we both said in unison.
“Maisie” we had last seen her riding off towards the town.
tbc
