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He made for an ominous sight. Clad entirely in black leather with an opaque Perspex mask like helmet that completely encapsulated his head. In fact, he wasn't really wearing the clothes; he seemed more sealed into them, if that makes sense?
With impressive speed and agility Josh jumped up and aimed the gun at him.
We made for a surreal threesome: me still lying on the floor looking up at a black wrapped mystery man with a teenager pointing a gun at him.
"Are you my dad?" I asked.
His voice sounded like a recording, robotic like, as he completely ignored my question, "Go to the clinic tomorrow, visit Polly, listen to what she has to say. Then come back here and take control." He turned away from us, then swiftly swiveled back, his finger pointing from me to Josh, "And you two, get a room for that carry on." His focus turned solely to Josh, "She deserves better than dirt ground, you get me?" He asked.
"I get you." Said Josh, putting his gun back in his pocket.
The man turned and got down on one knee with his hands on the floor, his head raised, like a sprinter at a start line. Boom – he was off racing over the waste terrain with an impressive speed. I jumped up – "ARE YOU MY DAD?" I shouted after him.
He didn't answer. Or look back.
But he did have the same broad shoulders and slim waist as my dad.
Then again, many men share my dad's body shape.
###
Josh made an appointment to see Polly at noon the following day, "That should give us time to figure out the relevance of what she might tell us, then we've plenty of time to get back here for six." He paused and looked back at the sprawling building, "And take control," he said, with a wavering uncertainty in his sound.
"I don't think that's my dad, unless he's on chill pills," I said, as we neared the alleyway.
"Why so?" Asked Josh.
"If my dad had caught a boy on top off me in open ground in broad daylight, he would've hit that big blue sky, landed on the boy, and knocked him out."
Josh chuckled, "Not if I knocked him out first." He grabbed my hand, put the other over his nose and mouth, and said, "Let's sprint through piss alley and get outta here, fast!"
###
"Did you have big feels for Dylan?" Asked Josh, as we walked down Peckham high street on the way to the bus stop.
The question took me by surprise, not least because I wasn't sure of the answer. So rather than think of one, I threw back another question, "Why you asking that?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "I dunno." He sped up his walk a little, then stopped suddenly, "Actually, that dunno's a little shady, I do know. We need to talk," he said, averting my gaze.
