The Night Watchman

Gumballs

The man in the suit strode into the room with the purposeful step of a one controlled by business. Anyone else would have been immediately self conscious if they looked half as haggard as Lucy did in that moment. Lucy, of course, was not bothered. The man sat down on the chair near Lucy, and shifted it back an inch, as if he didn't want to catch whatever terrible disease might have put her in a hospital bed. It squeaked loudly, and Kipps winced from behind. 

'Do you, er, need me to leave the room Sir?' Kipps muttered.

The man simply ignored him, and focused on shifting through the bulbous file on his lap.

Kipps cleared his throat. 'Right, then. I'll just, um, stay here.' He said from the corner of the room.

When nothing happened after a few minutes, Kipps piped up again. 'Is this gonna be long? Because I have gumballs. Does anyone want a gumball?' No one replied, so he shoved his hand into his pocket and brought out a giant red ball which he popped into his mouth and sucked on furiously.

While Lucy waited patiently to hear what the man had to say, she decided to scrutinise every aspect of his clothes to find a flaw: an faint grey cat hair, a small crease, or a speckle of mud on his shoes. She found none. 

'Ms Carlyle. I am in charge of DEPRAC. I am here to do my job, and as such am not here to provide you with comfort, or deal with any shock or surprise you may feel as a result of what I am about to tell you. So please do your best to remain in a state of calm composure until I have finished. I don't have time for you to waste.' He spoke in a cold and very nasal voice, and stared out with eyes full of empty boredom. He also had a very annoying habit of sniffing every other minute.

Lucy was not sure how to react to this peculiar opening speech. Should she be concerned? Whatever the leader of DEPRAC had to tell her in person, it must be very serious. Yet she was also slightly irritated that he had suggested she would be anything but calm and composed. As if she was some whiny teenage girl! No, she had already been through more than most adults went through in a lifetime. However many doubts she had in that moment, her maturity was not one of them.

'I'm going to try and make this as short and simple as possible.' The man continued. 'When we broke into the Orpheus Society's stronghold, we found you were not the only one imprisoned there. Even though he was presumed dead, it turns out that Steve Rotwell was also behind iron bars, and has been so since his disappearance. Of course, although you lead us there, much of the information we have uncovered is extremely confidential and will only be released to you as necessary. Fittes is still in questioning - and will be for quite a while.'

'Rotwell, on the other hand, has been extremely willing to talk of his own accord. This has saved us a lot of time, and given us a lot of information. Call me blunt, but I see no point in delaying the truth of the matter. Rotwell is your father. Have you ever found yourself wondering why you were so unlike the rest of your family and your sisters? Did you ever feel out of place at home? The truth is, you were never really part of that family at all. Your mother is not your mother. Your sisters are not your sisters. How you came to be in that family, as a small baby, is another long story and one I will not go into now. You can ask them yourself.'

'Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.' Kipps whispered from the shadows.

Lucy sighed. 'Not helpful, Kipps.'

'Sorry.'

'Go on.' Lucy nodded at the man.

'Thank you. I am not yet finished. The reason you now find yourself an orphan, is that your mother died when she was still pregnant with you. Well, she was in the early stages of labour. It was before precautions had been fully established to deal with the problem, and for obvious reasons, hospitals became a nightmare. Many patients who died there came back as visitors. Your mother died of ghost touch in the same moment you were born. Quite interesting when you think about it, really - one life left, another was created. Yet although you breathed and screamed and kicked like every other baby, you were blue as a plum with ghost touch. The cries became feeble, your legs weak, your heart began to flutter faintly-'

'Woah. You're really getting into this, aren't you?' Kipps muttered again.

 'Young man! Will you just... just shut up! If you are not aware, I am trying to tell a bloody story! I should have told you to leave at the start.' The man sniffed again, with more enthusiasm this time.

'Well, I'm here now.' Kipps retorted. 'And if the interruption is that annoying, then don't respond. Just get on with the 'bloody story'.'

Lucy stared at the ceiling, devoid of emotion. She still had to process it. There was so much to process. The bickering went almost unnoticed, although for some reason the man's loss of 'composure' and Kipps' stubborn retorts brought a flicker of a smile to her lips. She was glad he was here. Even if she was annoying, his background presence remained a source of comfort.

The man cleared his throat. 'Anyway. You were dying. Everyone thought you were dying... until the blue began to fade. And somehow, you completed the impossible. You survived. Although we have not had enough time to determine the exact truth, we have reason to believe this encounter is what gave you your extraordinary capabilities. I know all this in such detail, of course, because I have the notes from Rotwell's interview here in my lap.'

As shocking as this information was to Lucy, there was a suspicion speckled with dread lurking sneakily at the back of her mind. 'Wait.' She said. 'Before... you said orphan. You said I was an orphan. What do you mean? You said you found Rotwell alive. You said he's alive. Why did you call me an orphan?'

'Ah, yes, well, we did find Rotwell alive. Unfortunately, when a nurse walked into the room in which he was staying yesterday morning to bring his breakfast, she found him dead. Gunshot wound to the head. So now we have to investigate that, too - yet another job to add to my endlessly growing list. That does, of course, make you the heir of the Rotwell agency. But we'll have to discuss that more, and assess your ability, before any of that is official.'

The man stood up abruptly and picked up the bulbous file. 'I'll be off now. I have yet another important meeting to attend to. No doubt I'll have to see you again soon to sort out this mess you seem to be in. What a load of hassle this has lead to.' The man sniffed, then strode out of the room without a backward glance.

A heavy silence settled over the room, and Lucy remained staring fixedly at a speck of dust on the ceiling. So much to process. Too much to process. It was simply too much to process, so she decided that she would not bother processing it at all, until she had more energy. She took a deep breath, then looked over at Kipps (who had re-emerged from the corner).

'Can I have a gumball now?'