Cold heart, Black night

Chapter Four

BOOM. 

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Chapter Four

Days past quite quickly.

Karen and Ray paraded me around the neighbourhood, introduced me to their friends; all of which were stupidly rich and gave me the feeling that I was in for this for the rest of my damn life. I didn’t like them much, and don’t think they were head over heels for me either.

I could say, at least, that Karen was the kind of female figure I’d wanted for a hell of a long time. She appeared to care, which was unusual. She’d already taken me out shopping in a mall, and with a flash of a card had me kitted out in beautiful clothes instead of the old cast offs I used to get from Amberley, Irene and Flint’s goddaughter that I’d met once. She was only seventeen, but I got the impression she tried to make herself seem more than that, judging by some of the things I dug out of those white plastic bags. Hell, there was a word for girls who wore stuff like that, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. Karen obviously noticed that too, when she helped me to unpack. She took one look at a particular red shirt and said:

‘I think we’ll need to take you shopping, sweetie.’

I just nodded. As good as it was having a grandma who cared about the length of skirt you wore, as lovely and warming it was having a woman in the house who actually enjoyed your company, I was slightly put off by the huge rendezvous I had with a William my first night in Brighton. It was just so God damn weird! Who practically dies in your back garden, and then gets up to leave without so much as a hobble in their step? It all hurt my head, made me want to pickle my own brain in a jar. Obviously I hadn’t said anything to Karen and Ray, didn’t exactly want them to think I was going shit crazy in my first week, did I?

They did confuse me, however. For one, they disappeared every evening. Supposed ‘neighbourhood watch’ meetings, discussing how to improve our area. I thought it was a kind of perfect here, but obviously not if all these meetings are required. Second of all, they never ate with me. I mean, they ate, but always very little (like, scary little), and I sat alone at the table each and every night. They told me it was because of a diet that required them to eat at different times. Weird. Thirdly, my school was a night school. Like, I had to go in the evenings, at sundown. Why, I didn’t know. Apparently it was the only place available. Furthermore, I had to wear a stupid damn uniform. It was a huge purple blazer thing, with a tartan (I don’t know what the hell that is, but its just a thing of squares, literally) skirt and a white blouse. I wasn’t allowed anything over the top, and therefore, I froze to death even when I merely tried it on in the changing rooms. I wondered often when my body would just fucking adapt to the damn change in temperature. So far, it weren’t happening!

Ray seemed like a really decent guy, I’d come to find. He and I had a kind of friendship going on. When Karen went to work (she helped out three days a week at a hair salon), he would take me out. Usually I just wanted to go to the pier, because I’d never been to something like that ever before. Not even the fair that came to New Orleans twice a month during the summer time. It was totally new for me. We’d bustle through the crowds, the lingering smell of freshly popping popcorn and the greased up burger vans filling my nose, making my tounge just loll with hunger. I just delighted at the lights, that were even better upclose than from my bedroom window. I wanted to go on everything twice, even the little kiddie rides. I looked like a damn idiot, but i didn’t care. It was such a feeling of rapture.

On one particular occasion, Ray said he had a surprise for me. At sundown, he told me to pull on a jacket and scarf and led me out through the back garden. We climbed over the bushes, with me fussing about the twigs getting stuck in my new coat (but hell, it was damn good coat!). I ignored the still bloody animal trap that stuck out like a sore thumb in my peripheral vision.