Jake Mutant - Chapter One

The window in the front door was fitted with glass, blurred for privacy, by a pattern of falling leaves. Jake counted the leaves over and over. There should have been nineteen complete leaves and fifty five parts of leaves, either overlapping or around the edge. The ones at the top were difficult to see against the bright white of the sky and sometimes he counted wrong. He missed one out or miscounted an extra one, then he had to count again with increased urgency, his heartbeat quickened and tiny beads of sweating appeared on his brow.

 

‘What are you doing Jake?’

 

Chloe curled her glossy lip at him. She’d put extra make-up on today, thick black mascara and an orange/pink slick on her cheeks; Jake reckoned she looked uglier with it and slightly scary. ‘Frea k,’ she said and stared down at her nails, picking at the skin along the sides. The ‘k’ sound zapped somewhere on the inside of Jake’s head, it made him feel extremely angry and he didn’t even know why. He clenched his fists, sighed and started to count again.

 

The suitcases were lined up in the hall. Two huge pink ones for Mum and Chloe and a sports bag and rucksack for Jake.

 

‘Do you think you’ll need a hotwater bottle Jake?’ Mom called from upstairs.

 

He took a sharp intake of breath, he was in mid-flow and did not avert his eyes from the window.

 

‘He’s doing his elective mutant thing again Mum!’ Chloe glared at him, raising her eyebrows. ‘Stop fussing Mum, he’ll be alright…..not sure he’s even human.’

 

‘It can get very cold at Grandad’s during the night.’

 

Jake could hear the sound of his mother’s feet treading heavily on the floorboards above his head. She was pacing around, opening drawers and cupboards, fetching things, checking windows, sighing now and then.

 

‘Have a nice time at Grandad’s won’t you,’ Chloe said in a teasing voice.

 

I hate her, Jake thought, I love her because I have to love her, she’s my sister and somehow that just makes it happen but right now, looking at her face I really, really hate her. ‘I’ll enjoy getting away from YOU,’ he said.

 

‘Oh - it speaks.’

 

‘Do you want a hotwater bottle Jake or not?’

 

‘No, it’s warm Mum. I don’t need one.’

 

Chloe laughed, ‘It’ll be sizzling hot where we’re going but it’ll be freezing at Grandad’s, it always rains in Wales.’

 

Jake thought for a moment, yes she was right, whenever they’d been there before it had indeed rained. He stared at the suitcases. ‘I don’t want to go to America anyway,’ he said shrugging.

 

‘Good coz you’re not coming. Mum couldn’t afford your ticket, she’s taking me shopping, I’m going to see my dad, I’ll be lying on the beaching, getting a tan.’

 

He ignored her and pressed his face against the window, the glass was cold and the view a blur of colours all merging into one another, mostly shades of green, the blur of their red car on the drive and a silver one across the road. Chloe leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear, ‘Grandad hears voices,’ she said grinning. ‘He hears Grandma talking to him through the bath taps.’ She giggled then stopped abruptly as their mother came down the stairs.

 

Jake knew about the voices but it didn’t worry him, his grandad was a strong, straightforward man so anything he claimed to have experienced would have some grain of truth running through it for sure.

 

‘Are you looking forward to seeing your Grandpa Jake?’

 

He nodded, ‘Yes….I’m looking forward to seeing Bristol.’

 

Bristol was his grandad’s dog which Jake was very fond of, not being allowed any pets of his own at home. ‘That’s not what I asked,’ said Mum. She sighed and continued,  ‘Nevermind, your sister and I have got a long flight ahead of us and then a long drive to her father’s house, plus all the shopping, the sightseeing, not to mention jetlag, not sure you’d like it Jake to be honest.’

 

Now the jetlag was the one thing which Jake did find fascinating about their trip, he wouldn’t mind experiencing getting on a plane at dinner time and arriving before lunch. It seemed that his mother was trying very hard to reassure him that he wasn’t missing out on anything. The truth was he didn’t mind, not really; shopping he simply hated plus he’d had met Chloe’s dad once before and had no desire to meet him again; an annoying man who’d kept patting him on the head and calling him Buddy. There were a few places he’d like to visit in America but Florida wasn’t one of them. He fancied a night sky picnic in Bryce, Utah, he wanted to drink milkshake under the milky way at midnight.

 

The car journey to Wales took an hour and a half. Chloe and their mum chatted in the front all the way. Jake sat in silence, he stared out of the window and let his mind drift. They crossed the huge bridge between England and Wales and he looked down into the shallow, brown estuary,  he saw the tall, wide chimneys blowing smoke into the sky and a tall, thinner one with a bright orange flame flickering at the top, then he saw the soft green mountains, the black mountains, the clouds and the sheep. Grandad’s house was on the edge of a village about six miles from the sea. His house was on a large plot of land with a wood at the end of the garden and his closest neighbour was a hundred meters down the road.

 

Mum seemed a bit more stressed now. She rushed to get Jake’s bags out of the boot. He was reluctant to get up, he loved long car journeys and would happily spend another two hours being driven around, looking at all the sights; buildings, people in cars, mountains, all the different place names, written in both Welsh and English.

 

Grandad came out of the house. He was a wide man but not fat, rather strong like a square and he was dressed in brown cords and a red jumper.

 

‘You haven’t cut your hair and you haven’t cut the grass,’ said Mum.

 

‘Been too wet,’ he said, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. ‘I was just having my lunch.’

 

‘You were expected us though weren’t you?’ Mum’s voice was high now and unpleasant. ‘Jake is in the back, he’s been looking forward to seeing you Dad. Come on Jake, get out of the car!’

 

Grandad gave him a bear hug and Bristol who had been racing around the car in circles jumped up between them and gave him several frenzied kisses. He was a scruffy dog, a Border Terrier crossed with something else, something unknown.  

 

‘’Calm down Bristol Rovers, he’s going to be with us a good few days days, you’ll have plenty of time together. Oh he’s been waiting for you, we’ve been talking about it for weeks. I’ve got your room ready upstairs.’

 

They all went inside. Chloe was surly, she sat at the kitchen table studying her phone. Mum and Grandad talked quickly, they had some catching up to do which mainly involved her telling him all the things he should do and him nodding his head but not really listening. Jake went upstairs with his bag. Bristol had raced up behind him and leapt straight onto the bed which was made up neatly with a scratchy blanket. There was a small dormer window with a big view down the valley and to the mountain opposite. A few houses were visible, some sheep in a field and a single railway line. Bristol stared at him with mad eyes and a smiling mouth. It was as if he was expecting Jake to give him something, some exciting news, a wonderful toy, an exquisitely tasty treat from his bag.

 

‘I don’t know what you’re expecting from me Bristol - but we’ll have some good times that’s for sure,’ he bent forwards and kissed the rough fur on top of Bristol’s head. This seemed to satisfy the dog for now and he lay down and blinked his eyes.

 

‘We’re going now Jake,’ Mum yelled up from the hall.

 

There was a pause. ‘Okay bye,’

 

‘Jake! Come down and say goodbye properly!’

 

Grandad laughed as Mum gave him a big kiss and Chloe went through the motions of hugging  him but her arms were limp and her perfume made his head hurt. ‘Don’t forget my Star Wars stuff,’ he said.

 

‘Now, Jake’s got his phone, I’ve written the number down for you so make sure he takes it with him if he goes out anywhere,’ Mum shrugged, ‘Although I’m not sure where he’s going go around here. And don’t worry about him not speaking now, he’s ……….well, he’s an odd boy as we know.’

 

Jake hated it when she spoke about him in front of him. He felt as if she were stirring a horrible metal spoon with serrated edges deep inside his body. Grandad nodded dismissively and placed his hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t you worry, he’ll be just fine with me. You’d better get going hadn’t you, you’ll miss your flight.’

 

‘Oooh trying to get rid of us,’ Mum laughed stiffly, ‘I don’t suppose those photos and things turned up did they?’

 

Grandad sighed, ‘No, no. I don’t know what she did with them. She was very confused in the months before, well you know…’

 

‘What things?’ said Chloe, suddenly looking up from her phone.

 

‘Oh Grandma’s things, photos, jewellery and things, she used to go for long walks and sometimes take things with her, stuff got…..mislaid, lost. I expect they’ll turn up somewhere.’

 

‘I don’t mind about the jewellery Dad, ‘said Mum, ‘but it would be a shame to lose the photos, we don’t have many do we. I wonder where she put them...’

 

Grandad looked sad now and suddenly very old. He was at an age where one minute he could look impossible young and the next like a proper old man. ‘Have a good trip and be careful won’t you,’ he said quietly.

 

‘Okay,’ Mum sighed and smiled sadly, ‘Off to the airport now, then,’ she took a big breath in. ‘America here we come.’

 

The red car went off down the road. Jake went back up to his room, Grandad back to his cheese sandwich. The sky darkened, it started to drizzle. Jake looked at the cross on the wall above his bed, would it fall on his head? He unhooked it, it was light, he placed it on the bed but the wall looked bare so he put it back. Then he looked out of the window and unpacked his binoculars, he took them everywhere he could; there was so much to see in the world and he wanted a closer look. He studied the view, building by building, field by field, he watched a small train chug by, just two carriages long, he saw the sheep grazing and observed the top of the mountain. It looked dark and bare as if it were waiting for something. He imagined a huge dragon coming in to land and shaking closed its wings.

 

One of the walls in his bedroom consisted of exposed stone bricks, fifty seven of them, he knew that but he would no doubt check again before bedtime. As a young boy of five he’d once coloured them all in with different coloured chalks to make them ‘look better’. Grandad hadn’t noticed, Grandma had made a game of wiping them clean with a sponge but his mum had called it vandalism and made a big thing about it on the journey home. He’d felt that serrated spoon stirring him inside as he’d sat in the back of the car listening to her telling him how naughty he’d been.

 

One of the best things about being at Grandad’s was the peace and quiet, space and time. They were both quiet people who liked each other’s company without the need for constant speech.  Here there were empty rooms and outbuildings, a huge back yard, the overgrown garden and the wood and Bristol. It was going to be wonderful, whatever the weather.