Jake Mutant - Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

 

On the final morning of his stay Jake was awoken early by the sound of Grandad vacuuming his bedroom; he’d removed the hose and was scraping the nozzle all around the window frames and the corners of the ceiling. Jake sat up quickly and called out but Grandad couldn’t hear and appeared to be concentrating hard on the task in hand.

 

‘Grandad, the spider!’

 

‘What?’ Grandad switched off the vacuum cleaner. ‘What?’ he repeated.

 

‘I had a spider, Barbara in the corner….’

 

‘Oh I’ve done all the corners, covered in cobwebs they were, this place is like a spider safari come September. I don’t want your mother to think I can’t cope by myself, I’ll have this place gleaming by the time she arrives.’ He was about to switch it back on when he hesitated and said, ‘Did you say Barbara?’

 

Jake nodded then lay down again, pulling the blankets up over his head. He hated the sound of the vacuum and Grandad’s seemed to have a background shriek to it which sounded like a ghost train; it made him think of Rhudmont coal mine. There was a sense of newness in the air, a fresh, late summer chill, some of the leaves were beginning to turn. I’ll have to get new school shoes thought Jake, his stomach turned over, the idea of meeting new people in a new school in new shoes terrified him. Briefly he considered organising some horrendous accident which would leave him incapacitated enough to have to stay on in Wales for a very long time, perhaps indefinitely. Then he remembered Toby Gordon and all the endless visits he’d have to endure plus the inevitable trip to Rhudmont coal mine; how could he run away from ghosts with crushed limbs and did that place even exist? It seemed too sinister in his imagination to be real.

 

‘Come and help me scrub the bathroom!’

 

‘They probably won’t even come upstairs Grandad.’

 

‘Your mother might need to spend a penny, or your half-sister.’

 

Jake felt annoyed now, he wasn’t keen on the expression ‘spend a penny’ but he loathed the term ‘half-sister’. Grandad seemed suddenly so full of energy, so positive, Jake wasn’t used to it and selfishly he wanted the slow moving, slightly sad and reliably wise Grandad back. ‘She’s my sister,’ he called out weakly. There was no answer, just the sound of vigorous scrubbing and the smell of Vim.

 

There was no packing to do, Jake’s clothes had simply moved in and out of his holdall for ten days. He ate breakfast; bacon and beans, then wandered around the house like a spare part getting in the way of Grandad who’d finished vacuuming and had, quite uncharacteristically, turned on the radio; very loud church music filled the house as he spanked cushions with his powerful potato hands and wiped the top of skirting boards with a bit of spit on his handkerchief. Bristol in particular was very distressed about the cleaning and lay low hiding part of his face behind his bristly forelegs.

 

‘Why don’t you go and say goodbye to the Gordons,’ Grandad yelled.

 

It wasn’t such a bad idea, after all Jake was being picked up by his mum in a few hours so he had a good excuse to leave if things became a bit uncomfortable. He sauntered down the road, breathing in the fresh Welsh air in great restorative lungfuls. There was a very clear view of the sheep from the stretch of road between Grandad’s house and the Gordons, he stopped and stared for a few seconds, then started to count, calmly at first. There were ninety four, he wasn’t certain, for some were partially obscured and appeared as twitching white wool above a stone wall. He began to count again, a couple of vehicles drove passed, a van, a small bus, he gave up, feeling tense and sort of incomplete.

 

Mrs Gordon answered the door with a very concerned look on her face, ‘Oh Toby’s not here love,’ she said, ‘he’s got his induction day at the high school.’

 

Jake immediately stepped back from the front door, ‘Oh it’s alright, I just wanted to….’

 

‘No, no, ‘ she lunged at him, grabbing his shoulders, ‘Come inside for a bit, we’re always pleased to have visitors.’

 

She ushered him into the lounge where Mr Gordon was dressed in a shiny blue tracksuit, he was performing some sort of stretching exercises and paused to shake Jake’s hand. ‘I expect you’re off now are you, back to...wherever,’ he said.

 

‘It’s near Swindon,’ said Jake with some discomfort. Sorry was sniffing all around his lower legs and deposited some kind of white slimy particle on the knee of his trouser, was it food, a canine bogey? Jake tried to flick it off with the back of his hand. A dark form appeared at the French windows causing him to jump in his skin, it was Holly in a Gruffalo onesie clutching an armful of firewood. Mrs Gordon opened the door and she dropped it into a large basket next to the fireplace.  

 

Mrs Gordon smiled, flexing her facial muscles a little too hard for the gesture to be genuine. ‘We like to start collecting wood for the fire early on, while it’s still dry. It’s Holly’s favourite job.’

 

Jake nodded, ‘I think I saw her...the other day, down in the wood,’ he said.

 

Holly stared at him, ‘Sprinkles,’ she said, ‘You might have seen Sprinkles, he’s bigger than me.’

 

‘Oh!’ said Mrs Gordon with a silly laugh. ‘No-one can see Sprinkles. Sorry Jake, it’s something she made up. It can get very lonely here in the summer holidays.’ She turned to Holly and said, ‘Nevermind, Brownies starts again tonight and then you’ve got school on Monday, so Sprinkles won’t need to be around quite so much will she.’

 

Holly frowned. ‘He,’ she said and walked slowly towards the kitchen. Jake heard a tin opening and Sorry trotted out of the room fast.

 

Jake patted his pockets for no particular reason except to pop the strained atmosphere in the room. ‘I should go,’ he said, ‘My mum’s on her way.’

 

‘Have a safe journey home then,’ said Mr Gordon with his hands on his hips, twisting at the waist.

 

Jake strode to the front door while Mrs Gordon fussed, offering him food and thanking him for ‘playing with her Toby’. She promised to pop down and pay a visit to his grandad. He left their house and decided to cross the road and stroll down the lane one last time. It felt odd without Bristol and briefly he considered going to fetch him but decided against it for there was a risk that the dog would scatter the sheep and he didn’t want that. He decided to ignore their presence in the field and instead walk on farther to the railway bridge and wait underneath for a train to pass. It was chilly in the little tunnel, the old red bricks were damp, some were graffitied with black spray paint, ‘Gav’s Chain Gang’, who were they? Jakes thought, the boys on motorbikes perhaps, sounded a bit lame by Swindon’s standards.

 

He tried to lean against the curved wall but it pushed his head forward rather awkwardly, he checked the time, quarter past eleven. Mum was due at midday. Jake felt nervous, he didn’t really know why, perhaps it was just going home and returning to all the routines, he paced around, trying not to look too hard at the formation of the bricks. A cow began to low somewhere in the distance, great long bellows which went up in tone slightly at the end. He walked through a large puddle, deliberately covering his trainers in liquid mud, the colour of milk chocolate then kicked the wall to shake most of it off. Now there was a rumbling noise; he stepped out of the tunnel and saw the little train approaching, he kept his eyes upon it, there were two carriages, mostly empty, just a few heads dipped low, absorbed in their phones. He decided that on his next visit he’d travel on that train, even if it was just for the ride.

 

Time was running out. Jake considered walking on all the way to the beach and just doing his own thing for a few hours, he didn’t have his phone, Mum would just have to wait. He sighed and twirled on his feet a few times then walked back in the direction of the house, pausing at the sheep field. They were all lying down now, pretty black faces staring vacantly ahead, were they daydreaming or playing some silent game? It would be easy to count them now, he went up to the wire fence which separated them from the lane, pushed his fingertip down into the barbs, deep enough to feel a slight prick but not to break the skin. He started to count, whispering the numbers until he became quite breathless; ninety five, there’s ninety five. He began a re-count, reaching forty seven before one or two hauled themselves up, then more, quickly they started to scatter. Grandad was coming down the lane with Bristol yapping alongside him.

 

Jake felt alarmed, like he’d been exposed, found out, there was nowhere to hide. ‘Hi,’ he said, blushing slightly and raising an arm to distract from it.

 

‘I saw you from the upstairs window, used your binoculars, don’t forget them will you.’ Jake shook his head. ‘Your mother’s at the house with Chloe.’

 

Jake exhaled. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘I guess it’s time for me to go.’

 

‘Not straight away. I went down to the village, fetched some drizzly lemon cake, we can all have tea together, your mother said you were going to stop off for lunch somewhere on the motorway.’ They stood and looked at each other for a few seconds. Jake turned back towards the sheep and slowly started to count again. The old man raised his voice, ‘Your mum said she got you the Star Wars things you wanted, she brought them along, said they’re in the back of her car.’

 

Jake’s eyes lit up but not for long. That stuff seemed less important now, it was as this little holiday had somehow changed him and the imaginary world of Star Wars had less to offer now  compared with the real things he’d experienced. ‘I’ll be along in a minute,’ he said.

 

Grandad wouldn’t leave, he folded his arms and stood awhile looking concerned. ‘You’ll never count them Jake, even the farmer has trouble.’

 

‘There were ninety nine, then ninety four, now ninety five and I can’t see the ram anywhere.’

 

Grandad stood close behind him, put a hand upon his shoulder and said, ‘Jake, there are four or five sheep in that field that are, you know, special.’

 

Jake turned to face him. ‘What do you mean?’

 

‘Well, they come and go, appear and disappear, they’ve got, you know, what do they call it..the force. The force is….with them.’     

 

Jake smiled, then laughed and smacked his hand on the old man’s chest. ‘Grandad!’

 

They walked back to the house. Mum hugged the living daylights out of him, Chloe seemed happier, she glowed with newly tanned skin and confidence. The lounge had been tidied up; two wing chairs had been pushed together in the way Grandma had always kept them. There was a small gap between them, just a foot wide, as a young boy Jake had named this ‘the Bristol hole’ since the dog had a habit of lying inside it with his legs stretched back, paw-pads upturned.

 

‘Nice cake,’ said Mum.

 

Chloe took a large bite, ‘Did you make it?’ she said with her mouth full.

 

Grandad shook his head, ‘It’s from the butcher’s, they have a small selection.’

 

‘So you found Grandma’s bag of treasures did you Jake?’ said Mum.

 

Jake shrugged. ‘No,’ he said, ‘not really.’

 

She looked at Grandad, shook her head very fast and said, ‘Who was it then?’

 

Jake sighed. ‘A boy and a dog,’ he said after a long pause.

 

Mum tutted and rolled her eyes. She turned to Grandad and said, ‘Has he been like this the whole time?’

 

‘No, no. He’s been very helpful towards me...and he’s been out and about, all over, down the woods, off to the beach with the neighbour’s boy.’

 

‘Oh Dad, you’ve let him run wild! Well I suppose he had his phone.’

 

Grandad shifted in his chair and said, ‘Isn’t he going off to secondary school next week? You’ve got to give the boy some freedom.’

 

Jake put his bit of cake down on the plate, he felt the serrated spoon stirring his belly. Mum got up and gestured towards Grandad to follow her into the kitchen. They chatted in hushed tones for a few minutes.

 

Chloe stood up and looked out of the window. ‘I’m surprised you haven’t gone mad staying here for ten days, oh hang on you already are. What’s the neighbour’s boy like?’

 

’He’s...what you’d expect really.’

 

‘I have low expectations. Actually Jake I really need the loo, what’s Grandad’s bathroom like, is it disgusting, be honest? I bet it is, don’t know if I can hold on, that’s all.’

 

‘It’s fine, Grandad did it all this morning, he said he wanted it all nice and clean, incase you needed to….spend a half-penny.’

 

‘I think I need a whole one Jake and you’d better be right about the cleanliness!’

 

Jake was alone now, he gestured to Bristol to come to him, they cuddled, the dog licked his chin, too many times so he pushed it down. He went up to his bedroom and took a last look out of the window, imagining the dragon snoozing somewhere deep inside the mountain. He grabbed his holdall and rucksack, looked about the ceiling for spiders, there were none. Downstairs his Mum and Grandad were still talking with the door closed so he went outside, down into the wood and climbed up into tree. Briefly he considered climbing higher then jumping down, perhaps breaking an ankle but Bristol had led Grandad to him. ‘Zacchaeus come down from there!’

 

‘What?’

 

‘Time to go Jake.’

 

Jake clambered down, he stared at his grandad and said, ‘You seem happy.’

 

‘I am. I’ve just arranged something with your mother, you’re coming back in October half-term.’

 

Jake smiled. His bags had been loaded into the little red car, he saw his Star Wars stuff in boxes and ignored it. Grandad carried the hand-carved box containing some of Grandma’s things into the boot.

 

‘But Grandad, it’s not finished,’ said Jake.

 

‘Oh I can’t be bothered with it. Sometimes it’s okay to leave things open ended Jake.’

 

Jake gave his Grandad a hug and got into the vehicle. The old man picked up Bristol and held him as they drove off down the road. There were new things ahead, daunting times but Jake felt grounded with new experiences to draw upon and memories to keep him going for the next few months at least.    

                                                 The End