Bag of Weasels. Chapter 15

Once upon a time in a land I've mentioned, it was hotter than the sun and the water was cut off.
Regular trips to the Flatlands kept me from drying out; I was watered at the standpipe but exhausted, and dots came out of the sky like flies and buzzed me. The land was fizzy in the heat.
And at the standpipe, up they popped; short and bandy, tall and bendy, Didgy and Doinky, thirsty and hot.
Now London doesn't go without, not behind those common doors, but here they were like me, for water. A hint of affinity in a dry land.
"It's him! Said the tall one, swaying about.
"Say what? Said the short one.
"The other one, it's him! It's him! Look Didgy, here he is, like us!
The other one? I didn't like this. I had been seen. Observed, even.
But it turned out they'd been knocking around in a ramshackle rambling pile that by chance backed onto my present abode, a similar heap of bricks, mould and ghosts, and from there they'd seen me rattling around.
Both houses were lined up to be pulled down, flattened, tarmaced over, ghosts and everything. The water was gone, the lights were out, but it was the middle of summer and we were left alone. For now.
They proved to be odd and friendly too, and a hole in our fence led to visits and borrowing; it was nice to have neighbours who smelled like me.
And with their two heads together they got themselves roadlights, and a barbecue thing upon which we cooked out-of-date sausages, and we took walks on the Flats with their scruffy dog Wilko.
Summer stretched on and there was peace. The fizzy heat brought me more dots, and I watched great geometries wheel over the Flats in green and blue lines of air and water, arching up from grass to sky. Didgy and Doinky watched me watching, and they were fine.
Then the ogres came.
Autumn and the dark were coming, and I was sitting alone when in came Doinky, spattered with blood and with gore in his hair, holding a dead Wilko in his arms.
Didgy came up behind him: "We've got to go, he urged as he pushed past Doinky, "They want us out. Come on Sunny, there's no time to lose. I'd heard tell of their like and now they were here, ogres and trolls, beasts bred on violence, employed on the sly to eradicate unwanted guests.
I stared at Wilko in Doinky's arms, all blood-spiked and still, while Doinky trembled. I could hear the approaching voices and caught Didgy's panic, and got to my feet.
"Come on Doinky, I said, "Bring Wilko.
He wouldn't though. "They hit him, he said, hugging Wilko tight, "Just once and they killed him. The tears poured out.
"They hit him with a pick-axe handle, explained Didgy, " He only went to say hello, have a sniff and wag his tail, and they smashed his skull in with one blow. Doinky got in the way too late and got one on the head as well. We'll get the same and worse if we don't get out of here, they're all armed to the teeth.
Clatters and bangs and snarling could now be heard at the back door.
"Help me, said Didgy and we grabbed a shoulder each and pulled Doinky with us as we picked through the rooms to the front door. They burst in behind us: big and bald and as ugly as bulldogs, swinging clubs and chains and howling with bloodlust.
"Quick! Quick! urged Didgy, and I scrabbled at the lock, scared to turn my back on the ogres.
They laughed and jeered now that they saw their chance for slaughter, moved as one to deliver their blows.
But as they moved in, the floor collapsed and they went through to their thighs, ripping legs and snapping ankles and falling headlong into splintered wood and foundations. As the floor parted and swallowed our enemies, I got the door open. We pulled Doinky out and fled onto the Flats, and ran and ran, leaving behind our house now full of curses and howls and destruction.
We buried Wilko beneath a tree. Doinky cried and said "I wish you was here, but apart from that it was a quiet sullen affair.
And that was it for me and them. Didgy and Doinky looked after each other and I looked after myself. After a fashion.
We split.
It had been good but then it had hurt. I vowed, no friends, no dogs, no anyone or anything. I went back into the city space.