Ahead of his Time by Adrian Cousins (children's books read aloud .txt) 📕

“So, Paul was just visiting? Nothing else?”

Jess screwed her face up. “Like what?”

“Look, I’ll just say it. I temporarily lived in the flat next door, and I’ve a close friend who lived the other side of this flat.” I gestured with my thumb to Don’s old flat. “The girl who used to live here was involved with Paul, and I think he had something to do with her death. He’s an evil drug dealer. So yes, I’m concerned that he was visiting you.”

“You think I'm doing drugs like that druggie girl who lived here?”

“I hope not?”

“No!” She sat up and stubbed her cigarette out and blew one last plume of smoke towards the sink.

“Okay, sorry.” I sat back and looked at her. She looked beaten down, not the bright girl I’d met last week.

“You mustn’t say anything to anyone because he’ll kill me. Last Thursday, the estate was crawling with police. I presume it had something to do with the bombing on Wednesday night. Paul must have panicked, thinking it was a drug raid, so he forced his way into my flat to stash some of his gear. I didn’t have any choice as he’s a violent thug, so I just had to let him. He came back tonight to collect his stash.”

“Oh, hell, I see.”

“I wish he’d died last year with his pervert brother. I hate him. Patrick knows he’s a psycho, but he is his twin brother.”

We fell silent for a few seconds whilst Jess wiped her nose with the scrunched-up piece of tissue. I pondered how my life seemed to be intertwined with the Colney family. David, who I’d had a hand in his death, and in another world was the abuser of my best friend, now adopted daughter. Martin, my ex-work colleague, was the son of one of the Colney brothers, and now my newly acquired twenty-year-old daughter was going to have Patrick Colney’s baby. Did I really want Jess with her connection to the Colneys in my life?

This Sunday, my life had started to divert back on track after a hell of a week. Considering this new information, I was concerned about letting this girl into my life. Did I want her to know Jenny and the kids?

“Jess, I still haven’t told my wife about you yet.” She looked up at me. I guess I could see the disappointment in her eyes and probably expected me to now say that she should keep her distance. “There’s other stuff going on at home which I need to smooth out first. I will tell her, I promise. But I just need a little space and time at the moment. I hope … I hope that’s okay?”

Jess looked at the floor and didn’t answer.

“Jess?”

She put her head in her hands and sobbed. Christ, why was everyone crying all the time? If it wasn’t me, it was Jenny, and now Jess? I leant forward in my chair, placing my hands on her arms. At least I was getting used to coping when faced with someone blubbering. In my old life, anyone in tears was my instant cue to get the hell out.

On many occasions, Lisa had pointed out that as her husband, one of my responsibilities was to comfort her when she cried. ‘To love and to cherish’ was one of the vows she reminded me of, as I would awkwardly hunt for any escape route.

I recalled when I’d completed the annual appraisals of my staff at Waddington Steel. Bridget, a reasonably low performing sales junior, had sobbed, no, howled, in my office, when I gave her the feedback that she wasn’t performing to the required standard. Tracey, a middle-aged lady on my team, who quite frankly scared the shit out of me, had burst into my office and demanded to know what the hell I’d said as Bridget knelt on the floor wailing. I recall my reply was I had to nip out for lunch as I scooted around them and shot out the door.

I inwardly winced as I remembered those events. Recalling my behaviour in my previous life was always painful, but I felt it was necessary to remind myself what a self-centred, uncaring knob I once was.

I now sat here holding Jess as she sobbed, feeling highly embarrassed about my totally shit leadership skills in my previous life. It certainly gave me a metaphoric poke in the chest that I couldn’t let this girl down. If she wanted to be part of my life, then I had to make that happen. I had a responsibility.

“Jess, I’m sorry. I’ll tell Jenny soon. I promise.”

Jess shook her head and looked up at me. Her wild blonde hair hanging at all angles across her face. “I was raped … I was raped.”

My mouth dropped open as I grabbed her hand. “Patrick raped you?”

“No! I was raped last Wednesday night on my way home from meeting you.”

“By who?”

“I don’t know. I went through the alley from Brooks Road to the estate. It was dark, and he grabbed me from behind.” Her breathing came in short bursts as she tried to blurt it all out. “I don’t know who it was, but I’m so worried that he hurt the baby.”

“Jess, are the police investigating? Have you seen your doctor?”

She shook her head, causing her hair to fly around in front of her red, teary eyes.

I knelt beside her and held her in my arms. Another rape in Fairfield, and it appeared this was unreported.

“Jess, I think you need to report it … you must!”

She looked at me as she scraped her hair away from her face. “No, there’s no point. They know who I am and my connection to Patrick. They won't believe me, and even if they did, they wouldn't do anything. Anyway—” she sniffed again and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Anyway … I don’t know who it was. In that dark alley, no one would’ve seen it happen.