Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

quiet. I didn’t want to go to sleep on that note though. “We did it, man! Can’t believe we got past all those guards. All the way up for free. You did it.”

“Thanks.”…… “I still don’t feel safe, though. I’ll be happy when we get to those mountains. We’re close now….Anyway, I’m knackered. Goodnight, Aisha.”

“Goodnight.” I rolled over and tucked in my knees and closed my eyes.

The silence was suddenly broken by screaming from the wall,

“YOU’RE A FUCKIN BUM!” a woman balled. “ALL YOU DO IS FUCKIN DRINK. YER NUTHIN. A WASTE OF FUCKIN SPACE.”

“DON’T YOU DARE TALK T’ME LIKE THAT, YE LITTLE BITCH!”

“GET AWAY FROM ME!”

“EH? WHO THE FUCK DO YE THINK YE ARE?”

I heard the connection clear. Everything went silent. Then there was whimpering.

“AH’M SORRY! AH’M SORRY. AH DIDN’T MEAN IT.” The sobbing kept on. “Oh, shit. Ah’m sorry Laura. Ah’m sorry.”

“Fucks sake.” Harry cursed.

I folded my hands behind my head. If that went on every night, the kids in this room were growing up hearing it. That was the sounds of their dreams before school the next day. This was their shelter, their safe place. As their brains processed their day’s learning, that is what would infiltrate it and chalk up their minds. What chance did they have?

The sobbing died away. It all went silent again.

“You awake?” asked Harry.

“Yeah.”

“…It’s not right.”

“I know.”

I heard him sigh.

---------------------------

My nose was filled with the smell of frying bacon. I could hear it sizzling away in the kitchen. I got up and put on my hoody and jeans and made my way through.

Gary was stood over the pan in his t-shirt and tracky bottoms. “Mornin.” he smiled. “Harry nae up yet?”

“No.” I said.

He nodded and turned over the sausages. It was cramped, there was only room enough for about three people standing back-to-back in that kitchen. I remained leaning against the door. “So how long you stayed here for?” I asked.

“About three years…” He prodded at the sausages with the spatula. “…It’s no the best place, but there’s worse areas. It’s all ah can afford just noo.”

I scratched my head on impulse, glad to realise it no longer felt like the oil that was sizzling away in that pan. “How much is the rent for a place like this?”

“Three hundred a month.” Gary said. “Ah would love to move but, ye know, what can ah do? Ye need money and tae get money ye need a job, and tae get a job ye need a decent education, and there’s nae much chance tae get that when you’re more concerned wi surviving. It all boils doon tae money.”

“Everything does.” I said. “Money makes the world go round.”

“And burns it all tae hell.” Gary replied.

“Something smells good!” Harry sang over my shoulder. “You’re not gonna give us food poisoning again, are ye?”

Gary laughed. “Only in your one, mate. Go and get yoursels’ a seat and ah’ll bring it through. Yous wantin tea?”

“Aye. Please, mate.” Harry said.

We went through to the living room and waited in the chairs.

I stretched out my arms. “I got a great sleep.”

“Yeah me too,..after all that screaming had died down.”

“That was brutal…”

“What time do you want to get going?” I said.

Harry picked up Gary’s phone from the desk. “That’s eight now. Leave in a few of hours? There’s always buses around eleven.”

“You want to get the bus?”

“Yeah. I’ll just pay for it. Shouldn’t be too expensive.”

Gary came in with a plate of fried food in his hand. He gave me mine first and I sat it on my lap. “This looks brilliant.” I said. “Thanks very much.”

“That’s all-right.” He came back through with Harry’s, then our teas, and then his own.

I cut up the sausage, ran it through the bean sauce, scooped up some egg and rammed it all into my mouth. It was delicious and hot. I wolfed down the lot and washed it down with the tea. “I’m just gonna go out for a wee walk.” I said. “You guys okay if I come back in half an hour. Leave you to catch up?”

“Aye, no bother.” Gary said. “Watch where yer going though. Stick to the busy streets.”

“Yeah, I will.”

“We’ll leave in a couple hours, yeah?” Harry looked inquiringly.

I nodded as I got up from the chair. I was almost at the front door when Gary called behind me and handed me a jacket. I thanked him and stepped out and made my way down the long concrete steps, passing the same doors with black bin bags rotting outside them, and the same box of discarded needles, until I was back outside.

Chapter 34

B eyond the entrance, the stench of piss was overcome by the acrid subway smell. A thin drizzle hung in the air underneath the overcast sky. I traced my steps back the way we had come the night before. In the asphalt park a heavily pregnant mother was with her wee boy on one of the swings; pushing him with one hand and texting with the other, her face glued to her phone. As he swung back and forth the boy kept looking back, as if to check that she was still there, and beneath his tiny winging feet the ground glinted with the huge shards of smashed glass and cracked beer bottles.

I turned left at the path and emerged at Possil High Street, by the same loan shop amongst all the strategically placed bookies and pubs and fast-food takeaways. I zipped Gary’s jacket up to my neck. And I walked down the road, until I came to a large expanse of open wasteland. I stood on the pavement and peered through the chain-link fence as kids trundled by behind me on their way to school. Before me