Unmarked Journey Read online

going to go south pretty quick.’

  ‘But even if uni is a possibility, I still have to finish this year at College!’

  Cali seemed stumped. ‘True. Five months?’

  ‘Yeah, five months until we graduate, and that’s not counting the summer. It’ll be late September before I head to Uni.’

  ‘So eight months, really.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Damn, you’re right.’

  They sat in silence for a while, finishing their respective drinks.

  ‘How much do you really even know about Barry, anyway?’

  ‘Exactly,’ Elra replied. ‘Put it this way, he’s been dating mom for a solid two years now, on and off. Dunno where they met; some club or bar, probably. Mom’s just so... I don’t know. Easy. Such a damn pushover most of the time.’

  Cali snickered. ‘Maybe mine could teach yours a thing or two.’

  ‘Quite. Yours wouldn’t take any of his crap.’

  A darkness crossed Cali's features. ‘He beats her, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Sometimes, yeah.’

  Cali became animated. ‘Haven’t you talked to her? Haven’t you told her what you think about him?’

  Elra sighed. ‘Cali, I’ve tried. I really have.’

  ‘If he ever lays a finger on you I’ll cut his throat, you know that?’

  Elra looked into her friend's fierce eyes, and thought how she looked like she meant it. Cali was great, Cali was the best... but there was a slight darkness within her. For the umpteenth time, she considered how bad it would be for anyone to find themselves on her wrong side.

  ‘You’d have to beat me to it,' Elra finally said, chuckling.

  Cali smiled wanly. ‘Just take care of yourself, Elra. People like him are nasty. You know Jenni from school?’

  ‘That girl who left before Year 10?’

  ‘Yeah. You know what happened to her?’

  ‘She got into heroin, didn’t she?’

  ‘I heard it from Aisha. She got so hooked, she started doing guys favors – if you know what I mean – to keep a steady flow. She got in with the Yard Crew and eventually they were the ones organizing the favors. One week they didn’t make enough off her to keep her in habit, so she said they could get it from her family. Some thugs went round and robbed her parents’ home, and she hasn’t been heard of since.’

  ‘She’s sixteen!’

  ‘Was sixteen. God knows what’s happened to her now. The point is, people like that are bad. And they’re doubly bad to women. They don't care about anything but cash. People are tools to them.’

  ‘You’re preaching to the choir, here.’

  ‘Well sometimes I think you need reminding.’

  The girls behind them eventually left, and the day slowly darkened. The lights downstairs dimmed, maintaining that place’s bar vibe. Cali eventually piped up.

  ‘Why don’t you stay at mine tonight?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Yeah. Dawid torrented some films, we could grab some snacks and make a thing of it.’

  ‘Okay,’ Elra replied, ‘but I’ll have to poke my head round the door at home first, just to check on my mother.’

  ‘Fine. But make sure he doesn’t rope you into helping or anything. You owe him nothing.’

  ‘Don’t I know it,’ Elra grimaced.

  Four

  Half an hour later Elra was back outside Driesdale. The front door was held open with a sturdy-looking guitar amp, and deep in the building someone was swearing.

  Elra walked through the foyer and down the left-hand corridor. One of the denizens had vainly tried to spruce the place up by installing tired-looking pots of shrubs down its length. A Council notice had been placed on the wall, announcing that the plants were to be removed as soon as possible, since they constituted a Fire Hazard.

  ‘Fucking plants in the fucking way,’ a hoarse voice stated from the far end. Barry rounded the corner manhandling numerous cardboard boxes, stacked one inside the other. ‘Out the bloody way,’ he said to Elra, abruptly. He sidled past awkwardly and got the boxes caught in a dying rhododendron.

  Elra continued towards the flat without saying a word.

  Inside her mother was walking around, wringing her hands nervously.

  ‘Hi there, love. Mind giving Barry a hand?’

  Elra remained silent and took a look around the place. Barry had brought mercifully few accoutrements, and the ones he had brought looked mostly electronic in nature. Elra was surprised to find the living room now well-stocked with an up-to-date flatscreen, stereo system and no less than three laptops, casually thrown on the sofa. When she entered the kitchen, she found a shiny blender sitting on the work surface, along with a large bong.

  The sounds of Barry carrying a heavy load emanated from down the corridor. A few seconds later he appeared carrying the amp.

  ‘This thing’s a bitch to carry,’ he announced. ‘Mind getting that door for me, babe?’

  Elra’s mother jumped at the request and duly held the living room door open. Barry waddled in with his heavy load, and after much swearing and crashing around, managed to put it down where he wanted.

  ‘I didn’t know you played the guitar, Barry,’ Elra said lightly.

  ‘Well I don’t, do I? Got it for when we have a do. You should hear the thing when it’s turned up to eleven.’ He stood up straight, stretching his back. His overly pale frame keened at the strain.

  ‘I’m staying at Cali’s tonight,’ Elra announced.

  Barry shot her mother a glance. ‘Suits us, doesn’t it, babe?’ he smirked. He gave her a playful slap on the bottom and dashed back outside.

  Something else was turned up to eleven that evening. After Barry had finished carrying in some clothes and other odds and ends, he and Elra’s mother retired straight to the bedroom. As Elra left to go to Cali’s she could still hear their noises in the corridor.

  Cali’s home was full of warm colors and smelled of good cooking. What a difference not living on the ground floor makes, Elra thought. And how nice it is to have the heating on. Abeje, Cali’s mom, had made meat pie with fried plantains, and had very kindly saved Elra some. Cali’s father and little brother were back home now; her father, a plasterer, was a large, bald, homely man with a cheery sense of humor. He and Abeje complimented each other perfectly. As far as Elra could see, their marital relationship consisted of a perpetual comedic back-and-forth, where Abeje would jokingly treat her husband like an overgrown teenager, to which he’d retort with slights about her cooking and housekeeping skills.

  Cali’s little brother Dawid, the source of their movies that evening, was a smallish boy of fourteen, and much more introverted than his sister and parents. He was older beyond his years, somehow: he was into things like coding, obscure bands, Korean films and weighty literature. He gave Elra an understated smile when he finally emerged from his room.

  'Here,' he offered, presenting a small memory stick. 'There's some stuff you guys might like on there.'

  'Horror?' Cali asked.

  'The best,' he replied. 'A few Japanese classics, a new Spanish one about an orphan, and a few Hollywood remakes, if you want your intelligence insulted.'

  'Subtitle files?'

  'You bet.'

  Their dad looked up from his dinner. 'Dawid, I trust none of those are R rated?'

  'None at all, father,' he replied.

  Their dad smirked. Abeje rolled her eyes and continued drying dishes.

  Five

  Later, as Elra and Cali sat watching a particularly jumpy horror called Ju-Ban Kon II in Cali's small, cozy room under her duvet with a healthy supply of snacks, their conversation turned to more arcane matters. They hadn't said much throughout the film; Elra had been trying to distance herself from her present woes, but had found the flick to be bad escapism material, so had satisfied herself in taking solace from her friend's silent companionship. Cali sat there absorbing the surreal and frightening images on the laptop screen with unbroken concentration, issuing the odd titt
er of laughter here and there at the more disturbing moments. Then all of a sudden, after a particularly terrifying moment involving a female ghost appearing from a mirror, she asked:

  'Do you believe in the supernatural, Elra?'

  Elra was still a bit mentally off balance from the scare. 'Um, you know what... I'm not really sure.'

  'What?'

  'I mean, there has to be a limit to our understanding, right? Surely there's something beyond what we know.'

  'Like God?'

  Elra was slightly taken aback. Religion was a subject rarely touched upon in their friendship. The idea of an all-powerful, all-loving sky daddy seemed at odds with the world around them: there was no space for the divine on the cold streets of their neighborhood, at least in Elra's eyes. 'I suppose you could call it that,' Elra stuttered.

  'Have you ever...? I dunno.'

  'Seen something weird?' Elra chuckled.

  'Yes,' Cali replied, sitting up attentively, her tone suddenly becoming serious.

  Something in the back of Elra's mind registered. She thought better of it. 'Well, you obviously have.'

  'So have you. I can tell from the way you skirt the question, Elra.'

  Elra reluctantly continued. 'Well, this was quite a while ago, back when I was a kid. You know how when you look back at your childhood, it's quite difficult to distinguish between things that you imagined and things that actually happened?'

  'Yeah'

  'Well maybe this was just like that,' Elra lied. In reality she knew it'd actually happened, as certain as it was possible to be. So far the story had gone untold, even to her mother. Still, she felt a perverse desire to relate it to someone, a cathartic urge to be open about her fears. ‘It