Zack ran on even further, a couple of streets ahead, until he got to a big oak tree on the corner. He hid behind it. “Can you still hear me?” he beamed back to Gordon.
“Yes, of course I can. You sound a bit like you’re on the phone.”
“That’s OK. You’re very good at this now!”
“What does ‘A’, heart-with-an-arrow-through- it, ‘ L’ mean?”
“What?”
“It’s carved in the tree in front of you.”
“Whoah!” said Zack. Gordon smiled to himself. He liked it when he could surprise Zack for a change.
A few minutes later they passed through the park gates and headed for the play-area in the middle. Whichever side of the park children lived on, they had an equal distance to walk to get to the swings and slides and roundabouts. It had never occurred to Edith that that was why the play-area was where it was. She saw at once that Gordon was right when he pointed it out. Wasn’t it just like Gordon to have spotted that?
Well no, actually. It was just like Zack, with Gordon cheerfully passing the information on. She reminded herself that Zack had been a figment of Gordon’s imagination, so it had been Gordon all along, really. She had lived with Zack for so long. It was amazing how real he had seemed, even to her. “Don’t grow up too quickly, Darling,” she thought to herself.
The sunny day had brought parents and children out in fair numbers. The play-park was busy. Gordon surveyed the scene calmly. He’d had a few years at school, and a lot of patient training from Zack. He was now really good at being around other children without saying or doing anything they were likely to think was odd. It still irked him that his normal had seemed so strange to them. He supposed it was fair enough. Their normal had often seemed totally bizarre to him. He was used to it now.
The swings were busy, but fairly well organised. There were parents on hand helping to push and making sure their offspring didn’t wander into the path of a rapidly moving swing. As often happened, however, there were also one or two older children standing up on swings. They urged them higher and higher, with no regard for the safety of the little ones running dangerously close.
Gordon normally made these swings his first port of call. It annoyed him that children who were old enough to know better should put younger children at risk like that. It was irresponsible, selfish and stupid. “OK Zack, usual routine.”
“Be right there!” came the answering thought. Gordon didn’t need to check on Zack’s progress. It never took him long to arrive. He was a bit like a Roman road in that respect: a straight line from A to B, passing through anything in the way at impressive speed.
“Which one?”
“Him on the end.”
With a self-satisfied smirk, the boy in his early teens had got the swing arcing as high as the frame itself. Mothers had scuttled to the protection of little ones who were in danger of toddling into its path and being beheaded. They had tutted and scolded, but this kid was a law unto himself. Nobody was going to tell him what to do.
Gordon stood facing him, just within range, and smiled. It was like a red rag to a bull. Lips parted, eyes wide, teeth clenched, the kid urged the swing to go that bit faster and that bit higher. As it arced backwards, he transferred all his weight to his left leg. His plan was to accidentally catch Gordon under the chin with a right footed kick on his way past.
“Gordon, LOOK OUT!” his mum yelled. She was too far away to intervene. Zack, on the other hand, was right there. He leapt up and grabbed the swing as it began its downward plunge. A second later, his feet were planted firmly on the ground and he was making a dramatic difference to the swing’s forward momentum.
The kid had been intent on lining Gordon up for the accidental kick, and wasn’t expecting that sudden deceleration. His left knee buckled and his right foot slipped off entirely, which transferred almost all his weight to his arms. The ropes on the swing twisted violently, dislodging his other foot, which left him in a hopeless tangle and hanging on for dear life. Zack picked that moment to pull the wooden seat back and give it a good shove into the back of the kid’s dangling legs. There was a painful clunk.
“Whoops,” Gordon said.
“Serves you right!” the nearest adult called out. “You’re not supposed to stand on the swings. Can’t you read?!”
Probably not. The older girl on the swing next to him jumped off. “You all right, Dom?” she asked. Dom muttered a word that Gordon was not familiar with. He couldn’t get away with strangling the kid who’d somehow made him lose his balance, so he aimed a kick at the swing instead and limped off, followed by his female companion.
Gordon sat down on the empty swing. He ran it backwards for a couple of steps to get it started. His mother had arrived by now. “Do you want a push?” she asked him.
“No thanks, Mum, I can manage.” His swing swung smoothly and rapidly to an enjoyable height. It took no apparent effort on his part.
“Your son ’s got that off to a fine art!” said one of the other parents admiringly.
Zack was a brilliant swing-pusher.
Chapter 19
Where Was I?
Gordon had an enquiring mind. Luckily, he also had Zack who knew a lot. When he was nine, an important question occurred to him.
“Where did I come from?” he asked. Zack would know; he always knew.
“Oh, come on!” Zack replied, “You’re a mammal! Mummies’ tummies, you know the drill.”
“I know that,” said Gordon. “Of course, I know that. But what I mean is: where was I before that?”
There was a brief pause. “You weren’t,” Zack told him.
The universe-before-Gordon stretched a long time beyond the limits of even his imagination. It was a bit hard to take. “Are you sure?” he asked wistfully.
“Yep.” Goodness me, he almost sounded cheerful about it! “You weren’t, just like you won’t be. You are currently ‘passing through nature to eternity.’”
“That’s a good phrase,” Gordon said. He knew a good phrase when he heard one. You couldn’t be around Zack for long without hearing a good phrase - frequently more than one during the average day.
“Thank you. Actually, it’s a clause, Gordon. It has a verb, you see.”
“Smarty pants!” Gordon shot back. Zack could be irritating at times, especially when he was putting you right. “One of your own, is it, by any chance?” He was getting good at sarcasm. He was also smarting from the notion that until just a few years ago he wasn’t, and in a few more years he wouldn’t be.
“Well, no,” Zack admitted, “but I was there when he wrote it. Always had a way with words, did Will.”
“Hang on,” said Gordon, as that last casual remark sank in, “If you were there when he wrote it, and I wasn’t, and I won’t be, what about you?”
“Ah,” Zack replied thoughtfully, “I seem to be a different matter altogether.”
NOTES
YOU’RE A MAMMAL; THE UNIVERSE BEFORE GORDON; PASSING THROUGH NATURE TO ETERNITY; IT HAS A VERB, YOU SEE; “ALWAYS HAD A WAY WITH WORDS, DID WILL”
Chapter 20
Forever Friends
On Gordon’s eleventh Christmas Day, Victor Bennett was delighted to be given Jeremy Clarkson’s latest account of how many fast cars he’d driven that year, and how many slow caravans he’d destroyed. Edith understood her husband’s fascination with the big boys’ toys he would never be able to afford. She even quite enjoyed bits of the TV programme Top Gear. It provided valuable insights into the workings of the so-called “grown-up” male mind.
The “growing-up” male in her life was in another room, getting ready to tackle his biggest and most favourite Christmas present. It was a 4D Vision Space Shuttle 1:72 Scale Model Kit with 143 pieces. It had clear panels, so you could see all the high-tech inner workings. It had moving parts. The landing gear extended and retracted, there were working gear doors, and opening and closing payload bay doors. It had a movable robot-arm. There was a swivel stand to mount the assembled shuttle on
. All the engine detail was accurate, as well as the cockpit, space lab, and other compartmental specifications.
It was a great practical way to learn about one of the most complex machines ever built. No wonder it had cost a small fortune. He was a very lucky boy, but of course he knew that. The minimum recommended age for someone attempting to assemble this complicated piece of kit was 14. That made it just right for Gordon (with a bit of help from Zack along the way). He was 10 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 4 days, and ready for a fresh challenge.
Victor settled into his comfortable chair and opened his book. “I’ll let him size up that model before I give him a hand with it,” he said. “I think it may be too much, even for him.”
Edith smiled. “Did you see the way his eyes shone when he unwrapped it?” she said. “I remember his first few Christmases with all those Lego models. He used to chatter away to Zack about the right way of putting them together. He was years below the recommended minimum age, even then.”
Victor nodded. He’d never admitted it, but even he had found some of those models a bit of a challenge. “You were right about him coming out of his imaginary-friend phase,” he said. “I must admit that Zack business had me worried for a while.”
Edith bent over and kissed him. “I never had any doubt. All the books say that imaginary friends are a good thing on the whole, and that children grow out of them.” She was so proud of her one and only son. “Gordon is such a special child. It wasn’t really surprising that his imaginary friend was special as well. He was bound to grow out of him in time.”
Victor dropped his eyes to his book. He was imagining that Jeremy Clarkson was a good friend of his - the sort of friend who would let you take the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 for a test drive.
In the next room, Gordon was carefully placing all the beautifully crafted pieces on their large coffee table. Its surface had been cleared for the purpose. “Is that true?” he asked.
Zack smiled across at him. “Is what true?”
Gordon gazed at the picture on the front of the box. That was what his magnificent, fully assembled space shuttle was going to look like. “Will I grow out of you?”
Zack routinely tuned in to what people were saying in other rooms. When he did, Gordon could hear them too.
“That depends.”
“What on?” His lower lip quivered a little. He pulled the assembly pictograms towards him and tried to focus on what he had to do first.
“On whether or not you decide to grow out of me.”
The picture Gordon was trying to look at had become blurred. He tried to get a grip on himself but was unable to stop a tear from splashing on to the table top. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and raised his head to look Zack full in the face. “I don’t want to grow out of you. Ever!”
Zack smiled, a warm, loving smile, and walked through the coffee table to stand in front of his young companion. “I’m here, aren’t I? Always?” he reminded Gordon gently. He placed his hands on the quivering shoulders. Gordon felt the warmth and the reassurance, but there was one more question he had to ask. It took all his courage to ask it.
“Will you ever grow out of me?” he asked Zack. It was the most important question he had ever asked, and Gordon had asked a lot of questions in the time he’d been on the planet.
“Oh no,” Zack told him. “I’ll never grow out of you. I’ll be with you just as long as you want me to be.”
Gordon smiled a watery smile. “That’s all right then.” He scrambled up and grabbed a tissue out of the box on the sideboard. “Let’s make a start on this shuttle.”
Zack nodded and went back to the other side of the table. He would let Gordon do the assembling, but would give him a helping hand whenever he needed it. He picked up two of the pieces and held them out. “How about starting with these?” he suggested.
Gordon nodded. He stretched out his hand to take them. Putting this amazing machine together was going to take ages. It would be great fun watching it grow.
In the other room, his father was turning a page. In the kitchen, his mother was putting together ingredients for a splendid Christmas dinner. Zack knew there was no chance of anyone else seeing two of the 143 pieces rise into the air and move towards Gordon’s outstretched hand. “And don’t forget,” he reminded Gordon.
“What?” Gordon replied. He carefully consulted the diagram and reached for pieces 3 and 4 himself.
“Your dad is going to come in here in a little while and say: ‘Nothing ventured nothing gained’, and you’re going to let him help you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Gordon said cheerfully. He loved his dad, and enjoyed his company. Anyway, Zack would make sure his dad didn’t make too many mistakes.
They’d got that routine off to a fine art.
NOTES
TOP GEAR; THE BUGATTI VEYRON 16.4; THE 4D VISION SPACE SHUTTLE.
Chapter 21
Gordon Gets Invited
Gordon’s birthday was 7th August. Edith and Victor had got into the habit of taking their family holiday around that time and celebrating his birthday while they were away. When he was younger, involving other children in his birthday had not been easy. Edith had avoided parties because there was no way of not inviting Zack.
Once Zack was out of the way, however, she’d asked Gordon if he would prefer to celebrate his birthday at home, where he could have a party with his friends. He’d said no thanks, he liked things the way he was used to having them. The pattern was established and they had stuck to it.
They normally set about planning their summer holiday once Christmas was out of the way. This year, Gordon had a specific request to make. Could they go to Cornwall please, and could they spend his birthday visiting The Eden Project? He wanted to know what it felt like to be in a rainforest, and wasn’t sure when he would get the chance to experience it in real life.
Victor and Edith were happy to oblige, and they decided to rent a cottage within reasonable distance of St Austell. Edith researched available properties and shortlisted some for consideration. They sat down together early in January to look at the little photos and the write-ups, and it was curious ...
As Gordon looked down at his mum’s compilation, one particular cottage moved off the page. It expanded in his mind’s eye. He could see the overgrown hedge, and a narrow wooden gate. It wasn’t as it appeared in the picture. It was covered in snow.
“Are you doing this?” he asked Zack.
“No,” Zack replied, “you are, and I don’t know why.”
The gate in the hedge was opening. He was moving through it. The cottage had a curving timber frame and wattle-and-daub walls. There was a thatched roof. Smoke curled from the brick chimney. There must have been a fire burning in the old black grate. He could hear it crackling. He could smell the woodsmoke.
“… not a lot to choose between them,” his mum was saying. “It depends what we think we want to go for: ‘olde worlde’ charm or modern and probably more comfortable.”
“Come back, Gordon,” Zack warned him. The picture faded. He looked up from the paper to see his mum and dad looking at him expectantly.
“I’m sorry?” he said.
His dad grinned. “You were miles away.”
“About 250 miles away,” Zack said. “I’d like to know what happened there.”
“Me too,” Gordon told him.
“Your mum and I were thinking either this modern bungalow with two bedrooms and en suite bathrooms, or this tiny cottage with loads of character, but only one bathroom and no en-suite.” He grimaced. “It probably also comes with creaky floors, draughty windows and ceilings low enough for me to bang my head on the beams.”
Edith laughed. “No prizes for guessing which way you’re leaning,” she said.
“It has to be this one!” Gordon said. He pointed at the indistinct little picture on the page. It was calling to him. Urgency and longing welled up from deep inside him.
“Whoah,” said his dad, “Where did that certa
inty come from all of a sudden?”
Gordon looked at him. “I don’t know Dad, but it has to be this one. Please!!”
The strength of his son’s appeal took Victor by surprise. It wasn’t like Gordon to be that definite. He was normally only that certain about the need to preserve endangered species. Victor was in favour of en-suite bathrooms and all mod cons himself. He was, however, open to persuasion.
“OK,” he said. He peered at the photo. “What makes you so set on this one?”
Gordon decided on the truth. It was normally best, and his parents deserved it. “It invited me,” he told them.
“Not quite son,” his dad said, correcting him gently. “It didn’t invite you. You found it inviting.”
Gordon looked at him and took Zack’s advice. It was equally true, after all. “I found it inviting,” he said.
His mum was staring at the picture. “I’m finding it inviting as well,” she said slowly.
Victor raised his eyebrows and then grinned again. “Well, as this is a democracy, by a majority of 2-1,” he looked down at the details again, “Oaktree Cottage it is.”
Edith booked it the next day.
NOTES
WITHIN REASONABLE DISTANCE FROM ST AUSTELL; WATTLE AND DAUB WALLS; MOD CONS.
Chapter 22
A Life Sentence
Normally once Spring was underway, the Bennetts were in the habit of going on safari to their local zoo. It was one of Gordon’s favourite places, and they had annual family membership. He loved going at any time of the year, but his absolute favourite time was in the spring. All the plants were budding in the welcome warmth, and many of the animals were at their friskiest.
“Do you know,” Gordon said as he clambered out of their car, “that a third of all animal and plant species face extinction in this century?” It was shortly after 10am on a sunny Sunday in late March.
“Who told you that?” his dad asked him casually.
“Careful!” Zack warned, but Gordon was used to these little tests from his dad. “It said so on Animal Planet.” he replied. That was the safe answer to any question his dad asked him about animals. His dad only saw the occasional programme, and he knew Gordon watched a lot of them.