“Jack, the reason I called you was that Mr. Fineman called me and told me what Slimy had done, how he tried the same crap with you he tried to pull on me. I tell you, Jack, I never got so much pleasure out of anything as the day I beat the stuffing out of that scummy little weasel! You know that Mr. Fineman was my Housemaster in school, and he’s kept in touch with me since then. He was concerned that you’d go looking for Slimy and teach him a few more lessons, admittedly with full justification, his words, not mine, so he asked me to ask you to leave it be, as a favour to him, unless of course Slimy tries it again, in which case, be my guest while I look the other way!”
I was still a little puzzled as to why he had felt the need to trek all the way across London to tell me something he could have said over the phone, so I sat back and waited for a little clarification. It didn’t take long in coming.
“The other reason I wanted to talk to you face to face about this was to ask you if Slimy got it right. Before you go ballistic, I wanted you to know that when it came to Sai Fong and me, Slimy was right; Sai and I, we’ve… we’re… it’s…”
I’d never seen Harry at a loss for words before, nor looking as flustered as he did right then. He looked helplessly at me for a second, drew a deep breath, and started again.
“Sai Fong and I are… together, we’re a couple, we have been for almost a year now. My father knows, and accepts it, he only wants Sai to be happy, and me, and we are. I wanted to tell you, out of all my friends because I think you’ll understand better than any of them… because I think you and Teruko are in the exact same boat as us, aren’t you?”
I was impressed that he’d put it together from so few clues, but not unduly concerned; he’d shared their most intimate secret, that he was living as a couple with his sister, and I owed him a similar confidence. I grinned in relief that he hadn’t come here to preach or moralise, rather to share and support, and my respect for him notched-up even higher. The Headmaster, Mr. Gould, had once told us that the most honourable man in the school was Harry Waterfield, and I could see he was right.
“I’m impressed, Harry-boy, how did you manage to work it out so quickly?” I grinned, and he grinned back, suddenly looking again like the fresh-faced, handsome schoolboy who’d been the object of so many town girls’ fantasies.
“I could see it all over your face! I was dreading this, but seeing you like that made it a lot easier, believe me!”
The girls chose that moment to descend on us, modelling various outfits and costume jewellery, for all the world like two teenagers going through their mother’s wardrobe. Harry pulled Sai Fong down to his level and kissed her, her expression of confused shock changing into a big grin as he whispered in her ear and kissed her again. Teruko looked on in incomprehension, her eyes widening as she watched Harry kiss his sister, then she grinned and looked at me, bending down to kiss me lightly on the cheek.
“Friend Harry love his sister too, no?” she grinned at me, getting a pinch on the bum for it as I grinned back at her.
“Oh yes, darling, we’re not alone, now we have friends to share our secret with!”
Sai Fong slid down into Harry’s lap, her arm around his neck.
“So tell me, Jack, how long have you and Teruko been… close?” she smiled, her eyes alight with interest as Teruko blushed.
I slid my arm around her as she stood next to me, my hand kneading and rubbing her hip.
“We finally got together on Friday, so only three days ago, although it feels like a lot longer; in fact, it feels like a lifetime,” I offered.
“Teruko has been hinting forever, I was just too dense to see or hear it, so she kind of took matters into her own hands, without too much resistance from me, I have to admit!”
Sai Fong laughed delightedly.
“It was just the same for Harry and me; he couldn’t take a hint, even though I practically battered down his bedroom door to get him alone! You men are so… blind sometimes, especially when something’s right under your noses; I sometimes wonder how the species ever manages to keep going, if you two specimens are anything to go by!”
Harry grinned at that, and even I had to smile; she was probably closer to the mark than I wanted to admit…
Lunch was fun; Harry and I caught up on old friends, school days, and had a good laugh about the way we’d dealt with a mutual problem, while Teruko and Sai Fong were obviously beginning what would become a deep friendship. I was sorry to see them leave, but they’d accepted our invitation to dinner on Friday, and we’d told them to stay over so Harry and I could enjoy a few beers together. Teruko and Sai Fong hugged like they were long lost sisters being parted again, already missing each other. I was happy she’d found a friend with so much in common, now she had someone to share, shop, and gossip with.
The rest of the week was pretty mundane; I had to go back to work after my long weekend, Teruko was back at classes and studying hard, determined to be a credit to mum, and so it went until Friday. I had an early finish, so I swung by the college and picked her up, intending to take her shopping and pick up some beer and snacks for the evening, and maybe buy her anything she wanted, as a reward for being so damned beautiful. We parked the car behind Lewisham Docklands Light Railway station and took a shortcut through the station itself, talking about the dinner that evening, when a hand grabbed my lapel and jerked me to one side. As I flailed for balance, somebody hit me, hard, on the side of the head and I collapsed dazed to the concrete floor of the station concourse. I looked up to see a skinny, dreadlocked youth wrestling with Teruko, trying to grab her pendant and its gold chain as she gamely fought back, his hands holding her wrists as she tried to push him away.
“NO!” I shouted, “Let him have it, you’ll get hurt!”
He turned to look at me, grinning, and reached out and deliberately squeezed her breast as he licked his lips.
I saw red, surging to my feet, the look of smug victory on his face turning to one of shocked panic as I closed with him, my open-handed slap spinning him around, to catch another stiff-arm that jarred in my shoulder, I hit him so hard; it must have knocked his teeth loose. Moving with a speed I didn’t know I possessed I closed with him again as he slumped against the ticket machine. His hand dived inside his jacket, I saw the dark gleam of something black in his hand, and heard the loudest noise of my life as something hit me with stunning force on the side of the head, spinning me around.
The taste and smell of brass filled my mouth and nose, flickering images of mum, Teruko, grandad, childhood images, teddy-bears, shooting stars, favourite toys, the smell of fried onions, the taste of hotdogs, barley-sugar, mum calling me for school, the glint of sun on Teruko’s hair, whistles and dogs barking, people and faces I knew, the feel of Teruko’s lips on mine, snapshots of my father, all sharply felt and experienced again as though new-minted, all riffled through my mind like a magician stacking a deck of cards. I saw the ground rising up, heard a siren wailing, dimly realising it was Teruko screaming, and then the chaotic blizzard of images in my head tumbled away as I slid down into the deepest, darkest trough of blackness, warm, comfortable, velvety soft, and silent.