BooksBarbecue
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Chapters (24)
  1. About the Author
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21

James’s plot is neat, and the grass has hardly grown. I’m relieved. But the windows in my house are all broken. Inside, no one waits for me. Again, the furniture is all overturned, the cupboards pulled out, the carpets ripped up. I right my couch, flop down onto it, and sit like a genuine zombie, with nothing happening in either my head or my heart. Then I wake myself, and try to check if I am alive. Did I die in that cool room, but just don’t know it yet? I go to the sink and turn on the hot water, and wait for it to be scalding hot. Then I stick my arm in the stream to see what happens. What happens is I feel a powerful burning sensation on my skin. I withdraw my arm, and leap around the room cursing before I get back to the tap, where I run cold water over the burn. Nobody said you couldn’t feel pain in heaven, and everybody says you suffer pain in hell, so my test is inconclusive. I could be in hell. It’s kind of a dopey realisation. This place has been hell long before I ended up in Ben’s cool room.

I listen to the messages on my landline. Mick and Marko are wondering where I am. They’ve both got something they need to give to me. The messages on my mobile from Marko and Ralph are the same. I don’t care what they want or what they have.

I sit back down on the couch, and fall asleep. In a while, I get up, not sure where I am or what has happened. The blood still caked on my face reminds me. I take a long shower, have a drink of water, return to the couch, and close my eyes. I have a nightmare about Ted and Special and wake remembering they have not been fed or thought of or cared for. I drive to the kennels where they sit waiting with their pure expectant hearts. I return to my house, but before I lie down again I walk to the meat room to see if the money has been taken. I’m not sure if I care, but I lift the cloth covering the box anyway. The money is still there. As usual, Ben’s men weren’t as thorough as they should have been. I find my way back to the couch and pass out.

20

20

There is a light knock on the frame of the door that I didn’t bother to close when I came in.

‘Dave?’

It rouses me, but I ignore it. I never need to have another visitor. I will never move from this couch. I am done. But the rapping is persistent, and I hear slow, soft footsteps making their way through the house.

‘Dave.’