Dark Side Darker (17 page)

“Nope.”

“Well it’s up Bromley Way, near some school, can’t remember the name but I know it’s a Catholic school or sumthin’.” He looked back at Karen. “Hey, you’re not a Catholic are you love?” And he winked.

“Good god!” Karen murmured to herself in quiet disgust as he turned away.

“Nah man she’s no Catholic!” Rufus laughed to Floyd. “So where’s this school Floyd?”

Floyd laughed a low garbled laugh. “Shit man, ah’ don’t know, I normally walk there or get a lift and ah’ ain’t too hot on street names either. Way I figure it is, if I can get there I don’t need to know the names.”

“Brilliant logic,” Karen quietly announced to herself and Josh couldn’t help but smile.

Rufus shook his head in something between amusement and mild annoyance.

“Rrrright. So anyone know what school this might be?”

“In Bromley? I think Calloway is a Catholic school.” Karen told him.

“Yeah that’s it!” Floyd enthused. “Look I’ll know the way better when we’re in the area, I’ve got a real sharp mind for streets. So let’s roll my man, let’s roll.”

THE DRUG

“WHOA-W-W-WHOOAA, THAT’S IT MAN, that’s the place!”

Rufus looked unconvinced.

“You sure Floyd?” This was the fifth or so street they had tried. It seemed Crescent Street either didn’t exist or at very least wasn’t in Bromley.
Just a name randomly emerging out of the narcotic chemical mess that was Floyd’s brain
, Rufus had irritably assumed. Floyd’s visual memory was also nowhere near as good as he had claimed.

Rufus began to slow the car, looking for a space to park when Floyd spoke again. “Hang on, no it ain’t, not this one. The house we want’s got green drain pipes.”

There were low murmurs from the back and Rufus shook his head cursing under his breath.“Hey,” Floyd said indignantly, addressing the whole car. “What can I say, I’ve never been here sober, shit, half this world looks the same to me and the rest I can’t even remember!”

Rufus looked annoyed. “
Do
you know the way Floyd or not?”

“Yo, chill Rufus man, chill. Geez’, I’ll know it when I see it.” He looked over his shoulder at the grumpy faces of Josh and Karen. “Man you people really need to learn to chill out. I mean Jesus!” He paused to take a long drag of his joint. Floyd’s face filled with bliss as he held in the smoke and then slowly exhaled it into a cloud, before inhaling the smoke once again, breathing the fumes in and out until they had been dissipated. Smiling even more than he had been before he returned his full attention to Josh and Karen. “You see,” he started slowly, letting out another wisp of smoke. “Life is like a river...”

“Shut up, Floyd!” Karen snapped; her arms folded defensively across her chest and she returned to staring out of the window.

Floyd mumbled something about chilling out and turned away.

On the pavement some young kids were kicking about a football, while some bored-looking girls with too much make-up sat on a garden wall kicking their feet.

“Wait, here we are, this house here!”

Rufus looked at him slowly. “You sure Floyd?”

“Yeah, Jesus I’m sure. This is it!”

Rufus rolled the car to the curb.

The four of them stood in the street. Standing with his hands in his pockets, Josh looked about.

Behind them the kids had moved back into the street and were now kicking the ball across the road to each other. The girls with them were all staring at Rufus, as was common.

On their left there was an old park. The swing seats had long-ago been removed and the frames now just sat rusting next to spray painted benches. Another little piece of the city left to die. The death of innocence.

The house itself was unremarkable. It looked pretty much the same as the rest of the terrace houses in the street and Josh could partly understand Floyd’s confusion. A green wheelie-bin sat in a garden of overgrown weeds behind a crumbling wall and a gate which hung crookedly from a damp-eaten post. Flaking green pipes ran up its bare brick walls and the lower window had been cracked and partly repaired with duct tape.

Loud music was blasting out from the open top story windows. Some rap music he recognised but didn’t know. The muffled words bounced around the street, mixing with the sounds of the city and the excited cries of distant children.

“N.W.A” Rufus said knowingly and took a drag of the joint Floyd had passed him. “And this is definitely it?” he asked Floyd.

“Yeah man, don’t sweat it.”

Rufus nodded, took a last drag and dropped the butt to the ground. He looked at the house uncertainly. “So what we gonna’ find?” he murmured to himself. “Alien drug dealers??”

“Huh?” asked Floyd.

“It don’t matter,” Josh told him.

Rufus turned to look at Karen, he swayed mildly on his feet. “I think you should stay here,” he told her.

“I’m not scared, Rufus. I’ve met dealers before you know!”

He shook his head. “Scared nothing! I’m thinking about my car!”

“Charmed, I’m sure. Well okay, will you be long?”

Rufus glanced at Floyd who shrugged. “Shouldn’t be,” he said.

Josh walked over to join Karen. “You cool with this?”

“Well, I still think this is a stupid idea, but yeah.”

Josh nodded. “ So shall we go?” he said to Rufus.

The gate scraped on the concrete as it opened. Josh took one last look at Karen sitting in the car and then joined Rufus and Floyd who were waiting at the door.

Eventually the door opened and an Asian kid with bloodshot eyes and a grey hoodie stood peering out above a security chain. His suspicion lessened when he saw Floyd.

“Hey man,” Floyd grinned. “Open for business?”

The kid said nothing just starred at Rufus and Josh.

“They’re with me,” Floyd offered.

Still the kid said nothing, just continued to stare at the other two. Josh assumed, to him, they must have looked like a pretty strange vision. A tall lanky kid with long blackish brown hair and glasses and a black kid with dreads thicker than the predator wearing paint covered jeans, a bleached white T-shirt with faded lettering and a heavy silver chain around his neck. Presumably they didn’t look like the fuzz because he nodded, closed the door, drew back the chain and then re-opened for them. He gestured for them to go in. “Should’a phoned first” were the only words he said to Floyd as he passed by him. The guy took a quick glance up and down the street and then the door was closed behind them.

“Living room,” he mumbled and went into one of the doors leading off from the small hallway.

“That hippy guy’s here to see you,” they heard him say to someone. “Some kids with him too. Look like wankers.”

Rufus and Josh edged into the room after a more confident Floyd.

There were three kids in the room sprawled out on sofas. The door man sat down next to a particularly overweight lad who seemed to be asleep and had pulled his baseball cap down over his eyes. The other two had turned to look at the new arrivals. Smiles had froze on their faces. They looked stoned and edgy.

Josh subconsciously took a step back towards the wall.

One of them in particular was fixing Rufus with a challenging glare. Rufus nodded at him casually.

Josh stood slightly behind them feeling uncomfortable with the barely concealed hostility he could sense. They didn’t look like alien drug dealers to him but in truth he wasn’t sure anyone would.

For a few seconds the only sound was the music blasting out from the CD player on the coffee table and then Floyd broke the silence. “Hey Gary my man, how’s business?”

Gary—it seemed—was the youth who’d taken a dislike to Rufus. He was wearing white sports gear, a collection of gold rings, chains and what looked like a Rolex, short gelled hair and sharp, angry eyes. With clear agitation he tore his attention from Rufus now, to address Floyd. “Yea’, yea’ alright Floyd, but who the fuck are these people? Huh?”

Floyd paused. “What?” He gestured behind him with his thumb. “These people?” He looked back at Gary still smiling. “Friends of mine,” he told him casually.

Gary nodded but still seemed as pissed off. “Yea’ well you know I don’t like unannounced visitors.” Again he was glaring at Rufus.

“Hey, hey man don’t sweat it, you ain’t got any problem with these two. They’re cool, jus’ want to do a lil’ business that’s all.”

Gary shook his head and reached for the bong on the table. “Yeah well” was all he said.

“Should’a phoned first, Floyd,” repeated the doorman and then again fell into silence sucking on a joint.

“So,” Floyd said moving to sit down on a gap between the sleeping kid and the other on the sofa, “how’s things Baz?” He was talking to a small weaselly kid who had remained silent till now.

“Good Floyd man, good.” He was grinning.

Gary was sitting, holding in a lung-full and slowly breathing in and out smoke. He sat quietly for a few seconds more and then looked over at Floyd, who was now slumping on the sofa like he lived at the place. “So what you want Floyd? Block, green, Pollen, Thai?”

Floyd was nodding and grinning. He laughed loudly. “Yeah sure!”

The weaselly Boz laughed and snapped his fingers. Gary had a slight, partially amused smile on his face now. Josh got the feeling that this was as much as he ever smiled—he seemed to be quite the bitter being. Gary’s smile abruptly died like it had never been real. Deadly serious now, he spoke. “Yea Floyd yea, so which is it?”

Floyd shrugged. “Pollen?”

“How much?”

Floyd shrugged again. “Quart?”

Gary nodded and clicked his fingers—“Mindy.”

The guy who’d let them in got up and left the room.

Gary was again staring at Rufus. The weasel was nodding to the bass-heavy beats of the music.

“So what you want?” Gary asked Rufus with no friendliness.

Rufus took a step forward. He nodded at the sound system. “N.W.A, cool man.”

“Yeah, and what the fuck is it to you?” Gary fixed him with a serious look.

Josh shifted awkwardly. Rufus shrugged. “Chill out mate. Real good shit, that’s all.”

He stood awkwardly looking at the two and a half dealers, wondering if mentioning the music had been a mistake.

Gary was giving him the once-over. Eventually he spoke again. “So what you do? Come to tell me the music’s good? There’s some Cypress hill and Wu Tang too. So fucking what?”

Rufus stood silent, not entirely certain what had just been asked. “Well they’re dope too, I guess. Well the Hill anyway.”

The weasel smiled slightly, a stoned girlish giggle.

“What the fuck? ‘Dope’? What the fuck? Fucking right? So what you doing?”

No point flirting, he figured. “I heard I could score here,” and he nodded at an amused Floyd who was now smoking the joint that Baz’ had passed to him.

“Yeah, that what you heard? Look man I don’t know you!”

Baz’ still grinning, spoke up. “Shit, Gary, he ain’t a pig!”

“Yeah,” Floyd joined in, “man these boys sure ain’t the law. So don’t sweat it man, I’ll vouch for them.”

Gary was frowning at Floyd. Slowly he turned to Rufus smiling. “You a pig boy?”

“Man, cut the bullshit, you know I ain’t.” Rufus was getting annoyed. “Look man all I want is some drugs, my money’s as good as anyone else’s!”

“Yea’, that what you think?”

It looked like Rufus was about to reply when Josh cut in. “Erm’, we’re looking for something called Blue?”

Gary looked at Baz’ and then the two of them started laughing. It was Baz’ the weasel who spoke. “Man that stuff is fucked up. I mean terminally fucked up. yeah we got it. Don’t know what the fuck it is, but we got it.”

“Yeah?” Rufus started with genuine interest. “So what is it?”

They all laughed between themselves.

“Fucked if we know,” said Baz’. “Took some though and I left the planet. I thought I was a rat or something. Felt my teeth ripping at a dead cat. Man that shit is fucked up.”

“Yeah, well fucked.” Floyd commented, “I was with the crazy fuck and he’s all ‘
man, I’m a fucking rat
!’ and shit. Me, I’m not touching that stuff!”

Rufus nodded uncertainly.
Floyd wouldn’t touch it
!? “So it’s acid right?”

There was a moment of near silence.

Gary shook his head with a knowing smile “No, it’s not acid, man.”

Rat boy piped up again. “Man, you got to understand
I was
a rat.
I was a fucking rat
!”

“It’s Blue man and that’s all it is,” concluded Gary.

The other guy reappeared holding a polyurethane wrapped block of yellow-looking resin.

“Get this Mind’, these boys want some Blue!”

Mindy smiled slightly. “
Yeah
?” was all he said. He threw the lump to Floyd who fumbled the catch. “Man you catch like a bitch,” Gary told him. “Okay Mind’ go get some Blue.”

Mindy, still in the doorway, sighed and then left the room again.

Gary was smiling at them now, which unsettled Josh more. It was him that Gary spoke to. “So what you want Blue for?”

Josh looked at Rufus. “Just want to get high, man,” he told him.

Gary laughed. “Yea’ well it’ll do that. We’re talking in orbit here. Get me?”

“I guess. So what exactly is it? What’s it do?”

Baz’, unable to contain himself, burst into a jumpy speech. “It fucks with ya’ head man, makes you see stuff, you know hallucinate but it’s like real man, I mean it seems real only whatever ya’ see don’t bother you none cause you imagine it from someone else’s mind, ya’ know what I mean? It’s like ya’ everywhere and nowhere man, ya’ like liquid man. Man it’s fucked wicked!” He finished and snapped his fingers again.

Josh was confused and was standing frowning. Rufus was suppressing a smirk.

Josh nodded. “So er, is it safe?
I mean you heard of any one being
,” he struggled to find words that accurately described the distorted mass of flesh and anguish in his mind’s eye. “
Harmed
, by it?”

Next to him Rufus shivered.

Gary’s mellowness seemed to have deserted him again and he was back on the offensive. “Look man, there ain’t nothing wrong with my product! you don’t want it, get it somewhere else!”