What We Hide (24 page)

“I meant,” says Percy. “I meant, after that, with
me
.”

“Right.” Mick swings his boots down from the railing and looks at him. “I did try, I swear. Only I was gone a lot. Alia was being a brain at law school, her parents were the
gorgons at the gate. Not m-m-much chance. No chance, actually. It was always no, no, no. There was no
after that
. With you.”

Percy wants to go along with the idea that in nine years there has been no single hour of time when he hasn’t been hidden too far out of view for a paternal visit. But that’s shite.

“How about your m-m-mum? Is she doing all right?” Mick’s voice is quiet, as if Alia is nearby on the hotel terrace. “Is she, I dunno, happy? At least some of the time?”

Percy’s throat takes a moment to work. He’s wishing his father had fought for him, that his parents had fought for each other.

“She’s got Cal now,” he says.

“And he’s a good bloke?”

Percy nods. “If you weren’t looking for a school,” he says. “If this film weren’t happening …” He stops. Why ask a question when the answer will either be a lie or make you wince?

Mick slips off his left boot, yanks up a floppy sock, and pulls the boot on again.

“What we’ve got here,” he says, “is the classic setup for a scene.” He stands up and leans on the railing, gazing down at the river. “See why? We’ve got two characters, each wanting something very badly, but that
something
 …” Mick rubs his head. “For each of them, that
something
is interfering with the other person’s something. Do you see?”

Percy sees.

“I like to tell the actors secrets,” says Mick, “just before
the camera rolls. I tell the girl that she has to avoid getting kissed during the scene. Whatever it takes. And I tell the m-m-man, ‘Do not leave the room until you’ve kissed the girl.’ ”

So, am I the girl or the man?
Percy wonders. He sure as shite doesn’t feel like a man. But it’s Mick who seems to be stepping around the crucial moment. Not a kiss, obviously. But a connection.

“So, here,” says Mick. “We’ve got an arsehole of a dad, an accidental dad, preoccupied with work. In the room with …”

With who? Percy almost claps his hands over his ears but manages to shove them under his knees instead. Who’s the other character?

“Bloody hell,” says Mick.

“The other one is a boy,” says Percy.

“Who wants a dad,” says Mick.

All the imaginary conversations he’d had with his father during all the years—utter fiction. The wise words, the funny anecdotes, the manly tips that Percy had invented for Mick to pass along—complete made-up crap.

But
. Percy waves at the van as it bounces away down the Illington drive. He realizes that whatever you’d call it—invention, wishful thinking, or brilliant observation—everything that Mick had said inside Percy’s head in all those conversations … well, it was Percy who wrote those lines, right? All that knowledge was already there, just waiting to be summoned.

“So, Chicken Boner, why aren’t you Percy Malloy?” Adrian asks, after Lights-Out.

“Just not,” says Percy, after a pause. No better answer has occurred to him.

Kipling dorm is quiet for a long time, maybe fifteen minutes, before Adrian speaks again.

“G’night, m-m-mate.”

revenge

A FILM SCRIPT
by PERCY GRAHAM

INT. KIPLING DORMITORY-EARLY MORNING

Cold light through uncurtained windows. Grey blankets on two rows of single cots cover boys waking up. A clanging bell is heard from downstairs, insistent. General moaning but no movement for a few moments. ADRIAN is the first to rise, pulling blanket off bed and wrapping himself before going to large communal dresser. His drawer is in the middle. HENRY and LUKE get up and stumble past, to loo, getting dressed, just part of the background
.

ADRIAN

Colder than a witch’s tit.

PERCY

(only eyes and nose can be seen above blanket, surrounded by his wild dreadlocks)

If the coal miners are toiling away in the depths of the earth to absolutely no effect on the Kipling dorm, why do they bother?

ADRIAN

Trust the Chicken Boner to think of the miners. Bloody typical.

NICO

(rolling over, half emerging)

I’d rather be the janitor in a morgue than be a miner.

(He lies back down and pulls a pillow half over his head.)

I’d rather unblock sewage pipes in August than be a miner.

ADRIAN

(dragging on jeans)

I’d rather be mashing up sheep pluck on the line in a haggis factory than be a miner.

PERCY

I’d rather be a—

NO-FACE

My uncle is a miner. So are my two cousins, Terry and Phil. So you can all shut your stinking yaps.

NO-FACE flings back his duvet and skids across the floor in his thick woolly socks
.

He EXITS to loo
.

BEAT while boys absorb info. HENRY and LUKE EXIT also, heading off to breakfast
.

NICO

Should we have known that?

(He swings his feet to the cold floor and snatches them back.)

ADRIAN

Was he wearing purple boxers?

PERCY

I feel like crap. Saying that about miners.

ADRIAN

You look like crap. And is it even true? Why is he at this school if his family’s down the pit?

NICO

Lots of local kids at this school.

Chance for a leg up in the world.

PERCY

Maybe he’s got a clever-boy scholarship.

ADRIAN

This is No-Face we’re talking about!

NICO

And why does he have that name anyway?

He’s got a face.

ADRIAN

(hopping foot to foot because floor is as cold as an ice rink)

Yeah, but—

(He stops as No-Face comes back in.)

NO-FACE

Ice in the sink.

ADRIAN

Bloody miners. Sod the lot of them.

NO-FACE goes still. Easy for him, he’s got socks on
.

NICO drops his pillow to the floor and shuffles it under his feet and over to the dresser
.

NO-FACE

What did you just say?

(He curls up his fists.)

ADRIAN

Oh Christ.

(yanking on socks)

I was
joooking
, mate!

NO-FACE

It’s not a bleedin’ joke.

ADRIAN

Of course not. Nothing funny about it.

Do you see me laughing?

NO-FACE

Are you going to stop?

ADRIAN

Oh Christ. You’re treading on my nerves, No-Face.

NO-FACE

Don’t call me that.

BEAT. It is momentarily clear that despite having roomed with him for a couple of years, ADRIAN has no clue to NO-FACE’s real name
.

ADRIAN

Would you prefer No-Prick?

NICO and PERCY jump out of the path as NO-FACE launches himself at ADRIAN, arms outstretched, hands aiming for the neck. ADRIAN stumbles against the dresser, getting stabbed in the back by a drawer knob at the same time that NO-FACE slams into his chest
.

ADRIAN

What the fu—

He ploughs NO-FACE with his open palm-wham-catching chin and nose together
.

NICO AND PERCY

Uhhhhhh!

Blood spurts from NO-FACE as he falls sideways onto a bed. KIRBY, the Chemistry teacher and dorm monitor, comes through the door
.

KIRBY

Adrian!

ADRIAN

Hey, it wasn’t me!

KIRBY

I just watched you!

He leans over NO-FACE, whose nose is bubbling red snotty stuff
.

ADRIAN

No, really! Back me up, lads!

NICO

First hit, No-Face.

PERCY

First hit, maybe, but … I mean … to be fair, Adrian did say—

KIRBY

Don’t stand about yammering! The boy is bleeding all over the bed! Percy, soak a towel in cold water. Nico, go fetch Matron. And you—

(He jabs a finger at ADRIAN.)

Go straight down to Richard’s office and explain what kind of a peace-loving Quaker you are.

PERCY, holding a small towel, tries to slip around ADRIAN toward loo. ADRIAN, just outside the doorway of the dorm, blocks PERCY’s path with a threatening smirk on his face. PERCY pauses in resignation, no point pushing past
.

ADRIAN

(whispering)

Was “back me up” too difficult a concept, Chicken Boner? You just qualified for some serious attention.

PERCY

That’ll have to wait. I’m getting first aid for your current victim.

KIRBY

Percy, cold water. Now.

PERCY

Could you move, please?

ADRIAN

Ooh, got some manly nuts when there’s a teacher in the room, eh?

PERCY

Piss off.

ADRIAN

Did I hear you right?

(He puts a hand across PERCY’s throat, pushing him to the wall, silent but scary.)

PERCY

Gags, blinks, blinks again … and morphs into an avenging demon, muscles popping and dreads aquiver.… His knee jerks up to catch ADRIAN-wham-in the crotch. As ADRIAN leans over in instant agony, PERCY head-bumps him, grabs both his hands in one of his own (the one not holding the towel). As quick as Spider-Man, he binds ADRIAN’s wrists. He lifts him with a slow, spinning move like that of a discus thrower, and hurls him over the banister. ADRIAN falls nearly three floors to the school lobby, but the rope holding his wrists snaps him up short, to dangle just above the floor. The dangling figure continues to spin slowly. A close-up shows spittle and rolling eyeballs. There’s a weak, gurgling moan
.

PERCY flicks his towel to brush himself off and heads to the loo
.

Sound of exultant applause as kids emerge from all dormitories onto the landing to cheer their hero
.

PERCY nods and smiles modestly as he returns to Kipling with cold-water towel
.

The End

robbie

Lanny lost the first baby during the summer, but now she was knocked up again. If she liked my brother enough to have it off with him more than once, she deserved him, being a bit of a twittering dolly bird. But she came around one night when Simon was at work, telling me a wedding wasn’t a wedding without the groom’s brother and wouldn’t I pretty please be there? She was a fence mender, she said. She knew Simon could be grumpy, but didn’t I wish them well?