STICK IN THE VINE

Chapter 7

They worked, juggled ideas, poring over models and shapes from morning till lunch. They didn't leave for lunch, pizzas rolled in, one hand on pencil, the other feeding the mouth. I checked Nora from time to time, nothing abysmal, doing office jobs and answering fan mails .

It is five,everyone leaves for the day, except Shawty and Brian. Nora is still upstairs.Racheal clangs into the room, her BWF handing on her left hand.

"I'm leaving."

"Okay."Shawty and Brain say together, not raising their heads, firmly fixed on the dishevelled prints all around the large round table. Scribbling.

"Make sure you get them all right?" Racheal says, perceiving herself a disturbance to what they're doing. She scowls a little.

"What?" Shawty and Brain say together, looking at each other sides ways, heads still bent on the work, smiling. Shawty arranges her hair and props the pencil between her teeth.

"Right, I will." Shawty says , with the pencil sticking out of her mouth. Racheal pivots and leaves.

Nora comes down around seven, her head leaning against the door jamb.

"Should I book you a hotel room?"

"Yes, thanks." Shawty says without looking up

"Anything else?" Nora says in a low tone.

"No, just send me the address and room number." Shawty says, shuffling the sheets before her, Brian peering at the sheets, a pencil to his ear, making different sketches with the other poised between his

fingers.

"Okay, goodnight, goodnight Brian, see you tomorrow. "

Brian kisses his fingers and sends it at Nora, bidding her bye. She rolls her eyes and leaves.

"Brian, you know Compatz isn't getting nothing from the BWF." She says, drawing lines and circles. It looks like the position where the tubes will lay in the bag.

"Yeah,yeah I know. Are we using this, on the BWF?" He says, pointing at the sketches.

"Wednesday's outcome is going to determine. If they're getting a dollar out of the case, , we won't use it on the BWF. They'd have claims to it . And we should give it a name"

" Yeah, it has to be about colours, I'll will think through," He checks his wrist watch.

"Uh, eight ! I got to run."

"Charlotte?" Shawty says, smiling at him. He's trying to hide a grin, stifling it, proud Shawty knows the name of his girlfriend.

"Yeah, got something tonight."

"Hmn, Alright. " Shawty says , smiling with a wink at him. He can't hid his upper tooth any longer, picks up his jacket on a stool beside him, tucking quickly into its hands.

"We'll continue tomorrow, and why hotel, your house?" He says, searching his pockets for his phone, a grin still hiding between his lips.

"Need space."Shawty says,

He looks confused, he is about to reply to what she said.

"Christ! Ten missed calls."

He bids Shawty bye, hobbling out.

He hasn't got to his SUV when Shawty's android beeps.

Nora: skyloft room 035.

She checks it, drops the phone and rests her head on her knotted hands, facing down at the papers on which her elbows are grinding on. She must be tired ,and thinking of how to get to the hotel. This I thought until I hear a plod on the paper. Then I hear another. Then drawing in of draught. I look down at her, her temples are reddening, eyes bleary and misty with tears. The soft chokes that escape her, fill the room.

I don't know which of these will make me cry the most;if I were in her shoes. That I have an on going case where I have been accused of cheating; when I didn't.

That I am sick and can't tell my mum because she's also sick and telling her make her sicker.

.That I can't tell the closest person I can call a friend, Nora, that I have a relapse and can't begin the treatment she's coaxing me to begin because I know it's not going to work, and the option I'm trying isn't legal.

That'd have been my major concern. The catrophil isn't a guarantee. It's a probability.I wouldn't cry to any of these; if they came one after the other. But this throng, will wreck just anyone.

Her sob fills the room, papers cramped under her elbows. There is nothing I can do. She won't hear me when I tell her it's okay. The best I can do right now is give her some privacy.

I sit on the roof top, my hands folded across my legs, head on my knees, thinking about the times I cried.

I had a really abusive father, coming home drunk seven days a week, the remaining days , he rested. Mum will stay up, I'd have slept off against her chest. When she heard his footsteps, She'd drop me in the room and renege to have a brawl with him.

I'd sneak up to the slightly open door and watch, watch them fire words at each other. Words heat up to fists. I'd scream out, charge towards him and sink my teeth into his calf so he'd get off my mum. He'd kick me hard so I'd lurch to the floor. With tears in her face, mum would push past him and place me under her embrace, yelling at him to get out. He'd stagger, hiccuping and slurring curses.

Shawty and I had similar experiences, mine just took a harder toll on me. Reason we left Birmingham , reason we're here.

I sight a bird perching on an antenna-an owl or bat, I get up , take a stroll on air towards it.

I stop midway, the wind coursing through me as I look down at the roaring road-tires screeching on the tarred road, horns blaring, head lamps gleaming, adding more iridescence to the illuminated city buildings.

I raise my head in the direction of the bird, and it's gone, ran a way from the filth of a sad ghost.I turn back to my brooding spot, and . Wait, what was in the file Nora took from Shawty's desk this morning ?

Nora sits upright against the bed, a pillow propped behind her, legs hidden in the duvet, files and papers doled all around her, peeping at them, while pounding away on the laptop on her laps.

T These are the files she'd stashed away from the office this morning.

She places the laptop aside and picks a white paper that is no different from bed the dishevelled ones in the bed, juxtaposes it , another , before finally keeping both papers in one hand, and continues the video she'd paused.

A black button- down shirt with gold studs , appears hanging neatly on a shirt rack.A boy of about of five years, walks from behind the camera approaching the shirt, picks it from the rack, takes out the nylon that has the design name-made to fit ,flips it shirt over his shoulders and tugs his hands into the sleeves. Like his body is draped in oil , the shirt slips into his arms, and encloses itself ,buttoning up his torso and wrists by itself. It's just his size, a perfect fit for him.

He turns the cuff of both hands and pulls the shirt from the collar, and it slips out just as easily as he wore it. He hangs it in the rack and walks out of the camera.

A man with sagging flesh in his arms and stomach, walks up to the shirt, his big hands flailing as he bulks up to the same shirt the smaller boy had worn. He flips it our, just like the boy, and the shirt stretches and fits him, buttoning him from top tp down.

She pauses the video, someone's knocking at the door, so she quickly arranges the papers and keeps them by the stool beside her. Is this what Nora wants to give Pons? I stare up at the ceiling, the electric bulb shines brightly into my eyes.

Hmm, what was i going to say? I scratch my hair, I have forgotten why I even stared up. Do I have a brain to help recall what it is? I don't know if I have one. You didn't also know until the doctor confirmed it. But you some still doubt if they do have one, because they haven't got to open up their heads.

We don't have doctors here performing operations on ghosts ro confirm my having one, so I'd assume I do have something that makes me think and reason.

The room door jerks open, Nora writhing and squirming against a man on buzz cut, kissing and breathing heavily against him. Her hands clamps on his head, him kissing her by the neck.

Until she pushes him against me, sorry , against the bed,ogling at him. I jolt up and look at him and , what? Dean Rodriguez. Nora, you're such a b***h. Dean Rodriguez from Dorod, worked for Pons, Nora, why are you doing this to Shawty?

" You didn't call, you were coming." She says, making her way through his shirt, and him against her top.

" Thought you'd like a surprise. " He says, with a crook smile.

" I love it." Nora says, kissing him .

Wish I could stay and see what they're up to, just got to f*****g excuse their tryst.