Black Chalk

We put our money in the slots. The young man’s friend starts to chant. Skee ball, skee ball, skee ball.

Nine balls later – nine awful, drunken arm jerks later – I look up at the score.

I have ninety points. My opponent has trounced me. My opponent has five hundred points.

Five hundred.

Moments later I am on the pool table. I am calling out her name, drunken declarations of love.

*

Yes yes yes. I accept your terms, Dee. Anything and everything. Unequivocally and overwhelmingly yes.

XL

XL(i) Now they were five.

Monday lunchtime and the bar was empty but even so they all leaned in, elbows on table, so as not to be heard.

‘You mean he followed you?’

‘No,’ said Jolyon, ‘he didn’t follow me. You couldn’t call it following. He walked beside me as if we’re still friends.’

‘Mark still is your friend,’ said Emilia.

Jolyon didn’t acknowledge her words. ‘I went to a lecture this morning,’ he said, ‘and he sat right next to me.’

‘Mark got up early to go to a lecture?’ said Jack. ‘Then he’s definitely lost it.’

‘What did you do?’ said Chad.

‘Nothing,’ said Jolyon. ‘I didn’t acknowledge him but I didn’t ignore him. I don’t want him to think he can affect me. He can’t affect me.’

‘And what happened when you left the lecture?’ said Emilia

‘The same as before, walking beside me. I went into a shop for cigarettes and he waited outside like a dog tied to a lamp post. When I came out, he picked up where he left off, at my shoulder as if we might start discussing the finer points of the eggshell skull rule or Lord Denning’s greatest judgments.’

‘But he never said a word?’ said Dee.

‘Not until I went back to my room. And he didn’t follow me up, he just held the door for me. And then he said, as if the thought had only just occurred to him, oh, and Jolyon, don’t forget about that thousand pounds you owe me.’

‘What did you do?’ said Dee.

‘I told him very politely that it wasn’t going to happen.’

‘And what did he say?’

‘He said, see you tomorrow.’

‘That’s so creepy,’ said Chad.

‘But that was the odd thing,’ said Jolyon. ‘It wasn’t creepy. I mean it was, it was creepy as hell. But only because he seemed so unthreatening. He acted just as if yesterday never happened.’

‘Where is he now then?’ said Jack. ‘He didn’t follow you to lunch.’

‘But it’s not the rest of you he’s after,’ said Jolyon, ‘it’s me.’ He lifted his beer to his lips, drank and leaned back.

Chad looked at his friend and admired him once more. Jolyon looked incredibly dignified, regal almost, proud of being the chosen one.

Emilia raised her hand as if she were sitting in class. ‘I have a question for everyone,’ she said. ‘What do we all think about Middle? The way he said please yesterday, it gave me the creeps.’

‘Well, that was the point,’ said Chad. ‘He was acting, he worked out the quickest way to get Mark to shut up and he did a good job.’

‘It’s not like Middle could have outright scared him into submission,’ said Jack. ‘Not like that troll Shortest, he’s got some psychopathic Ewok thing going on.’

‘Really?’ said Dee. ‘I always thought of Tallest as the creepiest. For some reason he makes me think of undertakers, quiet and pale and you wonder what’s really going on beneath all that surface dignity.’

‘Don’t worry, Emilia,’ said Jolyon, ‘they’re all harmless enough.’

‘So, Chad,’ said Jack, ‘did you meet up with the liaison officer?’

‘I did,’ said Chad, ‘it’s all arranged, just waiting on a couple of OKs. Friday at two.’

‘That was fast.’

‘The power of the almighty dollar.’

‘So you’re not going to pull a Mark on us then?’ said Jack.

Emilia sighed and placed her hands in her lap one atop the other. She looked like a priest’s wife left alone in a brothel, her husband busy absolving upstairs.

‘I can do it,’ said Chad.

‘Sure you can do it,’ said Jack. ‘Anyone could literally do it. But it’s not just about doing it, is it?’

Dee took her pipe from her mouth and used its end to prod at Chad like an accusing finger. ‘Forgive me for saying this, Chad,’ she said, ‘but you’re not the most self-confident person I’ve ever met. I mean, Jack could do it and probably feel nothing. Yes, you can do it but how are you going to feel the next day?’

Chad leaned back and stretched his arms along the top of the bench. ‘Well, I guess I’m about to find out what I’m made of,’ he said.

XL(ii) After lunch Chad went for a walk to think everything through. Past the old city wall and its vines, the ivy-clad towers. Past the spires and domes and cool stone porches.