Castles Made of Sand Read Free Page A

planning), Fiorinda had been sixteen. Sage’d been playing the big brother, waiting for her to grow up, and it’d been Ax who’d made the crucial move. It had only gradually dawned on him, through the terrifying cascade of disaster that followed, that he’d cut Sage out… That Aoxomoxoa the sex-machine, the laddish fool you’d think couldn’t deceive a fly, was secretly, passionately, permanently in love.
    The problem was on the agenda, the unspoken agenda of the drug they’d taken, and both of them knew it: but the words wouldn’t come. They faced each other in silence, the skull’s frontal bones glimmering with a faint silver light. The look moved into a kiss, hard to say who initiated that, and then, irresistibly, into plenty more than a single kiss. Ax wanted it all, then he wanted out, and caught an alarming glimpse of what it might be like if he ever really had to fight this supple giant. They flung apart from each other, breathing hard—
    ‘ Don’t ever do that to me ’, snarled Ax.
    ‘Do what?’ demanded Sage, on his back with an arm flung across his face. ‘Who? Did what to whom? You absolutely sure that wasn’t your idea?’
    Ax chucked pebbles at the sea. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘sorry. Two sides to it.’
    He heaved a sigh, moved over and shifted his friend’s arm. The mask looked up, doing a heartrending line in alone, conflicted and confused . ‘Hey, stop that. Not the whipped puppy dog. Knock it off, you’re scaring me.’
    ‘How do I know what’s the right face to make? Me, oversized blundering oaf.’
    Ax lay down, settling his head on Sage’s shoulder. ‘If you are so lost in the complex world of grown-up human emotions, maestro, who made the mask?’
    ‘Doesn’t mean anything. A lot of that emotional mapping is join the dots, mechanical. Wood ants could build an avatar mask.’
    ‘ Wood ants . Tuh.’
    The sea swooshed in and out. They stayed like that for a while, very happy.
    Ax sat up and fetched out his smokes tin.
    The Brighton Pier was dark. The cocktail party on the restored West Pier, the gig they were meant to attend, was in full swing, all that lacy, artfully restored old ironwork lit like the Titanic on ghost-crab legs; like a beached starship. Tinsel-faint wafts of music escaped from the sound-proofing. ‘Now listen,’ said Ax, lighting the spliff and handing it, ‘we’re going to Allie’s party, and I put it to you that we walk in there tonight, the two coolest dudes in the known universe .’
    ‘I thought you didn’t like being famous.’
    ‘Usually I don’t. But this isn’t celebrity culture, this is undeniable fact. Far as our island nation goes, right now, we fucking are the two coolest dudes in the known universe. Just for once, why don’t we get some fun out of it?’
    ‘An’ no sarcastic rock and roll brat around, to make her deflating little remarks. Yeah, let’s go for it. Fuck, what is in this? It’s blowing my head off.’
    ‘That’s because you’ve hardly eaten a thing all day. I’ve been watching you. It’s only Bristol skunk, and you couldn’t leave the street lighting alone, could you? You cannot drain your cell metabolism like that, and then not eat—’
    ‘What would you know, fogey ? I like draining my cell metabolism, it gives the world a nice edge, also like getting my head blown off—’
    ‘Sage, pull yourself together. Coolest dudes. Can you do it? No falling over things?’
    ‘Coolest dudes. I will not to fall over anything. But now I need a shit.’
    ‘Trust you. Well, you can’t do it here. You can’t shit on a public beach.’
    ‘Why not? This would be a Rivermead GM turd, with unzip bugs. Be gone in an hour. Okay, okay, if it worries you. Ax, how you got to be the leader of the outlaw unwashed I will never know. I’ll be dead suburban, I’ll go and shit in the water. I hope a terrible wave doesn’t come and drown me.’
    ‘Then I’d be sorry—’ Ax stopped laughing. He could see this wave. ‘Hey, be