Mindf**k Read Free Page B

smiling. ‘It’s going to be an insane party, Burns.’
    Then I noticed Sky’s smile disappearing in an instant. It was as if his face went numb. Shit, no, not here. Not now. His eyes turned inwards. His body started shaking. The beer bottle slipped from his hand and rolled across the floor.
    ‘Kerbs!’ I shouted over the noise of the people and the music. ‘Fuck, Kerbs!’
    The people crowded around us. Kerbs broke through them.
    Sky lay on the floor. His body shook. I held him down. Kerbs grabbed his head, opened up his mouth. Pressed down his tongue.
    ‘Is he alright? Should we get a doctor?’ someone asked.
    ‘No, he’ll be fine,’ said Kerbs.
    ‘Sky, can you hear me?’ I asked.
    He didn’t answer me.
    His shuddering body calmed down.
    Like spent waves subsiding after crashing on the beach.
    His eyes slowly opened up. I got frightened when I saw the terror filled look in his eyes. And I knew it had happened again.
    It wasn’t just an attack. There was something else.
    We helped Sky straighten up. He rubbed his face. His neck. He still looked a bit dazed, a bit off balance. I wrapped my arm around his neck to keep him on his feet. He touched the back of his trousers. They were wet. From the beer on the floor, I hoped.
    The nosy crowd moved away, talking, turning around a few times to catch a final glimpse of us.
    ‘Let’s just fuck off,’ said Sky. We passed through the people. Sky opened and closed his mouth, as if tasting something bitter on his tongue. Then he said: ‘Shit, Kerbs, when did you last wash your hands?’

TRACK 06
The things that Sky says sometimes frighten people
    It was Tuesday. Kerbs, Sky and I were in Mimosa Mall. Kerbs only came along to check out the girls’ tits. Bloem has some lovely girls. And the lovely girls have even lovelier tits. Kerbs had a keen eye for things like these and he wasn’t ashamed of expressing his admiration.
    ‘You’re going to smack right into a trashcan or something if you keep staring around like that,’ Sky said to Kerbs.
    ‘Yeah, or tumble over a railing somewhere,’ I added.
    Sky laughed. He also knew that anythingwas possible with Kerbs.
    ‘Every sport has its injuries,’ Kerbs just grinned.
    We strolled around for a while on the ground floor of the mall and then took the escalator to the first floor, past Exclusive Books, straight to Musica with its industrial look. Immediately, someone approached us, a black girl.
    ‘Can I help you with anything?’
    ‘Yes, a blowjob,’ Kerbs tuned her. She quickly marched off, furious.
    ‘Fuck, Kerbs, why do you say things like that?’ I asked.
    Kerbs shrugged. ‘What does she know about Green Day, anyway?’
    I noticed her keeping an eye on us. I was used to that. Places like these always have their scallywag scouts. Come to think of it, everywhere you go, there are peoplewatching you – some of them without you even knowing it. Like in a movie theatre. You think you’re sitting there in the dark and nobody can see you, but you are wrong, my bru. They keep their eyes on you even in the dark. Check it out next time you’re at the movies. There’s always a little red light shining, up on the ceiling. It’s a camera, and it’s watching you munching your popcorn and gulping down your Coke. Every single move you make …
    Sky found the Green Day CD which he came for. 21st Century Breakdown.
    ‘Are you going to listen to it first?’
    ‘Of course. It’s too bloody expensive to just buy it. Did you notice, Burns? When the rand was so weak a few years ago, the price of CDs skyrocketed. And when the rand got stronger, the prices stayed the same. Somewhere there’s a fucker pocketing our money. And they think we don’t know it.”
    ‘Shit, Sky, you should just download the stuff from the internet, man. Much cheaper,’I said while flipping through a stack of Pink Floyd CDs. (Classic stuff.)
    ‘No, hell, I want the originals.’ Sky made his way to the counter. ‘Can I listen to this?’ He gave