The Door That Led to Where Read Free Page A

bleeding hotel.’
    He had thought about asking her for a loan for a suit, but he knew what she would say: ‘Do you think I’m made of money?’ So he hadn’t asked and he had a job and no suit.
    It was a relief to escape the flat, to head off to the skate park. He hoped to find his two best friends, Slim and Leon. He could rely on them being there as long as the weather was fine, but today he found Slim alone, attached as always to his one and only possession, his skateboard.
    Slim, with dark hair and brown eyes, was taller than AJ, more grown into himself.
    â€˜Where’ve you been?’ he asked.
    â€˜I had a job interview.’
    â€˜A job interview? That’s impressive, bro,’ said Slim. ‘Where at?’
    â€˜A law firm,’ said AJ. ‘Called Baldwin Groat.’
    â€˜You’re joking, man. You mean a cube farm? Did you get the job?’
    â€˜Yeah, on trial. Office boy. The place doesn’t exactly have cubicles, more huge rooms lined with books.’
    â€˜Shit. What did you do to make that little miracle happen?’
    â€˜Nothing. Mum wrote a letter.’
    â€˜That’s heavy. What did she write? That she would do them over unless they gave you employment?’
    â€˜Something like that,’ said AJ, and changed the subject. ‘Why is Leon not here?’
    â€˜Wait a mo,’ said Slim. ‘How did your mum know about a toff place like that?’
    â€˜She had a job cleaning for them before I was born.’
    â€˜Hold that picture, bro: so she knows these dudes and after nearly seventeen years she’s written to them and they’ve come over all fairy godmother and given you a job. Now why doesn’t that add up in my book?’
    AJ didn’t want to think about the whys of it or how Mr Groat knew what his initials stood for.
    â€˜Leon,’ he said. ‘Where is he?’
    â€˜As my rap of the “Electronic Jungle of Despair” goes, “Life is shitty, times is gritty, Leon’s been taken back into care.”’
    â€˜What happened?’
    â€˜His mum, being dosed up higher than the Shard, thought she was a white swan from a kiddies’ book and flew off the balcony of their flat. Smack in her head, smack onto the pavement, smack into intensive care.’
    â€˜When?’ asked AJ.
    â€˜This morning.’
    AJ sat down next to Slim. There wasn’t much to say. It was an old, scratched record they’d heard many times before. But the news of Leon’s return into care took the shine off AJ’s day.
    Leon’s mum was a drug addict. She loved her sons but couldn’t look after them. The first time Leon and his little brother were taken into care was when their social worker discovered them eating cat food off the floor while the cat was on the table eating their breakfast. Leon’s mum said she couldn’t see the difference. The truth was she couldn’t see anything. Leon’s brother, Joel, was only eighteen months old then.
    Their gran, a religious lady high up in the Church of the Celestial Coming, had taken Joel in. She said that Joel was definitely the child of her son, Amos, and still had the chance of being saved. But as far as Leon was concerned, she said he could never be Amos’s son, being too pale in the skin. Hell’s Highway already had Leon’s name printed on the advertising hoardings. He was three when she’d had this helpful revelation and because of it Leon had been in and out of care for the last thirteen years. After a lot of praying for guidance Gran had taken Joel home to Jamaica leaving Leon battling to help his mum with her demons.
    â€˜Where have they taken Leon this time?’ asked AJ.
    â€˜Back to the foster family in Muswell Hill. But they won’t want him for long, as he’s nearly seventeen.’
    As if reading AJ’s thoughts, Slim said, ‘Nothing changes. We’re all up against the white wall of