What I Did Read Free Page A

boring. I don’t ask. Dad takes a newspaper from the rack and unfolds it on the countertop. There’s a picture of a huge gray ship with airplanes actually on it and some people waving. Dad sucks in some air over his teeth and shakes his head. The big words under the picture say STAND OFF something. And below the counter I can see them there in the tray but I do a squint instead of looking and I think about my two feet. If you ask you don’t get. Flamingos manage to do standing on just one leg for ages and birds have tiny brains. My brain is hugely developed. It is clever enough to know that the picture in the newspaper upsets Dad because of the new clear bombs. We have them but they’re not allowed them so Dad took me on a walk with nearly a million other people to tell the Government to do talking about the problem instead of a war. Some of the people on the walk had incredibly loud drums and a man did a wee in the street before we got to the bit with the talking. Megaphones are not huge phones. Later Dad bought me a Coke with two bits of lemon in it in the pub and was happy. — They can’t ignore us now, Son, he said with a four-beer grin. — Not after Blair’s mistake in 2003. Even this lot will have to back off now.
    The smell in the café is just about as lovely as it is when I put my nose in between Mum’s hair in the morning. Her head smells of lemons and chocolate. A basset hound has a more hugely developed sense of smell than I do and so it would like it in here more than I do but only blind dogs are allowed in. I am not blind. Out of my eyes even though they are squinting I can easily see Dad’s hand go to the tray and yes, go on, yes, yes, yes!
    He’s got one, hooray!
    He tosses it onto the glass shelf and tells the woman, — That, too, please.
    Oh yes, yes, yes.
    A massive chocolate coin!
    Maybe the whole day will be okay!
    I still don’t say anything though because I don’t want him to change his mind which is easily something he could do. He puts the paper under his arm and picks up the coffee and the lid and the massive chocolate coin which is winking because the lights in here are truly excellent small star-lights aimed at everything. Did you know that stars can tell you where to go? These star-lights are telling Dad to go to the other counter. He walks up to it right near me and he starts ripping sugar into his coffee cup and the chocolate coin is there on the glass sitting next to the lid and I think it’s just about as big as the lid and I lean a bit to one side to see if the coin is bigger or smaller than the lid but I have forgotten I am standing on one leg and I fall over. Not right over. I sort of do a half fall into Dad’s side. It’s okay. Much more massive falls would not hurt me. But sadly I fall into Dad and his arm jerks sideways and knocks over his coffee cup. It goes all over his plaster-cast hand and the paper and up his sleeve.
    â€” Jesus Christ!
    I take a few steps away. Dad stands up the cup and grabs for some napkins and starts dabbing and a noise comes out of him which isn’t a word or a shout exactly. It’s more like a growl inside a box. It makes me shut my own mouth so tight my teeth squeak.
    â€” Here. Let me help. The woman who makes the coffee has come out from behind her bit with some cloths. She allows Dad to run his fingers under the big sink. They are red like the cast which he is trying not to splash. Interestingly the sink doesn’t have a tap but a long silver trunk dangling down instead. Dad holds his fingers under the dribble of water for quite a long time, and while he’s doing it the woman makes a new cup of coffee and I stand very still indeed. She puts sugar in the cup for him this time and while she’s doing that she gives the big coin to me. I say, — Thank you, but I feel sick. He still hasn’t looked at me.
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    I do not eat the chocolate coin. I want to eat it and