Page 41 - The Woven Tale Press Vol. III #12

light. Even Mrs. Redihan succumbed. She made a very bold move going straight from her car- digan into a bikini, by-passing the bathing suit stage. She had a very good body. So good that I thought she might give Maria Cassidy a run for her money. Someone is going to need to hear about this, I told myself, and at once I headed for Heff’s house.
was already out of his car, the driver’s door was swung open and he was standing beside the bonnet of his car, his hands clasped behind his head. Oh-oh, I thought, he’s hit the dog. Sure enough Mrs. Redihan appeared moments later. Then Maria Cassidy rushed past us, out onto the road. I looked after her. Then I heard Mrs. Redihan’s dog barking. It was moving swiftly down the grassy bank towards the scene. Ci- ara Cassidy was right behind. I looked from Ciara back to Kevin Ford’s Honda. Then I heard Maria Cassidy’s scream, and I started to move closer.
When I called for him he was busy scrambling his cube. He had broken the fifty seconds barri- er and was talking about entering the national Rubik’s cube contest.
“I am going to make a name for myself,” he said, tossing his solved cube from one hand to the other. “Then women will be throwing them- selves at me.” He had also heard about Kevin Ford’s party and the guards. “It was Redihan who called them,” he said. “She really has it in for Ford.”
He was lying on the road, not moving, blood was seeping out from the underside of his head. Maria slumped down on the road and with both arms gripped her boy and half- raised him off the ground. She was crying now, and little Stephen’s blood was spreading across her brown skin, smearing her white bikini. Closer and closer to her she clutched her boy, as though doing so could somehow restore the precious little life. And the pain of that moment suddenly reached me. Waves of dizziness ar- rived, and I had to sit down on the curb before I fell. And I sat there and watched Mrs. Cassidy cradle her lifeless boy, gently rock him back and forth. And I wanted her to hold me that way. I wanted to be her bleeding boy.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” I said. “She’s in a bikini to- day. Redihan, I mean. She has a very good body. You should go take a look.”
On our way back towards Redihan’s house, we passed Kevin Ford behind the steering wheel of his Honda, revving like he never had before. He was fuming. Mrs. Cassidy was on her way back inside her house. I could tell she had just told Kevin Ford to take his Honda elsewhere. Heff and I walked on as he skidded away. A couple of seconds later we heard Kevin’s car screech to a halt. When we turned around he
32