The Goose Fair’s literally magic, I thought, sitting there. It turns my weakness into power. It turns our village green into this underwater kingdom. ‘Ghost Town’ by the Specials bubbled up from the Magic Mountain, ‘Waterloo’ by Abba from the Flying Teacups, the Pink Panther music from the Chair-o-Plane. The Black Swan was so full its innards were spilling out. Farther off, villages floated on empty spaces, where wide fields were. Hanley Castle, Blackmore End, Brotheridge Green. Worcester was a galaxy squashed flat.
Best of all? I’d be pounding Wilcox into a pulp. Me. Via his dad. Why should I feel bad about that? After what Wilcox’s done to me. Neither of them’d ever know it. It’s the perfect revenge. Besides, Kelly exaggerates. No father’d beat up his own son that badly.
Footsteps came up the tower. I hastily stuffed my fortune into my pocket, repositioned myself on the scratchy mat and a wonderful thought slid into my head as I slid off the lip. Six hundred pounds could buy an Omega Seamaster.
Grand Master of the Helter Skelter, tonight I leant into the curves.
‘Hey,’ said Dean, as the crowds swept us by Fryer Tuck’s Chip Emporium, ‘that’s never yer dad, is it?’
Can’t be, I thought, but it was. Still in his Columbo overcoat and suit from the office. He had this ironed-in frown and I thought how he needed a very long holiday. Dad was eating chips with a wooden fork from a cone of newspaper. There’re dreams where the right people appear in wrong places and this was like that. Dad spotted us before I could work out why I wanted to dodge off. ‘Hullo, you two.’
‘Evening,’ Dean sounded nervous, ‘Mr Taylor.’ They haven’t met since the Mr Blake affair back in June.
‘Good to see you, Dean. How’s your arm?’
‘Yes, thanks.’ Dean wiggled his arm. ‘Right as rain.’
‘I’m very pleased to hear it.’
‘Hi, Dad.’ I don’t know why I was nervous too. ‘What’re you doing here?’
‘Didn’t know I needed your permission to come, Jason.’
‘No, no, I didn’t mean that…’
Dad tried to smile but he just looked pained. ‘I know, I know. What am I doing here?’ Dad forked a chip and blew on it. ‘Well, I was driving home. Saw all the hullaballoo.’ Dad’s voice was somehow different. Softer. ‘Couldn’t very well miss the Goose Fair, could I? I’ll have a little wander, I thought. Smelt these.’ Dad waggled his cone. ‘Y’know, after eleven years in Black Swan Green this is my first time at the Goose Fair. I kept meaning to bring you and Julia when you were little. But something important always got in the way. So important, I’ve got no idea what it was.’
‘Oh. Mum phoned, from Cheltenham. To tell me to tell you there’s a cold quiche in the fridge. I left you a note on the kitchen table.’
‘Very thoughtful of you. Thanks.’ Dad gazed inside his cone as if answers might be written there. ‘Hey, have you eaten? Dean? Fancy anything from Fryer Tuck’s Chip Emporium?’
‘I ate a sandwich and a black-cherry yogurt.’ I didn’t mention the toffee apple in case it counted as throwing money away. ‘Before I came.’
‘I had three o’ Fryer Tuck’s All-American Taste-Tastic Hot Dogs.’ Dean patted his stomach. ‘Recommend ’em highly, I do.’
‘Good,’ Dad squeezed his head like he had a headache, ‘good. Oh. Let me give you a little, uh…’ Dad slipped two new pound coins into my hand. (One hour before, two pounds’d’ve been loads. Now it’s less than 1/300th of my entire estate.)
‘Thanks, Dad. Would you like to…uh…?’
‘I’d love to, but I have paperwork coming out of my paperwork. Plans to plan. Hotties to put in beds. No rest for the wicked. Good seeing you, Dean. Jason’s got a telly in his room, doubtless he hasn’t shut up about it. Come over and watch it! No point it just…y’know…sitting there…’
‘Thanks very much, Mr Taylor.’
Dad dropped the cone into an oil drum full of rubbish and walked off.
Suppose, prompted Unborn Twin, you never see him again?
‘Dad!’
I ran up to him and looked him square in the eye. Suddenly, I’m nearly as tall as he is. ‘I want to be a forester when I’m older.’ I hadn’t meant to tell him. Dad always finds problems with plans.
‘A forester?’
‘Yeah,’ I nodded, ‘someone who looks after forests.’
‘Mmm.’ That was the closest he came to smiling. ‘There’s kind of a big clue in the word, Jason.’
‘Well. Yeah. One of those. In France. Maybe.’
‘You’ll have to study hard.’ Dad made a could do worse