the hell were you brought up? Get that teacup off the bloody wood. You want to polish the furniture in your spare time since you've got so much of it? What're you thinking about anyway? Or are you out of practice in that department?
Fu fixed His attention on the television. He could wait him out. He knew what came next because some things were written: bran in warm milk, soaked into slop, a glass of fibre dissolved in juice, those prayers sent heavenward for a quick movement of the bowels so he wouldn't have to experience said movement in a public place like the gents' loo at school. And if movement was achieved, a triumphant notation on the calendar hanging inside the cupboard door. R for regular when regular was the last thing a maggot could ever hope to be.
But something was different this morning. Fu could feel him charging, a horseman directly from Revelations.
Saying, Where are they? What've you bloody done...I told you to keep your filthy mitts off. Didn't I say? Didn't I expressly tell you? You turn off that God damn telly and look at me when I'm talking to you.
He wanted the remote. Fu would not hand it over.
You defying me, Charlene? You defying me?
What if He was? Fu thought. What if she was? What if they were? What if He did? What if everyone did? Amazingly, He found Himself unafraid, wary nevermore, utterly at ease, even a bit amused. The maggot's power was nothing in comparison with His own now that He'd finally taken it up, and the beauty of it all was that the maggot had no idea who or what he was dealing with. Fu felt such a presence in His veins, such capability, such sureness and knowledge. He rose from the chair, and He allowed His body to come into its fullness, undisguised. He said, "I wanted and I took. That's what it was."
Then nothing. Nothing. It was as if the maggot read Fu's power. He sensed a sea change.
"Good on you," Fu said to him. Self-preservation tended to gain you very high marks round here.
But the maggot couldn't leave it completely alone, not when his way of simply being had long been so thoroughly ingrained in him. So he watched Fu's every move and he waited, eager for an indication that it was safe to speak.
Fu went to put the kettle on to boil. Perhaps, He thought, He would have a whole bloody pot of tea. And He would choose a blend possessing something of a vaguely celebratory air. He studied the boxes of tea in the cupboard. Imperial gunpowder? He thought. Too weak, although He had to admit that He found the name attractive. He settled on one that had been His mother's favourite: Lady Grey, with its hint of fruit.
And then, What are you doing up? Before nine a.m. the first time in...how long? When're you planning to do something useful? That's what I really want to know.
Fu looked up from spooning Lady Grey into the teapot. "No one knows," he said. "Not you, not anyone."
That's what you think? Taking a slash in public, but no one knows? Your name on the charge sheet three or four times and that's fine, isn't it? Who's going to care? And don't you touch Charlene! Anyone touches the stupid cow, it's going to be me.
Now they were in familiar territory: the open-palm slapping so as not to leave a mark, the grip on the hair and the head jerked back, the shove into the wall and the kick in places where it wouldn't show.
Punctured lung, Fu thought. Was that what it was? Saying, You watch, boy. You learn from this.
Fu felt the urge come upon Him, then. His fingertips tingled and the muscles throughout His body made Him ready to strike. But no. The time was not right. When the day came, though, it was going to be such a pleasure to lower the pudgy, soft, never-known-hard-work hands to the pan, to its burning surface. His face hovering above the maggot and His lips hurling the curses this time...
He would beg like all the others. But Fu would not relent. He would take him to the edge, like the others. And just like the others, He would hurl him over.
See my power. Know my name.
DETECTIVE CONSTABLE Barbara Havers made her way over to Borough police station and found it on the High Street, which in this part of town and at this