What Came Before He Shot Her

the flats in Trellick Tower. It would, she said, be easier than anything. She would help him do it.

            “Come on,” she told him. “’S where I live. I get you in.”

            A walk to the tower comprised no great distance. They trotted across Great Western Road and ducked into Meanwhile Gardens, with Toby dawdling along behind them. Hibah chatted away in her usual fashion as they took one of the serpentine paths. It was a fine spring Saturday— crisp but sunny—so the gardens were peopled with families and youths. Smaller children ran about the playground behind the chain-link fence of the drop- in centre, and older boys zipped about a graffi ti-decorated skate bowl that abutted it. They used skateboards, in- line skates, and bicycles for their activity, and they attracted Toby’s attention at once. His mouth opened into an O, his steps faltered, and he paused to watch, unmindful as always of the odd sight he presented: a little boy wearing too-large jeans, a life ring round his waist, and trainers that were closed with duct tape.

            The skate bowl comprised three levels ascending one of the hillocks, the easiest level being on the top and the most difficult and steepest on the bottom. These levels were accessed by means of concrete steps, and a wide lip around the entire bowl offered a waiting area for those who wished to use it. Toby climbed to this. He called out to Joel.

            “Lookit!” he cried. “I c’n do it, too, innit.”

            Toby’s presence among the riders and the spectators was greeted with “Wha’ the hell” and “G’t out ’f the way, stupid git!”

            Joel, flushing, hurried up the steps to grab his brother by the hand. He got him out without making eye contact with anyone, but he wasn’t able to carry off the rescue nonchalantly when it came to Hibah. She waited at the foot of the steps. When he dragged Toby, protesting, back to the path, she said, “He simple or summick? Why’s he got that tape round his shoes?” She made no mention of the life ring.

            “He’s jus’ differ’nt,” Joel told her.

            “Well, I c’n see that, innit,” was her reply. She gave Toby a curious look and then looked at Joel. “He gets bullied, I reckon.”

            “Sometimes.”

            “Makes you feel bad, I ’spect.”

            Joel looked away from her, blinked hard, and shrugged. She nodded thoughtfully. “Come on, then,” she said. “You too, Toby. You been up the tower? I show you the view. You c’n see all the way to the river, mon. You c’n see the Eye. It’s wicked, innit.”

            Inside Trellick Tower, a security guard kept a position within a windowed office. He nodded at Hibah as she made for the lift. She punched for the thirtieth floor and the views it offered, which were— despite the grimy condition of the windows—as “wicked” as she had promised. It was a spectacular aerie, reducing cars and lorries to matchbox vehicles, vast tracts of houses and estates to mere toys.

            “Lookit! Lookit!” Toby kept calling as he dashed from one window to the next.

            Hibah watched him and smiled. She laughed as well, but there was no meanness in it. She was unlike others, Joel concluded. He thought perhaps she could be a friend.

            She and Joel divided the remaining stack of Kendra’s massage advertisements. Odd floors, even floors, they had soon dispensed with them all. They met at the lifts on the ground when they had finished their job. They walked outside and Joel wondered how he could thank or pay Hibah for her help.

            While Toby moved off to gaze into the window of a newsagent—one of the group of shops that constituted the ground floor of the tower itself—Joel shuffled his feet. He felt hot and sticky in spite of the breeze coming up Golborne Road. He was trying to develop a way to tell Hibah he had no money to purchase a Coke, a bar of chocolate, a Cornetto, or anything else she might fancy as a sign of his gratitude when he heard her name called and turned to see a boy approaching them on a bicycle.

He came upon them quickly, pedalling from the direction of the Grand Union Canal to the north. He wore the signature gear of baggy jeans, tattered trainers, a hoodie, and a baseball cap. He was clearly a mixed-race boy like Joel, yellow skinned but otherwise featured like a black. The right side of his face was dragged down, as if pulled by an unseen force and glued into position permanently, giving him a sinister expression despite his adolescent spots.

            He braked, hopped off, and threw his bike to the ground. He came at them swiftly, and Joel felt his intestines squeeze pain into his groin. The rule of the street meant that he had to stand his ground when accosted or be marked forever as having the bottle for nothing but peeing his pants.

            Hibah said, “Neal! Wha’ you doin here? I thought you said you was goin to—”

            “Who dis? I been lookin for you. You say you headin f’r the bus garage an’ you ain’t dere. Wha’s dat  mean, den?”

            He sounded threatening, but Hibah wasn’t the sort of girl who responded well to threats. She said, “You checkin up  on me? I don’ like tha’ much.”

            “Why? You ’fraid to be checked up on?”

            With some surprise, it came to Joel that this was the boyfriend Hibah had mentioned. He was the one she talked to through the school gates during their lunch period, the one who didn’t attend school as he was meant to do but rather spent his days doing . . . Joel didn’t know, and he didn’t want to know. He merely wanted to make it clear to the boy that he had no interest in his property, which was what he obviously felt Hibah was.

            He said to Hibah, “Thanks for helpin wiv the handouts,” and he started to move towards Toby, who was bouncing rhythmically against the glass of the newsagent’s by means of his life ring. She said, “Hey. Hang on.” And then to Neal, “This is Joel, innit. He goes to school wiv me over Holland Park.” The tone of her voice made it clear enough: She wasn’t happy about making the introduction because she wasn’t happy about Neal’s attempt to claim ownership of her. She said to Joel, “This here is Neal.”

            Neal looked Joel over, disgust making his lips go thin and his nostrils flare. He said, not to Joel but to Hibah, “Why you wiv him in the tower, den? Saw you come out, di’n’t I.”

            “Oh, cos we makin babies, Neal,” Hibah said. “Wha’ else we be doin in the tower in the middle of th’ bloody day?”

            Joel thought she was mad to speak in this way. Neal took a step towards her and for a moment Joel thought he’d be put into the position of having to brawl with Neal in order to keep Hibah safe from his wrath. That was far down on the list of things he wished to do with his afternoon, and he was relieved when Hibah defused the situation by saying with a laugh, “He just twelve  years old, Neal. I showed him and his bruvver the view is all. Tha’s his bruvver over there.”

            Neal searched out Toby. “Dat? ” he said and then to Joel, “Wha’s he, a freak or summick?”

            Joel said nothing. Hibah said, “Shut up. Tha’s dead stupid, Neal. He’s a lit’le kid, innit.”

            Neal’s yellow face went red as he turned back to her. Something within him was going to need to be released, and Joel braced himself to be on the receiving end of it.

            Toby’s call supervened. “Joel, I got to poo. C’n we go home?”

            Neal muttered, “Shit.”

            Hibah said, “You got tha’ right, at least.” And then she laughed at her own joke, which made Joel smile although he tried to suppress it. Neal, who couldn’t track the humour, said to Joel, “Wha’ you laughin at, yellow arse?”

            Joel said, “Nuffink.” And then to Toby, “Come on, Tobe. We ain’t far. Le’s go.”

            Neal said, “Di’n’t say you could go anywheres, did I?” as Toby came to join them.

            Joel said, “Won’t answer f’r the smell ’f you mean us to stay.”

            Hibah laughed again. She shook Neal by the arm. “Come on,” she said. “We got time ’fore my mum wonders where I am. Le’s stop usin it up like this.”

            Neal came around at that reminder. He allowed himself to be led in the direction of the scent garden and its shrouded path. But he looked over his shoulder as he walked away. He was marking Joel. It would be for a future encounter of some sort. Joel knew it.

KENDRA’S INTENSITY OF purpose paid off sooner than she expected. The day after Joel set out with her massage advertisements, she received her first phone call. A man requested a sports massage as soon as possible.