For The Sake Of His Child

Joey nodded like a teacher telling his class that the time had come, and beckoned them to follow him.

And there it was, wrasse, with a notice beside the tank, confirming everything Joey had said. Carson was speechless. Joey regarded his father with his head on one side as if to say, Believe me, huh?

Carson’s answer delighted Gina. He extended his hand. Joey placed his small child’s hand in it, and they shook, man to man.

There wasn’t time to see everything, but Joey was ready to leave, on the promise of a return visit next day. They paused in the bookshop long enough for Carson to load him up with enough literature to keep him happy for the evening. He also purchased a basic introduction to the subject for himself-a survival mechanism, he explained to Gina.

They had a merry evening. Joey was allowed to stay up late because it was a holiday, and by the time he was ready for bed the other two were feeling glad of an early night.

Another visit to the aquarium was the first thing on the next day’s agenda. Gina and Carson might feel that they’d seen everything, but the expert had barely started.

But at last he took pity on them, seeming to understand that not everyone could be riveted by a mollusc the size of a penny. They headed downstairs to where they could walk through the aquarium’s main attraction, a huge perspex tunnel through the water. Sharks swam beside them, flatfish drifted overhead, and lobsters scuttled beneath their feet. Joey pointed out what neither of them had noticed-a conger eel peering from its hiding place, motionless, cold-eyed and evil.

Over burgers and orange squash it was agreed that the adults needed a little light relief, and they headed for the funfair. Here Joey stopped being a professor and became an excited little boy, darting hither and thither, wanting to try everything at once. A go on the rifle range showed that he had a keen, straight eye. Not to be outdone, Carson also took a turn, but managed only one bull’s-eye to Joey’s three.

A contest ensued, at the end of which Gina was laden down with furry toys and plastic jewellery, and her two escorts were thoroughly pleased with themselves and each other.

At last Joey stopped in front of the Ghost Train. Skulls leered, skeletons dangled, hideous creatures darted and peeped. It was the most effectively horrible Ghost Train that Gina had ever seen. Joey gave a sigh of pure pleasure.

‘This?’ Gina asked him.

He nodded vigorously.

‘You’re sure?’ she said faintly.

He nodded again.

‘I don’t think we have a choice,’ Carson said.

He paid three entrance fees and they squeezed into a car, Joey on the inside, Gina in the middle and Carson on the outside.

‘I don’t like these things,’ Gina said. ‘I never did.’

‘But you have both of us to look after you,’ Carson pointed out mischievously.

A hideous wailing drowned him out. With a jolt the cars began to move, pushing through the black curtains ahead of them. Then they were inside, swerving violently from side to side, the ghastly moaning louder, sounding as though it was everywhere.

Neon skeletons appeared and vanished. Gruesome figures loomed and leered. Gina glanced down at Joey, but she needn’t have worried. The flickering lights showed that he was relishing every moment.

She wished she could say the same of herself. Of course her rational mind knew that it was only paint, cardboard and a few special effects. But her irrational side flinched from the things that swooped out of the darkness without warning. Something flapped in her face, making her jump and squeal.

‘Are you all right?’ Carson asked, slipping a protective arm about her.

She had to make him repeat it, as the noise was playing havoc with her implant. Understanding, he said it clearly in a brief interlude of bilious green light, and this time she managed to follow his lips.

‘Of course I’m all right,’ she said, trying for dignity. But the effect was ruined by a huge grinning skull that appeared in front of them, getting bigger and bigger-

Then the car charged right through it and the darkness enfolded them again.

‘Yuck!’

Carson’s arm tightened. At the same time she felt his fingers gently on her chin, urging her head to look at him.

‘As long as you don’t turn into a skull,’ she pleaded.

Crimson light came and went, casting his eyes into shadows and giving him a satanic look. It crossed her mind that if she were skilled in the traditional female arts she might use this situation. She could do a little swooning and screaming, then cast herself on Carson’s manly chest for protection, and the rest would follow. Maybe Victorian maidens knew a thing or two after all.

But she’d been reared in a different school, and for the life of her she couldn’t have put on such a performance.

Then help came in the form of a freezing skeleton that swooped down from the roof and caressed her face, before vanishing. Startled, Gina gave a perfectly genuine shriek and the next moment her face was buried against Carson’s shoulder. She could feel him shaking with laughter.

‘Beast!’ she said in a muffled voice.

Through a break in the moaning she heard him say, ‘It’s all right, it’s gone now.’

‘I’m not looking up. That thing was disgusting!’

‘It’s safe, I promise you.’

Tentatively she raised her eyes and found that they were in total darkness. The hellish moans had resumed, but there were no more flashing lights. She waited, ready to duck again if anything touched her face.

But when she felt the first soft brush against her lips she didn’t duck. Nor did she want to turn away from what might be happening. Rather, she wanted to stay and make sure that it really was happening.

It was the lightest of feather touches, a soft caress of lips on lips, now here, now gone. Perhaps real, perhaps imagined. In the darkness she couldn’t be sure.

But then it came again, a little firmer this time, a lot more determined. Warm lips moving over hers, asking silent questions, receiving silent answers. And they must have been the right answers because his arm tightened around her shoulders and the pressure of his mouth grew more intense.

She responded eagerly to the kiss she’d been waiting for ever since the first time on the stairs, when he’d backed off so soon. This time he wasn’t backing off, but holding her close, caressing her lips with fierce intent, telling her that he wanted her, desired her.

And here, where the darkness gave privacy while heightening every movement and sensation, she could tell him of her own desire, and of the love and longing for him that filled every moment. She could caress his lips with her own, letting him know the things she didn’t dare to say. Now there was just the two of them in a place where all feeling was heightened, and everything was possible.

In the din that surrounded them he could hear no more than she, so she was free to whisper his name against his lips. She could gasp as his tongue explored her, surrendering to the exquisite sensation of fire, knowing that he couldn’t be sure of anything except what her answering kiss hinted at.

She was gloriously free to do as she liked in the enclosed world of wicked lights and ghastly visions, while joy pervaded her, and skeletons shrieked and gibbered around them.

At last she felt his arm about her shoulders relax, and realised distractedly that they were coming to the end of the ride. They mustn’t be seen like this. She separated from him and composed herself just in time. The next moment they’d burst through the curtains into daylight.

And there was Carson, laughing and relaxed, as though nothing had happened.

Had anything happened? Or had it all been nothing but her own fevered imagining? Her lips still burned and her heart was beating fast from the passion that had surged up in her. Yet it seemed to her that Carson showed no sign of disturbance, unless perhaps his hands trembled a little as he helped her out of the car.

Again, Joey demanded eagerly.

‘In a minute,’ Carson told him. ‘I need a moment to recover.’ He gave a sudden grin.