Pretty Thing by Stephen Burrows

Author:Stephen Burrows [Burrows, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bostin Books
Published: 2019-04-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

‘Life On Mars’

January 1973

Alice:

From the depths of despair to bliss! A rollercoaster Christmas and New Year. I moped around for days after the big bust up with Danny, Mom following me around, constantly asking whether I was ok, and Dad making ‘helpful’ suggestions which I didn’t want to hear – especially that there were ‘plenty more fish in the sea for a good-looking girl like me’.

Being alone made me realise how much I want him. He is my soulmate, I created him. At times I feel like Dr Frankenstein when the monster turned on him. But, just like in that film, I don’t believe that Danny has evil in him, he’s lost, unsure, hitting out when he gets frustrated. The tension is buried deep within him. It’s tearing him apart. I know him better than anyone, but I can’t solve it for him, it’s too complicated.

That house he lives in. He needs to escape, I can see that, but he can’t move out yet, he’s too young. He needs to hang in there, just a few more months, maybe a year, and we can make plans together. But he can’t wait and that’s the tension between us.

Into that yearning to escape, to grow up fast, to be his own person, have crept two things that I cannot control. David Bowie and London. They are connected but not the same.

Bowie has filled Danny’s mind, and ridiculously, seems a competitor. That is the most worrying bit, and I know it’s stupid, Bowie is never going to appear and whisk Danny away from me. But he is obsessed, and Bowie’s influence is insidious, affecting how Danny sees the world, what he wants, what he questions, taking him away from me in mind, and mind motivates body.

This ‘London thing’, which I just don’t understand, was, in the beginning, all about Bowie and being part of that scene, but it’s more than that now, in fact that doesn’t feel like what’s going on anymore. It’s a battle for Danny’s physical existence, a siren call to escape home, earn money, have fun, be at the ‘centre of things’, whatever that is. What can I offer against that?

But my joy is because there must be something, we are back together, my best Christmas present!

The day after Boxing Day, I am up in my room, lying on the bed feeling sorry for myself, when the doorbell rings. I hear my mom answer it and straight away I know it is him, sense it from my Mom’s tone. I lie there, heart beating fast, wondering what to do. Mom makes him wait on the step. I can hear her coming up the stairs, each footfall pushing the moment of decision closer.

“It’s Danny isn’t it?”. She looks momentarily surprised, then nods.

“If you don’t want to see him, I’ll send him away.”

That makes up my mind, although there isn’t really any doubt. I am already standing and can’t help checking myself over in the mirror.

“I’ll see him.”

“Are you really sure

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