Some Here Among Us by Peter Walker

Author:Peter Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

3

The three men stood under a streetlight by the steps. Three separate sets of concrete steps came down side by side from unseen houses high above The Terrace. From one of the houses you could hear the engine-thrum of a party. The three men – Morgan, Meiklejohn and Human Sanity – were arguing, though mildly, about what to do next. Morgan was rather drunk. Human Sanity was drunk as well, though not as drunk as Morgan. Meiklejohn had been drinking with them but didn’t appear to be drunk at all. He was tall and thin and had an expression of distaste on his face. He was a painter, an artist. So was Human Sanity, whose real name was Hooman Sanatay; he was from Iran. He was short and stocky, with round brown eyes, two black-furred arches of eyebrows above them.

‘Let’s go to Auckland,’ said Morgan. ‘First we find some pot, then we go to Auckland.’

‘Forget Auckland,’ said Meiklejohn.

‘We should go back to the party. Why did we leave the party?’ said Human Sanity. He pointed up one of the flights of steps.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Meiklejohn.

‘What is ridiculous?’ said Human Sanity.

‘You were. The party was.’

‘I was very happy. I met a girl there who loved me.’

‘The fat girl.’

‘Fat!’ said Human Sanity. ‘Meiklejohn doesn’t like girls,’ he said to Morgan. ‘He likes boys.’

‘It is quite normal to feel attraction for your own gender – if they are of sufficient pulchritude,’ said Meiklejohn.

‘Pulchritude,’ said Morgan.

‘I assumed,’ said Meiklejohn, ‘I was having a conversation with an adult.’

‘If we left now, we’d be in Auckland by morning,’ said Morgan.

‘Why, Morgan, you want to go to Auckland?’ said Human Sanity.

‘I have this feeling,’ said Morgan.

‘How could we get there?’

Morgan crossed the road and bent down at the window of a parked car. The driver rolled the window down. There was a conversation and Morgan came back across the road.

‘He won’t take us to Auckland but he will take us to Kelburn,’ he said.

‘Who is he?’ said Meiklejohn.

‘I don’t know. I never saw him before.’

‘Why will he take us to Kelburn?’

‘I said we were incapable of locomotion.’

‘You may be incapable of locomotion,’ said Meiklejohn.

‘Why do we want to go to Kelburn?’ said Human Sanity.

‘Pot,’ said Morgan.

‘You have smoked pot?’

‘I have smoked pot once, twice, three times,’ said Morgan.

‘It is good to make love on pot?’ said Human Sanity.

‘Tremendous,’ said Morgan, ‘by common repute.’

They crossed the road and got in the car. Morgan sat in the front, the other two in the back. The driver said his name was Clive. He had just finished work on the night-shift, he said, and was on his way to the party that they had come out of. He started the car and drove up Salamanca Road.

‘Good party?’ he asked.

‘Foul,’ said Meiklejohn.

‘Gee,’ said Clive. He glanced at Meiklejohn in the rear-view mirror. He said that one night he had gone to a party in Newtown after the night-shift, and when he got there there was a tiger in the street.

‘I remember that,’ said Meiklejohn.

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