City of the Falling Sky (5 page)

“
Thanks for the food,” said
Seckry.

Leena was too outraged to respond.

They spent the rest of the evening playing a
board game in the living area whilst their mum watched some
television. It was about eleven o’clock when Seckry found himself
struggling to keep his eyelids open.

He said goodnight and entered his new
bedroom. It smelled different from his room back home and it had a
strange ambience that he couldn’t put his finger on, but he just
hoped that one day he’d get used to it.

Before pulling his curtains together, Seckry
gazed out over the hazy, colourful nightscape.

It was buzzing with activity, even at this
time of night. There were fire jugglers dancing through the
alleyways, animated neon lights advertising shops, a few fireworks
exploding in the sky, and one of the giant blimps he had seen in
the morning, floating sluggishly through the smog. There was an
electronic sign flashing on the blimp’s body that projected in huge
letters a familiar word:

Friction

The Mega Meltdown returns this winter!

Prepare for battle

Friction? Event? Seckry realised this
Friction thing wasn’t just some game. This was a sport.

He closed his curtains and went to sleep
feeling exhausted and homesick. But somewhere, deep inside of him,
was a tiny tinge of excitement.

Seckry was dreaming that he was in a field.
The air was lazy and warm and filled with the scent of
ellonberries. Somebody was picking them nearby. As he approached,
the man turned his head towards Seckry.

“
Dad . . .” Seckry
said.

“
How many berries have you
got now, Seckry?”

“
Dad . . . Where have you
been?”

“
What do you mean, Seck?
I’ve been here with you.”

“
Dad, I haven’t seen you for
nine years.”

His dad turned to look the other way. There
was a sound coming from the distance. It was the sound of somebody
singing.

Seckry’s eyes flickered open. It took him a
moment to remember that he wasn’t in Marne anymore. He was in the
new flat. He was in Skyfall City.

As he came to consciousness he realised that
the singing was real and it was coming from outside of his window.
It was a surreal sound; high pitched and melodic, and it seemed to
be reverberating through the metallic framework of his building. He
fumbled for his watch and checked the time. 3:15am. He got up and
peeked through the curtains.

Down in the square, sitting on the rim of the
rusty, dry fountain, was a woman, rocking herself from side to side
and singing a lullaby. She was dressed in a nightgown and she
looked in her fifties. Seckry sat on his windowsill and watched her
for a while, trying to think why she’d be out there so late, but
his head began to drop after half an hour and he slumped back onto
his bed, drifting into oblivion.

As Seckry brushed his teeth that morning he
almost spat a mouthful of toothpaste at the mirror. Today was his
birthday! With all the stress and upheaval of moving, it had gone
right to the back of his mind. A flood of excitement shot through
him and he pelted into the living area.

“
Happy birthday, my love,”
his mum said, smiling. She was in her yellow kitchen apron and was
wiping her hands in a cloth. “I’ve been up since six making
something special for you. You can’t have any until later, though.
You’ll be sick eating cake in the morning.”

“
Thanks, mum,” Seckry said,
his mouth watering at the thought of one of his mum’s birthday
cakes.

“
Have a bit of cereal while
your sister’s getting up. She’s got something for you. I don’t know
what it is this time, though.”

Seckry hoped Leena wasn’t going to give him
another ‘grow your own organic carrot kit,’ as grateful as he made
himself out to be last year.

“
Here’s a present from me,”
his mum said, and handed Seckry an envelope with his name and a
couple of squiggly balloon drawings on it. “I hear that this is the
big thing for teens in Skyfall. I thought I’d give you a little
starter.”

Seckry ripped open the paper and a voucher
slipped out of the card that read:

FRICTION

50 CREDITS

AVATAR GIFT CARD

“
Wow, this is fifty notes
worth,” Seckry said, astonished.

“
Well, I had a little bit of
money left from our government compensation so I wanted to treat
you this year.”

“
Thanks so much, mum.” He
gave her a big hug.

“
Have you heard about this
Friction thing?” she asked.

Seckry laughed.

“
Have I ever? It’s all
people talk about here. It sounds pretty fun. This guy I met who
lives just over in block seventeen, called Tenk, he’ll be really
jealous. He’s into it in a big way. He said he’s the best player in
this district.”

“
Did he now? Well I’m sure
my boy will give him a run for his money.”

Seckry smiled. “Maybe. I better learn the
rules first, though.”

Seckry finished his breakfast and Leena
appeared, looking flustered.

“
I’ve lost a contact lens.
Happy birthday, by the way.”

“
Thanks, sis.”

Leena threw him a present and began searching
the units.

As Seckry unwrapped it he began to guess what
the present was.

“
A travel water purifier,
how did you know?” Seckry said.

Coralle rolled her eyes.

Seckry looked at his watch. He still had ten
minutes before he was going to meet Tenk. He stifled a big
yawn.

“
Get much sleep?” his mum
asked, noticing his contorting face.

“
Not really. There was a
woman singing out in the square last night. It woke me
up.”

“
Ah, that must have been Mrs
Plum,” his mum sighed. “It’s really sad what happened to her. They
say she’s out there singing all the time. Singing the same
song.”

“
What happened to her?”
Seckry asked. “I thought she was a ghost at first, sitting there in
that nightgown.”

“
There is no such thing as
ghosts,” Leena said sharply, now throwing cushions everywhere and
trembling with frustration.

“
Well, I was told that her
five year old boy, Danney, was abducted from her home about twenty
years ago. She woke up one night thinking she could hear him
screaming but she searched the house and he was gone. She searched
the streets and there was no sign of him. Just completely taken
away from her in an instant. It’s awful.”

“
Wow,” Seckry said. “Poor
woman.”

“
Yeah. They say she sings at
the fountain because when Danney was a toddler he used to love
playing in that fountain so much, splashing his little feet in the
water. She sings his favourite song thinking he’ll recognise it and
come running back. They shut that fountain off years ago though.
The thing’s dried out and rusted over. Of course, if the boy was
still alive he’d be a grown man by now. It’s just harrowing what
losing a child can do to you. It’s a mother’s worst
nightmare.”

Before leaving for school, Seckry noticed an
envelope sitting on the doormat. There was no address, just the
word
Seckry,
meaning it had been posted by hand. But who did
he know around here? The only person he had really spoken to so far
was Tenk, but he hadn’t even mentioned his birthday to him.

Seckry ripped the envelope and opened the
card.

Happy Birthday
, it read, and nothing
more. There was no indication of who it was from. He showed it to
his mum and Leena, but they were equally perplexed.

He popped the card on his bedroom windowsill
and headed down into the square. He gave the dried out fountain a
glance as he waited for Tenk. He felt a deep pang of sadness for
Mrs Plum. He just couldn’t imagine what it’d be like for a mother
to lose their child like that.

“
Morning, Seckry,” Tenk
croaked, dragging his feet, his long hair flopping over his
eyes.

“
Where’s the gel today?”
Seckry asked.

“
Didn’t have time. Got up
too late. Couldn’t get a wink of sleep ‘causa the
singing.”

“
I woke up in the night
too,” Seckry told him.

Tenk shook his head. “It’s bad what happened.
But man, it was decades ago. She’s just gotta let go.”

“
Look what I’ve got,” Seckry
said cheerfully, hoping to change the mood. He pulled out his
Friction gift card and took pleasure in watching Tenk’s eyes widen
in awe.

“
Who on earth gave you
that?”

“
My mum. It’s my birthday
today.”

“
Your birthday? Man, why
didn’t you tell me yesterday? I would have got you a
card.”

“
Sorry, I just forgot, I
guess,” Seckry said. Well that ruled out Tenk as the one who had
posted the mystery birthday card.

“
But seriously,” Tenk
continued, “fifty notes worth. Do you realise the kind of avatar
you can get with that? Damn.”

“
I haven’t got a clue, to be
honest,” Seckry told him truthfully. “I think I’ll need you to come
with me and help me out choosing something.”

“
It’ll be my pleasure,
dude,” Tenk said slowly.

“
Where would I spend these
vouchers anyway?” Seckry asked.

“
You ain’t seen the Friction
stores yet? There’s one not far, just down Old Hobber’s lane. It’s
only a small shop that one, though. The place you want to go is the
official Friction emporium in the city centre. It’ll blow your
mind. How about I take you there on the weekend?”

“
Sounds good,” Seckry said,
looking forward to it.

The streets were warm again this morning. The
summer was ending, but the heat seemed to be lingering around a lot
longer than usual.

As they stepped off the monorail, they saw
Tippian waiting by the entrance and he joined them as they headed
for their first lesson of the day; art with a teacher named Mrs
Dooly.

Seckry loved art; he was always drawing in
his spare time and he liked doodling little pictures on his
computer with a virtual paintbrush. He was excited about the
lesson. This was one subject that he knew he could look forward to,
and he was feeling a lot happier than yesterday until he noticed
that the foul mouthed Snibble boy from his inverse mathematics
class was also queuing up for this one.

“
I love art lessons,”
Snibble said loudly as he stormed into the room and took a seat.
“It’s a free lesson. Everyone knows we ain’t gonna do any
work.”

“
Some of us are,” said a
quiet looking girl.

“
Yeah, I know
you
will, you nerdy swot.”

“
Oi, calm down now,” said
Mrs Dooly, entering the room with about five paintings under her
left arm and a bowl full of dribbling oil paints in her hands. She
plonked them down and tried to settle everyone so that she could
begin. It didn’t seem to work though. Her voice was slightly airy
and it almost seemed as if her mind was wandering elsewhere,
outside of the classroom.

Amidst the din, she managed to give the class
instructions to each draw an object in the room but as soon as she
stopped talking the class just began chattering even louder amongst
themselves.

“
Look, it’s Conker again,”
said Snibble. “What you drooling at now? My missus ain’t even here.
You slobbering over Mrs Dooly? Sick piece of crap.”

Conker was seated just in front of Snibble
and he didn’t turn around. He just carried on drawing his pencil
case, which was the only thing on his desk.

“
Don’t say much, do you?”
Snibble carried on. He got up and stood right next to the large
boy.

“
Snibble, stop it,” came the
voice of a girl chewing gum.

“
Shut it, Tania,” Snibble
dismissed, then he knocked his knuckles on Conker’s skull. “Empty
fippin shell.”

“
Oi,” Seckry blurted out
without thinking. He immediately regretted it. He usually kept
quiet in situations like that. Why had he said something
now?

Snibble turned and glared.

“
What you say?”

Seckry’s face exploded with miniature
prickles, he was sure he’d gone bright red. “He wasn’t doing
anything to you, just leave him alone.” His voice felt weak and
trembled.

The girl chewing gum clapped her hands.

“
I’m glad someone said
something. You need a right good slap, you do, Snibble.”

Snibble walked over to Seckry and put his
face right up close to his. Then he made as if to head-butt him,
and Seckry flinched.

“
Like this new guy, do you
Tania?” Snibble said mockingly.

The girl rolled her eyes.

Seckry turned his eyes downwards and began
drawing his key-ring, which was a little fat cat that he’d won in
an arcade machine years ago. He hoped Snibble would just walk
away.

But he didn’t. As soon as Seckry began
shading, Snibble flicked the pencil out of his hand and onto the
floor.

Seckry breathed out slowly. He paused a
moment before leaning down and picking it up. But as he put his
pencil back to the page, Snibble flicked it again and it went
flying across the room.