The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean (10 page)

“No!” I gasp but Im off the bed & on my fete & the butcha has me warkin forward.

“Now the hood!” says the woman. “Its nesessary. It wil stop him from bein overwelmd.”

The butcha puts his arms rownd me & holds me tite. The woman cums to stand befor me. Her eyes ar cold her breth is cold. I look to Mam but she shuts her eyes.

“Stand stil boy” says the woman. “Do as yor told. It is for the best.”

She drops the hood across my eyes & all goes dark. Tiny poynts of lyt like stars shyn threw it.

“My naym is Missus Malone” she says. “This is the second time Ive brout you owt into the world, William Dean. Now then, butcha.”

I hear Mam weeping as Im warkd towards the dore. I grab the fraym to hold me bak but its Mam that pulls my hands away. The butcha shoves me & Im throu and the dore clicks shut behind my bak.

Thers darknes no points of lyt then another click like another dore is opend & then the poynts of lyt agen.

I abandon myself to my fayt. I let myself be moved further let myself be lowerd onto sumthing hard.

I stare into the darknes and the points of lite.

“Let him rest” says the butcha. “Let him take his tym now that its dun.”

I feel his hand on my hed.

“A childe” he wispers “growing in Blinkbonny all this tym.”

“Tayk me bak” I wisper but my voys is tiny & muffld & no won replys.

We wate. Wer all stil. Evrything turns straynjly peesful. Mam is at my syd with her arm arownd me. Shes sobbing softly. Birds are tweetin far away. Thers distant clankin & groanin. I widen my eyes & try to stare throu the hood but all owtsyd remanes a mistry.

The butcha starts to wissl lyk a jaunty bird.

Missus Malone tells him to shut up.

“Shal I take the hood away?” wispers Mam.

“No” I anser.

“Be brayv” says the butcha.

“Do it” says Missus Malone.

I shut my eyes tite. Mam lifts the hood away & kisses me.

“Open yor eyes” she says. “See how you hav cum to the plays wer you hav always been.”

I open my eyes. Shes rite befor me & thers a brite lite shinin on us from abuv. Her fays is payl as payl and her eyes ar shinin & a tear like a preshus jewl is runnin sloly down her cheke.

“This is a plays that was sayvd wen meny wer destroyd” she says. “And we wer sayvd wen meny wer killd. Wernt we lucky Billy?”

I see a taybl befor me & walls & blue curtins hangin at the middl of the warl with a rectangle of payl lite shinin throu them. I see Mr McCaufrey with his hands on his hips in the middl of the room. He winks at me. I see Missus Malone in a corner leening on the wall. She has a stik in her hand. She poynts to the curtan with it.

“Now” she says.

“Tayk me bak” I wisper agen.

Everythin swings & sways & roks & rores.

Mam holds me. She tels me to stand up & she gides me to my fete. She holds my hand and takes me to the curtan.

“Turn off the lite Mr McCaufrey” she says.

He dos this & the room goes dark. She tugs the curtan & lite floods in.

“Look son” she says.

I dont no how to look. I blink & blink & suden tears flood my eyes. I get a glimps of sky with blueness & the clowds in it. I get a glimps of lumpy darka things belo. Everything is reeling. Im abowt to fall. Mam holds me tite.

“That” she wispers “is Blinkbonny. Its wer youve always bene. Youve been hid away in secrit at the hart of it. And now at last yor owt.”

I stagga. The curtan falls. I see the butcha at the dore that leeds bak to my littl room. Hes screwing a plank across it then another plank.

“Welcom to the world yung Billy Dean” he says.

He grins. He shakes his hed.

“How abowt a sossij or 3” he says. “Thatll help I do beleev.”

We sit at the taybl in the plays I wud come to no & to love so wel. The danglin lite shyns down on me. The butcha puts sum sossijes on a playt befor me. He puts a nife & a fork in my hand & sqeezes HP sors across the sossijes.

“Eat up” he says.

He crowches down at my side & gayzes at me & tuches me tenderly with the tips of his fingers.

“Butcha” says Missus Malone. “Leave him for a wile.”

But he stays by me & puts his fingers arownd my ankle then puts them rownd my rist. I see that tho I am big beside my father I am still small against this massiv man.

“Skinny as a spuggy” he says. “We hav to get you bilt up for the big wyd world Billy boy.”

I try to cut a sossij with a nife & fork but my hands ar wobbling with nervusness too much.

He laffs.

“See?” he says. “Cannot even cut a littl sossij!”

He takes the nife from my hand & cuts the sossij for me. He dips a bit in the sors then tels me to put my tung owt & I do that & he puts a bit of sossij ther.

“Eat this” he says.

I chew & eat.

“Its good?” he asks.

“D-delishus” I say.

“Exelent. Get stuk in. Get sum mor of that HP on. These ar my very best sossijes from the very best pigs alyv today. Or the best that wer alyv til now.”

He holds a glass of oranj juis in front of me.

“Drink this” he says.

He tips the glass towards me & I drink.

“Good lad” he says.

He kisses me. I catch agen the smel of meat & blud on him. He strokes my hed with his jentl hands.

“To think that all those times I was in here you wer just in ther. Whod hav blinkin thort it. Do you recognyz my voys Billy?”

I do. I remember his voys in the warls. I remember him callin owt my mothers name. I remember how his voice rose from a grone into a song. The voys I thort wos sumthin from a dreme or sumthin in the warls themselvs or sumthin deep within myself or som weard ecko of my dads voys. And even when Mam told me whose voys it was I had no way of understanding until now. And now here he is befor me. This real man living in this real world. This Mr McCaufrey this tender smiling butcha.

I fynd that I can smyl at him. I wisper that yes I no his voys. I continu to eat & drink.

“And me” says Missus Malone.

I turn my hed. She stil leans on the wall in the shadowy corner. She poynts to her fase with her stik.

“This” she says. “Do you recogniyz this, William Dean?”

She steps closer.

“Iyv sene you wen you sleep William. Ive cum in with yor mam in the ded of nite & lookd down on you as you dreamd. Ive lookd down as you turnd in yor bed and opend yor eyes for a moment as sleepers often do. So maybe you saw me in what you thort wer dremes. Do you remember enything of me?”

I trembl as she aproaches.

“Do you Billy?” says Mam. “Anser Missus Malone, son.”

I look bak at Missus Malone. Yes thers sumthin like her alredy in me. Sum imaj or sum memry. Payl fays cold eyes & jetblak hare.

“I d-dont . . .” I say.

“Of cors you dont.” She prods my sholder with her stik. She leans down to me & I feel her cold breth fall acros me. “But as wel as lookin down on you in resent yers I was also with you at the very start William Dean. I was ther 13 years ago wen you wer a sloppy thing a tiny bluddy screemin thing. I was ther on the day of doom.”

She poynts at my fays with the stik and trases the shayp of a fase in the air with it.

“And look at you now” she says. “William Dean on the day of his second birth. William Dean becomin all growed up. Thers much to lern & much to do. We all hav work for you to lern & do. The butcha yor mother & me. Blinkbonnys waytin for you. Dont let us down. Wil you let us down? Say no Missus Malone I wont let you down.”

I look at Mam. She nods.

“N-no Missus M-Malone” I say. “I w-wont l-let . . .”

“Good boy” she ansers. “Now the butcha & I wil go & leev you both in peese for now. You hav much to becom accustomd to.”

She steps towards the owtside dore & opens it. I see the sky so huje & brite. I see Blinkbonnys smithereens. I see the world of things that I dont recognyz or no. The things I hav no words for yet but the things that I wil cum to no & naym so wel. My hed reels & reels agen.

“Blinkbonny” I wisper. “Blinkbonny. Blinkbonny.”

The butcha laffs.

“Yes thats its name” he says. “And yes the stayt of it is dredful & yes all kinds of horras & evils are to be fownd in it. But ther are meny wunders too & they lie in wayt for you yung Billy Dean!”

And he lifts me from my chair & holds me in his arms agenst his massiv chest. And Mam cums to him and is held agenst him too.

“A boy born in Blinkbonny!” he says. “O what a joyful day this is.”

And then the 2 of them are gon & Mam cliks shut the dore agen.

“What a lucky woman is this Veronica” she says “to have frends lyk Mr McCaufrey & Missus Malone & to hav this lovely boy named Billy Dean.”

Next dawn we stand together at the windo & we lissen to the birds the way they sing owt for exitement as the lite cums bak the way they screech & tweet & hawk & call & make that lovely sownd thats bene sung owt each mornin sins the start of tym.

“Even here in Blinkbonny,” she says. “Even in the ruins & the wayst they sing.”

She draws aside the curtan. I am mor redy for Blinkbonny now. She giyds my eyes & tels them what they see. She tells me thats a shattad howse & thats a borded hows & thats whats left of a lovly cottaj & thats a warl thats farlen down & thats a plase wer a hows wons was & they ar weeds & that is grass & thats a tree & thats a rode & thats a hole & thats the smoke from a smolderin fyr & thats a ruin & thats bene smashd & thats bene bashd & thats bene left to rack & ruin & look at how its all in smithereens & it was all suppowsd to be fixd up it was all suppowsd to be so different now & what a dredful dredful shaym it is.

I try to mayk the things I see match up with the words she speaks. I feel Blinkbonny begin to enter me. And I am dazzld by the sky that has no end to it & by the numba of things that lie owt ther. I watch the way the breez moves through the rubbl & lifts the dust & how it blows the foliaj of the trees that gro up through the ruwins.

I lissen to the lovely nayms of things & I speak them owt along with her & feel them dancin on my tung & movin on the air & singin in my brane.

I say the word Blinkbonny tym & tym & tym agen.

“Blinkbonny!” she laffs. “Its a word that means a lovely view & wons it was wen I was small.”

“Wen you wer small?”

“Yes. Wons I was a littl girl lyk you wer wons a littl boy. And I had a start that was nerly as weard as yor start was.”

She smiles at me agen.

“Yes. Not yet,” she says “but youl lern the tayl of yung Veronica that grew up ful of hope & joy in the days befor disasta. And you must also lern the tayl of that disasta & of how it caym abowt & of all the things that grew from it.”

Most wundros & most straynj are the livin creaturs passin by. The birds of cors. Wite seagulls weelin & screechin in the air. Pijons wippin past in little groops. Blak crows that hop across the erth & poke & tug at stuff in the rubbl & dust. Sparrows & finches & a blakbird or 2. And thers paks of dogs & prowlin cats & scuttlin rats.

And ther are peple just a few of them totterin & warkin throu the waste. Mam says that the plase way bak was full of folk but now thers just a handful left. They are the abandond 1s the 1s the world has left behind. They are the 1s that love Blinkbonny too much to leev it. They are the 1s withowt the hart or wil or strenth to moov. Or they hav shayms & secrits & wont to stay hid or they hav lost ther marbls or are timid & frale & lonely & shy or hav bene destroyd insyd just lyk Blinkbonny on the 5th of May.

“The 5th of May?” I say.

“So much to tel so much to lern. Weell tel you soon. And look. That 1 is a treshur seeker.”

She draws me bak into the shadows & we watch a man pass by. He holds a stick to the erth befor him.

“He seeks the secrit treshurs in the erth” she says.

He turns his fase in our direcshon & she draws me further bak.

“They say ther are wunders waytin to be fownd,” she says. “But I think ther tym is past. Thers only rubbl underneeth the rubbl & dust beneeth the dust. You must kepe away from folk lyk that Billy.”

“Wys that?” I wisper bak.

“It cud bring daynjer Billy. They mite say you ar the hidden wunder Billy. Wich is true enuf but it mite mayk them want to tayk you from me.”

She puts her arm rownd me.