Where the Rain Gets In (8 page)

“I will this one – you should see it.”

“And how did you get the membership?”
she asked.

“It’s part of a sponsorship deal, but
that’s not important – ”

“Sponsorship deal – sponsorship for
what? Oh, forget it! Look, Mike, I appreciate the thought, even if there’s
nothing wrong with the gym I use in the college, and it’s closer, but I don’t
want you to be giving me things; I don’t want you to be doing all these things
for me.”

“But I like to,” said Mike.

“But I can’t . . . I can’t do anything
for you.”

“You don’t need to do anything for me;
I’m not looking for anything from you.”

But this wasn’t true, and they both knew
it.

“You know what I mean,” said Katie. “I
can’t let myself get close to you – to anyone.”

“I know that,” said Mike and then, “I
just like you, that’s all.”

Again, they both knew this wasn’t true.

“But nothing will ever happen, Mike. I
won’t ever change, not ever.”

“I’m not asking you to change; I’m just
giving you a Christmas present and I’d be happier if you accept it. It’ll be
fun, you’ll see, when we all get back in the New Year, and we can all hang out
there together.”

In his own way, Mike was anticipating
the rising social scene of the gym, but he was also doing what he’d repeatedly
done over the past few months: using their group of friends to involve Katie in
an activity in which she felt safe. This was his way of helping her and she
knew it.

“Thank you,” she said, “thank you. And I
hope you have a great time with your folks over Christmas.”

She needed the gym membership once she
realised the college facilities closed down for the holiday, and Mike was right
– it was a beautiful gym. Her beloved library, too, let her down, and she
switched back to working in the library in town. There were fewer reference
works to consult, but she had a workspace in which to complete her essays on
time. She took to using the new gym once the library closed for the day.

Coming back from town one evening, she
cut across from Oxford Road and crossed the Parkway by the footbridge rather
than walking around by the road. As soon as she stepped on to the bridge she
knew something wasn’t right. Everywhere was quieter for a start, with few if
any students around. There was less reason to be crossing from the college over
into Hulme and, because this wasn’t Katie’s normal route, she hadn’t been
walking with her usual confidence and assurance. At the far end of the bridge
she could make out somebody waiting in the dark. She hesitated and as she did
so she knew she was in trouble. She slowed and considered turning back, but
when she looked behind her there was another person following her. It was a
classic mistake; one she’d heard talked about many a time in college whenever
she mentioned she lived in Hulme. She thought about what she had on her – very
little apart from some loose change in her purse. But then it occurred to her
that it might not be money they wanted.

She stopped dead in the middle of the
bridge. Her would-be attackers walked slowly towards her. She looked over the
barrier down to the road below; it was way too high, but she would jump before
she let them near her. She felt in her pocket for her keys and they seemed a
very poor defensive weapon against two grown men. Then she fingered the razor
blade around her neck and snapped it off the chain. Somebody else stepped on to
the bridge from the college side and Katie laughed with relief when she saw it
was Bruno. He walked alongside the person following Katie and without warning
stamped his shoe into the side of their knee. Katie heard the crack above the
noise from the traffic below, and the person slumped to the floor in pain.
Bruno checked to make sure they stayed down, and walked on to Katie.

“You okay?” he asked. He smiled when he saw
the blade in between her fingers. “Nice one,” he said, “shall we go?”

They walked on along the bridge towards
Hulme. The other would-be attacker thought better of taking on Bruno, and ran
away.

Katie was still shaking when they
reached her flat in Bonsall Street. She didn’t need Bruno to tell her she’d had
a lucky escape.

“You have to be more careful,” was all
he said to her.

“I know, I will – and thanks,” she said.
It was only after closing her door behind her that she thought it strange that
Bruno should have been there to help her.

After what had happened on the bridge,
she adjusted her schedule to keep to more daylight hours; she had little choice
anyway if she wanted to use the library. But she needed this remove – a separate
place from home in which to study – and she needed the gym. It was hardly
socializing, but staying at home alone wasn’t enough for her any more.

She was relieved not to see Bruno again
over the Christmas holiday period. She didn’t know where he would be, only that
he wouldn’t or couldn’t be going home to his parents. If he’d received the same
gym membership off Mike – and Katie presumed he had – he chose not to use it,
or at least not at the same time as Katie. She knew Bruno had problems, but she
didn’t know what those problems were. She guessed they weren’t so different to
each other. She’d watched as his use of drugs intensified throughout the first
term, but she didn’t know what demons drove him on. She had to look after
herself first and she was barely capable of that; the thought of trying to help
Bruno as well was hopeless and besides, he scared her.

K
atie knew how important it was to Mike
that she and Bruno at least get on well together. What she hadn’t reckoned on,
but what soon became obvious after that first Christmas vacation, was that
being close to Bruno might leave Mike feeling threatened. No matter how much
Katie protested, Mike believed she had a connection to Bruno that he didn’t
share.

“Oh for God’s sake,” she said to Mike
one night.

Katie realised again just how young Mike
was. He might have been notoriously secretive in everything he did, but when it
came to his feelings for Katie he was hopelessly transparent. There was little
she could do to help him – the very idea that Mike should be jealous of Bruno
was ridiculous, especially after trying so hard for them all to be friends. If
this was what it meant to be in a relationship, she wanted no part of it.

Katie thought Mike seemed a little lost,
as though something he’d seen back in Belfast had shocked him. Katie didn’t
know if this was personal or political – or perhaps it was a little of both –
but Mike was a little less sure of himself. For a few weeks into the new term,
he had the look of someone who was not quite so sure of what he was doing – of
how he came to be studying law in Manchester, or falling for a girl he couldn’t
even begin to understand.

After these first few weeks, they
settled back into a routine – the library, the gym and, increasingly, the casino
– even if that routine was fuelled by a higher intake of a wide variety of
drugs. Bruno naturally came into his own here, but at the time it seemed no
more excessive than Katie’s studying or Mike’s gambling; in their different
ways, they were each as freakishly singular as the other.

Mike was generous when it came to
sharing the proceeds from whatever mad scheme might take his fancy.

“If only you put as much energy into
your studies,” said Katie, but she knew how quickly Mike became bored. It was
as though having got to college – even at so young an age – Mike was only
interested in doing the minimum amount of work necessary. There was always some
new idea, something somebody somewhere had told him, that Mike just had to get
into.

Katie only ever picked up scraps of
information as to what Mike might be up to. His explanation of the sponsorship
deal for the gym in town, for example, nowhere near explained their membership
of such an exclusive club.

“Who are they sponsoring?” asked Katie.
“Or who’s sponsoring them – how does it work?”

“The gym are sponsoring the Law
department,” said Mike.

“To do what?”

“To do nothing – to be the Law
department.”

“But you can’t make deals for the Law
department,” said Katie, “and besides, most of us aren’t even studying law.” As
Bruno had pointed out, most of Mike’s friends were scientists of one form or
another – mathematicians, chemists, medics – as well as a few accountants and
business types.

“They don’t need to know,” said Mike. “I
gave them a list of twenty names, and in return for that they get an
association with a prestigious University Department. It doesn’t cost them
anything and they can brag about it on their notepaper – or in their ads,
things like that.”

“But who did you ask if this was okay?”
asked Katie.

“No one,” said Mike. “I just used some
departmental headed paper.”

“But what if you’re found out?”

“I won’t be – how could we be? Plus,”
Mike added, “I didn’t give them our real names.”

Katie looked at her membership card and
saw that this was true.

“But that’s fraud,” she said. “Worse –
you’ve included all your friends in the fraud.”

Mike shrugged.

“I don’t see anyone complaining,” he
said. “You can give me back your membership, if you that’s what you want, but
it would be a shame.”

This was true – Katie loved their trips
into town and it was so much more fun than the solitary exercise of her first
term at college. It often got out of hand though, and more than once they’d
been asked either to cool it or to leave. She couldn’t imagine this was what
the gym had hoped for in sponsoring the Law department – certainly not when
Bruno was around.

“But whoever heard of sponsoring a
University Department?” she asked.

“Oh,” said Mike, “I think you’ll see a
lot more of that in the future. We got in first, that’s all, and as I say –
it’s costing them nothing.”

“But what – ”

“But, but, but,” said Mike. “If we get
found out, we get found out; until then we just enjoy it.”

On the rare occasion that Mike was open and
frank with Katie, she was left with more questions than she was given answers.
They continued to visit the White Horse on a Saturday night and it became their
thing, the one time on their own together. They might go on to meet the others
at a casino in town, but Katie liked the times she spent alone with Mike. She
didn’t feel under any pressure; she was comfortable with Mike, despite
everybody knowing how close they’d become.

“Mike,” she asked one night, “where do
you get all your money from? Are your parents loaded?”

Mike laughed.

“You’ll be glad to hear that I’m
completely self-supporting – well, apart from having my fees paid for by the
government.”

“So where does all your money come
from?” Katie asked.

“Well I . . . I don’t receive a
maintenance grant as such,” said Mike, “but I do get some money for being from
Northern Ireland at a college in Britain. And because I’m Irish – because I
have Irish citizenship – I get some money for that too.”

“You have Irish citizenship?”

“Yes,” said Mike, “and British.”

“How can you have both?” asked Katie.

“It’s worse than that,” said Mike. “I’m
also a U.S. citizen because I was born in the States.”

“You don’t get money from them too, do
you?”

“No, not directly,” said Mike, “but I do
have a scholarship with an American company with an office in Belfast.”

“A law company?”

“No, a stockbroker, or an investment
banker as they like to call themselves.”

“And they’re paying for you to get
through college?” asked Katie.

“They’re paying something towards it,”
said Mike, “and I’ve agreed to go work for them when I graduate.”

“In Belfast?”

“Or London, or the States – they
decide.”

“But what does a stock broking firm want
with a law graduate?”

“Everybody needs a lawyer, Katie; you
should know that.”

“And is that what you want to do – work
for an American stock broking firm?”

“Not forever,” said Mike, “but it’s as
good a place as any to start.”

“That’s hardly what I call
self-supporting,” said Katie.

“Well, it is in that I’ve used my
initiative to make life easier for myself.”

“Oh, you’re good at that,” said Katie.
“It still doesn’t explain how you have enough money to go gambling several
nights a week.”

“I don’t gamble,” said Mike. “I play to
win.”

“You do gamble,” said Katie, “I’ve seen you.
It’s not only blackjack you play; I’ve watched you place a whole night’s
winnings on the roulette table.”

“That’s just for a bit of fun. You have
to take a risk every now and again.”

“Whatever,” said Katie, “you still seem
to have a lot of money – more than you should have.”

“You only have to look for it,” said
Mike.