# By Andrew Campbell
It was Sunday dinner time.
No one was hungry, but Mum had prepared a special meal because it was Dad's birthday (he was fourty one, what an old git). The food tasted good - it was Beef and Kidney Stew - but for some reason the famous Rickman's "Family Atmosphere" seemed to have been left behind.
Nathan glanced at Magnus.
Magnus wasn't eating anything because Magnus didn't eat. Jeremy made a slurping noise and Sharon giggled a bit but nothing really funny happened. No one told any jokes, not even Dad. Nathan liked Dad's rude jokes even though he didn't understand them - they made everyone spit out their food in hysterics.
All that could be heard at the table was the tinkling of cuttlery, chewing noises, the occasional burp and that's it.
# It just wasn't right.
"Dad?" Nathan asked softly. He was nine, the youngest Rickman in the family. Dad always liked to be asked questions by Nathan, even on his birthday.
"Uh?" Dad wiped a dribble of stew from his chin. "What is it, squirt?" Nathan glanced at Sharon, then Jeremy, then Mum. They had all stopped eating. They all thought that he was going to say something about Magnus. Everyone went quiet when Magnus was mentioned. "Tell us a joke." Nathan pleaded.
Dad glanced at the chair in which Magnus was sitting. He placed down his spoon, swilled his tongue around his mouth and then relaxed into his seat.
"I can't seem to think of any." he announced. Dad was sun-tanned to a prune and his hair was grey. Nathan thought he looked like a giant cigar but said nothing. He hated himself for thinking that. Jeremy said, "What about the Irish prostitute one-" "Jeremy!" Mum gasped and quickly covered her mouth. "Not at the table, please. Don't Dave." she proded Dad hard to make sure he understood. Dad touched Mum's arm gently and glanced at Magnus again.
His eyes drifted to Nathan. "Why don't you ask your friend, Nathe?" Nathan swallowed more stew hurriedly. "He doesn't know any. And he's not my friend. Don't call him my friend, Dad."
Everyone had stopped eating again. Sharon was looking at the empty chair that Magnus was sitting in as though he really didn't exist. She wanted to laugh, Nathan knew it. So did Jeremy. They all did.
# They all wanted to laugh.
Nathan threw his spoon down crossly. Mum jumped in her seat. "Cool it kid." Dad said softly, "Don't get cross, I was just asking."
Nathan listened to Magnus for a few seconds, then glanced at Dad.
"Magnus says he's got a joke." he took another spoonful of stew. It was getting cold. Nathan hated cold stew - it tasted like sick. "That's not funny, Magnus." Nathan said with a crammed mouth. He spoke as though on the telephone to a school pal : "No it's not. Eh? But I... no. Well, if it were funny I would... eh? No way. I could come up with a better one. Don't SHOUT at me!"
Silence.
They were staring again, all of them. A Wax Museum display of the Rickman Family. Zombies dining on stew. Nathan watched them all as they averted their eyes away from him and carried on eating. "He told me one." Nathan said to Dad. "But its not funny." "Well," Dad glanced at Mum who was holding her head both hands, "Maybe we should hear it, eh?"
"Its silly." Nathan waved his hand dismissively. "You won't get it."
"Try us, Nathe." Jeremy put in, eager to hear the jest now. "Yeah. Go on Nathe." Sharon put in.
Magnus told Nathan to speak up.
"What can a jelly bean do that a man can't?" Nathan sighed. Dad looked Mum straight in the eye. Sharon exchanged a glance with Jeremy and then stared at the empty seat where Magnus was. Magnus stuck his tongue out at her disgustingly but she didn't see him. "We don't know." Dad said. "Give up."
"Come in eight delicious colours." Nathan shrugged. "Stupid eh?"
Sharon released a sharp breath of shock, then exploded into high- pitched giggles. Jeremy excused himself from the table and ran into the kitchen. Dad's face flushed red. Mum was biting her lips and staring at Nathan in utter disbelief.
"Nathan?" she asked carefully whilst Dad was silently laughing. Nathan looked up, spoon in his mouth. "Uh?"
"Who on Earth told you that?"
"Magnus. I told you, didn't I?"
Dad stopped laughing immediately. Mum stared at the empty seat again.
Magnus cackled and stuck V's up at her, but she didn't see. Dad didn't notice either.
In fact, no one noticed except Nathan.
:)
He drove the B.M.W down the quilt, jumped it across onto the bedside cabinet, sped it vertically down the drawers - CLUNK! CLUCK! CLUCK! - made the tires screetch across the carpet at the bottom, then burned at over one hundred miles-per-hour towards the toy box.
He made it crash and explode but it didn't look real enough so he glanced at the bedroom door before stamping on it. The roof indented under his weight and the wind-shield cracked down the middle. Magnus was telling him to stamp on it harder when Mum eased the door open and peeped inside. Nathan whipped the B.M.W behind his back and grinned innocently.
"Hi Mum." he said. He was knelt on he floor beside his uptipped toy box. He didn't play with his cars all that much but today Magnus had told him about how much fun it was to smash them up instead of play with them.
Cissies play with little cars, according to Magnus. Real boys threw them around and crushed them and make them look all blown apart.
# Only girls played with them.
Mum came into the room and closed the door.
She was wearing a white tee-shirt and jeans and she looked very much like Sharon.
"What're you doing, sweet heart?" she said, crouching down beside him. Nathan held the car behind his back conspiciously. "Nothing." he stared his at his mum. She knew. She knew about the car.
Her hands outstretched slowly. Her smile broadened.
Nathan revealed the B.M.W and said, "I was just playing..."
He tossed the silver car back into the toy box. Mum fished it out. She knew everything. It was amazing what Mum knew. Nathan wondered if there was a hole somewhere in one of the walls of his room - a peep-hole that Mum used to spy on him. That idea wasn't very nice. Mum wouldn't do that would she?
# No, he was Being Silly.
Mum examined the car carefully. Nathan bowed his head in shame. Mum had bought him that car. Mum had paid for it. It was a quite new.
"You didn't do this on purpose did you?" she asked softly. Nathan didn't answer. Mum would be able to tell if he made up a lie.v "Did Magnus tell you to do it?" Her voice was very whispery. Nathan nodded and muttered, "He gets cross if I don't do as he says."
Mum placed the B.M.W down on the carpet. She took Nathan's hands in both her own and lowered her head so that she could see a bit of his face. Nathan raised his head slightly. Mum's face was pretty and nice.
He liked to look at Mum. He liked to hug Mum too because she was so caring and loving and understanding. Most mums shouted. Nathan's Mum didn't. Not very often anyway.
"Where's Magnus now?" she whispered.
Nathan peeked behind her. Magnus was leaning against the door. "He's behind you."
Mum swirled around slowly. She still held on to Nathan tightly and Nathan felt her shudder. He knew Mum couldn't see Magnus. He knew no one could see Magnus.
Sharon most certainly couldn't or she'd never have sat on his lap by accident last Wednesday.
Mum turned around again. "Is he telling you something now?" Nathan shook his head.
"Has he changed? Since he first came? Does he look different?" "No Mum."
"Has he said anything about Wednesday?"
"He says he forgives Sharon." Nathan nodded. Magnus had said something else too, something nasty. Something about what he'd like to do to Sharon in bed, but Nathan didn't want to mention that.
Mum glanced at the door again. Magnus asked her what she had such a big shit-eating grin on her face for, and Nathan gritted his teeth angrilly.
"Don't say that!" he yelled. "Don't say that to Mum!"
Mum hugged him. "Shhh, honey. What did he say? Tell me, darling."
Nathan held on to his mother and started to sob. He buried his head into her tee-shirt and tried to forget that Magnus was in the room. He didn't tell Mum what Magnus had said.
He didn't want to make her cry.
:|
Monday morning didn't go very well at all for Nathan.
Mrs Beswick allocated him a seat next to William Norris, the class prankster and part-time thug. Magnus told Nathan that he should argue with the teacher, tell her that she was a rotten fat cow and that she stank of horse manure. Nathan had eventually burst into tears, right in front of all the girls too - including Hannah Roberts - what a total disaster.
At about quarter to ten, Nathan was washing his hands and face at one of the sinks in the boy's toilets. The room was chilly and narrow, built in a crude T-shape with two toilet cubicles in either corner. The air smelt of disinfectant and badly-aimed pee and bob.
At the third sink along the row of four, Nathan was cleaning his face slowly and lazily whilst looking at his pale, tired reflection in the long wall-mounted mirror. He was surrounded by blue and white - the whole room looked as cold as it felt.
Magnus was inspecting the two cubicles as though he was a member of the cleaning staff. Nathan was keeping a close eye on him through the mirror.
"Watcha doing Magnus?" he said. His voice bounced around the bathroom and came back to him several times.
#'Checking! These toilets stink of piss n' shit, Nattie!' Magnus never spoke clearly or loudly. He didn't need to. His voice didn't travel through the air like normal peoples' voices.
Magnus spoke into Nathan's mind - directly - as though he was whispering straight into his ear. Magnus could have been in New Mexico, but Nathan would still have been able to hear him. "You got me into trouble." Nathan said, running his hands under the cold tap. He winced. It wasn't cold - it was igloo-freezing.
# 'You should have clamped the ugly fat bitch for a six!'
Magnus stuck his ugly head around one of the cubicle doors.
# 'She can't put you next to that wet son-of-a-pissflap Norris!
He's a #soggy fart! He needs a good clamping too!'
He disappeared into the toilet again.
"I've gotta go home at lunch. A Nurse is coming to see me."
Nathan said and turned the water off. His hands were pink and numb. He walked over to the half-empty towel dispenser to rake out some of the Green Paper.
Magnus came scuttling out of the cubicle, passed the mirror without making a reflection and stopped a few feet from Nathan. His eyes had increased in size and his jagged, yellow teeth were showing.
# 'A nurse? What for?'
Nathan shrugged as he dried his hands.
Magnus said, almost hysterically: # 'You can't go! You can't Nattie! I won't letcha! Pretend you forgot! #Come on! Pretend-'
"No." Nathan tossed the Green Paper into a waste paper basket under the nearest sink. "If a nurse can get rid of you then I'm going to see one." he faced Magnus and said to him bravely, "I don't like you anymore. You get me into trouble."
Magnus growled.
:(
"Who ya talking to, dick nose?" William Norris called loudly from the door of the room. He stepped inside and took a few paces toward Nathan, his shoes clicking on the floor. "Talking about me? Huh?" He was a big boy - by far the biggest third year in the Juniors. No one dared touch him, especially not Nathan. Norris had a face filled with galaxies of rusty freckles that concentrated around his nose and spread out unevenly down his cheeks. His hair was a short crop of ginger that tuffted up at the back like a duck's rear end. His school uniform was baggy and untucked and his tie was cut flat at the end. On one of his huge, white fingers he was wearing a ring in the shape of a silver skull.
"Well? Were ya? Talkin' about me?" Norris edged closer.
Magnus hissed suddenly: # 'Knee him in the bollocks, Nattie!'
"No way." Nathan shook his head.
"Don't try and bullshit me, shit head." Norris snapped and came even closer. Nathan's head was about level with Norris's chest.
# 'Take em out, Nattie. I'll back you up! GET the bastard!'
"I'm not big enough." Nathan said softly.
Norris chuckled. "Talkin' about your pecker?"
# 'Grab a paper towel! Ram it down his fuckin' throat! Choke the son #of a bitch! Come on Nattie, you wimpy little shit! DO IT!'
Nathan glanced at the towel dispenser. It was right there and some of the Green Paper was flapping out.
Norris gave Nathan a huge push. Nathan slid across the floor like a mindless ice skater, only just managing to retain his balance by clinging on to the sinks.
But Norris was only just warming up.
Magnus ran to the towel dispenser and held out his clawed hands at it.
He began to strain his eyes and clench his spikey teeth. He hunched up and crouched down, looking like he was badly constipated and in need of some Lax.
"Magnus! Help!" Nathan cried. His freshly washed face was beginning to tickle with hot tears. Norris took hold of Nathan's shirt collar and dragged him up to his chest. The two kids briefly touched noses. "No one can help you, nipple-scab." Norris growled.
Magnus slapped a piece of Green Paper into Nathan's trembling right hand and hissed: # 'KILL HIM! KILL THE FUCKING BASTARD!'
Nathan felt a swirling, metalic taste flood his mouth. He clutched the Green Paper so hard he tore holes into it, but that didn't stop him from cramming it into Norris' mouth.
Norris blinked almost comically when Nathan's fist slammed into his open jaws, bringing with it the crunched up paper ball.
The bully released his grip on Nathan's collar, squealing and choking.
# 'MAKE HIM EAT IT, NATTIE! MAKE THE FUCKER SWAAAAALLOOOOOW!!'
Nathan shrieked with anger and forced the Green Paper deeper into Norris' mouth. He was teaching that bully a lesson! Oh yes!
Norris coughed and gargled and tried to punch out with his hands but Nathan's attack had come as too much of a shock. Now, Nathan was pushing the bully back across the bathroom, his trainers squealing like dying mice across the tiles.
Norris' back crashed into the wall, his head smacking it a second later - a sickening sound rather like that of a boiled egg being smashed by a spoon. Blood rushed down the wall behind Norris.
Magnus yelled with triumph:
# 'You GOT him, Nattie! You GOT the stinking BASTARD! ALRIGHT! #ALRIIIIIGHT! I LOVE YA!! I FUCKING LOVE YAAA!'
Nathan hated the way Magnus laughed. It was the sound of some one evil, some one twisted and incredibly cruel.
He let go of Norris and let the boy flop to the floor. A long trail of blood, as dark and as thick as black cherry yoghurt, smeared down the blue-painted wall. It was escaping from a crack in Norris' skull.
A big, gaping hole like a leaking splinter in the side of an ostritch egg. Inside, Nathan was surprised to see a brain ; a sick, bluish-red mess. He even saw a bit of yellow in there, God knows what that was.
Nathan whipped the screwed-up ball of Green Paper out from Norris' mouth and threw it blindly into one of the sinks.
He stared at the sticky red mess on the wall and began to shiver and sob when his mind finally grasped the reality of the situation.
Magnus was jumping up and down.
# 'Way to GO! Alright! You DID it! You fucking DID IT!!'
"Nooo!" Nathan wailed, a warmth flooding his pants. "I've killed him! I've KILLED him!" Magnus collapsed onto the floor, roaring with laughter...
