The Brightlings

7. Thin air

According to Lucy, the multi-storey is full of idiots. Felix is barely alive, let alone awake, and his pounding head is unrelenting. He is wishing that he had stayed at home, as the oxygen rapidly depletes and the windows steam up, while they wait for a space to become available in the car park. His shoulder is bruised, his collar bone aches, and the incessant humming from the back seat is driving him nuts.

They have now been waiting for twice as long as it took them to drive here. How amusing that they should have to fight for a parking space in Battle. Actually, it is not amusing at all. It is painfully annoying, and Felix begins to wonder what other fights might occur on this trip to the historic town. Under any other circumstances he would be glad to visit, but today is not for exploring.

In the back of the car, Cookie is listening to Star Trekkin' on repeat. This must be the ninth time that it has played since they left the house. The boy is obsessed with it. Even Alan, who fondly remembers the annoying chart hit from his teenage years, has begun to wish that he never introduced him to the song.

And the confusion still hasn't lifted. Felix has no recollection of walking home. The experience of the woodland bunker and cave haunts his thoughts like a lucid dream, but he knows that these places are real. Of that he can be certain. He taps his pocket. It is still there, the shiny brass casing as new as the day that it was dropped.

"Finally!" exclaims Lucy, and she reverses the small car into a space so tight that Felix envisions needing a can opener to get it back out again. The passenger side door is way too close to a concrete pillar to even attempt opening it. He considers climbing out the window, but instead opts to crawl over the seats and out of the driver door behind his mum. The unpleasant fug of exhaust fumes from the queueing traffic immediately sends his head into a spin. He steadies himself against another pillar, and slides on a pair of dark sunglasses.

"Right, come on you two! Let's be having you.... Cookie, headphones off.... Come on, we don't want this to take all day. Felix, you look ridiculous.... and how can you see where you are walking in here?"

Uhhh... whatever...

The high street is buzzing, as locals, tourists and traffic move along the road with a display of mild urgency before the next downpour. For a Thursday morning it is exceptional, but being the last week of the holidays, Lucy expected it to be so.

Within minutes of hitting the shops, Felix spots at least four other sullen-faced teenagers, all wearing anoraks, being dragged along with siblings behind their mother, collecting uniform, bags and stationery in preparation for the new term.

He waits in the doorway of an Outdoor Supplies store, while Lucy has Cookie try on a cub scout uniform for size. The smell of rain on the pavement is still fresh.

Across the street, an ageing busker with a mass of grey hair and beard spilling out from beneath a large knitted beanie hat, is capitalising on the influx of shoppers, with his heartfelt but slightly off-key rendition of Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall'. A scruffy dog and a brave cat sleep on a pile of blankets next to his open guitar case.

"We don't neeeeeed no educaaaaaashun....."

The sense of dread hits Felix harder than the final words of the judge in the youth court.

"We don't neeeeeeed no thought control......"

School.

His last school was bad enough. The playground scuffles, the name calling, the detentions for sleeping in class. They made him the centre of attention when it wasn't his fault. He so hated being the centre of attention.

But this is a stupid new school with new rules, new kids and new teachers, and all the other new bullshit that is part and parcel of being the new boy.