Cursed Souls Blood, Brains & Rock'n'roll

Chapter 5 Thorough preparation and unexpected result

Simon looked at Will intently. Will didn't reciprocate, but instead studied the attic they were in. But this attic wasn't one of those disgusting, cobweb-covered, critter-infested attics whose owners saw the attic as a necessary evil that they had to live with. Oh no, this attic was a truly comfortable and well-maintained attic, the kind of attic whose pictures would be seen in furniture catalogues that sometimes mystically appear on coffee tables in living rooms around the world. The decoration of the loft was done in black and white, which was a classic art deco combination, stylized to look like piano keys. The first thing that immediately caught the eye was the massive desk, made of black oak and decorated with small paintings on the legs. This desk could be used for work by four people at once, but ironically Simon himself had never worked at it. The desk was against the far wall, and next to it were several black cupboards where Simon kept all his clothes. Against the other wall was a black dressing table, on which a dozen different bottles of perfume were scattered. Will's nose expressed clear disapproval of the contents of those bottles at every chance he got. On the other wall hung a mirror in the shape of a sun, with wood rays painted gold and black respectively. The mirror was Simon's favorite part of the attic, after the huge desk, of course. He could spend hours picking out the right jacket or waistcoat, hat or facial expression to go out with. Also in the attic were an old contrabass that no one in the house ever went near; a gramophone without records that was begging for eco-friendly disposal; and a few other things, including a mahogany cane that, again, Simon never used. The floor of the attic was paved with black-and-white tiles that mimicked a chessboard, though Simon had never learnt to play chess in his entire life (or should it say "non-life"?). Simon didn't use the bed, because of his physiological peculiarities. Everything here looked deliberately flashy and expensive, as if Simon could afford it. Which wasn't true, because Will and Rob could afford it, but not Simon, who was unemployed.

"There," Simon said, pointing his pale finger at the corner between the roof and the wall.

Will adjusted his glasses and looked more closely. Then he looked much more closely. And then he asked:

"Where?"

"Right there!" Simon resented his friend's shortsightedness. "Look closely."

Will looked again. And finally, he saw it.

A small dark spot. A spot that appeared to be the result of moisture that had gotten under the roof of the house during the last rainstorm. A tiny spot, about the size of a teaspoon, that made Simon panic and think that the roof was rotten and might collapse on his head at any moment. It was a microscopic spot, invisible to most eyes in the world, that would make Will, who was tired after a particularly long and unproductive day at the shop (during which he had mostly spent the rest of the day polishing all the utensils and fighting the dust that had retreated into the darkest and most inaccessible places), forget about an evening's rest for the next few hours. As a friend, he couldn't say no to Simon, even though something inside him was voting against it with all its paws. To tell the truth, he wasn't in the best mood since he had managed to get a traffic fine this morning for causing an accident on the road. At first, the policeman didn't intend to write this unfortunate fine, but wanted to call an ambulance, as it was required by the instruction. The sight of Will flying away from the car made it clear to the policeman that the ambulance would need to bring at least one body bag with it. However, the policeman was surprised when Will, grunting and very loudly expressing his thoughts about the fact that the mother of the driver of the car had once been with the representatives of some cattle, got to his feet and calmly continued his crossing of the street in an inappropriate place. The dumbfounded policeman almost wrote Will two fines at once, but realized that if Will started crossing the street in one place and finished it in another, he made only one crossing in the wrong place. And it didn't really matter that the crosswalk had been slightly corrected by a passing car.