Black Chalk

He took his favourite route back to Pitt via the narrow winding lane. The wisteria growing inside King’s College was slouched over its old stone wall. The lane twisted, turned and Chad passed beneath the old covered bridge that connected the two halves of Holyrood College. He could see the battlements of Pitt, felt himself nearer and nearer to Dee. He tried to rub the grease from his forehead with the back of his arm and wiped the shine from his nose with the hem at the neck of his tee.

LII(vi) When Chad reached the garden, they were still there, Dee and Jolyon. A rock and a pool.

Chad slowed down as he approached, as if he might be intruding.

But Dee beckoned him and then gestured shush. Chad enquired with a shrug and Dee responded with a shrug of her own. And then, when Chad was sitting beside her, she whispered, ‘He came over, said absolutely nothing, and just passed out there and then.’

Chad stayed with them but he felt uneasy, a sense of intrusion. At least he had not bought strawberries or Pimm’s already. So he didn’t look completely foolish. But even so his heart was breaking.

When finally Jolyon awoke they asked him if anything was the matter. He looked at Dee’s leg an inch from his eyes and did not seem surprised to see it there. Jolyon said no, nothing at all was wrong. He sounded very convincing. And soon Jack arrived.

LII(vii) Jack asked Dee what she was reading. She showed him the cover, Animal Farm.

‘Great story. I loved the analogy,’ said Jack, although he mispronounced the word as if the first syllables were pronounced anal rather than annal.

Dee decided not to correct him. ‘You’ve read it then?’ she said.

‘No,’ said Jack, lying back on the grass, ‘but I did watch the porn version on video.’

It was Jack’s final joke, that’s how Chad remembered it. Within five minutes he would be gone. And along with Jack there would depart from the Game the last scrap of any lightness, any humour, any entertainment left in this world of their making.

LII(viii) It began with a tease. Jack lifted himself to his elbows and suggested to Dee that in her outfit she looked like a geriatric prostitute. Dee responded that he should be careful, lest she decided to make it her mission to drive him from the Game.

‘Well, that’s me shaking,’ said Jack. It was a mild comeback for Jack and he spoke it without his usual thirst for the fight.

Dee pushed her cardigan sleeves to her elbows. ‘You don’t want to make an enemy of me, Jackie-oh. I’m in the book depository and your entire sense of self is sitting pretty in the car seat next to you.’

‘You’ve fired your best shot, Dee. Next session it’s me gunning for you.’

‘Jack, that was nothing, believe me.’

‘Yeah, sure, Dee, OK,’ said Jack, trying to look bored.

‘You see, the problem you face, Jack, is you know nothing about me. God, you’re such a man. You never ask any questions, it’s all just jokes and more jokes. So you’ve got nothing to go on. Whereas the things I sense about you, Jack, my female intuition, oh boy! I listen to you, Jack, hard though that sometimes might be. I actually pay attention to the things you have to say, I look out for your little twitches. Men can be such dimwits.’

‘Dee, you’re actually becoming tedious now,’ said Jack, lying back again and putting his hands behind his head.

‘The thing is,’ said Dee, ‘all of us here know that half your jokes are an excuse to tell your version of the truth, while the other half are a shield, a distraction from the truth.’

‘That’s right, Dee, it’s all just a shield that lets me tell pretentious bitches when they’re being pretentious bitches.’

Dee smiled slyly. ‘No, I think it’s a little more than that,’ she said. ‘Don’t you want to know what’s next up my sleeve for you?’

‘Not really,’ said Jack, yawning. Chad and Jolyon were staring down at him. ‘But if you really, really want to,’ he said, ‘then just go ahead and wow us all.’

Dee licked her lips. ‘So the next time you land yourself with your worst consequence – and let’s face it, Jack, you haven’t been playing so well recently and it can’t be that long – I’m going to suggest for its replacement that you have to go out on a date with dear David.’ Jack closed his eyes. ‘You don’t have to actually do anything,’ Dee continued, ‘that wouldn’t be in the spirit of the Game. You simply have to ask him if he’d like to go and grab a bite to eat one evening. And then after that one’s performed, we’ll replace it with one where you have to turn up naked at his room late one night. Again, it wouldn’t be fair to insist you go through with anything you don’t want to. But if you should want to . . . Do you see a theme developing here, Jack? I can keep going if you like.’

Jack’s eyes were still closed. ‘Oh, Dee,’ he said, laughing, his voice pitched higher than usual, ‘you’re just too hilarious for words.’

‘Oh, but I am, aren’t I? So,’ she said, turning to Chad and Jolyon, ‘can I count on your support?’

‘That’s one vote from me,’ said Jolyon.