I hated living in Monkey Man’s house.
The days weren’t as bad as the nights cos we’d spend them walking all over the city dropping Monkey Man’s post off to people’s houses. I’m not stupid. I knew what was in the packages. But Ma pretended it was post so I did too.
Real quick, all my blisters turned to leather. They were so hard I could stab them with the tip of a pencil and I wouldn’t feel it. I had to get new shoes cos of all the walking and cos my feet kept growing, but Ma didn’t mind cos Monkey Man was paying her for delivering his post. She even bought me books to read.
There were always loads of people in Monkey Man’s house. I’d see them in the kitchen when we came in, but Ma would take me straight up to the room. She’d stay with me and read me stories till I fell asleep.
Sometimes I’d wake up and she’d be there beside me. Other times, I’d creep downstairs and there’d be all these people there. Some had mad eyes. And some had sad eyes. And then there were Ma’s eyes. Even though Ma said that stuff helped her fly, her eyes were swimming.
One night I woke up. I felt Ma behind me. But I felt something else too. Someone was in the room. I heard breathing.
I opened my eyes. There was a shadow standing by the door. Massive. It was panting.
I couldn’t move. I lay there even as it started to come towards me. It bent over. I tried to scream but nothing came out.
The shadow came closer. It had long arms. They dragged off the ground. It lifted one and a hand reached out. In the light from the street I could see its sausage fingers all curled up, about to grab me.
I made a tiny noise but that was all. I tried to kick Ma but I couldn’t move. The hand got closer and closer.
Then from downstairs there were voices. Shouting. A door smashing open.
I needed Ma to wake up. I needed her to help me. But I couldn’t make a sound.
It was right above me. Dead close. Its breath was so bad it stung my face. Its fat fingers were reaching for my shoulders. It leaned in.
‘I know you’re awake,’ it whispered.
That’s when I screamed. I kicked backwards as hard as I could and smacked Ma in the leg. The hand stopped. ‘Ma!’
The shadow straightened. It was real tall. It had big shoulders that reached up to its neck. It grunted. It stepped back.
‘Ma, wake up!’ I kicked her and kicked her. She started waking. She made a noise. I kicked her again.
The shadow stood over me for another second. Then it turned and went out of the room.
‘What?’ she said.
‘He was here! He tried to grab me!’
‘Who?’
‘Monkey Man!’ I said.
‘Ah, love, it was only a—’
There was a bang downstairs. Then a crash. And then all these voices started shouting.
‘Ma, what’s going on?’
‘Shh!’ she said. She sat up and climbed over me. She tiptoed to the door and opened it a little. I heard someone yelping like a kicked dog. But then this low voice like a growl crawled up the stairs.
‘That’s him, Ma,’ I said.
‘Shh!’ she said again, and she started to go out there.
‘No, Ma, don’t leave me!’ But she was gone.
I was shaking. I could still taste his breath. I could feel it on my neck. I could see his hand reaching for me.
Ma was gone for thirty-seven seconds. Then she was back and the light was on. ‘Come on, get up, we’re going,’ she said.
‘Where?’ I said. It was still dark outside.
But Ma was ramming everything into the bag so fast that she scared me as much as the shouting. So I pulled a jumper and my coat over my pyjamas and shoved my feet into my new runners. I grabbed my two favourite books off the floor and Ma shoved them into the rucksack too.
‘Ready?’ Ma said. I nodded. ‘Right. Follow me and be real quiet.’
We went onto the stairs. Below us, someone said, ‘No, man, you’ve got it all wrong,’ and Ma held her hand up to me when we got to the bottom and she listened.
‘Did ye think I was thick?’ a man said, and I knew who it was cos the words were curled like he was grinning and growling at the same time.
Ma nodded and we ran, past the room and out the front door.
They didn’t see us. But I saw them. A load of men standing in front of a guy who had his back against the wall. That guy saw me. And his eyes were wide and I knew he was as scared as me. Maybe worse. Cos in front of him was Monkey Man. And just as we slipped out Monkey Man turned a bit and I could see he was grinning this big dangerous grin.
That night we went down to the river. We sat there and watched the Lego ships going out to sea, and Ma wrapped the sleeping bag around us. I kept looking back up the river but Ma said that I didn’t need to worry any more, Monkey Man wasn’t after us.
‘They were fighting over some packages of his that went missing,’ she said. ‘It had nothing to do with us.’
‘So why did we run away then?’ I asked.
‘Cos when he gets mad and he gets an idea into his head, there’s no talking to him. It was gonna happen sooner or later.’
‘Do we have to go back there, Ma?’
She pulled me onto her lap and she said, ‘No, we don’t.’ And that made me real happy. ‘Where do you want to go, love?’
I knew not to talk about Gran’s any more. I knew not to stress Ma out. So I said, ‘I want to find a castle, Ma. One where it’s only you and me. And there’s a moat and a drawbridge so no one can get in. It wouldn’t have to be fancy or anything. I could be like the princess in the story, the one that lived in the run-down castle.’
‘Just you and me?’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ and I meant it. Cos even if Gran wasn’t there and even if I couldn’t go outside, it’d be enough, as long as no one else could come in. ‘And Ma?’
‘Yeah?’
‘The roof would be really high, so you wouldn’t have to fly over the city any more. You could just go up there and feel the wind and you wouldn’t be stressed out or anything.’
Ma leaned forwards till her forehead was touching mine. ‘That sounds like a grand idea,’ she said. ‘As long as we’re together, we’ll be grand.’
‘And you’ll never let them take me away, Ma, will you?’
‘I promise, love.’
‘Ma?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I was real scared tonight.’
‘I know, love. But it’s all right now. You don’t have to be scared, not ever. We’ll find a castle, you and me.’
‘Promise?’
‘I promise.’
She leaned back and pulled me tight against her. ‘Now go to sleep. I’ll wake you when the sun comes up. Tomorrow’s a new day. We’ll find a place, you and me, just you wait and see.’
And I believed her.