It’s a beautiful thing is The Lean Mean Green Machine. When Dad – when he was Dad, not Pye – told me about it, I had the idea that it was a tatty, amateur affair, but it’s not. It’s awesome. The pram wheels are a bit rusty on the spokes, but otherwise it looks like one of the pictures in a book that tells you how to make it but that the one you make yourself never looks as good as.
Olive green, with a white stripe down the side, and there’s even a cushion in the sit-on part.
“That’s better than I ever imagined,” I say, with true admiration. I sit in it and Pye pulls me along the garden path, and I can steer and brake and everything. We tow the kart out of the back garden gate and into the back lane that runs behind the row of houses. I’m first out of the gate and I turn my head towards the sound of running feet, just in time to see a figure turn the corner at the end and disappear.
Macca. Has he been watching us? What has he seen? I can’t tell.
“What’s up?” asks Pye.
I take a deep breath. “Nothing.” And then I turn and head back towards the house. “Hang on,” I call back. “I just want to say goodbye to your dad.” Pye smiles and shrugs.
Grandpa Byron’s sitting at the kitchen table with Hypatia next to him holding a deck of cards that’s far too big for her little hands. She turns them face up one by one on the table, and he’s calling the names before he sees them.
“Ten of diamonds, six of spades, jack of spades, oh hello, son. What can I do for you?”
I hesitate, not quite sure what to say. Grandpa Byron waits patiently while I find the words.
“Um, Mr Chaudhury? Byron? You know this firework display you’re doing?”
“Aye, what about it? It’s not till October, mind you.”
“Erm … will you have the fireworks on a sort of metal platform thingie?”
“A pyro rig? Aye, I daresay.”
“Oh good. Can I just say, erm … they’re kinda dangerous, so will you make sure you check it’s secure and everything?”
He screws up his eyes and sort of half smiles. “Er, yes, I daresay we’ll be doing that.” I can tell he’s not taking me all that seriously.
“No, I really mean it. Please, please check all the bolts on the pyro rig. It’s just … I’ve heard of someone who didn’t and it sort of went wrong.”
“All right, bonny lad, I’ll check them.”
“You won’t forget? Check them yourself. All of them?”
There’s a longish pause while he looks hard at me to see if I’m serious. When he sees that I am, he nods slowly and grins. “I won’t forget. I can remember anything I want. For a lad who likes chai and knows about Kali I promise I won’t forget.” I can tell he means it.
“Thanks. Bye.”
“Bye, Al.” Hypatia echoes him in her little-girl voice: “Bye Al!”
I turn to go, but something makes me stop for a second. I check that Pye can’t see me from his position at the end of the garden. I turn back and throw my arms around Grandpa Byron in a big hug. He’s startled, I can tell, and I know it’s a strange thing to do, but as I squeeze him, and at last breathe in his smell of bidis and hair-oil, I feel his arms go around me and he hugs me back.
I’m embarrassed now, and I let him go, but before I hurry out the back door there’s one more thing I want to do. Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I switch it on, hold it at arm’s length and crouch beside them.
“Look at my, erm … calculator and smile,” I say to Grandpa Byron and Hypatia. Before I can see if they’re doing it right, I snap a selfie, and hurry out of the back door and up the garden path without looking back.
As I leave, I hear Grandpa Byron saying to Hypatia, “I haven’t a clue, pet.”