“I’m in...”

‘So what do I need to do?” Merry asked.

“Follow me.” The man pushed himself along with his toes. “When I give you a signal after someone speaks to me, you either give them one wrap or two.”

“A wrap of what?”

The man gave him a flat stare.

“How do I know whether to give out one or two?”

The man held up a hand, fingers twisted into a shape “One.” The hand twisted into another. “Two. Show me.”

Merry did his best to repeat the two shapes.

“Good enough. Which school do you go to?” Merry told him, but the man didn’t seemed that interested in the answer. The houses became more run down and the cars on the road had flat tyres and a layer of dirt under and surrounding them where the last street sweeper to visit the estate had been forced to manoeuvre round them.

“Where are we going?” Merry enquired.

“Not far.”

They continued along the street.

“Got a girl?”

Merry thought about lying, but didn’t really see much point. He probably wouldn’t see the man again anyway.

“No. Not at the moment.” He added as it sounded better. Like he had actually had one in the past and was currently between.

The man nodded and steered back onto the road briefly to avoid the parting gift of what must have been a very large, and very ill, dog. Merry stepped over it.

“Stand at that junction there. I know how many wraps are in the bag. When it’s empty, come over and get your money.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” It seemed simple enough even to Merry. “Just sit on the wall or something. Try not to look suspicious or any shit. Here.” The man handed over a small sandwich bag. “Put it in your pocket or something out of sight.” Merry dutifully put it in his pocket and headed over to the directed spot.

Most of the houses in this part had metal shutters over the doors and windows. An attempt by the council to stop squatters moving into the vacant houses. All of which had once been council housing, left to rot for reasons unknown to Merry. The man was still sat on his bike, still on the pavement, thumb, dancing over the screen of his phone. There really wasn’t much to do and Merry had no credit on his phone, so he sat down on the low wall denoting the garden boundary of the first house. After about ten minutes, Merry heard the sound of a car and the man casually toed himself closer to the kerb on a vacant part of the road.

An ancient red beaten up Ford Fiesta was slowly making its way down the street. It veered over to the kerb and pulled up next to the man who said something and reached into the car. He nodded to Merry as he withdrew his arm, making the sign for ‘one’.

Merry nodded and slipped a hand into his pocket and fished out one wrap. The car pulled away and stopped next to Merry. The driver, in his late teens, held out a hand across the passenger seat. Merry reached in and placed the wrap on the open palm. As soon as the older teen had the wrap in his possession, he sped off at speed faster than he had arrived at. No words spoken between them.

It started off slow but soon sped up, the wraps in his pocket quickly diminishing.

When the last wrap was gone, he headed over to the man, fully expecting him to ride off as he got closer. He didn’t.

“You did good young un. You want to do it again sometime?” Merry nodded, rendered momentarily speechless by the unexpected praise, unsure how to react to it.

The man separated three notes from a thick bundle, handing them over. Merry separated the third, started to hand it back. “You said twenty”.

The man laughed. “Honest little shit aren’t you. Keep it. Do a good job and there will be more of it.” The man pushed off and cycled quickly away. Merry looked down at the cash. He could buy that other game he wanted now.

The money burned in his pocket all the way home. His mother was in the kitchen, speaking to his sister. Merry interrupted them.

“Mom?”

“What?”

“Can I come with you to Asda tomorrow?”

His mom gave him a funny look and glanced at his sister, who simply shrugged in equal puzzlement.

“Okay. But no complaining or asking to go home. If you want to go home before I’ve finished, you can get a bus. Or walk.”

“I won’t.”

“Uh-huh...”

Merry fidgeted enough on the drive in, to merit a warning look from his mother. At Asda, His mum collected a large trolley and headed into the store as Merry headed straight for the entertainment section. Merry perused the shelves. His mother would be two hours at least, so he had lots of time to kill.

When he had delayed as long as he could, Merry picked up the display box and headed to the single till manned by a bored looking woman in her forties.

“Is that everything?”

“Yes, thanks.” Merry handed over the cash and the woman rang the sale though, handing him the receipt before turning round and pulling out a wide drawer from the counter up against the shop’s wall. Flicking through the sealed games within before finding the required one, she slid it over the counter.

There was still at least an hour to kill, so he wasted it reading through the football and gaming magazines on the shelves. Judging suitable enough time to have past, he looked around. The aisle was momentarily quiet, so he picked up a comic that he liked and had yet to read, and quickly stuffed it up under his t-shirt and under the waistband of his jeans to hold it in place. It didn’t look like anyone had seen him, so he calmly made his way to the main doors.

The security guards looked in his direction and at the game in his hand, but when the sensors either side of the doors didn’t sound, their attention wandered elsewhere. Merry walked to the car, but there was no sign of his mum, so he leaned against the passenger door and swapped the comic for his game. He didn’t want his mother to see it or she would ask him awkward questions, like where the money had come from.

Merry was just reaching the end of the comic, when his mother arrived with a laden trolley. He helped her load the car and returned the trolley to the closest trolley bay. She glanced down at the comic in his hand as she released the car’s handbrake, but said nothing.

The game was every bit as good as the reviews said it was and time flew by, enough that when his mother checked in on him before she went to bed herself and saw that he was still awake, she removed the power cable from his console and took it with her. He had a spare, but there was no point in overly annoying his parents as they would just take his console instead.

School was school the next day and most of his attention was on his new game rather than his teachers and the coursework in front of him. His mother had returned the cable that morning, so an evening of gaming lay pleasantly ahead.

The busses were all lined up, waiting to take the pupils home. His mates were jabbering on about a football team Merry didn’t care about or support.

“Yo! Young ‘un!” Merry looked over. The man from Saturday night was there, on his push bike. He jerked his head, beckoning Merry over. Merry glanced at those waiting to board in front and those waiting behind him. He had time, he went over.

“Are you free tonight? Around seven?”

Merry thought of the hours gaming he had planned, but then, the money was equally as tempting as well. “Can be...” He replied somewhat hesitantly.

“Sound. Meet you at the corner. Don’t be late!”

“I won’t.” His reply was more habit than any ingrained punctuality. The man nodded and wheeled his bike around, stopping to share a few quiet words with some queueing school girls who blushed and giggled at whatever it was he had said. Almost all the pupils had boarded Merry’s bus so he quickly made his way to the boarding steps, least it leave without him.

His dad was watching the news. His mother was reading a woman’s magazine and his sister was scrolling on her phone. Merry pushed his empty plate away. He was always the first to finish.

“Mum?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I go round to Rob’s tonight? We have joint homework.” His sister looked up, her eyes frowning. Okay that might have been a bit too much.

“If your back by nine. It’s a school night, remember.”

How could he forget. “I will be mum.”

“Make sure that you do.” His father’s words were more threat than statement.

“I will be dad.”

Merry looked longingly over at his console as he shut his bedroom door. It would be there for him tomorrow, at least. He could hear his sister chattering on her phone in her bedroom. How did she have so much to talk about. He only had to speak for ten minutes to make his voice turn raspy and hoarse. Merry glanced at his phone often as he walked down the pavement. He had plenty of time, but he still looked. He could actually have some credit for it after tonight.

A silver Nissan Micra, equal parts silver, equal part rust, passed him. Its exhaust rattling and growling, appearing by its swinging, to be held on by electrical cable and desperation. The road did seem to be busier than normal for the time of night. A Range Rover went past in the opposite direction. A newer model. You could buy his parents house along with the houses either side and still have money left over for a good second hand car for the purchase price of that thing. The driver must be lost. Or it was stolen. In this neighbour hood, it was more likely the latter as anyone lost would have turned back streets ago.

The exhausted Micra rattled past again. There was no sign of the man, so Merry sat on the wall where he had sat Saturday night. He would give the man ten minutes, he decided, before he ran back home to his console. Merry thought about it. Maybe, he should walk, give himself time to come up with an excuse as to why he was suddenly back from Rob’s so quickly. He could always say they had the submission date wrong and they’d had another week. That would do.

The Micra rumbled past again. Merry watched it go past wondering what the driver was up to.

There was a squeal of bike brakes and the man was there in front of him. He casually handed over the bag.

“Same as the last time, okay?”

“Okay. But I need to be home for nine. It’s a school night.” The man gave him an incredulous look before he burst into laughter.

“You crack me up young ‘un”.

Merry couldn’t see what was so funny. He needed to be home for nine. The man pushed off and cycled to the spot he had adopted the other night. Business was a lot more brisk this time and it appeared that almost all the circulating vehicles had been waiting for the man.

The Micra was every bit the environmental disaster inside that it looked from the outside. As fleeting as his look inside had been as he handed over two wraps, it was enough. It looked, and smelled like how he imagined the inside of a public rubbish bin to look.

It had been barely half an hour and he was almost out of wraps. Merry wondered if he should call out, or something, before the last wrap ran at and he had nothing to give. From the opposite end of the street, he spotted a motor bike rider travelling at a speed Merry thought to be unwise. The bike looked more like an off-road scrambler and unusually it appeared to be almost silent. The bike easily mounted the pavement, the rider showing no intention of slowing down. Merry prepared to jump over the low wall so as to avoid being run down. The bike slid to a halt next to him. Merry looked at himself in the mirrored visor as the rider reached into their Jacket.

For one horrible moment, Merry thought that the rider was going to produce a gun or something from within their jacket, and this was the last moments of his life. The gloved had reappeared with a bag and familiar contents. It was held out and Merry automatically took it.

There was a slight whine when the bike sped off, but that was it. It was the first electric bike he had ever seen and the rugged design made it cool as fuck in his eyes. He wanted one.

The man came over at a quarter to nine.

“Back home for nine?” In his words it sounded stupid. Merry nodded. “Same time tomorrow?” Merry nodded again and made to hand over the remaining drugs. The man stopped him. “Keep them for tomorrow.”

Merry shut his bedroom door before heading over to his wardrobe. In amongst the clothes on the floor that should be hung up on hangars, he pulled out a metal tin and prised off the metal lid, adding the money and the drugs left over from tonight to the money already inside. The lid managed to go back on. Just. He had been out every night this week and he had accumulated almost enough cash to buy the latest gaming console if he wanted. He wanted, but he couldn’t work out how to explain having the money to do so to his parents. For the moment, he was just collecting the money till he could get to the bank at the weekend to get rid of it.

He had promised himself every night so far this week, that the next night would be the last. But the money kept proving too much temptation.

“How is your new potential Joey?”

“He is showing promise.”

“Is he ready to step up?”

“I would prefer another week, at least.”

“But he could?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I’m short on Saturday.”

“Benji?”

“Yeah. The fucking dick. No matter how many times I tell him, he gets done for speeding. In a dinger with product in the car of all things. Arsehole.”

“It is what it is.”

“Is he worth the expenditure?”

“I think he will be. He follows orders, turns up on time, keeps his gob shut. What more do you want. A chaperone will be needed if you step him up.”

“Evie?”

“Haha. She would destroy him, make him useless. I doubt he would even know what hit him.”

“Mazy?”

“Too far the other way, a total cunther.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Daisy?”

“I didn’t know she was free.”

“I caught the little shit snitching.”

“What did you do?”

“Tied the little fucker up with a couple of tyre rims. Dumped him in a re-supply boat with instructions for them to take and send me footage. Which they did. Little fucker thought giving up his pig handlers would save his arse. Crew didn’t speak English and got fed up of his whining and kicked him overboard anyway.”

“What are you going to do with the names?”

“I have B on them. If they pan out, I’ll take them out. Send the fucking pigs a fucking message.”

“Still got the footage?”

“Yeah.”

“Send me it. I never liked the gobby wee shite anyway. Daisy was wasted on him.”

“Will do.”

Merry’s alarm went off. A first for a Saturday, but his instructions were clear. The rest of the house were still asleep, so no awkward questions. He had told his parents that he was going into town the previous evening though he had been deliberately vague on the ‘when’.

The money was heavy in his pocket, but apart from credit for his phone, he had no intentions on spending it on anything. He knew a couple of the girls at the bus stop, as they went to his school. They didn’t give him the time of day there and they didn’t here either.

The bus, when it arrived, was one of the new hydrogen ones. Merry wasn’t a fan of them as they seemed to have a habit of self combusting. Merry wasn’t a fan of fire. Especially the thought of being in it. The bus was mostly filled with girls and women. Shoppers and shop workers.

The bus station was busy with commuters and shoppers alike, all heading towards the high street. His first stop was his bank. It was busy with people getting their financial business out of the way first. Merry patiently waited his turn, then stepped up to awaiting teller. Dropping his card into the pit below the security glass, he followed it up with the bundle of notes fished out of his pocket. The teller slid the pit lid over to his side, blocking his access to the pit and retrieved his card, scanning it into her computer. Satisfied, she laid it aside and collected the mixed denomination of notes and sorted them into neat little piles of the same value, ensuring they all faced the same way in the stacks. Next, her fingers were a blur as she counted the piles and placed them in the drawer that had sprung open above her seated legs.

Merry looked down into the drawer of notes all separated into neat compartments by value and tried to work out the total value.

“Anything else I can help you with today?” The teller placed his card and receipt into the pit and slid the lid over to her side, allowing him to retrieve his card and receipt. Merry collected both.

“No. That’s everything thanks.” He purposefully didn’t look at the amount on the receipt. He had kept ten pounds back, for some lunch. He planned to stop off at the mobile shop after he had been paid for today and spend most of it on phone credit.