Friday Brown Read Online Free PDF

and a bowler hat.
    He glanced at me without surprise, boredom even, and went back to peeling an apple in one continuous corkscrew twist.
    Silence pointed. Joe, he said.
    ‘Joe?’
    ‘Joe,’ the guy confirmed.
    ‘Hi,’ I said and stuffed my hands into my pockets.
    Another girl came into the kitchen. She moved quickly and lightly for a big girl and her mouth was a tight red slash. She wore all black, her hair was shaved stubble, and she had piercings in her ears and lips.
    ‘Carrie,’ Joe supplied.
    ‘Where have you been?’ Carrie asked Silence.
    Silence gestured at her, then turned to me. He curled his index fingers and poked them from the sides of his mouth like vampire fangs. He wheezed a laugh.
    Carrie lifted her arms like batwings and hissed at him. Sure enough, her eyeteeth had been filed to sharp points. The effect was unsettling. She helped herself to a cigarette from the packet in Joe’s shirt pocket, sat on a crate and surveyed me warily.
    ‘Where’d you find her?’ she said. ‘Does Arden know you brought her here?’
    ‘She just got here,’ Joe said. ‘Where did he find you?’
    ‘At the train station,’ I mumbled.
    Carrie nodded. ‘That’s where he found Darcy, too.’
    ‘Who’s Darcy?’ I asked.
    The faded girl slunk into the kitchen. ‘Does Arden know she’s here yet?’
    ‘Darcy thinks Silence is hers. That’s why she doesn’t like you,’ Carrie said bluntly.
    Silence blushed.
    Darcy turned away. ‘You are such a bitch, Carrie.’
    Joe bounced his apple-peel twist up and down like a yoyo. He looked up. ‘Arden’s upstairs. Go on. Get it over with,’ he told Silence.
    Everything they said was whispered or mumbled. Joe’s upward glance was echoed by the others and I imagined there was a sleeping giant, or worse, up there.
    ‘Hey, Joe. Shouldn’t you be out working?’ Carrie said and snapped the peel twist.
    ‘Hey, Carrie. Shouldn’t you be out burning effigies or something?’ Joe fired back.
    ‘Nah, I’m the brains of the outfit.’
    ‘Well, take your erudite self and…’
    Carrie laughed. ‘Er-u-dite,’ she played with the word. ‘What’s that, some kind of rock? Did he just call me a rock?’ she asked nobody in particular.
    Come on. Silence grabbed me by the hand.
    ‘Better knock,’ Carrie warned.
    ‘I don’t want to get you into trouble,’ I said.
    Again, that resigned shrug.
    Silence led me up another staircase flanked by more walls papered with clippings. Decades of stories stuck down for reasons I couldn’t begin to understand. The steps were shallow, uneven, and Silence skipped two at a time. It was warmer up there and darker still. The air swam with dust.
    Silence stopped outside a closed door. He knocked once.
    ‘What?’ growled a voice.
    Silence turned the knob and the door swung open. He took a step back and I moved with him. My fingernails bit into my palms and I held my breath.
    In the gloom, I could make out two figures lyingentwined on a mattress on the floor. There were dozens of photos, or postcards, of old buildings stuck to the wall in the shape of a question mark.
    The figure on top rose and crouched on all fours above the person underneath. A face turned to glare at us.
    It was a she. Long-limbed with pale eyes. Her head looked too large for her body and her naked back was moon-white and inscribed with ink. Ribs pressed sharp as blades against her skin. A predator poised over its prey.
    The girl released her grip on the person beneath her and stood in one fluid motion. She seemed unfazed by her nakedness.
    I realised that her head looked too big because she had dreadlocks that hung like hanks of rope to her waist.
    The girl wrapped a sheet around her body. Her gaze flicked past Silence, to me.
    ‘This had better be good,’ she drawled. ‘Another one of your strays?’
    Silence cowered.
    ‘I asked to come,’ I squeaked.
    The girl pulled a cigarette from a pack on the floor and lit it. She sauntered over and leaned against the