Quantum Poppers by Matthew Reeve Read Free Book Online Page A

and stroked
the rough stubble on his chin. He put his head back in his hands.
    ‘I picture that
moment every single night,’ he said, head still in his hands. He spoke slowly,
a man who had been defeated. ‘I picture it for a second and then get no sleep
as I spend all night trying to get my head round whatever the hell happened. I
still can’t figure it out. And you still won’t explain to me what happened?’
    The man said,
'sorry.'
    John wanted to
laugh. What was he expecting? It had all started at work. What an exotic locale
for all this to kick off. It started at work and ended here, in the hotel room
from hell.
    ‘My kids
haven’t seen me for almost a year. Please, what happened?’
    ‘Sorry.’
    The room was
dark and he sat on a chair in the far corner of the room. Bartley stood just
inside the door staring at the shape surrounded by the artificial glow from the
window. John picked up a cigarette from the ashtray beside him. It had been lit
minutes ago and burnt halfway down. Sitting with his head in his hands had
suddenly seemed a much better idea than smoking when this man entered. He took
a drag and thought back to that moment at work. The whole thing now seemed a
dream. Perhaps on some level it was, yet he had long passed the point of caring
either way. From work to here, via a glimpse of someone he still couldn’t
accept seeing, had been a hurried exchange. They apparently were not labeling
it a kidnap, but John knew no other word for what had happened to him.
    He looked up
again through the darkened smoke.
    ‘Is there any
chance...’ he whispered.
    ‘Sorry.’
    ‘It was me.’
    John closed his
eyes, took another drag of the cigarette, and put it back in the ashtray. This
was the first time, almost eleven months after his capture, that he had
admitted this to himself. Vague memories stood backdrop to one undeniable fact:
that it was him.
    ‘Sorry,’ he
heard.
     John opened
his eyes. ‘I got hypothesis and all kinds of crazy theories as to what happened
and I’m sure they’re not half as insane as the truth. Is there a chance I could
see outside, walk in the open air? Christ, even eat, shit, sleep without these
damn cameras on me? Just for five minutes?’
    He stared
directly at the man, a sorry would follow shortly.
    ‘I’ll see what
I can do.’

Chapter 6
     
     Tony’s
apartment always appeared worse to him than it would be when gazed upon by
others. The one rogue piece of cotton on the black carpet stared up at him like
a Grand Canyon torn into the floor; the banana peel he had just this second
placed on the arm of the sofa symbolised vast wastelands set to attract flies.
He thought that his ground floor semi-detached flat was clean for a single male
living alone but now that Emma was standing at his side these minor items shone
out like bio-degrading beacons of filth.
    ‘Pull up a
chair,’ he said as he quickly pocketed the banana skin and covered the cotton
strand, sealing the abyss with a trainer. He left the video game controller on
the floor. In this time of Repeat Others and thoughts of insanity, it was good
to know that some things never changed. Super Mario. Run, jump, and save the
princess. Pure simplicity.
    The doorbell
had rung, and after narrowly missing an attack of the Goombas, he had hit the
pause button and answered it. Standing there was Emma. Her shoulder length hair
shimmered in the early afternoon breeze and around her the day swelled in
brightness as if she were the source of light radiating down his hallway and
not the sun spilling out of darkening clouds behind her. They hugged briefly
before heading into the lounge where they now stood, Tony with a banana skin in
his pocket and Emma glancing at his foot as if contemplating why he’d made that
sudden movement and what he was covering.
    ‘Still playing
this one?’ asked Emma whilst picking up the controller.
    ‘Don’t unpause
it. Mario’s in a very precarious position, if you’re not holding the
directional