Slow Burning Lies by Ray Kingfisher Read Free Book Online Page B

the news, then took a glass of water and took out his little brown bottle.
    He tipped two tablets onto the table. He picked one of them up and held it up to the light. He held it close to his eyes and rotated it between his finger and thumb, but it was no good, there was no writing.
    There was, however, a name on the bottle. He checked the name on the internet. They were painkillers – simple straightforward painkillers – exactly as his doctor had told him when he first came to America. It was like he’d told Joni; the tablets had been prescribed for the pains he’d been experiencing from the minor operations he’d had on his face as a child – something to do with a growth spurt in late adolescence putting strain on the small strips of scar tissue. The doctor suggested keeping him on a low dose and warned him against coming off them without consulting a physician.
    Patrick spent forty minutes scouring the internet for more details of the drug, for any scare stories of side effects, particularly of sleep disturbances, but the only recorded contraindications were stomach problems – ranging from minor indigestion to bowel cancer when taken in large doses – and minor skin irritations in susceptible people. The irony of the latter put a flicker of a smile on Patrick’s face.
    He took the tablets, which reminded him of his conversation with Paulo.
    He’d made up the talk of holidays in the north of England. He’d had to. Jesus, for a moment he couldn’t remember his life before the dreams had started.
    Then he did. Yes. Don’t be dumb, Patrick. He was at college, and before that he was back home in England, with Declan, in a foster home.
    Declan. He had to contact Declan. Had to keep those ties alive. But it was too late in the evening now. He could call him another day.
    Thoughts of back home reminded him of his favourite meal.
    He cooked himself baked beans on toast, and then watched a documentary on rock music.
    At the end of that he eyed his guitar – a Gibson Les Paul perched on a wooden stand in the corner of the room.
    He carefully picked it up from its stand, and got comfortable with it. He slid the fingers of his left hand up and down the fretboard a few times, then poised a plectrum over the pickup.
    His fingers tried a few combinations, and he spent some time simply admiring how the black edges faded into dark brown toward the middle of the body.
    Somehow it just wasn’t coming.
    He gave up trying and went to bed.
    For the second night in a row he dreamed of nothing disturbing, moreover nothing he could even remember when he woke up.

11
    The following day Patrick had another pleasant, constructive, but ultimately uneventful, day at work. But it was so constructive he worked late and caught something to eat on the way home.
    As he sat, eating in front of the TV, the guitar seemed to be staring at him, mocking him, so he put it in a cupboard.
    Then he took his tablets, and had time to shower and catch another hour of TV before going to bed.
    He’d completed a long and hard day’s work, and that led to a sense of cool relaxation as soon as the lights were out.
    He fell asleep immediately, and descended into a dream.
    *
    For Carrie Carlini this day was just the best .
    Shirley and Lana, both of whom she liked to think of as her equal best friends, had accepted the sleepover invitation for next week. And on that day they would swap stories of loves and hates well into the night.
    She stepped off the schoolbus and turned to wave at all her friends, but especially Shirley and Lana. The bus drove off and Carrie looked up. Yes, today the sky was made of candy, the clouds were marshmallows, and the sun was one great big giant lemon cupcake.
    Her schoolbag swung around her neck and shoulder as she skipped along the edge of the park towards her drive. On her road all of the front gardens had neat and colourful borders, every lawn was the same lush green, and there was not a piece of litter to be seen. In