The Thief of Broken Toys by Tim Lebbon Read Free Book Online

become, annoyed at being woken up,
eager to remain exactly where he was because
nothing outside could possibly be of any
interest. Ray had often dwelled upon how the
future would have played out, and what sort of
a teenager Toby would’ve been. He himself had
been a bit sulky and shy, but he’d never given
his parents anything to really worry about.
He’d been a virgin until nineteen, so there
had never been girl issues, only no
-
girl issues.
No drugs, only booze. Ray had always hoped
Toby would be as easy to handle, but only in
his darkest moments had he ever considered
his son no longer being there at all.
    In the kitchen, he slipped on his wet
walking boots from the previous night and
padded across the slate floor to the sink.
Filling the kettle, he looked out on the little
garden. Puddles of muddy water lay where he’d
once planned a small vegetable patch. Leaves
had been blown against the rocky slope that
formed the garden’s rear perimeter, sticking
there in the wet. The fence, always rickety,
now leaned at almost forty-five degrees. He’d
have to fix that before the next storm came in,
otherwise —
    He remembered the old man, the things
he’d said, and in the daylight they seemed . . .
if not ridiculous, then distant. Unlikely.
    â€œWeird old coot,” he muttered. He crossed
to the fridge, and it was only as he passed
the glazed back door that he remembered his
nakedness. He glanced out, across the garden
at the path that climbed past the house,
thinking,
Of course there’ll be no one there, it’s
early, and it’s my house anyway, whose business
is it if
—
    The old woman from the shell house was
standing out on the path, head tilted back
as she laughed at the sky. If he’d opened the
door he’d have heard her cackling. Ray quickly
covered his crotch with his left hand. The
woman continued down the path smiling
and shaking her head, and then he heard the
muffled crackle and buzz of the Ben 10 watch.
    He froze, watching the old woman turn left
and start descending the old stone steps.
    The watch sounded again, as if someone
had twisted the face and then slammed it shut
on a new monster. That sound had driven him
mad on Toby’s fifth birthday, for some reason
more than all the other beeps, shrieks and
whistles that seemed to emanate from every
modern kid’s toys. But of course, the watch
had broken. And he’d put it away in that box
beneath the bed, promising his son he’d fix it
and make it well again.
    Like any kid, Toby had quickly moved on to
something else.
    Ray
turned
around
and
scanned
the
kitchen. Maybe it was still in his coat pocket,
and the rain had got in and shorted a broken
circuit or —
    It buzzed again and he turned back to the
door. It was lying on the step outside — the step
wet, the watch completely dry. Ray unlocked
the door, glancing around quickly to make
sure no one else would get an eyeful today,
and then squatted to pick it up. He hesitated
just for a second, hand an inch away from the
watch.
I searched for it, must have dropped it, and
now
. . . He picked it up and went back inside,
moving through to the hallway and climbing
the dogleg staircase.
    He sat on his bed and stared at the toy.
Shook it. Looked for water droplets, any sign
that it had spent the night exposed to the
elements. But it was completely dry. He lifted
the face, turned the dial until another monster
was illuminated, then closed it again.
    Maybe the old woman had found it and
dropped it on his step. That would explain what
she’d been doing there. But she’d been walking
down the path from her own home when he’d
seen her, not leaving his small sloping garden.
And it was broken. The spring fell out. It was
incomplete when I lost it, and now
. . .
    â€œNow it’s complete again.”
    And because there was no explanation that
made sense, he took the toy back into Toby’s
room and left it for a while.
    Washing and dressing,