LITMIR.BIZ

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‘They snuck up on me. I dittn’t have no time to warn you!’ His eyes were sparkling like Christmas lights and it was impossible to tell if he was lying or not.

      ‘Not much of a lookout who don’t see nuttin’, eh?’ Shiv snarled, taking another step forward, a swaying movement in his long black coat.

      Behind him the rest of the Starfish Gang were lounging up against the swings, watching. Shiv’s right-hand man, Tad, was standing on the kiddie swing, rocking gently. ‘You need glasses?’ he called out to Little Pea. ‘Or mebbe you was too busy savin’ you own self to bother lookin’ out for nobody else?’

      Pea stuttered out a few squeaky vowels, like a car engine that wouldn’t start, then spluttered into silence. Shiv was up so close to him now they were almost touching. The sound of the approaching train wailed louder on the tracks, an insistent whine cutting through the searing heat of the day.

      Shiv glanced around quickly. Looking for something? Checking the coast was clear? And, as his eyes swung over the roundabout, he clocked me sitting there and his eyes narrowed. Quick as a flash, I pretended I was texting on my ‘phone’. Shiv stared at me for a moment before scanning over towards the gate.

      I let out a sigh of relief and I probably should have just stopped filming then and disappeared, but I didn’t. I guess I knew I wasn’t really invisible, but I think I still thought I was safe. My mum was always going on about parallel universes. She said London was full of them, all existing side by side, but never really noticing each other. The Starfish Gang and Shiv and Little Pea belonged to one universe and I belonged to another and I thought that meant they couldn’t touch me.

      Shiv’s snake eyes swung back to Little Pea.

      ‘I stayed right where you told me, Shiv, I swear!’ Little Pea yabbered on. His big fake Nikes jigged up and down on the ground as he spoke. He couldn’t seem to keep still. ‘Mebbe my eyes is goin’ cack. Mebbe I needs to take myself down the op-ti-cian, but I promise I don’t see nuttin’. I dittn’t see da feds comin’.’

      ‘You see who give my cousin Pats a beatin’ then?’ Shiv hissed.

      ‘No, Shiv. He was fine when I see him.’

      ‘Cos someone hurt him bad,’ said Shiv, eyes boring into Pea like he was the one who’d done it. ‘Someone put him in hospital and they gonna pay for it, unnerstand?’

      ‘Yeah, I unnerstand,’ Pea said, head nodding frantically like those toy dogs you sometimes see in car windows.

      ‘So, if you saw who done it, you bes’ tell me, right?’ Shiv glowered at Pea and, out of the blue, I remembered another thing I’d heard about him: that he’d smacked his own mum once, so hard he broke her jaw. I didn’t know for definite if that was true – there were as many rumours about Shiv as there were about Pea – but looking at him then it was easy to believe.

      Suddenly Shiv’s hand was in his pocket and then in one swift movement it was up close to Little Pea’s face. Little Pea squirmed and wriggled like a fish in a net and for a second I couldn’t make out what was going on. And then I saw the narrow blade in Shiv’s hand, pressed up against Pea’s cheek, gleaming against the scars that ran over it.

      If you watch the film, you can hear me gasp when that happens. Shiv might be named after the knife people say he cut the scars on his own face with, but I was still shocked when he pulled it out. And that was when we had the proper ‘movie magic’ moment. The little blade caught the light and sent a disc of fire flashing into my camera lens, obscuring everything in a haze of white. Then, as the viewfinder cleared, I caught sight of the New Kid.

      I’d never seen him before, but I knew right away he wasn’t from Coronation Road. Not because he looked different exactly. It was just the way he kept walking, like he hadn’t noticed anything was up. Like he didn’t have a clue who the Starfish Gang were. He was walking right into the middle of a war zone and didn’t seem to realise it.

      There was a perfect backdrop to the scene. The grass behind him was yellow and sparse, and beyond that there was a view over the whole of Coronation Road, over the terraces and shops and the miles of tower blocks towards the city in the distance. You could even see the giant wheel of the London Eye nestled between the skyscrapers and the white clouds. And the New Kid had the sun shining on him as he walked towards us, just like the hero in a cowboy movie.

      Shiv hadn’t spotted him yet and neither had the rest of the Starfish boys, but Little Pea had, and his eyes widened in surprise. The New Kid was only about ten metres away, but he had on a massive pair of headphones and seemed lost in his own world. He had a face like chocolate sunshine, I thought. I wanted to call out to stop him, but something made me hesitate.

      ‘You gonna ansa me or what?’ Shiv hissed. The blade was tight against Little Pea’s neck. ‘You gonna tell me who put my cousin Pats in hospital or am I gonna do da same for you?’

      ‘Um . . .’ said Pea, looking desperately around him like somebody might be able to give him the right answer. Like he could phone a friend or click his heels together and go up in a puff of smoke. He glanced at me and at a couple of little kids who were playing over in the mucky sandpit.

      The sun was shining directly on Pea so the mass of tiny scars on his cheeks, similar to Shiv’s, stood out clearly like chickenpox craters only more symmetrical. Even his scalp, beneath his closely shaved head, was criss-crossed with pale scar lines, like someone had drawn them on with something sharp, or splattered hot wax all over him.

      The train was close by, its screech staining the air with noise. And I knew deep in my stomach that it wasn’t right to be filming this. That standing by and letting it happen was wrong. But that was when I realised that the New Kid had stopped and was staring. Shiv and the Starfish boys still hadn’t clocked him, but he’d seen them and he had this look on his face – not scared, but sort of angry, and also something else I couldn’t make out.

      Little Pea started to giggle, a hiccupy, high-pitched giggle, as the train came hurtling along the track. And suddenly Shiv grabbed him and pushed him up against the railings so his massive feet were dangling just above the ground and he was choking, spluttering, coughing. He cried out and I saw a thin trickle of red run down his neck and drop on to his trainers.

      Then the New Kid was right behind Shiv, pulling him off Pea. The train was still going past, roaring behind their heads. And I definitely should have stopped filming then. If I had then maybe things wouldn’t have gone like they did. But I kept the camera rolling as the New Kid grabbed Shiv by the collar and pushed him up against the railings while Pea fell to the ground and slithered out of the way, like a small animal. I was frightened suddenly; my heart was racing so hard I swear you can hear it on the film.

      The New Kid looked younger than Shiv – my sort of age, fourteen, fifteen maybe – and smaller too, with cocoa-brown skin, eyes like pebbles and an open face that could not have been more different to the sly, bolting, mad look on Shiv’s. Shiv was panting fast; the New Kid had taken him by surprise. And he might have been smaller than Shiv, but he was strong, because Shiv couldn’t seem to push him off. But the weirdest thing was that he didn’t look frightened at all; he just looked gutted, totally gutted, and I remember thinking: heroes aren’t supposed to look like that, are they? Not when they’re riding in to save the day.

      There was a pause – 4.6 seconds it lasts on the film loop. Shiv stopped struggling and just glared down at the New Kid who stared right back at him, and neither of them said a word. No one else dared say anything either. Tad and the rest of the Starfish Gang were a few metres behind the New Kid, standing in a line, fists balled, unmoving. Pea was still sprawled out on the ground, watching. Nobody moved a muscle. I guess nobody had ever seen anyone get the better of Shiv before and we were all waiting to see what would happen next.

      After 4.7 seconds, the New Kid let go so fast that Shiv’s knees buckled. Then the New Kid shrugged his shoulders and started walking away. I think he said something, but you can’t make it out on the film because there was a siren wailing in the background. Shiv caught it though. His face flashed with a spasm of anger and for a second it looked as if he was going

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