LITMIR.BIZ

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wants to break into a run, but she’s afraid if she startles them they will lose their grip.

      The boys have spotted Simone and pretend to let the girl go. Both the girl and Simone scream, but the boys hold on and pull her up slowly. One of them gives Simone a strange smile before they run away. Only the taller boy remains behind. The girl curls up into a ball next to the barrier, sobbing. Simone stops, her heart racing, and crouches beside her.

      “Are you all right?”

      The girl just shakes her head.

      “We need to go and find a security guard,” Simone says.

      The girl shakes her head again. Her whole body is trembling. The tall, plump boy is just standing there watching them. He is dressed in a dark padded jacket and black sunglasses.

      “Who are you?” Simone asks him.

      Instead of replying, he takes a pack of cards out of his pocket and begins to flick through them, cutting and shuffling.

      “Who are you?” Simone repeats, more loudly this time. “Are those boys your friends?”

      His expression doesn’t change.

      “Why didn’t you do something? They could have killed her.”

      Simone can feel the adrenaline still surging through her system, the rapid pulse at her temples, the pounding in her chest. “I asked you a question. Why didn’t you do something?” She stares hard at him.

      He still doesn’t reply.

      “Idiot!” she screams.

      The boy begins to move away slowly, but when she takes a step towards him as if to prevent his escape he stumbles, dropping his cards on the floor. He mutters something to himself and slinks toward the escalator.

      Simone turns to take care of the little girl, but she has disappeared. Simone runs back along the upper walkway, past the dark and empty shops, but she doesn’t spot the girl or either of the boys. Suddenly she realises she’s come to a stop outside the tattoo shop; the windows are covered in an opaque laminated film, with a picture of Fenrir the wolf, applied so sloppily it is creased and buckled.

      She pushes open the door and enters, but the place seems to be empty. The walls are covered with pictures of tattoos. She looks around and is just about to leave when she hears a high, anxious voice. “Nicky? Where are you? Say something.”

      A black curtain opens and a girl comes out with a cell phone pressed to her ear. Her upper body is naked. A few small drops of blood are trickling down her throat. Her expression is concentrated, worried.

      “Nicky,” the girl says into the phone. “What’s happened?”

      Her breasts are covered in goose bumps, but she doesn’t seem aware that she’s half naked.

      “Can I ask you something?” Simone says.

      The girl leaves the shop and starts to run. Simone is following her towards the door when she hears a familiar voice come from behind.

      “Aida?”

      She turns to see that it’s Benjamin.

      “Mum, what are you doing here? Where’s Nicky?” he asks.

      “Who?”

      “Aida’s little brother. He’s retarded. Did you see him out there?”

      “No, I—”

      “He’s big, and he’s wearing black sunglasses.”

      Simone walks slowly back inside the tattoo shop and sits down.

      Aida comes back with the boy Simone chased. They stop outside the door, and Simone can see him nodding at everything Aida says, then wiping his nose. The girl comes in, shielding her breasts with one hand, walks past Simone and Benjamin without looking at them, and disappears behind the curtain. Simone just manages to see that her neck is red because she has had a dark red rose tattooed next to a small Star of David.

      “What’s going on?” asks Benjamin.

      “I was looking for you. Then I saw some boys—they must have been sick; they were holding a little girl over the barrier. Aida’s brother was just standing there and—”

      “Did you say anything to them?”

      “They stopped when I got to them, but they seemed to find the whole thing funny.”

      Benjamin looks very upset; his cheeks flush red, and his eyes dart all over the place, searching, as if he wants to run away.

      “I don’t like you hanging around here,” says Simone.

      “I can do what I want,” he replies.

      “You’re too young to—”

      “Just leave it,” he says, his voice low.

      “Why? Were you thinking of getting a tattoo as well?”

      “No.”

      “They’re horrible, these tattoos on necks and faces—”

      “Mum.”

      “They’re ugly.”

      “Aida can hear what you’re saying.”

      “I don’t care what—”

      “Would you go outside, please?” Benjamin says sharply.

      She looks at him. The tone doesn’t sound right coming from him, but she knows that she and Erik sound exactly like that more and more these days.

      “You’re coming home with me,” she says calmly.

      “I’ll come if you go outside first,” he says.

      Simone leaves the shop and sees Nicky standing by the dark window, his arms folded over his chest. She goes over to him, tries to look pleasant, and points to his Pokémon cards.

      “Everybody likes Pikachu best,” she says.

      He nods to himself.

      “Although I prefer Mew,” she goes on.

      “Mew learns things,” he says carefully.

      “Sorry I yelled at you.”

      “They can’t do anything about Wailord, nobody can deal with him, he’s the biggest,” he goes on.

      “Is he the biggest of all?”

      “Yes,” the boy says seriously.

      She picks up a card he’s dropped. “Who’s this?”

      Benjamin comes out, his eyes shining.

      “Arceus,” replies Nicky, placing the card on top of the pack.

      “He looks nice,” says Simone.

      Nicky beams at her.

      “Let’s go,” Benjamin says, his voice muted.

      “’Bye then,” says Simone, with a smile.

      “Byebyetakecare,” Nicky replies mechanically.

      Benjamin walks alongside his mother in silence.

      “We’ll take a taxi,” she announces as they approach the underground station. “I’m sick of the underground.”

      “Okay,” says Benjamin, turning away.

      “Hang on,” she says.

      She’s spotted one of the boys who threatened the girl. He’s standing by the barrier in the station, and he seems to be waiting for something. She can feel Benjamin trying to pull her away.

      “What’s the matter?” she asks.

      “Come on, let’s go, you said we were going to take a taxi.”

      “I just need to have a word with him.”

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