The Family Firm

Chapter 14

'Did you kill him?'

Katie was engrossed enough in Junior's story that her ice cream was melting down her fingers. Noticing this, she licked it off sloppily, her eyes never peeling from Junior's.

The older teen snorted and leaned back, his own treat mostly devoured in his teenaged gluttony. 'If I did, I'd be banged up, wouldn't I?'

Katie thought he was talking a load of cobblers. The Evanses, from what she knew of them, were full of shite. But that didn't mean she wasn't interested in the story. She wasn't particularly violent, unless the situation called for it, but the way Junior was telling things, it was as if he'd come straight out of an action film. She liked action films and, despite herself, was beginning to like this "Junior" fella.

Junior leaned back against the railing on the balcony where they stood. They'd holed up in the construction site of the newest council estate being built in the area, its workers having all gone home for the day as the sun was setting. That meant it was getting late, but Katie didn't seem too concerned, and so Junior had been chatting her ears off for the past few hours.

'Anyway,' he said, taking a bite out of the cone and speaking over it as he chewed. 'I just done his face in real good. I heard he's getting out of hospital soon, though. Bet he won't say shit about me family no more, though!'

Katie snorted with laughter, despite herself, and lapped up another good bit of vanilla ice cream off the side of her cone. She was thinking, then, about the real reason she'd accepted the older boy's seemingly friendly gesture, even after she accused him of following her (not that she really wanted to give him the credit to his intelligence).

She wanted to know more about Fred, his uncle. Wanted to know why her mum was so adamant about her not speaking with him. More than that, she wanted to know whether or not to kill him. If he'd scorned her mother, of course. There was something going on there, something much bigger than herself and it sparked the natural curiosity inside her.

'Tell me summink, Junior...' she began then, glancing out towards the city. There was a hush that had fallen over Barking, as if all the alarms and car horns and shouting and chip fat became white noise. She took a certain comfort in that. '...What's Fred got to do with me mum?'

Junior didn't have an answer for her, and shrugged, even though he knew that would bother her. 'Couldn't tell you, Kate. He's generally locked up tight about that sort of thing, never lets on to that personal business. Like I told you, when he makes summink your business, it ain't really a good thing. But I reckon it's important.'

Katie wasn't really satisfied with that answer, but she supposed it was about the best either of them could do. So, she sighed out a bit and turned to face her new comrade, this unlikely friend, and offered: 'You ain't so bad, you know, Junior.'

Of course, this pleased young Fred, and he lit up with his handsome smile on full beam. 'You don't have to tell me that.'

Of course, the cockiness was all bravado, but still Katie whacked him on the arm playfully, and he broke out into a fit of laughter. She gave in and laughed too, smiling for the first time in a long time. She was a stubborn little cow, young Kate, but she was a child too, only fourteen, and she could have fun with the rest of them. Junior and Katie were similar in a lot of ways, and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. And subconsciously, the both of them knew they had each made a friend for life.