Thunderbird

‘Good to see you are feeling better. You’ve got a visitor.’ Tex expected his parents had arrived to gloat. It was a surprise to see a policeman. It wasn’t someone he recognised. ‘So I hear you were raped last night?’ asked the officer. Tex just looked at him. There was no way he was going to sign his own death warrant. ‘That’s what you want to say, isn’t it?’ Tex shook his head. ‘We had several phone calls last night saying you were screaming out very loudly that you were being raped.’ Tex remembered the screaming clearly. He felt like screaming now. He felt like screaming at the cop, ‘Yes, I was raped. Look at my arsehole. These fuckers gang-raped me. Do you know how that feels?’ but he didn’t. The nurses had let him scream, and there must have been a reason for that. He couldn’t nark on them because that would force their hand. ‘Nothing happened. I was just trying to get attention.’ Tex spoke convincingly, believing if he told the truth, he was fucked. The policeman left, and the nurse seemed pleased with him. Tex put some pyjama trousers on and wandered back into the TV room. He couldn’t sit in the padded room any longer. It was like he was on death row, just waiting for the end, not knowing quite how the little details will happen. After last night, he knew it could be brutal. A nurse came in. Tex played dumb again. The nurse seemed happy with this, as it meant they didn’t need to do anything. As the nurse turned to leave, he jumped over the back of the couch soundlessly and landed directly behind the nurse. He looked to his side at the other patient. One word from that person, and he would be in a world of trouble. He touched his fingers to his lips and silently hushed. Then following in the footsteps of the nurse, he went to the automatic door. As a kid at school, this had been one of his many tricks. He stood silently behind the nurse as the man swiped his pass card. The doors slid open, and the nurse walked through, Tex following behind. Coming to an intersection, the nurse turned left at almost ninety degrees. Tex stayed where he was as the nurse walked away from him. The automatic door in front of him slid open as Tex approached. He calmly walked through and kept walking out of the building, his eyes on the nurse as the nurse entered the office. Tex kept looking as he walked out of sight. From there, he ran and kept running. His brother Rodger had his university flat nearby. If he was careful, he could get that far without being noticed and get some clothes. He could lie and say he was released. Once again, Tex found himself using skills picked up from being a cheeky schoolboy. He acted like he was a student heading home after a night out. The hospital clothes were just enough to look like clothes. Despite this, he still took cover when he could and tried to stay out of sight where he could. If a car slowed passing him, he would wait until they were gone and then backtrack to take another route. Eventually, he arrived at his brother’s flat. The door was unlocked, so Tex let himself in. He could hear the flatmates in the back garden. Sneaking into his brother’s room, he took some clothes and made himself comfortable. Then he walked into the back garden. It was time to see if his brother was totally against him or if the guy actually had some room for him in his heart. Rodger had a forty-ounce of Jack Daniels in one hand whilst he and his flatmates kicked a hacky-sack around. Tex had picked up this game at university and passed it on to his brother. He had taught Rodger all he knew. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ asked Rodger, annoyed that his brother had shown his face on such an enjoyable day. ‘They let me out.’ ‘Bullshit. You’re not getting out.’ ‘No, it’s true. They let me out on good behaviour.’ ‘Really?’ Rodger kept hacky-sacking. ‘Here. Drink.’ He passed the forty-ounce to his brother. ‘Skull.’ Tex knew this was a bad look but took a healthy skull from the bottle. ‘That’s not a skull!’ Tex took another longer pull. ‘I’m going to get some music,’ said Rodger, heading inside. One of the flatmates followed him in. ‘Did you escape?’ asked a remaining flatmate. Tex nodded.