Cherry paused and drummed her hands on the kitchen counter. ‘Is that really worse than working for the Guild?’ she asked. ‘Worse than doing nothing to help Sally, and stop Velina and Danior?’
‘I don’t know! Maybe!’ Chase grabbed Cherry’s hands. ‘I don’t want to lose you. I’ve only just found you.’
Cherry was caught off-guard. She’d only ever had to think about herself for the last few years. But now Chase was here… and everything was different. ‘Chase, I… don’t want to lose you either but we need to do something. Your mum and aunt are hurting too many people.’
Chase sighed. ‘I know. You’re right. But there must be another way.’
Cherry shook her head sadly. ‘This is the only way. Will you help me?’
Chase kissed Cherry’s forehead and pulled her into a hug. ‘I’ll help you,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t know how to say no to you.’
‘What are you to up to in there?’ Sally called.
Cherry smiled up at Chase. ‘Planning!’ she called back.
‘Plotting,’ Chase muttered.
Sally appeared in the doorway, wiping her nose on her sleeve and brushing her silver dreads back into place. ‘Look at you two. You’re thick as thieves! What changed?’
‘We just realised…’ Cherry shrugged at Chase so he finished the thought for her.
‘We’ve got a lot more in common than we first thought.’
Cherry had never broken the law before. She’d never even thought about it. However, now that she was putting the finishing touches to a plot that would break the laws of a world she had only just discovered even existed, she was finding any way possible to justify it.
‘I mean… it’s not really breaking the law if you’re helping people, right? Surely that’s a flaw in the law, not with me.’ She worked her rolling pin at double speed, squashing the pastry beneath so it was as thin as paper.
‘I mean… how valid is this Guild of Feelers anyway? How can they enforce actual laws?’ She overloaded the pie crust so that the cherries spilled out onto the chopping board beneath.
‘I mean…’
‘Cherry.’ Chase reached out and steadied the pie tin that was shaking precariously in her hands. ‘It’s going to be okay.’ He took the tin and placed it back onto the counter. ‘One last touch.’ He gathered all the spit he could muster at the front of his mouth and while thinking of every truth he’d ever told and all the truths he wanted the world to know, he swilled it around between his teeth and sloshed it back and forth over his tongue. He spat it into a bowl, took up a basting brush and glazed the top of the pie. ‘There we are! All done!’ he said, pleased with himself.
‘Grim.’ Cherry grimaced and Chase grinned as he opened the oven and slid in the pie.
‘Sally seemed a bit shaken. Maybe we should have walked her home?’ Cherry said.
‘I’m sure she’ll be fine. She seemed to want to be alone anyway,’ Chase said, dusting off his hands on his grey jeans, leaving floury handprints on his thighs.
‘So how should we do this?’ Cherry said. ‘Do we leave the pie for them anonymously?’
‘No. They’d be suspicious. They’ve got too many enemies so they’d probably throw it straight in the bin if they didn’t know who it was from,’ Chase said. ‘I’ll say it’s from me. They think I’m loyal now, remember?’
Cherry bit her lip but nodded her agreement. ‘But we have to make sure they eat it,’ she said.
‘Easy. I’ll eat some too. I could do with being a little more honest,’ Chase said with a smile.
‘The only other problem with making them more honest is that we need to get to them first, before the pie kicks in. Otherwise they’re more likely to expose Sally too. No doubt they’ll make a speech.’
‘Maximum humiliation,’ Chase said.
‘Exactly. So we just need to make sure we interrupt them before they get to that.’
‘Make a fool of them before they can make a fool of anyone else. I like it! How long does that honesty last for?’
‘It depends on how much they eat,’ Cherry explained. ‘The average slice? Probably about three to four hours. Just long enough for them to get their comeuppance.’
‘Perfect.’ Chase leaned against the counter and put his hands in his pockets. ‘You’ve got flour in your hair,’ he said, his voice dropping to a whisper.
‘I always have flour in my hair,’ Cherry said, smiling at him.
‘I know. You wouldn’t look like you without it.’
They stood there, their gazes locked for a few moments, before Cherry reluctantly looked away. She bent down to check the pie through the oven window. ‘Well, let’s hope they have a decent-sized kitchen in those prisons.’
‘You seem very calm about the whole jail thing.’
‘Weirdly, I am. It just doesn’t feel that real to me. It feels like Monopoly jail. Do you know what I mean?’
Chase nodded. ‘Yeah, I understand. Doesn’t it creep you out, though? This idea that we’re part of this whole community that we didn’t even know existed? How many other… Feelers have we met and not known that’s what they were?’ Chase sat down on the kitchen floor next to Cherry.
‘I’ve not even thought about there being others like me since I met you,’ Cherry said shyly. ‘Have you?’
‘Yes, but I didn’t really think about it properly,’ Chase said. ‘I mean, I’m twenty-six! What are the chances of going that long without meeting anyone else like us?’
‘We must be rare,’ Cherry said.
‘Not that rare if there’s a whole Guild of Feelers who are after us,’ Chase pointed out, laughing.
‘True. They must be very good at hiding in plain sight, then,’ Cherry said. ‘It’s mad, really, when you think about it. A Guild of Feelers…’
‘Any part of you feel like running?’ Chase asked.
Cherry frowned. ‘What do you mean, running?’
‘From the Guild. Keep doing what you do but run to stay out of prison. Why don’t you fight them?’
Cherry blinked slowly, thinking about it. ‘Maybe I could run for a while but I just… don’t think I could run all my life.’
17
Cherry Pie
The pie wobbled fiercely on Cherry’s lap on the boat ride to The Barbican. Not because of the waves that gently rolled underneath them but because Cherry couldn’t stop bouncing her knees up and down. Cherry’s eyes were fixed on a pale yellow flyer that a girl not much younger than Cherry was holding. She must have been twenty at most, her cheeks rosy in the sea wind, her dangling dreamcatcher earrings becoming tangled in her blonde hair. Cherry could just about make out the words PSYCHIC SISTERS across the top of the flyer. Chase put a steady hand over the pie to slow her jittery legs.
‘All is going to go according to plan,’ he whispered. Cherry watched the blonde girl take her purse out of her bag and count through the notes and hoped that Chase was right.
When they disembarked the boat they saw hundreds of yellow flyers fluttering in the hands of nearly everyone in sight, all of them heading in the direction of Psychic Sisters.
‘At least they’ll have a crowd to embarrass themselves in front of. Come on.’ Chase went to grab Cherry’s hand but she pulled away. ‘Cherry? What is it?’
‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ she said in a small voice.
‘What? But last night you were so sure.’
‘I know, I know. But who are we to decide who deserves to be punished?’
‘Who else would decide that?’ Chase said. ‘The Guild? You want to leave everything up to them?’
‘I don’t know.’ Cherry gestured the pie up to the sky. ‘The universe?’ She shrugged. ‘Surely not us.’
‘They’re my family and I know they’re bad people but it still hurts me to say that we need to stop them. They’re going too far.’ Chase stopped pulling Cherry’s arm and reached to take the pie from her but she nimbly moved it behind her back. ‘Cherry… we’re not doing this out of spite to hurt the
m. We’re doing this to help Sally and to stop more people being hurt and blackmailed.’ Chase placed his hands on either side of Cherry’s face. ‘We’re the heroes in this story, okay?’ Chase turned her around and took the pie out of her hands.
‘Then why do I feel like a villain?’ Cherry groaned and started to trudge in step with everyone else.
‘Because you don’t ever want to do anything mean to anyone. Whether they deserve it or not.’
‘And you do?’ Cherry asked, wrapping her chunky knit cardigan around her.
‘Maybe at one time, yes, I did mean things willingly.’ Chase looked sideways at Cherry. ‘But things are changing for me now.’
‘How so?’
‘Because I know it’s not just about me any more. There’s a bigger picture to think about. Tricking my family into eating the pie might feel wrong, but we’re doing something only kind of bad for the greater good. We’re balancing each other out, Cherry. If anything, the scales are tipping further in your favour.’
‘Are you calling me fat?’ Cherry mocked.
‘What? No, of course not! Where did you get that… oh, I see. Very good. Well done,’ he said when he caught her smirking. ‘At least you’re smiling now.’
But that smile was short-lived. When they reached the shop they saw that Velina and Danior had erected a small podium directly outside. On it stood a small table dressed with a red velvet blanket and with a crystal ball placed in the centre. Two black chairs had been placed either side of the table. Even though the Facebook invitation had said to be there at midday and it was only half eleven, the crowd was already at least six people deep and everyone looked worse for wear. Most were sporting obvious bedheads, some were yawning, some still had fake, plastic smiles plastered on their faces. And every single person had a Meddlum. All of the Meddlums, most of them being different sizes of Guilt and Confusion, lined the other side of the street opposite the shop. They wrestled and jostled, filling the air with their inhuman grunts and howling. It was a mess.
Chase scanned the crowd of Meddlums. ‘No one looks happy and there aren’t a lot of good feelings out there.’
‘No one?’ Cherry asked. ‘Some of them are smiling… sort of.’
‘I think that’s just a leftover from what they had at your bakery. Very few have any good feeling and even then they’re mild.’
‘Tea?’ A woman wearing large sunglasses and black lipstick approached them, carrying a wobbling stack of polystyrene cups and a big silver thermos.
‘Er… yes please…’ Chase said. He took the cup from her and oddly, she curtseyed and skittered off to pour more unsuspecting townsfolk tea. Chase slurped the smallest sip. ‘Normality,’ he confirmed. ‘They’re giving it out before they appear. No doubt they think it’s going to make everyone more susceptible and more willing to give bigger donations.’
‘They’ve certainly thought it through. Will they be inside the shop now, do you think?’ Cherry asked.
‘They do like to make an entrance so they’re probably waiting for the crowd to get bigger and for the tea to kick in. They’ll be inside dolling themselves up, making themselves pretty for any press. Come on.’ Chase started to push through the crowd, the pie cradled protectively into his chest. Chase didn’t bother to knock on the closed door of the shop but regretted that decision when he walked in on Danior wearing nothing except a pair of knickers and her silk robe, which was swinging open.
‘Oh Jesus, Dani.’ Chase averted his gaze and wished he wasn’t holding the pie so he could cover his eyes with his hands. ‘You know that window isn’t frosted? People can actual see in and see… you.’
‘In all my glory?’ Dani held her robe open and out to the sides like a butterfly and bit her lip.
Cherry leaned over his shoulder and saw Dani’s untamed, sagging breasts, gasped and threw her hands over Chase’s eyes. ‘He’s… he’s your nephew!’ Cherry hissed.
‘Nothing he hasn’t seen before.’ Dani shrugged and tied the robe closed.
‘Sadly, that’s true,’ Chase said, gently shaking Cherry off. ‘Why are you even undressed anyway?’
‘I’m getting changed for all the photographs. I’ve got to look my best,’ she said, holding her new orange acrylic nails up to the light to check they weren’t already cracked.
‘I see,’ Cherry said, nudging Chase. ‘Well, we thought we’d come along today.’
‘Yeah and… I brought you a pie to say… to say…’
‘Good luck!’ Cherry said, splaying her fingers to make jazz hands.
‘Yeah. Good luck!’ Chase said, with a big smile and held the pie out to Dani.
‘Did someone say pie? Oh marvellous! I’m absolutely starving.’ Velina appeared from behind the beaded curtain, its rattle ricocheting through Cherry’s head. Only now did she realise that the beads on one half of the curtain were looking sparser than the other. Sally, she thought and tried hard not to smile.
‘Apple?’ Danior asked, piercing the foil over the pie with a nail. Chase pulled it away and placed the pie on the front desk next to the till.
‘Cherry,’ he said, uncovering the pie and revealing the red fruit poking out from the lattice.
Danior gave one short snort of a laugh and rolled her eyes at Cherry. ‘How quaint.’
‘We just wanted to celebrate all your upcoming success. Let me get some plates.’ Chase disappeared up the stairs behind the desk. Cherry stood wringing her hands, waiting for Chase to return. She looked around at the pictures on the wall, avoiding Velina and Danior’s gaze but feeling their eyes on her wherever she moved, like old creepy paintings in an abandoned house. Chase finally clinked back down the stairs with plates and a knife.
‘Who wants a slice?’ he asked, presumptuously cutting into the pie.
‘Oh, not me, darling. I’ll never get into my dress,’ Dani said.
‘It’s not the Oscars, Dan. One tiny slice of pie isn’t going to make a difference,’ Chase said.
‘Even so, better not risk it!’
‘Oh, that is a good point,’ Velina said. She disappeared back through the curtain and returned a few moments later holding out a gold sequinned dress that looked like it belonged in a production of Chicago.
‘TA-DA!’ Velina shook the dress so that the sequins caught the light and glimmered.
‘That’s very…’ Chase didn’t know whether to be nasty or nice.
‘Very… um…’ Even Cherry was fighting an urge to say something less than lovely.
‘… short,’ Chase said.
‘… sequin-y,’ Cherry said.
‘How insightful,’ Velina said, dropping the dress a little.
‘It’s lovely, really!’ Cherry said quickly, trying to back-track.
‘Wait until you see mine!’ Dani said, scuttling through the beaded curtain and returning with exactly the same dress, only this time in silver.
‘It’s the same dress!’ Chase laughed.
‘Yes, but I’ll wear it better.’ Dani nudged Velina playfully but Velina didn’t look all that amused.
Chase shook his head, trying not to laugh. ‘Well, I’m telling you now, a mouthful of pie isn’t going to hurt,’ he said trying to get back to the matter in hand.
‘And I’m telling you, I don’t want to risk it.’ Danior slid her hand under the pie dish and moved to take it upstairs to where Cherry assumed the kitchen was. Chase stood in Danior’s way, blocking her path. She narrowed her eyes at him and growled, ‘I’m not playing games, boy. Move.’
Chase’s mind flashed back to all the times she’d called him boy and he had to take a deep breath in order to keep calm.
‘It’s just a little slice of celebratory pie.’ He chuckled and tried to keep his voice light but Cherry could hear his nerves. Surely the sisters would too?
‘Oh, for goodness sake, Chase! If you want pie so badly why don’t you just HAVE SOME!’
SPLAT.
Danior pushed the pie onto Chase’s face. The sauce dribbled out of the sides and the pastry c
racked and crumbled down Chase’s front. Danior threw her head back and cackled. Cherry gasped as she watched Danior give the pie tin a little twist on Chase’s face with added venom. Chase pulled the tin away with a great sucking noise only to find that most of the pie was still stuck to his skin.
‘What. The actual. Fuck.’ His words bubbled through the sauce.
‘Oh, stop whining. It’s not your big day.’ Danior dismissed him with a wave of her hand, before pushing past him and heading upstairs with her dress. Cherry heard the curtain rustle and turned to see Velina leave the room without so much as a backward glance. Cherry turned back just in time to see Chase licking his lips.
‘Chase. Stop eating it!’ she whispered.
‘I can’t help it! It’s everywhere! And I was going to have some anyway so it makes no difference. Fuck,’ he said looking down at himself.
‘Yeah. Fuck,’ Cherry said.
‘Right. So… erm…’ Chase looked at her, holding out his red-stained hands in defeat.
‘That wasn’t exactly part of the plan,’ Cherry said helplessly.
‘What do we do now?’ Chase asked quietly.
‘I don’t know!’ Cherry hissed, clenching her fists.
‘It’s okay. Just… listen, take a breath. We’ll figure this out.’ Chase tried to rub the sauce from his face but Cherry could see he was only rubbing it in, his skin getting pinker and pinker underneath.
‘Calm down?!’ Cherry slid her phone out from her pocket. ‘We have fifteen minutes. FIFTEEN!’ she cried, raising her voice. Chase rushed to her and pushed her towards the door.
‘Shhh!’ he hushed. ‘Just go outside.’
‘What?!’
‘Go outside! I have an idea but you can’t be here. They don’t trust you. You saw how Danior looked at you. As much as I hate to say it, I’m family, and even though they don’t think much of me, they still trust me. Just let me try one last thing. What other options do we have?’