Under the Arches

that the door was in use; it had been put there for a reason, though what lay behind it was anyone’s guess. She looked around a bit more and found a trail of paw-prints that led back towards where she had been standing.

  ‘Better,’ she thought. ‘At least the dog was real.’

  She began to examine the door. There was nothing particularly special about it. In fact despite being less than a year old it looked as though it had been there an age. The paint was peeling from the gaps between the wooden panelling and there was already a small amount of rust on the barrel hinges and around the keyhole. Angelina put her eye up to it but could not see anything at all. There was, however, a soft glow emanating from beneath the door that only served to deepen her curiosity. She raised her hand to knock on the door, but then checked herself. Why was she about to do this? She barely even knew this person. What would she say if he answered? Probably something along the lines of; ‘Hi… err… I just saw you go in here and hoped you were OK... you are? Oh. Great. Err… well, nice seeing you again. Take care. Bye.’

  She bit her lip and stared at the door a moment longer. ‘Stupid,’ she thought again. And she headed home.

  During the following week Angelina planned each night to linger near the Arches and attempt to ‘bump’ into Zeus as he walked by. However, due to circumstances both good and bad, she failed on every occasion.

  First off, she got a detention for failing to hand in an essay on time. It was a minor oversight on her part and one that she could resolve without any problems, but it took up a substantial portion of her Monday evening and by the time she reached the Arches there was already a glow coming from under the door, and she had to assume that Zeus had already made it there.

  The rest of the week was taken up with unexpected time spent with her mother. For the first time in ages the two of them managed to spend a number of evenings together enjoying one another’s company over dinner and relaxing in front of the TV watching borrowed DVDs. This made Angelina happy, and for a while she quite forgot her obsession with Zeus. It turned out that Angelina’s suspicions had been right and that her mum had indeed been seeing a new man, who had managed to convince her to pack in her bar work and start having a social life again. His name was Derek, and for all her misgivings Angelina could not help but feel a little grateful towards him, since her mum was obviously a lot happier than she had been for a number of years.

  On the Friday night Derek came over for dinner. For him to have convinced her mother to cut her income in favour of a social life, Angelina expected a well-mannered man in a steady job, who might even be able to offer a degree of support to them both financially. She was in for a bit of a shock.

  Angelina answered the door when Derek arrived and was faced with a man so enormous that the two of them could not physically pass in the hallway. He may have been a shade under six feet but Derek more than made up for it in body mass. His biceps were the size of Angelina’s head and his chest was far larger than she hoped hers would ever be. He had no discernable neck; rather a pair of large shrugs that tapered into the back of his head, which was clean-shaven to the extent that it could have been waxed and polished in the Mercedes showroom.

  Angelina took a disliking to him almost immediately, not least because he paid little heed to her upon entering the flat and then proceeded to grope her mother’s backside in full view of her. The conversation over dinner was sporadic and awkward to say the least. Angelina’s mum explained that Derek was a freelance security guard, who worked at various events during the week and club doors on the weekend. It turned out that they had met when Derek had been working as a bouncer at the same bar that her mum had been working at. They had been seeing each other for a little over two weeks, which was hardly anything in Angelina’s mind, and had already made plans for a weekend away the following month. Angelina’s contribution to the conversation was almost the same as that which she normally reserved for Mrs Adcock; nods and grunts of acknowledgement. Still, it was rather more than Derek seemed capable of. The most he managed was a couple of suggestive remarks about her mother that Angelina pretended not to hear.

  She escaped to her room as soon as dinner was over and lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the loud noises that had almost immediately started coming from the lounge. Quite what her mum was doing with such a brainless Neanderthal, Angelina could only guess. More worrying though, was how she had been convinced to give up her evening work by a man who worked evenings himself!

  Still, another weekend beckoned and after the highs and lows of the week she turned her thoughts back to the man who had previously sparked such curiosity in her mind.

  Zeus was in his usual spot the next day with Judas dozing happily at his feet. He greeted Angelina in his usual cheery way and she bought a copy of the Big Issue from him.

  ‘So, what have you been up to all week, young Angelina?’ he asked as he rolled up a cigarette and searched about for a lighter.

  ‘Oh not a lot,’ said Angelina with a sigh. ‘My mum’s got a new man who’s a bit of a prick, and I got kept behind at school for not doing some of my homework.’

  She looked up at Zeus, but he seemed to be trying to attract the attention of a passer-by.

  ‘ ‘scuse….? ‘scuse me mate? You got a light?’

  He waved his cigarette at a man who was walking by, who nervously reached into his pocket and handed him a lighter, before scuttling away when he was done.

  ‘Cheers buddy!’ called Zeus after him and turned back to Angelina. ‘What a nice man. Oh, beg pardon, you were speaking.’

  ‘It was nothing,’ said Angelina. ‘Boring week, that’s all.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Zeus. ‘Shame.’

  ‘I did see you on Sunday though,’ she added after a moment’s thought.

  ‘I know you did. ‘twas the day you taught me about the naming of dogs.’

  ‘No, later than that,’ Angelina replied.

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Down by the Arches. You… err… went into them.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Zeus again. ‘So now you know where I live then. Well I guess that is all right.’

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ said Angelina. ‘You live there?’

  ‘Of course,’ replied Zeus.

  ‘But… but how can you live there? I mean… how can you stand living there?’

  Zeus looked taken aback. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, the trains for a start. They must shake your teeth out when they go overhead.’

  Zeus pulled a funny expression as though he was counting his teeth with his tongue.

  ‘Nah, I think they’re all there,’ he said a moment later. ‘And it’s not so bad. I barely notice them now.’

  ‘What about the traffic?’

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘There’s no way off that roundabout except across the road.’

  ‘That’s what makes it a…’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ said Angelina sternly. She was beginning to find his nonchalance exasperating. ‘I mean there’s no crossing or traffic lights to help you cross.’

  ‘Ah, but the traffic’s normally so bad that I can just walk between the cars.’

  ‘Yes, but what about Judas? He doesn’t understand roads and it can’t be good for him to live in a place that’s surrounded by one.’

  ‘Well, I guess not. But dogs are pretty smart animals y’know. Not far off humans.’

  ‘I think any animal that licks it’s own genitals still has a fair way to go,’ said Angelina.

  Zeus laughed. It was a full and honest laugh.

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ he said, clapping her on the shoulder. ‘Listen Angelina, you’re welcome to come and see it some time. It may not be much, but for the time being I call it home.’

  A cautionary thought entered the back of Angelina’s head and swirled around for a moment before being quashed by her curiosity.

  ‘I’d like that,’ she replied.

  ‘Well then, any time the light is on j
ust give me a knock.’

  Angelina left him with a spring in her step. There were still so many things that puzzled her about Zeus, but now she could see the opportunity to get to know him better and maybe get some of her questions answered. She decided not to go round that evening or the next. Something inside her, pride perhaps, did not wish for her to seem too needy. She spent the rest of the weekend catching up on her studies, which she had allowed to slip whilst spending time with her mum.

  School continued to provide her with little inspiration that week. She paid attention as much as she could, but her mind was all too often drawn to her impending visit to Zeus’ ‘house’. A myriad of thoughts tumbled through her head.

  When should she go?

  What time?

  How long should she stay for?

  What should she wear?

  Christ! It was becoming an obsession!

  By the end of Tuesday she had decided that she could not wait any longer. She left school as soon as the final bell went and hurried down Wiggenhall Road and up Deacons Hill to her flat. She went straight to her bedroom and began pulling clothes out of her wardrobe. She laid them out on the bed and stood back and tried to work out what was most appropriate. She decided on jeans instead of a skirt, but what with? She had strappy tops, t-shirts and jumpers, but none seemed appropriate. She returned to her wardrobe and discovered after further rummaging that there was a long sleeve top hanging up that she had completely forgotten about. It was neither too smart nor too casual,