Poppy

10:30 THURSDAY

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Tomas asked open mouthed as he stared at his best friend, who seemed to be auditioning for a place in a rodeo. “You haven’t even had a drink yet?”

 “I’m just getting down with the music,” Ian replied without a trace of irony. “I’ve got a good feeling about tonight. The ladies better be watching out.”

“That’s true you might punch one of them in the face.” Searching through the faces around the dance floor in Chico’s Tomas wished that sometimes his friend was a little less entertaining, especially at times like this when it seemed every eye in the nightclub was upon them. As his eyes met those of his fellow revellers Tomas tried in vain to convey the fact he had no idea who the crazy man dancing beside him was but to no avail. Then by the bar he noticed the prettiest girl he had ever seen looking at him. “Who is that?” Tomas asked himself before his heart skipping a beat, she smiled then winked in his direction.

 “Did you see that? You’re in there mate,” Ian informed him as he continued to audition for David Brent’s dance double.

“I’m going to speak to her,”

“What?” Stopping in mid pose Ian looked at Tomas in disbelief. “You can’t do that. That’s not how it works.”

“And dancing like the funky monkey is? I thought the idea of tonight was for us to pull.”

“It is but times are changing haven’t you heard of ladettes? These days the girls do all the chasing.”

Laughing Tomas shook his head at Ian, “don’t be so stupid we’re men. We do the chasing. I’ve told you stop reading your sister’s Cosmo.”

Taking hold of his friend’s hand, Ian started to drag Tomas towards the bar, “being the alpha male doesn’t work anymore. Look buy us a drink and I’ll explain it to you.”

11:50 THURSDAY

Searching though the faces of the revellers around him Tomas shook his head in frustration, “where the fuck has he got to now?” He cursed, wondering what trouble his friend had gotten into now. Half an hour earlier Ian had suddenly declared he fancied some pork scratchings and that had been the last time Tomas had seen him.

Then all thoughts of Ian or his cravings for pork based pub snacks dissolved as he spotted the angel from earlier in the night dancing near the podium at the front of the nightclub. Was it the flashing lights playing a trick upon him or did she keep on looking in his direction? That smile, the same one as before lit up the dance floor and Tomas knew it must be him she was looking at.

Fortified by a night of Ian’s courage builders Tomas knew now was his moment and so steeling himself he began to walk towards his angel and her friends when suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. “There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Turning Tomas cursed his friend’s inopportune appearance whilst Ian oblivious to romance he had thwarted held out a packet of pork scratching. “Do you want one?”

“No!” Tomas snapped, turning back towards the podium but the girl with the illuminating smile had disappeared and all that remained to Tomas was Ian and his rapidly disappearing packet of pork based products.

01:15 FRIDAY

“Back to life, back to reality,” outside the men’s toilet a drunken Tomas sang along to the music being pumped around Chico’s.

“I really like this one don’t you?” Looking up Tomas almost dropped his pint glass as he saw the girl he had been thinking about all night, standing in front of him. Thinking back to his friend’s ideas on modern mating rituals Tomas couldn’t help smiling.

 “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing really,” he told his dream girl. “I was just thinking about my friend. He reckons these days we have to wait until the girl makes the first move.”

“You mean the one who can’t dance,” the angel asked and Tomas found himself laughing as he nodded his head. “I reckon he tells himself that because he never manages to get himself laid.”

“You’ve met him then?” Tomas joked and was pleased to see his dream girl laugh.

“He sounds like my older brother. Jake’s always complaining manliness is dying out. Mind you he might have a point. Did you know you can get make up for men nowadays? You’re not wearing any are you?” The dream girl asked as she stroked his cheek, as if trying to work out the answer for herself.

“No,” Tomas squeaked, tingling all over from her touch before repeating his denial this time in what he hoped was a more manly tone.

“Good,” she giggled. “I like my men to be men.”

Before Tomas could reply he felt her lips touch his and all thoughts of anything else flew from his mind.

07:25 FRIDAY

Lying back in the strange bed Tomas’ mind replayed the events of the previous evening and Tomas felt contented.

“You better go,” the girl beside him whispered in his ear. “I’ve got college today.”

Turning Tomas reached out to stroke her hair but found he was gently yet firmly rebuked, “I mean it I’ve got lectures I have to go to all morning.”

Realising he was fighting a losing battle Tomas got out of bed and collecting his clothes from where they had been discarded the night before he silently got dressed all the while conscious of the girl of his dream’s studying his body.

Finally when he was ready to leave, the door handle in his hand Tomas realised he didn’t even know the girl’s name. “Poppy” was the answer he received before leaving and as he made his way home he wondered if Ian and Poppy’s brother Jake weren’t right. Whatever a ladette was they seemed to be the new alpha in town.

Versions

Version one

We made our way from the primordial slime,

Out of the sea we learnt to crawl,

From four legs to two was our progression,

Up in the trees we made our home.

As the great lizards lived and died,

We watched, neutral observers waiting.

The Neanderthal began to pave our way,

And all the time we were watching.

As they danced!

Version two

We learnt how to live side by side,

Out of necessity conversation sprang,

The light in the sky became our first religion,

As we discovered a need to celebrate,

So with our voices we experimented,

And eventually we discovered how to sing,

Our voices they took over our bodies,

Until we found we couldn’t stop ourselves.

We learned to dance!

Version three

As we grew we learned to cultivate,

And slowly we became masters of the land,

Strong men were born who were destined to rule,

As democracy was born we called them kings,

They weren’t the first to discover lust,

But still we followed them of to war,

They taught us what it was to kill,

Back home our families learnt to mourn.

As they danced!

Version four

Religion prospered crusades were born

All centred upon a single man,

On our travels we saw many wonders,

As we ravaged through their lands,

In an effort to spread our message,

Many strangers we chanced upon,

Their ways were different to our eyes,

But in one thing we were just like them.

We watched them dance!

Version five

We mastered art called it our renaissance,

Masterpieces never yet outdone,

And one man dreamed of our future,

Showed us his drawings of what was to be.

We sailed the globe discovered continents,

And those we met we accused of blasphemy,

But our cruelty we didn’t limit,

We still found time to burn heretics at home.

We forgot to dance!

Version six

The dawn of a new age an age of industry,

Inventions blossomed led our dear old Jenny,

We colonised and noted the conquered,

The lost souls who brought about the missionary.

A queen sat astride a bountiful empire,

While urchins littered the streets at home,

A man dared to defy the sacred scriptures,

He made us question where we belonged.

And so we danced!

Version seven

Now the pace gets faster the longer we live,

Great wars we fought not one but two,

Developing weapons of mass destruction,

As we became masters of the skies,

Our ambitions which were never sated,

Led us to the moon now we search the stars,

Hopefully exploring looking for brothers,

To whom one question we will ask.

Do you dance?

Game Over

Picking up the controller to his Playstation 2, Jack sat back in his dad’s favourite armchair and watched the television screen flicker into life as he waited for Devil May Cry to load. After loading his saved game Jack flipped the switch on the side of the armchair and smiled as it reclined until the screen was only just visible between his feet. Comfy, a can of Red Bull by his side, the smile vanished from Jack’s face as he concentrated on the opening sequences of the game playing themselves out on the TV screen, trying to remember the mistakes he had made whilst playing into the early hours of the night before.”This time you’re mine Vergil!” Jack promised the game’s big boss hoping the cheats his best friend Jones had given him worked as well as he had been told and the cut scene once he had beaten Virgil was as awesome as his best friend had described.

Engrossed in the game Jack didn’t hear his dad arrive back from work but nowadays that wasn’t a surprise because Dad had long since stopped shouting “hi honey I’m home!” As he opened the front door, ever since Mum had told Dad she didn’t find it funny anymore. In fact Mum didn’t find a lot of what Dad said funny these days but Jack just put it down to Mum and Dad having another of their “rocky” spells as Dad liked to call them.

“Is your mum in?” Dad asked as he entered the living room and threw his work bag onto the little chair by the window. Hearing his Dad, Jack jumped up quickly resetting the recliner as Dad searched the room as he expected to find Mum hiding behind the sofa. Dad didn’t like Jack playing with his reclining armchair but today if he had noticed Dad didn’t say a thing, which in itself Jack thought strange and as he looked up from decapitating a marionette on the television screen he thought his father looked preoccupied.

“I thought I heard you come in,” Mum told Dad as she stormed into the room, “we need to talk!”

Hearing the confrontation in Mum’s voice and being a veteran observer of such encounters Jack re-immersed himself in Dante’s fight for survival.

“You know already?” Dad asked sounding shocked.

“Know what?” Mum asked sounding confused, “has Susie told you already?”

“What’s Susie got to do with anything?”

“You don’t know!” If anything to Jack, Mum sounded disappointed as he heard her pull out a dining room chair. “I think you better sit down.”

Jack could hear the apprehension in Dad’s voice when next he spoke and something in Mum’s demeanour made him share his father’s concern, “what’s going on?”

“Please sit down.”

“I asked what’s going on.”

As his parent’s voices began to rise Jack wished he could climb into the television set and hide away in one of the many dungeons. Even battling demons he thought would be safer than sitting in the middle of the living room when Mum told Dad the news.

“She’s pregnant!”

On the screen Jack finally managed to deliver a killing blow to Vergil but the cut scene was just a collection of blurred images as he burrowed his way into the recliner, waiting for Dad to explode.

“Susie!” Dad screamed and the pain Jack heard in his voice reminded him of Vergil as Dante thrust his sword through his chest. “Get down here now!”

Jack tried to concentrate on the demons dancing on the TV screen in front of him but just as he imagined his Mum and Dad were doing, Jack found himself listening to his sister’s measured steps as she walked slowly towards the living room and in Jack’s mind came an image of a prisoner walking to the gallows.

“Dad,” Jack had expected to hear the fear in Susie’s voice but it still came as something of a shock when he heard it in his sister’s voice and her sniff brought to his mind an image of tears running down his sister’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry!”

Jack didn’t need to turn his head to imagine the scene being played out behind him. He could visualise the emotions playing themselves out across Dad’s face. He knew how much Dad loved his little girl and so the disappointment in Dad’s voice came as no surprise when he next spoke. “Susie, how could you let this happen?”

Jack couldn’t hear Susie’s response and he imagined the muffled sound was because his father was holding his sister close to him.

“Who’s the father?” Dad asked and hearing the anger in his voice Jack pitied the boy whose name was about to be spoken. “You what, how could you not know?”

The venom in Dad’s voice seemed like a poison spreading throughout the room and in a desperate bid to escape its influence Jack began to hammer furiously on is controller as if battling by Dante’s side against the demons and marionettes he would be able to escape from the living room. By the time every last demon had been decapitated, every marionette disembowelled and Jack was finally forced to return to the reality of his family, the air could have been cut with Dante’s blade.

“Who is Uncle Brian?” Dad asked and realising in his absence the conversation had run into even more troubled waters, ones it might not ever survive, Jack searched desperately through the virtual world in front of him in the hope of finding another battle he could race headlong towards where maybe he would be able to immerse himself until the conflict in his living room was over.

Then Jack heard the malice in Susie’s laugh and realised that whatever Demon he found, even if it was Vergil himself would be too little too late. “Uncle Brian’s been visiting Mum for years hasn’t he Mum?”

Uncle Brian had been around for as long as Jack could remember and because he had always been there Jack never thought much about his visits and didn’t think anything strange in Uncle Brian and Mum locking themselves away in his parent’s bedroom. Even the strange request by his Mother never to mention Uncle Brian to their Dad didn’t seem so unusual, Dad had his secrets like the home brew in the shed he had been sworn to secrecy about. It was only when he started big school and he began listening to the older boys in the playground that he realised what was going on but by then he felt like an accomplice and when Uncle Brian bought him Devil May Cry for his birthday Jack told himself what Dad didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

“What for?” when Dad next spoke all Jack asked himself was Devil May Cry worth it?

Mum’s chair scraped along the wood panelling Dad had laid last summer as Jack heard her plea with his Dad, “Dan it’s not what you think?” Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw the back of his father’s body edging away from his Mum. “I was lonely and you were out at work and Brian was there.”

“I was working to provide for you not that it matters anymore.” in his Dad’s voice Jack heard the emotion returning and could almost feel the tears running down his own cheek. “I worked because you couldn’t or at least you said you couldn’t. You told me you had to stay at home to look after the kids,” Dad laughed but his tone was mirthless. “Now I know what you were doing whilst I was putting food on the table.”

There was a thud and Jack spun around only to feel relief as he saw his Dad’s fist still attached to the wall. Then he saw his Mum and the expression on her face made him quickly turn back to the television set and Dante’s quest but there was just another cut scene being played out in front of him and no matter how hard he tried to fight it, Jack found himself being drawn back into the conflict still raging behind him.

“Daniel please it was a mistake,” he heard his Mum plea.

“Is it over?”

When his Mum didn’t answer Jack heard his Dad stand up and a knot of apprehension started to build up in his stomach followed by a flood of relief as he heard his Dad speak, the emotion once more drained from his voice. “Get out, both of you!”

“Dad” Susie begged.

Mum also tried to plea with her husband “Dan!” But Jack who had heard the finality in his Father’s voice could have told them both there was nothing they could say to rectify the situation.

“Now!” Dad shouted as if trying to add the exclamation mark with his voice alone and as Susie and Mum walked from the living room the door banged shut behind them. Jack noticed with relief Dante had emerged into a chamber filled with foes pleading with him to be killed and so relishing the escape the game provided Jack plunged back into his very own computer generated world.

It was the sound of sobbing that brought Jack back into the real world, a world where life’s problems couldn’t be solved with a gun or a sword and as he turned around to find the source of the crying he was shocked to see Dad sat on the sofa weeping uncontrollably, his head resting in his hands.

Jack placed the controller onto the arm of the recliner and looked at his Dad, the man who for all his years had always seemed so strong now looked so weak, defeated. “Dad are you OK?” He asked but the only response he got was his father raising his head and looking at him. That look made Jack forget all about Devil May Cry as he rushed to console his father.

It seemed like hours he stood there next to the sofa cradling his Dad’s head against his chest, stroking his hair and reassuring him everything would turn out fine. Then, when the tears had stopped Jack looked down in puzzlement at his Dad as he felt him laughing against his chest. 

“What’s so funny?”

Dad looked up at Jack and wiping the tears from his eyes he smiled at his son but Jack noticed the light behind them had been extinguished. “I lost my job today.”

It took a few moments for what Dad had said to sink in but when they did Jack found he was unable to share his Father’s amusement. “What are we going to do?”

Dad looked at him and shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know but it doesn’t seem important anymore.”

“I could sell my Playstation,” Jack suggested and saw that his attempted sacrifice had brought a little of the old light back to his father’s eyes and he also noticed there was a hint of warmth in his smile as well.

“Don’t you worry about your games,” Dad told him as he ruffled the hair on Jack’s head. “I’ve got a feeling you’re going to need them for a while.”

“Why?”

“I see you disappear into them when me and your mum are arguing,” Jack was about to deny this but his father held up a hand and continued, “don’t worry I’m not mad I just wish I had somewhere to escape to apart from the bottom of a bottle, just remember it’s not the real world in there.”

“I know.”

 

Dad looked over Jack’s shoulder at the TV screen and what he saw made him laugh. “Although sometimes they do come close!”

Jack furrowed his brow wondering what Dad was talking about as he turned and looking at the television screen realised maybe Dad had a point because there on the screen in bright red letters were two words.

GAME OVER!