Angels and Rain

The door was pulled open as soon as I knocked. She hadn’t changed a bit since I last saw her two years ago. Straight blonde hair, a long fringe that still hung in her powder blue eyes and creamy English Rose skin with a serious freckle problem. A face that could home no malice.

“Helaynia!” Her eyes widened in surprise. I gave a small and rather embarrassed smile.

“Hiya. Sorry, it’s rather late now, but…”

She held up a hand to signify me to stop talking. “Late? Don’t ridiculous! I’m so glad you came by!
Come in, it’s bloody cold out there.”

I tried to protest but she caught me by the neck of my T-Shirt and dragged me inside.

“It’s so weird! I mean, we’re practically neighbours and yet we never seem to see each other. Isn’t it
odd how that happens?”

“Well…” I said, standing like a lemon in her hallway, dripping onto the bare polished floorboards.

“Erm, You’ve redecorated.” Was all I could say, still slightly stunned at being hauled in by my top.

“Yeah! Those pillars were getting very annoying. Go through and sit down, I’ll get you a cup of tea. You
still have the same, don’t you? Builders tea.” She looked up at me with a smile. “When we had the
builders in, you could tell by looking at them how much sugar they had. We used to make bets as to
what their tea order would be.” She ushered me, in her busy Kiaity-like manner, to her sitting room. I
felt a bit lost as she trotted off to the kitchen to make us both tea. I hadn’t seen her for years and yet
here I was sitting here like nothing had ever happened.

I perched awkwardly on her white sofa. The place still even smelt the same as far as I remembered.
Lillies, linen and the sunflowers in the corner. The white walls were still impossibly clean and
everything looked like it had been lined up with a ruler. The place was too clinically tidy to be normal.
Kiaity had never been this tidy before, I’m sure of it.

She came back in with the tea and sat down next to me, put her feet up on the pine coffee table and
handed me an enamel mug. We sat in silence for a few minutes, her enthusiasm fizzled out with the
initial shock of my arrival. Or maybe she was just thinking of things to say. When she finally spoke
again, I wished she hadn’t.

“I heard about Feadie”

I looked down into my tea.

“That must have been hard.”

“Mmm,” was all I could say.

“He was a lovely guy. I can’t see why anyone would want to do that to him.” She paused. “His poor
family. Poor you as well, Layna. You’d known him for a while, hadn’t you?”

I still didn’t look up “Since I was four”

“Bloody hell. That’s almost sixteen years.”

I said nothing.

“Do they have any idea what happened to him?”

“Feadie? God, no.” I shook my head.

“Do you think he was… you know… turned?”

I looked at her, her wide blue eyes open with concern. Treading carefully.

“Possibly. Possibly not.”

“Well, you never know.”

Then-

“He might come back, you know.”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “He might. Do you remember that time where he wrote all the lyrics to ‘Come Back to
Texas’ on the whiteboard behind Mrs. Silver?”

She laughed. “Christ, I’d forgotten about that.”

“She actually did go back to the States after that, didn’t she?”

“I can’t remember. Probably. I remember she was so upset.”

“Serves her right, she had a ridiculous accent.”

Kiaity’s eyebrows did a jig “Hello pot, this is kettle! Your accent hasn’t mellowed either. You’re still as
Cockney as jellied eels.”

“Oh thanks!”

“You’re welcome”

I laughed. I’d forgotten how good fun she was to be with. I remember first meeting her. I’d been
terrified. She’d looked to me like the typical stereotyped stuck up cow to me. I have always been one
to’ judge a book by its cover’ as some English Teachery types would say.

“So what are you doing with yourself now, workwise?” She asked me, stirring her tea and looking up.

Oh crap.

“Well, up until this evening I was a chef at Pizza Express.”

“Up until?”

“Uh, yeah. I was sacked.”

She laughed. “Really? Why?”

“I attacked my boss.” I admitted shyly. “I, er...”

“What?”

“Broke her face with a chopping board.”

Laughter gripped Kiaity and shook her from side to side so that tears rolled down her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said after she’d calmed down somewhat, “but I think that might just be the funniest
thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Well she didn’t take too kindly to it!”

She giggled.

“Neither did anyone else. They had to drag her out through the dining area. Someone made up a
rumour that a pan of bolognaise hit her in the face but I don’t think anyone bought it.”

Kiaity was in stitches by this time. I had to wait until she could breathe and had wiped the tears from
her eyes before she spoke again. “Neither would I! Oh, God, I think I’m having a cardiac.” Then she
leaned forwards and said, with an alarming sparkle in her eyes. “Did you break anything?”

“The board.”

“Facewise.”

“I don’t know actually I knocked her out and there was a hell of a lot of blood on the floor.”

“Her nose?”

“Most likely. I think I’ve ruined what looks she had for life.”

“What was her name?”

“Why?”

“I might know her. The theatre and all that.”

Kiaity was a member of the theatre? First I’ve heard. She completely abhorred the idea of acting at
school. “Sally Longman.”

She pondered for a moment. “No, I don't think so.”

“Not a nice piece of work. I never knew you’d grown a new interest in acting?”

She nodded.

“Oh. You never liked it at school.”

“I’ve got over my shyness.”

“Oh good.”

Kiaity had never been shy.

The rest of the evening passed with unnatural ease. We mainly nattered on about people and
teachers that we knew at school (Feadie didn’t come back up again, thank God) and watched
Hannibal Rising (her idea), which I had never seen and never want to see again, before both falling
asleep on the sofa about halfway through the film.

For some bloody insane reason I was woken up at about two by the telephone ringing. Why it was
ringing at two in the morning I had no idea, but I left it, thinking it would be for Kiaity, who had migrated
to the floor and was looking like a starfish. I threw a cushion at her head.

“It’s for you, bitchface.”

She batted away the cushion and gave me a two-fingered salute.

“Oh, charming manners from and English lady, I’m sure.” I burrowed further into one of the cushions
to try and block out the phone. Finally, the recorded answerphone message answered.

“Hi! This is Kiaity Reynolds. Unfortunately, I am either out somewhere or can’t be arsed to come to the
phone right now. Please leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you soon.”

Oh, this should be interesting.

“Helaynia? Helaynia Ryves?”

I sat up straight in my seat, my breath catching in my throat. What the fresh hell?

“Helaynia are you there?”

I stayed silent. I couldn’t speak even if I wanted to.

“Helaynia, I know your there, I can hear your breathing. Hi!”

He hung up.