A Physics Prodigy From Ukraine
3.
Mum hadn’t joined me for that session.
I was glad.
I didn’t want to speak to her or ‘Call-me-Jon’.
I didn’t want to speak to anyone.
I nearly walked right past the kitchen when I got in.
Almost followed my usual routine of; in, undress, bed.
But the house was empty.
And I was hungry.
And there was a note on the table.
I opened a can of soup and flipped the folded card open.
Dear Ryan
Hope today went well
Back later
Mum x
P.S. Don’t kill yourself.
Ooh. Subtle. I put it down and poured the soup into the smallest pan I could find.
I wasn’t actually hungry.
I looked at the note again.
It was on the back of an invitation.
HI NEW NEIGHBOURS.
They wanted us to join them for a housewarming party.
Mum could go.
She liked that sort of thing.
Community and spirit and all that.
And a place to gossip about her retard of a son.
Probably.
I could spend the day…
Doing nothing, probably.
In bed.
I never went to school any more.
Everyone there was just so… energetic.
They were loud and they squealed like bloody banshees at every single little fucking… what?
What was it that they squealed at?
I sure as hell didn’t fucking know.
Oh well, they’d probably all forgotten about me.
Good.
No more painfully dull gossip.
No more stupid ‘team’ exercises.
No more ridiculous ‘end-of-term parties’.
They thought they had good lives.
As if.
Try spending two weeks in bed, living on nothing but Jaffa cakes.
Then you would understand life.
And how it went nowhere.
Mum was still out when the doorbell rang.
I watched the letterbox from the kitchen and hoped no one would climb through.
The bell trilled again.
I abandoned the note and the soup, padding silently towards the door.
I could hear voices.
“Mum, they’ve probably gone out…”
“No, no, I saw him go in…”
Oh god.
These people were watching me?
I crept forward and peered through the peephole.
Oh dammit. They both had their backs turned to the door.
A woman and a boy, as far as I could tell.
They didn’t look like thugs.
But then again…
Things could’ve changed since I was last out.
Cringing inside, I stooped and carefully slid on the chain.
I opened the door half an inch.
“Who is it?” I asked.
My voice trembled.
However, the woman didn’t even notice.
“We’re new - from next door?”
Groaning audibly, I tugged away the chain and pulled the door slightly further towards me.
I leant against the wall and forced my mouth into a smile.
I don’t think it was very realistic.
“Yes?” The woman nudged the boy.
“See, I told you he was in…”
I closed my eyes and realised I wanted nothing more than to go back to bed.
I wanted to go to sleep.
“Yes?” I repeated, louder.
The woman glared at me.
I was going to close the door.
But the boy jammed in his foot.
“Mum, go away…”
Hold on.
He wanted to speak to me?
“At least tell me your name..!” she protested, backing up a step.
I drew in a shaky breath,
Name.
Yeah.
I had one of those.
Luckily, mum came to the rescue.
She was at the bottom of the path.
I grimaced at her, and mouthed a whole burble of words at her.
She only made out one.
‘Help’.
She moved fast.
“Hey Ryan! What’re you doing out?”
I frowned.
Not what I was thinking of.
I was really hoping along the lines of;
‘Why aren’t you busy saving the world?’
or
‘What, have you ditched that ultra-cool party already?’
But - ‘what’re you doing out?’…
Implied a certain sense of loser-ship.
I didn’t know why I was bothered.
I didn’t care about the stupid boy at my door.
He smiled.
“Ryan, huh?”
Well, that was what mum just said.
She didn’t call me Ryan for fun.
But I didn’t retaliate.
I just nodded.
He stuck out his hand.
“Brendon. We just moved in next door.”
He was possibly simple.
I took his hand falteringly and he shook it firmly.
“I heard…”
Mum, meanwhile, had invited his mother in.
Which meant that Brendon was also coming in.
I felt sick.
Damn the witch to hell.
She knew I didn’t like people.
I glared at her.
No one noticed.
She sat down with Brendon’s mum and smiled at me.
I knew that smile.
It was her ‘I-want-you-to-leave-so-I-can-talk-about-you’ smile.
I didn’t like it.
“Why don’t you and Brendon go up to your room?”
I scowled at her.
She knew my room was my lair.
My private lair.
But I trudged upstairs with the new boy in tow.
And I stopped at the door.
It wasn’t very interesting.
Brendon arched a single eyebrow.
I didn’t want to open it.
But, for Christ’s sake, why did I feel I had to?
I reached out and pushed the door inwards.
Gingerly.
I saw his face fall.
Disappointed.
It wasn’t what he expected, was it?
I had a million duvets in the corner - equalling my nest.
And the curtains were duct taped to the wall to create complete and utter darkness.
I couldn’t really have mum tearing them open every morning.
How the hell was I supposed to sleep?
I looked further into my room.
I felt like I was seeing it with brand new eyes.
It was a tip.
And there was that fucking can of lemonade on the floor.
The stuff was disgusting.
“I don’t drink lemonade.”
He was frowning at me.
I instantly regretted speaking.
Out of everything I could have said.
All the words in the world.
I don’t drink lemonade.
Brendon looked at my bed,
It was bare.
Except for a mattress.
And a paper bag from the chemist.
Neither of us mentioned it.
I was glad.
I didn’t want to speak to her or ‘Call-me-Jon’.
I didn’t want to speak to anyone.
I nearly walked right past the kitchen when I got in.
Almost followed my usual routine of; in, undress, bed.
But the house was empty.
And I was hungry.
And there was a note on the table.
I opened a can of soup and flipped the folded card open.
Dear Ryan
Hope today went well
Back later
Mum x
P.S. Don’t kill yourself.
Ooh. Subtle. I put it down and poured the soup into the smallest pan I could find.
I wasn’t actually hungry.
I looked at the note again.
It was on the back of an invitation.
HI NEW NEIGHBOURS.
They wanted us to join them for a housewarming party.
Mum could go.
She liked that sort of thing.
Community and spirit and all that.
And a place to gossip about her retard of a son.
Probably.
I could spend the day…
Doing nothing, probably.
In bed.
I never went to school any more.
Everyone there was just so… energetic.
They were loud and they squealed like bloody banshees at every single little fucking… what?
What was it that they squealed at?
I sure as hell didn’t fucking know.
Oh well, they’d probably all forgotten about me.
Good.
No more painfully dull gossip.
No more stupid ‘team’ exercises.
No more ridiculous ‘end-of-term parties’.
They thought they had good lives.
As if.
Try spending two weeks in bed, living on nothing but Jaffa cakes.
Then you would understand life.
And how it went nowhere.
Mum was still out when the doorbell rang.
I watched the letterbox from the kitchen and hoped no one would climb through.
The bell trilled again.
I abandoned the note and the soup, padding silently towards the door.
I could hear voices.
“Mum, they’ve probably gone out…”
“No, no, I saw him go in…”
Oh god.
These people were watching me?
I crept forward and peered through the peephole.
Oh dammit. They both had their backs turned to the door.
A woman and a boy, as far as I could tell.
They didn’t look like thugs.
But then again…
Things could’ve changed since I was last out.
Cringing inside, I stooped and carefully slid on the chain.
I opened the door half an inch.
“Who is it?” I asked.
My voice trembled.
However, the woman didn’t even notice.
“We’re new - from next door?”
Groaning audibly, I tugged away the chain and pulled the door slightly further towards me.
I leant against the wall and forced my mouth into a smile.
I don’t think it was very realistic.
“Yes?” The woman nudged the boy.
“See, I told you he was in…”
I closed my eyes and realised I wanted nothing more than to go back to bed.
I wanted to go to sleep.
“Yes?” I repeated, louder.
The woman glared at me.
I was going to close the door.
But the boy jammed in his foot.
“Mum, go away…”
Hold on.
He wanted to speak to me?
“At least tell me your name..!” she protested, backing up a step.
I drew in a shaky breath,
Name.
Yeah.
I had one of those.
Luckily, mum came to the rescue.
She was at the bottom of the path.
I grimaced at her, and mouthed a whole burble of words at her.
She only made out one.
‘Help’.
She moved fast.
“Hey Ryan! What’re you doing out?”
I frowned.
Not what I was thinking of.
I was really hoping along the lines of;
‘Why aren’t you busy saving the world?’
or
‘What, have you ditched that ultra-cool party already?’
But - ‘what’re you doing out?’…
Implied a certain sense of loser-ship.
I didn’t know why I was bothered.
I didn’t care about the stupid boy at my door.
He smiled.
“Ryan, huh?”
Well, that was what mum just said.
She didn’t call me Ryan for fun.
But I didn’t retaliate.
I just nodded.
He stuck out his hand.
“Brendon. We just moved in next door.”
He was possibly simple.
I took his hand falteringly and he shook it firmly.
“I heard…”
Mum, meanwhile, had invited his mother in.
Which meant that Brendon was also coming in.
I felt sick.
Damn the witch to hell.
She knew I didn’t like people.
I glared at her.
No one noticed.
She sat down with Brendon’s mum and smiled at me.
I knew that smile.
It was her ‘I-want-you-to-leave-so-I-can-talk-about-you’ smile.
I didn’t like it.
“Why don’t you and Brendon go up to your room?”
I scowled at her.
She knew my room was my lair.
My private lair.
But I trudged upstairs with the new boy in tow.
And I stopped at the door.
It wasn’t very interesting.
Brendon arched a single eyebrow.
I didn’t want to open it.
But, for Christ’s sake, why did I feel I had to?
I reached out and pushed the door inwards.
Gingerly.
I saw his face fall.
Disappointed.
It wasn’t what he expected, was it?
I had a million duvets in the corner - equalling my nest.
And the curtains were duct taped to the wall to create complete and utter darkness.
I couldn’t really have mum tearing them open every morning.
How the hell was I supposed to sleep?
I looked further into my room.
I felt like I was seeing it with brand new eyes.
It was a tip.
And there was that fucking can of lemonade on the floor.
The stuff was disgusting.
“I don’t drink lemonade.”
He was frowning at me.
I instantly regretted speaking.
Out of everything I could have said.
All the words in the world.
I don’t drink lemonade.
Brendon looked at my bed,
It was bare.
Except for a mattress.
And a paper bag from the chemist.
Neither of us mentioned it.