New in New York
by Rachel Morris.
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The boy had lived in south London before it happened, in a place called Crystal Palace. He had always felt a little let down by his neighbourhood, because there was no palace there actually, not like that Buckingham one Dad took him to once, where he'd seen big men with fur hats and cool guns stomping about. Grandad said that there had been a Crystal one once, but it had burnt down a long time ago. The boy thought Grandad must be telling fibs because how could crystal burn?
The only good thing about being there was the Maze. His mum used to take him to the big park and sit on a bench smoking with her mates while he went in the Maze. It was big and all made of bushes and he could get lost, really truly lost, in there, every time, and be deliciously scared. Especially when it wasn’t winter and there were still leaves on the bushes so you couldn’t see out at all. A few times he got too scared for real and he screamed and his Mum had to come and fetch him. She was pissed off and gave him a good hiding. But the Maze was awfully good, anyway, and she never stopped him going in there again like she said she would.
One day, while his Mum was at work, the Boy had been melting plastic soldiers with her lighter that he’d nicked out of the Odds And Sods drawer in the kitchen. The doorbell rang and even though his Mum had told him never to answer it when she wasn’t home, he did anyway because he could tell from the shadow in the door windows that it was his Dad. He hadn’t seen him in ages. The boy was a bit scared because he thought his Dad might smell the gooey soldiers and be pissed off, but Dad didn’t even notice.
Dad got him to put a few things in his Spiderman rucksack and took him to Heathrow. The boy got really excited because he thought they were going to watch planes, like last time; he’d loved that. So loud! But this time they got ON one! And were on it for a really long time. They had lunch and dinner off little trays and, even though it didn't taste like much, all the little spaces for the food, a place for everything, was really cool. Like being a spaceman. And you could watch movies in a TV in the back of the next seat, or play games on it, which was so amazing that it didn't matter so much about ears popping, and Dad being grumpy and strange.
Finally they got to a place called Knee Yuck, and his Dad put him in a car that had that lovely new smell like Grandad’s did but without the toffee wrappers everywhere, and they drove for a while and the boy slept. And when he woke up, they’d come to some tall brick buildings, and Dad went inside one, leaving the boy in the car. He said he was "going to see a man about a horse". But there were no horses about, just cars. And Dad was gone a really long time. And he never came out. A few times strange men in rags pushing shopping trolleys with no shopping in came and banged on the window. The boy was really scared, more scared than in the Maze. He wanted his Mum, even though she was mean a lot. And he was hungry and thirsty, and the car was getting smelly. So finally he got some clean pants and a banana and some biscuits out of the bags in the back, and went to find his Dad.
He couldn't remember which building Dad had gone in. There was a big long row of them, and they all sort of looked the same. He waited on a step for ages, in case it was the steps outside where Dad was, because it might have been. But he knew he wasn’t sure, and then he thought Dad might be cross because he hadn’t stayed in the car like he’d been told. So he thought he’d go back to the car, but he couldn’t remember which one he’d been in. So he decided to start walking. And soon he realised that he was in the Spiderman place! He felt so much better! Spiderman would save him! He kept looking up for Spidey but the buildings were so big that they made him dizzy and he had to look down again. By the time he’d started to get tired, he’d found a big park and it made him think of home so he stayed there. There was even a bit of a palace or castley thing, though it was made of bricks, not crystal. Dad would know to look for him there because it was like the Maze park, except bigger.
It was so big, this park, that the park itself was a maze, but he could never get lost in it because there was always a way to the street, and horses to pet, and other children to play with, though they talked funny, and swings, and men who talked funny gave him hot dogs with sour white stringy stuff on. When he got tired, there were big friendly-shaped rocks he could curl up behind for a kip. One old man gave him an ice cream, but then the man wanted a thank you kiss, so the boy ran off back to the playground bit because he thought kisses were horrid and for girls.
At first this maze had seemed like an old friend somehow, this park-that-was-a-maze. But in this Maze, when he finally screamed for Mum, she never came, nor did Dad, and nor did Spidey. So he decided to ask the kindest hot dog man, the one who’d given him extra white stuff and asked where his ‘Mommy’ was, whoever that is, to call for a copper.
The Boy sat on the cart and while he waited he ate the pretzel he’d been given. It was awfully good.
©2005 By Rachel Morris