Pinprick by Matthew Cash Page A

Freddy went to work with the ink and needle, even though just watching him do it made me feel queasy. It seemed to take him hours to do it. When I left he wasn’t even half way done but when Malcolm showed me the finished thing when I saw him at work, I was well impressed.
     
     
    Johnny
     
    I don’t know why I’m writing about the guys like this. Maybe it’s so I remember them. Not that I’d ever forget them but when you’ve had the kind of memory loss I’ve had, you don’t hold a lot of faith in your own mind.
    One thing I’ve noticed is, the more I get away from the deathly quiet of the village, the less noticeable the ringing is. Going to Ipswich today was a blissful respite from the whistling torment. The hustle and bustle of the town made things so much more peaceful inside my head. It was the first time I had been in the town centre on my own since my accident. I wandered around the usual places and flipped through LPs in the music shops and checked out the book stores.
    I automatically went into Starchild’s Sci-fi, a regular haunt for me and Johnny. If you didn’t guess from its name it was a shop that specialised in science fiction and we would go in there a few times a month. I pushed the door and the bell above it jingled. I paused by the Airfix and eyed up the new model kits, trying to decide whether I was too old for them.
    Then, through a beaded curtain came the Starchild herself, Daria. Daria is the owner’s daughter. She reckons the shop is named after her and that her middle name is Starchild. But I know from reading it, and from her Dad telling me, that it was a reference from Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey . I thought it was cool to be named after something from a cool book. Anyway, Daria is painfully skinny and very tall for a girl with brunette hair and glasses.
    She had the most amazing light grey eyes that were a weird contrast to her dark brown hair. She was really pretty. She stood behind the service counter with her arms folded across her non-existent breasts.
    “What the fuck are you doing in here?”
    Daria had been Johnny’s girlfriend. I didn’t know how to respond other than honestly.
    “I’m always in here; I– I wanted to see if the new Somerfield is out?” I said, referring to my favourite sci-fi author Mark Somerfield.
    “How dare you come here after what happened.” Her face was flushed with rage.
    I sighed.
    “How many more times do I have to tell people it wasn’t my fault?” I could feel my eyes watering.
    “Oh”, she said her eyes wide with fake surprise, “you remember what happened now?”
    I shook my head.
    “So how do you know it wasn’t your fault?”
    “What happened to innocent until proven guilty?”
    “You got hit by a car when you were running away from whatever it was you did!”
    Everyone had their theories on what had happened that night apart from me, most of them ended with me as the culprit. I would love to know what my family really think. I’m sure Dad thinks I’m responsible somehow and that I’m a liar. I’m pretty certain Catherine believes me when I say I can’t remember; as for Mum who knows?
    A bulky man with a ponytail parted the bead curtain and poked his head through. It was Daria’s dad Alan, the owner of Starchild’s Sci-fi. His eyes flitted from me to Daria.
    “Everything alright D?”
    “I don’t want him coming in here anymore Dad, not after what happened.”
    Alan simply nodded a little sympathetically and turned his eyes to me.
    “You heard what she said Shane, you’re not welcome here anymore.”
    I was devastated; I loved that place so much! I loved the stuff they sold and standing around for hours talking with Alan, Daria and Johnny, but that’s the thing now, there is no Johnny.
    I wanted to scream and shout that he had been my friend since the first day at primary school. I wanted to shout that I loved him like a brother. I wanted to yell at them about how it was me who introduced Johnny to her, me