Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd Page A

started off up the street. Every ten metres he turned to grin like a deranged fish. ‘What d’you think of Oxford?’ he said.
    ‘Crap-ville.’
    ‘Too right. Where you from?’
    ‘Hampstead Heath,’ I said.
    ‘Nah. Never.’
    ‘It’s true. What about you?’
    ‘Place called Dudley.’ He said Dudley like it was Planet Paradise.
    ‘That explains it,’ I laughed.
    ‘Explains what?’
    ‘It’s where duds come from, right?’
    He turned and wagged a finger at me. ‘Not duds,’ he said. ‘Dudes. Every last one of us.’
    ‘OK. Dudes it is.’ I smiled. ‘Cool dudes.’
    He grinned back. Then he kept on down the road. We crossed streets and turned corners and passed a cinema. Finally we stopped at the corner of the square. The roar of the buses was deafening.
    ‘Here y’are,’ said Magnet Man.
    I looked at his rough stubble and thought if he shaved and brushed up he might be nearly cute. ‘Ta ’n’ all,’ I said.
    ‘Where are you off to?’ he asked.
    ‘London. Going clubbing.’
    ‘Thought you was skint.’
    ‘The boyfriend’s paying.’
    ‘The boyfriend’s paying,’ he repeated in a fruity voice. ‘All right for some. We can’t all wear dresses like yours.’
    I smoothed down the rose and mint-green clouds. ‘D’you like it?’
    ‘You look like a supermodel, darlin’.’
    No one had ever told me that before. Grace said I badly needed to lose ten pounds, get hair-thickener and stretch my neck. Trim said I looked all right in the right light. I grinned at the magnet man and he laughed. So I leaned over and whispered, ‘I nicked it.’
    ‘Way to go, girl,’ he said. ‘Wick-ed.’
    ‘Ta-ra-la, so,’ I said. I did a royal wave with my wristspiralling and he drifted off back the way we’d come.
    I wandered round the square until I saw a man selling tickets. I didn’t like approaching officials but I figured Solace was safe. I asked him how to get a bus to Witney and he said it wasn’t from the square but somewhere else I’d never heard of. So I said where was that and he started saying it was down and around and right and left and my eyes glazed over, so then I asked how much was the fare and he said it wasn’t his bus company but he’d guess about four quid.
    Which left me snookered.
    Hin-so-fish-shent cree-dit .

Seventeen
Safe in the Dark
    Oxford was starting to feel like glue. I remembered Miko saying how when he hitched rides on the road he tried never to get set down in a big city because getting out again is a pain and was he right.
    It would be night soon and where would that leave me?
    I left the square and walked around and that’s when I saw the Clone Zone. It took up half a street and it was shut. I looked in the door but the place was dead. It was too early. A sign said it opened at eight thirty.
    Then I had my idea.
    I’d cruise out the night in Oxford and hit the road again in the morning. For now, I’d maybe take in a movie, then the club, since girls went free tonight, and have a blast. I’d never been clubbing before on account of looking too young. But as Solace, I reckoned I could blag my way in anywhere. Who knows? Maybe I’d meet some guy with a sports car who’d drive me halfway to Fishguard. Or maybe Kimand I would get together at the club and she’d have a car and together we’d drive up a storm.
    In my dreams. But at least indoors I’d be safe and dry, not alone out there in the dark streets with lunatics, drug addicts and axe murderers. Not to mention the police, prowling around, waiting to pick you up and slam you in a cell.
    I headed back towards the cinema I’d passed earlier and drifted in.
    There’s this trick Trim, Grace and I did to see a free film. You check out a screen where the show’s already started. By then they’ve given up on checking tickets. You cruise in. If anyone stops you, you say you had to use the toilet and your mate’s got the tickets. But they hardly ever do.
    So I slipped in and sat down in front of this big