Only The Wicked [Part Two]

The morning sky looked unnatural with its crimson streaks and rolling, grey clouds. The sun cast murky shadows over the hills and trees, weak and watery. The snow that’d fallen overnight was still crisp, thick right up to the bulky sides of disgruntled, cold cattle. The sheep practically blended into fluffy whiteness, except for the few splattered with spots of black or brown. Two lone mares trotted towards the nearest barn, their manes tossing and their tails flicking. 1

A stray collie shook her fur clean of snow as she sat up and stretched. She squeezed her way through a broken bar in the fence, slinking towards the farmhouse with a jaunt in her step. Scrabbling up onto the covered porch, she pushed her nose into an empty food bowl. Annoyed, she barked several times at the front door, pawing at it with her unclipped claws. A large black dog appeared from under the porch, chained by his collar to a peg, and growled softly, not too keen on her high-pitched barks and whines. 2

Dejected and hungry, she leapt down and slunk passed the older male, trotting over the icy cobbles of the farmyard and peering out from between two rusty cars. The black dog had disappeared back under the porch, and three, feral tabby kittens raced from between the slots in the steps leading to the door. 3

Panting heavily, the collie hurried briskly across to an open barn door and slid inside it. A grey gelding shoved his head out of his stable and whinnied, causing the bitch to go running deeper inside the barn. She’d just started sniffing at an open bag of carrots when a boy sat up from in the middle of the bags, saddles and straw. His clothes were rumpled and dirty, straw sticking out of his unkempt brown hair, a curved scar over his left eyebrow. 4

She stayed frozen low against the cobbles, ears back, tail curved under her belly. He yawned and then looked at her, standing slowly to try and not frighten the skittish collie. The plan backfired, and she scrambled away so fast that her legs turned to jelly and went skidding everywhere before she managed to get a hold of herself and streak outside. 5

The boy ruffled his hair, picking out stray pieces of straw out of his ragged hair. Still yawning, he pushed his hands into the pockets of his cut-offs, and stumbled out of one of the empty stables into the snowy field. Pushing his fingers to his lips, he whistled, and a dirty ginger dog appeared pacing down one of the fences towards him. The dog came slowly and then sat to one side, mismatched eyes bored before he lifted his leg and scratched his ear with one snow-soaked paw. 6

Together, they passed the large, dappled horses, looking for the entire world like a gloomy homeless youth and his tatty dog. Over the cobbles, they were greeted by the black dog, which wagged his tail and strained on the short chain. A black and white cat ran under the ginger dog, and he barely took notice of it. 7

The boy pulled out a large bag from a barrel, opening it and filling the five bowls full of dry dog food. The ginger dog shoved his muzzle into the end bowl and scoffed down the food. Picking up one of the bowls, the boy took it down to the black dog and pushed the bowl over to him. A stiff-looking, small white bitch with threadbare fur and a limp, slunk out from under the porch and joined the ginger, but the other two dogs didn’t show. They were probably chasing sheep. Or cars. 8

The collie was salivating by the nearest fence, looking towards the feeding dogs, her tail wagging to and fro very slightly. The boy was sure if the other dogs didn’t get here soon, either the cats or the collie would wolf down the food as quickly as possible. In fact, two small tabbies had managed to clamber up the steps, and were winding their way around the ginger’s legs.9

The boy opened the door and disappeared inside the house, grabbing a glass bottle of milk from the fridge and swigging it down without pouring a glass. He whipped away the resulting milk moustache with his wrist, and set the bottle down on the kitchen table. 10

A plump, mousy-haired woman appeared in the opposite doorway wearing a blue dressing gown, arms folded. 11

‘And where have you been out all night?’ she asked in a firm voice. 12

‘I was in the barn. That Border collie’s out there again. She had her head in the bag of horses’ carrots when I woke up. Marty was sniffing around her last week. I recon she’s not spayed; we should get someone in to catch her.’ 13

‘I don’t want to hear about that damn collie, Remmie.’ 14

‘It’s all you’ll be talking about when we have a bunch of huge half-breed Great Dane puppies running around with all the little half-breed kittens.’15

‘Look, Remmie, you’ve got to sleep in your bed. You can’t sleep out with the horses and dogs. Plus, the school inspector is coming round in about an hour, did you forget?’ 16

‘I don’t need an hour to get ready, unlike you,’ Remmie sighed, taking another glug of milk before putting it back in the fridge. He pushed passed her and headed for the stairs, ‘speaking of, you should probably get started.’ 17

He made for his room and sat down heavily on his bed, rubbing his forehead. He had a headache, and he was sure the school inspector wouldn’t help it. He’d been off school for over a year now. He’d been let off on the condition that he’d get a tutor, but Remmie’d refused to even let the tutor anywhere near him. Now, the school authorities had finally caught up with him, and he was sure they were going to send him back to school. No way that was going to go down. It was only four months until he was sixteen, and then he wouldn’t have to go to school anyway. 18

He wasn’t even going to prepare. He was going to lay here and sleep. A smirk played on his lips of what the school inspector would think when he saw him covered in straw and dog hairs and stinking of horse. He yawned and rolled onto his side, covering his head with a pillow as he heard the shower turn on in the next room. 19

It seemed like hardly any time at all before the dogs’ barking and baying announced the arrival of a stranger. He slouched downstairs and out onto the porch, where he found a foxhound with her large, muddy paws on the driver’s window of a sleek, black car. 20

Remmie grinned. Good old Sadie. 21

His mother appeared behind him in a trim little black dress several sizes too small for her, and shooed the foxhound away from the car. A slightly hesitant man stepped out of it, dressed all in black and holding a shiny briefcase. She apologised for the dogs, and ushered the school inspector inside, giving her son a dirty look as they passed. Remmie followed them back inside, stifling yet another yawn. 22

Once inside, the man turned to the youth and said, ‘my name is Mr. McCarthy, and you must be Remmie.’ Without waiting for a response, he turned to the mother in her bulging dress, and beamed, ‘and you must be Mrs. Banks. A pleasure to meet you.’ 23

She positively glowed as she shook his hand, ‘you can call me Natasha.’ 24

They all sat down at the small kitchen table, and Remmie leant back in my chair, avoiding the searching eyes of the school inspector. 25

‘So,’ he said, addressing the boy, ‘why haven’t you gone back to school? Or at least taken up tutoring, as your last school agreed you could do.’26

‘I don’t like teachers,’ Remmie replied in a deadpan voice, raising his eyes to glower at the older man. 27

‘Well,’ he sighed, looking through a few sheets he’d produced like magic from his briefcase. ‘I can understand why, but you have to continue your education until you’re sixteen. I think you should consider going back to St. Peters’ to finish your education.’ 28

‘I’m not going back there.’29

His mother butted in, patting Remmie’s hand, ‘Remmie, it’s the nearest school; we’re so far out, you know, and your father and I don’t have time to take you anywhere else. Let alone the money.’ 30

Great. 31

‘I also think it would be best if you were set back a year,’ the man finished curtly. ‘With your lack of education you should be pleased we’re not going to ask you to repeat the grade lower than that.’ 32

Remmie simply stared at the school inspector. He couldn’t be serious. Seriously? Go back to St. Peters’ and to get set back a year? It simply wasn’t imaginable. 33

‘Please, Remmie,’ his mother pleaded. 34

‘Even if Remmie didn’t go back to St. Peters’, he would have to go back to a school and probably set back two years, and obviously it would be easiest for you to go to St. Peters’.’ 35

‘Yes, of course,’ she simpered. ‘Of course Remmie’ll go back to St. Peters’.’36

Mr. McCarthy smiled, ‘thank-you, you won’t regret this. We’ll be expecting Remmie to come at the start of the Spring term, seeing as the school is on Christmas holiday right now.’ 37

They stood and shook hands again and then he left. Remmie sat at the table, glaring up at her as she turned to face him. She frowned, and left the room, presumably to change into larger clothes. 38

Remmie left the house once the inspector was gone, and walked down to the nearest barn followed by Sadie and the partially hairless white bitch. Just as he was about to go into the barn, he spotted the collie off to one side, watching them cautiously. He bent down and picked up a rock, tossing it at her. It hit the snow just in front of her nose, and she scattered, now followed by a barking foxhound. 39

Careless of the stray dog now, Remmie grabbed a saddle from the side and headed into the grey gelding’s stable. 40