you tellin’, Dirty Little Peck?’ Raff jumped up from the chair and shoved his face close to Jonah’s.
Jonah moved away, ignoring him, which is what Lucy told him was always the best policy, and got on with putting three Weetabix into each bowl.
‘Come on then, Peck!’ Raff was snarling, his lips rolling back, showing his tiny white teeth. He lifted his arms, aiming his catapult at him. ‘Peck versus the Slingsman! Phwooff!’
‘Shut up, Raff!’ He put his hands over his ears, but he could still hear Raff saying it, and making his stupid raspberry sounds.
‘Little Peck. Fuckin’ Peck.’
‘Don’t swear!’ In a rush of rage, Jonah pushed Raff to the floor.
Raff jumped straight up and threw himself at Jonah, and they staggered through the kitchen and out into the hall, where Jonah managed to shove his brother off him. Raff fell back against the stairs, grabbing the stepladder as he went, and it fell on top of him, and he started crying, really loudly.
Panicked, Jonah shoved the stepladder away and knelt beside him. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Are you OK, Raff? Where does it hurt?’
Raff just screamed louder, like when he was a toddler. ‘Mayo!’ he was screaming, over and over, and Jonah put his hands over his ears again.
‘STOP!’
Raff stopped. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Raff slid himself off the stairs and opened up his arms, and Jonah knelt down and hugged him. They rolled over and lay side by side, amongst the shoes.
‘What’s she doing in the park?’ asked Raff.
‘Yoga.’
‘But her yoga mat’s in the sitting room.’
‘Yes, but your Ben 10 puzzle’s on it. She probably didn’t want to break it.’ Out of the side of his eye Jonah could see the yellow word on the rusty red of the can they’d filled up at the service station. GASOLINE. The American word for petrol. Closer in, by his temple, the chewed-up heel of one of her clogs. Why haven’t you got your shoes on? he asked her silently.
‘Jonah,’ Raff whispered.
‘What?’
‘Is Bad Granny going to come?’
Jonah got a flash of Bad Granny’s looming, brightly coloured face, and felt a shiver run through his body. ‘Don’t be stupid,’ he said. Raff had sounded like a really young child, which he was, of course. Jonah wriggled his arm under his shoulders.
‘Alright, me old Peck,’ said Raff, but in a little cockney chirrup, not that horrible gangster voice. Jonah giggled.
‘How nice to meet you, Lord Pecker!’ he said in his Your Majesty voice, and Raff rolled around, snorting. Jonah chuckled. It was usually Raff who made him laugh. Through their laughing came a sound, which Jonah hardly heard, but Raff suddenly sat up straight, looking wide-eyed at the door. ‘Mayo?’ he whispered.
Jonah sat up too. Raff was holding his body very stiff. There was a moment’s silence.
‘What was it?’ Jonah whispered.
‘Someone. Looking through the letter box.’ Raff got to his feet, but Jonah grabbed his ankle.
‘Don’t open it!’ he hissed.
‘Why?’
‘It might be the Raggedy Man.’
‘The Raggedy Man?’ Raff crouched back down. Jonah reached for his hand. They both stared at the letter box, listening hard. A car came up Wanless Road and turned the corner.
‘Why do you think it was the Raggedy Man?’ Raff whispered.
‘I don’t know. Just because he was outside our house.’
‘And he wants to come in?’
‘I don’t know. Are you sure you saw someone?’
Raff nodded. He lifted his arms and aimed his sling at the letter box. ‘Phwoof.’ He made the sound very quietly. Then he stood up and stretched, and pulled up his pyjama bottoms. ‘Bags the wood bowl,’ he said, in a normal voice.
Having breakfast in the enormous bowls made them laugh again, the way they had to reach down to get their spoons to the Weetabix. Then Raff said, ‘Who sent them?’
Jonah looked at the skeletal flowers. On their way to dust. ‘Roland,’ he said.
‘What, from prison?’
‘You can still send people things. He sent you those posters of the runners.’
‘Did Daddy give me those?’
‘Yes!’
‘I thought it was Saviour.’
‘It was Roland. Last year, when the Olympics were on. You should remember that, Raff! Imagine if Roland knew you’d got him mixed up with Saviour!’
‘Fuck off, Jonah, because I didn’t mix him up with Saviour. I just thought Saviour gave me the posters.’
‘Anyway. He sent Lucy flowers before.’
‘When?’
‘On her birthday.’
‘So why did he send some now?’
‘Maybe because she was ill? How should I know, Raff?’ Sometimes Raff’s questions went on and on.
‘But how did he know she was ill?’
‘Maybe he phoned her.’ Jonah suddenly remembered finding her red phone in the flowerpot, and tried to think what he’d done with it.
‘Why didn’t he speak to us, then?’
‘I don’t know, Raff! I don’t know anything about it! I don’t even know if it was him who sent the flowers!’
‘No need to fuckin’ shout, fam.’
‘Don’t swear! You always swear!’ Jonah picked up the mixing bowl and tried to put it in the sink, but the sink was too full.
‘You got anger management, bro.’ Raff shook his head for a bit, squashing ants with the back of his spoon. ‘Maybe he sent them because he’s coming out on patrol.’
‘Parole.’ There was no room on the draining board either.
‘Maybe he’ll get out in time for Sports Day.’ Raff examined the ants on the back
