This tale from the Split Worlds follows on from A Fair Exchange.
—
Mickey’s fingers twitched over the open pouch. The cherry red Ferrari gleamed in the afternoon sunshine. With only ten marbles, he had to choose wisely.
He picked one out, feeling its weight in the palm of his sweaty hand. He rolled the marble across the pavement fast enough to make it shoot off the edge and hit the rear tyre.
Nothing happened.
He frowned and looked in the gutter, but he couldn’t see it. Perhaps it had rolled down the drain. Maybe he should have aimed at the car itself, rather than the tyre?
“Oi!” A middle aged man shouted from across the street. “Get away from my car!”
Mickey stuck a finger up at him and ran off, stopping a street away outside a game shop. He didn’t want to give up hope yet. He knew there was something weird about these marbles.
He stepped inside the shop, pushing past a cluster of spotty geeks and went straight to the back shelf. A row of consoles triggered a familiar longing, the PS3 drawing him close like a seductive lover. He plucked another marble from the bag.
Mickey rolled the marble along the shelf. It hit the side of the console, but nothing changed. He retrieved the marble, noting its dull interior.
“Damn it,” he muttered. “I’m a bloody idiot.”
He stomped out of the shop, chucked the marble down the nearest drain and caught the bus home. He found his mother leaning against the back door, blowing her cigarette smoke out into the back yard.
“What’d you get for it?”
“Sod all.”
She sighed and flicked the ash outside. “Well, it’ll look pretty enough on the mantelpiece.”
“I haven’t got it,” Mickey said. If he told her that he’d exchanged it for a bag of marbles that turned out to be as magical as a toilet brush, he’d get a hiding. “The bloke in the shop gave me a quid, I used it to get back home.”
“Oh Mickey!” his Mum slapped him on the arm. “You’re useless; you should’ve kept it and walked home!” She flicked the cigarette butt into the garden and slammed the door. “I’m goin’ out, stay and look after Jack; I won’t be back till tomorrow. And do the washing up for God’s sake!”
She grabbed her handbag and left him with the scent of cheap perfume and smoke.
“Where’s Mum gone?” His brother lurked at the door.
“Dunno.”
“You need to do the washing up.”
Mickey looked at the dishes piled high in the sink. “Get lost.” Then he had an idea. “Look,” He fished the pouch out of his pocket. “If you do the dishes for a month, I’ll give you this pouch of magic marbles.”
Jack came over as Mickey pulled one out and held it up for him, sparkling and magnificent.
“Blimey!”
The boy’s eyes were wide. Mickey smirked. When Jack reached for it, he pulled it away. “Washing up for a month, then they’re yours.”
Jack frowned. “How come you don’t want them?”
Mickey drew in a breath, buying himself some time. “These marbles only work for sprats, like you. I’m too grown up for them. You roll one at whatever you want to have, and then it’s yours.”
“Cor, really?”
“Would I lie to you? Deal?”
“Yeah!”
“Cool. Do that lot in the sink and you can have the bag.”
A loud pop woke Mickey early the next morning. As he opened his eyes, a terrible smash made him yell and sit up in his bed.
The bedroom wall was bursting outwards, pushed out by the red Ferrari that was parked impossibly at the foot of his bed. The bricks and plaster above the newly made hole rained down on its bonnet, the front wheels teetering above the front garden.
“Christ!” he yelled, scrabbling out of bed.
There were footsteps on the landing, then a second pop. He turned to see a brand new PS3 in the middle of his bed, price tag still taped to it.
Jack peered in and there was another pop. A kids bicycle appeared next to the Ferrari, teetering for a moment before tipping to rest against the car door.
Jack whooped. “My new bike!”
A fourth pop, and a large trampoline materialised a few feet above the bed before landing on it with a crash.
Jack jumped up and down. “My new trampoline!”
By the time the next pop came, Mickey was cowering in the corner. The dawn light was streaming through the hole in his wall, local dogs barked at the noise.
The marbles. Oh God the marbles were really-
A row of shop shelving appeared next, breaking the bed frame as it fell on top of it. Mickey dived for cover as it fell on its side with a crash, spilling hundreds of packets of sweets all over the demolished bedroom.
Jack was now weeping with delighted laughter.
“Jack!” Mickey yelled. “What else did you roll them marbles at?”
“Only a bou-”
The pop was the loudest yet, the room rapidly filling with a massive bouncy castle that Mickey had seen secured in a garden down the street. He was briefly crushed against his wrecked chest of drawers before the plastic was punctured on a sharp shelf corner and began to deflate.
“Awww,” Jack moaned. “My bouncy castle!”
Mickey scrambled across the car and ran to Jack’s room. The pouch was partially tucked under his pillow. He grabbed it, feeling the remaining four marbles inside.
“That’s mine!”
“Deal’s off,” Mickey said, retrieving clothes from the bathroom laundry basket. “I’ve got to sort some stuff out Jack. Might be a few days, but I’ll come back for you, okay?”
He left his brother and ran out of the back door to avoid the crowd collecting at the front to gawp at the car. A plan was forming, and he couldn’t stop himself grinning. Life was looking better by the minute.
—
To be continued…
This flash is part of a year and a day of urban fantasy stories set in the Split Worlds. There is an index of the the stories here and some more info on what the year and a day is about here. And if you liked it, you can subscribe by email if you like, so you get the rest delivered to your inbox.
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