Penny Falls

04 October 2009

Contemporary fantasy. This is a story I’ve had lying around for years. I’ve since sucked the blood out of it, and a much altered form appears as a scene in my novel. Words: 1222.

He was standing in front of the machine playing space-invaders when I found him. I leaned back against its side and folded my arms. He glanced up at me and grinned. “Hi Lou,” he said, eyes returning quickly to his game. I watched him playing for a moment, brows crossed in concentration, and then I turned to scan the surrounding room.

There were kids on machines, running up and down the aisles, everywhere, lights and noise flashing and cascading all around. The atmosphere in here was heady, overloaded with excitement. The one-armed bandits crashed and whizzed, there was the yell of a girl getting full house on the bingo.

I turned back to Danny. He was busy shooting down Cylons or Tie-fighters or something. Look at those neat black jeans and jacket. He had his long black hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. He was eighteen this year, but he looked older than I did. I yawned and closed my eyes.

Danny swore copiously and banged the side of the machine in anger. I opened them again. “What on earth are you doing?” I asked.

“Losing,” he said piteously. Then he groped around in his pocket for some change and stuck it into the machine.

I groaned. “All right, Commander Skywalker, I’ll wait outside.” I started to leave.

“No, don’t go,” he said, starting away from the machine to catch my arm. He pulled me back and set about continuing his game.

“You know these games are addictive...” I began.

“Keep your buns on, Princess Leia,” he replied snarkily. “It won’t take me a minute to finish this.”

I waited patiently. The game took more than a minute: it took several. I stared around the room, listening to the clatter of the pennies falling and the bells ringing, and finally I went off into a fantasy. I started thinking about how nice it would be to go abroad, and how miserable the weather can be on the British coastline at this time of year. I reminded myself that I was lucky to get a holiday at all. Danny’s mum had rented a chalet and asked me along. Danny had no brothers or sisters, and Danny’s mum was liberal-minded about his girlfriend staying over.

He still had not finished by the time I woke up again. I watched him silently, the way his skin shone in the light, his eyes reflecting the laser-fire like a cat’s eyes. How perfectly out of place he seemed here in this filthy seaside arcade hall. Danny is not a boyfriend I will be giving up any time ever.

I bent close to his ear. “Once upon a time,” I began, “a boy spent all of his money on the arcade games, and then his mum wouldn’t give him any more, so he had to go without clothes...”

He looked up at me, half amused, half annoyed, and he sighed. Then his ship blew up, and he hit me gently on the arm and gave up. “I don’t need mum’s money,” he said smartly, hopping over the seat of the machine. “I can support us both, and you too when we get married.”

“I shall hold you to that,” I said, heart aflutter though I tried to act cool, following him down an aisle of gambling machines.

“Look, I’ll show you if you want.”

“What?” I asked, playing stupid.

“How I can make money.”

I laughed. “You? Make money? Tell me another one. What have you got? A nightshift at the local supermarket?”

“Nooo...” he said, “as if I would lower myself to an honest trade, really Lou.” He was searching around in his pockets for something. “Lend me ten pee, will you.”

I laughed again. “That’s a very good way of making money, but no, I won’t, because you’ll just spend it.”

“No I won’t,” he shook his head innocently. “I promise.”

I smirked and dug into my pocket. “Here you are then. I bet you will spend it, you louse.”

He led me down the aisle and past the penny falls to the ten-penny cascade, and slipped the coin into the slot at the top of the machine.

“I thought you weren’t going to spend it.” I teased.

He glanced at me. It was not a sarcastic glance or an irritated glance. It was just a glance. “Now watch this,” he said.

I knew what he was going to do even before he did it. I have known for a while now that Danny is not like other boyfriends I have had. Danny is something else.

He knelt down in front of the machine and stared at the coin, still reverberating, on the top platform. It had landed half-on half-off a second coin, but suddenly it began to slide off. I grinned. Jerkily at first, then more smoothly, it laid itself flat against the metal surface.

“Oh, I don’t believe you...”

“Shush, I have to concentrate.”

“Yes sir!” Silenced, I watched. He pulled that coin towards him on the invisible thread of his mind. The motion of the moving top step had caused the coin to push against others, to knock them down onto the lower tray. They pushed up into the pile, nothing more. I began to laugh softly.

Danny shrugged and flexed his mind. Smash! Just like a kid, no subtlety whatsoever. The entire overhanging step of coins fell down and rattled out of the winnings tray onto floor.

I laughed. He bent down and rapidly began to pick up the fallen coins. “Lou, can you pass me your bag?” he asked quickly, trying to fend off the people gathering around to help. I shook my head and carried on laughing.

Finally, he picked up all of the ten-penny bits and took them to the cashier to be changed. He had made nearly twelve pounds.

He had not finished yet. He took out a pound coin from his winnings and guided me towards the bandits.

“Oh no, please,” I said.

He was not listening. He bit his bottom lip in concentration, and for a moment, his sharp little teeth were visible.

“I shall have to take you to Vegas, Danny.” I said, imagining him reading playing cards face down in the deck.

“Love to,” was the reply as the drum jumped around past the BAR to the fruit, and pound coins came whizzing out of the tray. His hungry little hands poured money into the pockets of his velvet jacket.

He tugged one of my plaits. “Told you I could make money,” he said, and he gave me back my ten pence.

“Thank you,” I replied. “And don’t ask for any more.”

He grinned. It was a sharp little grin. He held out his hand for me to catch.

He led me out of the door and into the early evening air. Smell of sea salt. “Want to go and gets some fish and chips?” I asked.

“Yes boss.”

We walked along the seafront together, down the steps and onto the soft sand, happy just to be walking in the fresh air, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. I glanced back towards the seafront fair. “You know Danny, you want to stay away from those kinds of places,” I said. “Or someday they might put you in a freak show.”

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