Chapter 3 - A Late Start
A new day dawns but for Ewan it's the same as every other day
Welcome to the third part of this epic exclusive YA urban fantasy saga. To celebrate the release I’m posting an episode a day for the the first three days. As with my other serialised novella I’ve setup an index page that will be linked at the top of each post. There you’ll be able to catchup with any posts you’ve missed. Feel free to reach out or comment if you like this story. Your feedback is what keeps the magic flowing.
Stay tuned - part four will be released next Fiction Friday.
It’d been almost three years since Ewan’s mum, Sally, had lost her battle with cancer but it still brought a tear to his eye whenever the dreams ended this way. Recently they’d all been ending this way and it was a sobering slap back to reality.
When you accept a rose you must always accept the thorns.
Ewan’s maternal grandmother was full of funny old sayings and this to Ewan seemed the most poignant. If his dreams were roses then having his dead mothers voice wake him up every time seemed be one heck of a thorn.
The last few years have been hard for the Wu’s. The day after the funeral Ewan’s dad shut himself away and if it hadn’t been for his gran then he didn’t know what he’d have done.
It was his gran who made sure he’d got to school in clean clothes and didn’t go hungry. Which to Ewan seemed quite ironic seeing as they lived and worked in a chip shop.
Ewan supposed that despite everything he ought to be grateful, he still had his dad, even if he was a lot more distant that ever before. Sally’s death seemed to hit him the hardest.
It had taken almost six months before his dad, Lian had started to talk to anyone again, even Ewan. He just used to sit in his room staring into space. It was Ewan’s grandparents who finally said enough was enough and took over the running of the family Fish & Chip shop. They didn’t want to see their daughters legacy fade away so they’d arranged for Sally’s sister, Ewan’s aunt Gillian to step in as a temporary manager.
Ewan believed that it was important to try and stay positive, it would be too easy to slip in to melancholy, and he didn’t want to end up like his dad.
With his mum’s warning still in his ear Ewan looked across at the clock. 08:15, damn, he thought, I’ve overslept again.
The only advantage to oversleeping is that Ewan had learnt to get through the morning routine as fast as possible and that included giving up trying to tame his hair, it just did it’s own scruffy thing.
Chinese boys don’t come with red hair.
That seemed to be one Dylan’s favourite saying at the moment, a line that he’d paraphrased from his new favourite film.
Ewan agreed that Big Trouble In Little China was a cult classic but he was surprised to find that Dylan had seemingly watched it non stop since finding the DVD at a car boot sale the month before.
My mum had ginger hair.
Ewan’s recollections of his mother seemed to be slowly fading but the most vivid memory that he kept close was of his mother’s laughter as they sat together on the swings in the local park. The wind rushing across their faces, laughing together, flaming red ginger hair blown across their faces.
Yer granny use’d ta say people wi’ red hair we’re kissed by the dragon.
Every time Ewan looked at his ginger hair in the mirror he could hear his mum’s words as clear as if she was standing next to him.
By 08:30 Ewan was heading out the front door. His customary “bye dad” was usually left hanging but today was different. Before he could shut the door Lian appeared at the end of the hallway, “Ewan.”
He stopped and waited to hear what his dad had to say.
“Don’t forget you’ve got an appointment at the opticians tomorrow.”
Dylan was waiting for him on the corner tapping his watch, “‘bout bloody time, we’re gonna be late again.”
Ewan would often respond with something pithy but today he was panting and sweating from the exhaustion. The pollen was always bad this close to the end of term and it played havoc with his hay fever, and he found himself needing to take more puffs on his asthma inhaler.
“You ok?” Dylan asked.
Ewan nodded and they started to head off.
Usually the boys would talk about Ewan’s latest dream on the way to school. Dylan was always asking questions, always wanting to know all the details.
“Are you ok?” Ewan asked his friend, “you’re a bit quiet today,” secretly Ewan was glad of the reprieve. The intensity of the latest dream was making it feel more like a recurring nightmare.
“Yeah, it’s just stuff at home,” Dylan replied. “Mum and dad were arguing all night again. My sister was in tears and I spent half the night consoling her.”
“Oh,” Ewan said, “sorry to hear that mate, do you still want to stop over tonight?”
Dylan stopped over most Friday nights and the boys often enjoyed late night movie marathons.
Dylan nodded, “if that’s ok. I’m expecting some new DVD’s later today.”
“Always, although my dad said you’re not to bring those Kung Fu ones over again, you know how he hates them.”
Dylan winked at his friend, “message received loud and clear.”
Slowly Ewan started to get his breath back, “aren’t you hot with that on?” he asked, referring to the jacket that Dylan always seemed to wear over the top of his school blazer.
“A bit, but you know what my mum’s like, always worrying I'll catch cold or something.” Dylan paused “Anyway, not as hot as that guy over there must be.”
Dylan tilted his head towards a tall Chinese looking man on the opposite side of the road. He was wearing a long dark overcoat, that buttoned all the way up to the neck.
“You're not as cool looking either.”
“Is it me or is he looking at us?”
A faint glimmer of recognition flashed through Ewan’s mind, but as he looked closer couldn’t for the life of him place the man.
Ewan thought Dylan was right, he did appear to be looking right at them, in fact it seemed to Ewan like he was looking right at him.
An alert rang on Dylan's phone and as he cancelled it he noticed the time, “Oh crap, it’s five to, we’re going to have to run.”
“Oh damn, sorry.” Ewan looked back to where the stranger had been standing only a moment before but he’d disappeared so completely it was like he’d never been there.
Neither of them wanted a detention on the last day of school so they set off as fast as they could.
Rounding the last corner Ewan stopped and groaned, “great, that’s all I need.”
Dylan was pretty good at picking up on his friends mood and looking up saw exactly what the problem was, “oh bugger, it’s Smithy.”
Ewan nodded, he’d already noticed the weaselly bully making a bee-line straight for him.
“‘sup Ginger Woo, I’d have thought you would have gone into hiding, haven’t you heard, Mackie’s on the lookout. Sez, youse gonna get it today ya spacca.”
Dylan moved forward to step in front of the bully. “Piss off Smithy, when was the the last time you thought anything for yourself, why don’t you go boil yer head.”
“Up your’s blobby.” Smiths snapped back referring to to Dylan’s nick name at school Mr Blobby, on account of him suffering badly with teenage acne which meant he usually had a lot of angry looking yellow spots on his face, “anyways I was’ne talking to you, it’s Ah Choo here that Mackie’s after, unless you want me to tell him yous’e been eying up Sarah Williams again.”
As if on cue Ewan sneezed and Smithy laughed, barging past and making a point of knocking him out of the way.
“See youse later Ginger Woo, why don’t you show Mackie some of them chop suey moves from yer crappy kung-fooey films, he could do with a good laugh.”
“He could do with locking up, that Mackie’s a full on nut job,” Dylan whispered as Smithy headed away from the school gates.
Dylan looked at Ewan could see the worry building on his friends face.
“Do you think he means it?” Ewan asked.
“Who? Smithy?” Dylan replied.
“Yes, Is Mackie looking for me? Is he going to get me?”
Dylan shrugged, “I dunno, but I’d suggest to just keep your head down and stay out of his way if you can. I’m sure he’ll have plenty of other things to keep him occupied over the summer.”
“Yeah, like staying out of police custody. You know everyone’s saying that him and his mates were trying to break into the newsagents again the other night.”
“I heard, he’ll be banged up for years the way he’s going. He thinks he’s some kind of gangsta wannabe.”
“What lessons have you got today?” Dylan asked trying to change the subject
“The same as you, you idiot. Double English, and Maths this morning. History this afternoon and that stupid leavers assembly thing at the end.”
“You should be all right then, I doubt Mackie can read or write, or count past ten without taking his shoes off, and…”
Dylan was about to finish his joke when they heard the school bell and both ran as fast they could for the gate.
Despite being overweight Dylan was still a fairly decent natural runner so by the time Ewan entered the school premises Dylan was already a good ten meters ahead of him.
“STOP RIGHT THERE WU!”
Ewan froze as he heard the voice of Mr Hargreaves, the schools head of P.E. and his least favourite teacher.
“Who me sir?”
“Yes you boy, how many other pupils named Wu do we have at this school? You're late, again!”
“Yes sir, I don’t know sir, sorry sir.”
“Stop wittering boy, detention, my office, after school, now go.”
“But sir, it’s the last day, please?”
“Well then your last day will be a bit longer than everyone else's then won’t it. Now get to class before I have you back in tomorrow to pick up litter all day.”
“Yes sir.”
Ewan hurried off silently praying he’d be able to make it to registration before the form tutor started taking the register.
The door to my form room was shut and everyone else was already sitting down when he arrived. Carefully opening the door Ewan tried to quietly slip in and take his seat.
“Nice of you to join us Ewan,”
“Sorry miss, I had to stop and use my inhaler, my hay fever miss,”
“Yes well, hurry up, sit down, there’s a good boy.”
The classroom was crowded, Dylan was sitting in his usual place by the wall but there was no free space anywhere near him. The only seat was in the opposite side of the room by the morbidly obese Samuel Andrews. Thanks to his sweat and body odour issues he was possibly the only boy in school who was less fit and even less popular than Ewan.
“Hurry up Ewan, we haven’t got all day”,
Hurrying towards the empty chair Ewan failed to notice the foot deliberately stuck out to trip him up. He stumbled and someone at the back of the class shouted out “Did you enjoy your trip to China, Ah Choo?” which judging by the laughs everyone else seemed to find very amusing.
Ewan sighed, he guessed today was just going to be like every other day.
It’s not that Ewan didn’t want to stick up for himself, it’s just that he didn’t know how. His dad’s advice had always been to just ignore the bullies and that they’ll eventually get bored and pick on someone else.
And with the spectre of Mackie looming over today Ewan thought he could really do with some better advice.
Whenever this kind of thing happened, Ewan always repeated his secret mantra under his breath, “what would Dragon Wu do?”
“Ok, settle down now everyone, hurry up Ewan.”
The teacher continued to address the class. “Right, before you all disappear, I want to let you all know about the plans for the leavers assembly this afternoon…”. The bell interrupted her and everyone filed out for the start of lessons. The teacher tried one last time to make herself heard over the noise, “… so that’s three o’clock in the hall.”