Page 31 of A Long Way Back
“Is she not your type?” Ink asked.
“Not if she’s going to freak out about my nappy. We going back now?”
Christ.“I was joking about the nappy. You don’t—”
“No, I fucking don’t.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“No.”
“Don’t tell me you’re enjoying yourself.”
“No, don’t worry. I’m just entertained by you struggling to push me.”
Ink smiled and kept pushing. It wasn’t long before it was clear where they were heading.
“The Barbican?” Tay turned to look at him. “You think taking a guy in a wheelchair to a centre for the performing arts is a good idea?”
“We’re going to the housing estate not the centre.”
“Why?”
“Oh God, do you have to know everything? It’s a surprise.”
Ink pushed the wheelchair along the walkway around the water. He’d been here a few times when he wanted to be someplace quiet, somewhere he could hear birds sing, though he wasn’t sure he liked the stark buildings. There was a lot of concrete.
“Brutalist architecture,” Tay said.
“Is that what it’s called? It’s like its own little world here. Lots of locked doors and barred gateways. The residents get a key so they can access everywhere. It reminds me of a computer game with lots of levels. Us poor mortals are stuck on level one. Oh look, that’s what we’ve come to see. Ducks.”
He wheeled the chair to the edge of the water. “Putting on the brake.”
Ink took Dog from Tay’s lap and fastened his lead to the back of the chair, then retrieved the bag of peas and sweetcorn and handed it to Tay.
“Feed the birds. Tuppence a bag,” Ink said. “Bread’s not good for them.”
Within moments, all the ducks on the water were zooming towards them, some of them almost taking off to get there first. What he’d not factored in was Dog’s reaction. He’d never heard Dog bark, but he did now, and pulled so hard that he yanked the chair beyond its tipping point. If it hadn’t been for Ink’s quick thinking, Tay and the chair would have gone into the water along with Dog. Ink managed to pull the chair back from the edge, but in doing so, he’d put his hands on Tay’s shoulders. He let go and grabbed the back of the chair instead.
“Fuuuuck,” Ink exhaled the word. “Are you okay?”
“No.”
“Sorry. I think Dog was defending us from attack.”
He took hold of Dog’s lead, flicked off the brake and pushed Tay further away from the water.
“I would have dived in to get you,” Ink said. “Been a hero.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“I was talking to Dog.”
Tay laughed. “Can you swim?”
“We’d have soon found out.” Ink’s heart was hammering.Shit.That had been close.
“There was something I forgot to add to the list of ways to push a wheelchair. Don’t tie it to anything that can move. Do I need to list what not to tie it to?”
