Page 69 of The Good Part
‘What does it look like?’ Dave asks, wiping his nose with an oily rag.
He listens attentively as I tell him everything I can remember, then beckons us to follow him. Felix bounces along behind, unable to contain his excitement. He turns around and mouths to me, ‘He has it!’
Dave leads us to a machine covered in a sheet, and I brace myself as he reaches to unveil it.What if this really is it?But when he pulls off the dust sheet, he reveals a square glass case with a scary-looking genie holding a giant crystal ball. Felix looks at me expectantly, though he knows I never mentioned a genie. I shake my head. ‘No, that’s not it.’
‘Ain’t seen anything else like you’re saying,’ Arcade Dave tells us, shaking his head. ‘Collectors, are you?’
‘Kind of,’ I tell him, narrowing my eyes at Felix to stop him from launching into a time travel-themed explanation.
Arcade Dave sneezes on his oily rag, then hands me a greasy business card from his overalls. ‘Leave your number. I’ll ask around. If I hear of anything, I’ll let you know.’
Perhaps sensing Felix’s disappointment, Arcade Dave then says, ‘Hey, kid, you want a quick go on a Robotron 2084 that I just got working?’
Felix nods enthusiastically.
When we finally emerge back into daylight, I can tell Felix is still disappointed.
‘I’m sorry it was a dead end,’ I say, but he shakes his head.
‘That was just one stage in the quest. Quests always have multiple stages. Dave has your number now.’
‘I don’t know, it felt like a dead end to me.’
Felix shifts his weight between his feet, then looks up at me nervously. ‘Do you think he knew I thought his game was boring? I didn’t want to be rude. I was trying to pretend it was fun.’
‘Well, you did a good job then. You looked like you were having fun to me,’ I say, putting an arm around his shoulder.
It’s a sunny day and I don’t feel like getting back on the bus just yet, so I suggest we walk for a bit. Despite our mission’s failure, Felix is surprisingly buoyant and talkative. I am learning that Felix likes everything to have an opposite, and that he is very interested in knowing what might kill you if ingested. When we get to Vauxhall, I ask Felix if he would like to see where I used to live, and he says he would.
‘That was your flat?’ Felix asks as we sit down on a bench on the opposite side of the street.
‘Yup, third floor.’ I point up to my old window. ‘I lived up there with my best friend Zoya, and two others, Emily and Julian.’ I feel the tug of nostalgia, thinking about all the conversations had sitting up in that window seat; all the cheap wine drunk, the books read, and the dreams shared. Zoya once made Emily, Julian and me sit up there in the dark beside a propped-up torch, so she could draw silhouettes of our heads. ‘It was always messy and squashed. We never had loo roll, but we did have a lot of fun.’
‘Why didn’t you have loo roll?’ Felix asks.
‘Well, we didn’t have delivery drones back then,’ I explain.
‘Was Zoya your friend who died?’ Felix asks, scuffing his feet against the ground.
‘Yes,’ I say, my eyes still glued to the window ledge.
‘And she was your number one best friend?’
‘She was.’
Felix examines his hands, then says, ‘Matt Christensen asked if he could be my best friend. I said I’d have to think about it.’
‘I think at your age, it’s nice to be friends with everyone, keep your options open.’
‘I want a best friend, though.’ He kicks one foot with the other now. ‘I asked Molly Greenway to be my best friend. She said girls have to have girls and boys have to have boys.’
‘That’s not true. You can have whoever you like as your best friend.’
Felix goes quiet for a moment, as though contemplating this. ‘Did you choose Zoya, or did she choose you?’
I reach out to hold Felix’s hand. ‘I think we chose each other. We sat next to each other in French, we’d write notes to each other in our own made-up language.’
‘Made-up language?’ Felix asks, bemused.
