Sally Green - Half Bad

Theres these two kids, boys, sitting close together, squished in by the big arms of an old chair. Youre the one on the left.

The other boys warm to lean close to, and he moves his gaze from the telly to you sort of in slow motion.

You enjoying it? he asks.

You nod. He puts his arm round you and turns back to the screen.

Afterward you both want to try the thing in the film. You sneak the big box of matches from the kitchen drawer and run with them to the woods.

You go first. You light the match and hold it between your thumb and forefinger, letting it burn right down until it goes out. Your fingers are burnt, but they hold the blackened match.

The trick works.

The other boy tries it too. Only he doesnt do it. He drops the match.

Then you wake up and remember where you are.

The trick is to not mind. Not mind about it hurting, not mind about anything.

The trick of not minding is key; its the only trick in town. Only this is not a town; its a cage beside a cottage, surrounded by a load of hills and trees and sky.

Its a one-trick cage.

The routine is okay.

Waking up to sky and air is okay. Waking up to the cage and the shackles is what it is. You cant let the cage get to you. The shackles rub but healing is quick and easy, so whats to mind?

The cage is loads better now that the sheepskins are in. Even when theyre damp theyre warm. The tarpaulin over the north end was a big improvement too. Theres shelter from the worst of the wind and rain. And a bit of shade if its hot and sunny. Joke! Youve got to keep your sense of humor.

So the routine is to wake up as the sky lightens before dawn. You dont have to move a muscle, dont even have to open your eyes to know its getting light; you can just lie there and take it all in.

The best bit of the day.

There arent many birds around, a few, not many. It would be good to know all their names, but you know their different calls. There are no seagulls, which is something to think about, and there are no vapor trails either. The wind is usually quiet in the predawn calm, and somehow the air feels warmer already as it begins to get light.

You can open your eyes now and there are a few minutes to savor the sunrise, which today is a thin pink line stretching along the top of a narrow ribbon of cloud draped over the smudged green hills. And youve still got a minute, maybe even two, to get your head together before she appears.

Youve got to have a plan, though, and the best idea is to have it all worked out the night before so you can slip straight into it without a thought. Mostly the plan is to do what youre told, but not every day, and not today.

You wait until she appears and throws you the keys. You catch the keys, unlock your ankles, rub them to emphasize the pain she is inflicting, unlock your left manacle, unlock your right, stand, unlock the cage door, toss the keys back to her, open the cage door, step outkeeping your head down, never look her in the eyes (unless thats part of some other plan)rub your back and maybe groan a bit, walk to the vegetable bed, piss.

Sometimes she tries to mess with your head, of course, by changing the routine. Sometimes she wants chores before exercises but most days its push-ups first. Youll know which while still zipping up.

Fifty.

She says it quietly. She knows youre listening.

You take your time as usual. Thats always part of the plan.

Make her wait.

Rub your right arm. The metal wristband cuts into it when the shackle is on. You heal it and get a faint buzz. You roll your head, your shoulders, your head again and then stand there, just stand there for another second or two, pushing her to her limit, before you drop to the ground.

one

Not minding

two

is the trick.

three

The only

four

trick.

five

But there are

six

loads of

seven

tactics.

eight

Loads.

nine

On the look-out

ten

all the time.

eleven

All the time.

twelve

And its

thirteen

easy.

fourteen

Cause there aint

fifteen

nothing else

sixteen

to do.

seventeen

Look out for what?

eighteen

Something.

nineteen

Anything.

twenty

N

twenty-one

E

twenty-two

thing.

twenty-three

A mistake.

twenty-four

A chance.

twenty-five

An oversight.

twenty-six

The

twenty-seven

tiniest

twenty-eight

error

twenty-nine

by the

thirty

White

thirty-one

Witch

thirty-two

from

thirty-three

Hell.

thirty-four

Cause she makes

thirty-five

mistakes.

thirty-six

Oh yes.

thirty-seven

And if that mistake

thirty-eight

comes to

thirty-nine

nothing

forty

you wait

forty-one

for the next one

forty-two

and the next one

forty-three

and the next one.

forty-four

Until

forty-five

you

forty-six

succeed.

forty-seven

Until

forty-eight

youre

forty-nine

free.

You get up. She will have been counting, but never letting up is another tactic.

She doesnt say anything but steps toward you and backhands you across the face.

fifty

Fifty.

After push-ups its just standing and waiting. Best look at the ground. Youre by the cage on the path. The paths muddy, but you wont be sweeping it, not today, not with this plan. Its rained a lot in the last few days. Autumns coming on fast. Still, today its not raining; already its going well.

Do the outer circuit. Again shes quiet. No need to raise her voice.

And off you jog . . . but not yet. Youve got to keep her thinking youre being your usual difficult-yet-basically-compliant self and so you knock mud off your boots, left boot-heel on right toe followed by right boot-heel on left toe. You raise a hand and look up and around as if youre assessing the wind direction, spit on the potato plants, look left and right like youre waiting for a gap in the traffic and . . . let the bus go past . . . and then youre off.

You take the drystone wall with a leap to the top and over, then across the moorland, heading to the trees.

Freedom.

As if!

But youve got the plan, and youve learned a lot in four months. The fastest that youve done the outer circuit for her is forty-five minutes. You can do it in less than that, forty maybe, cause you stop by the stream at the far end and rest and drink and listen and look, and one time you managed to get to the ridge and see over to more hills, more trees and a loch (it might be a lake but something about the heather and the length of summer days says youre in Scotland).

Today the plan is to speed up when youre out of sight. Thats easy. Easy. The diet youre on is great. You have to give her some credit, cause you are super healthy, super fit. Meat, veg, more meat, more veg, and dont forget plenty of fresh air. Oh this is the life.