Free Snakes' Elbows by Deirdre Madden Page A

man.’
    Jasper almost fell off his chair. ‘Barney Barrington?’
    â€˜Yes, him,’ said Mr Smith, staring hard at Jasper. ‘He’s got a black and white cat. He sent that little fat fellow that works for himto do the business. Wilf Somethingorother. Criminal type. Violent, from what it says in the papers. Ooh yes, a nasty piece of work, he is,’ and Mr Smith shuddered at the thought. ‘And above all, Barney Barrington’s the only person in Woodford who’s got enough money to buy himself a stupid little thing like that, just because it takes his fancy. Apart from yourself, of course.’ And he smiled at Jasper, briefly showing his gold tooth. ‘You’d have to be thick not to work it out. I mean it’s obvious, isn’t it?’
    â€˜Obvious,’ said Jasper, who had gone very pale.
    â€˜It should have been yours,’ Mr Smith said softly. ‘You was robbed, Jasper. Robbed.’ They sat in silence for a few moments and then Mr Smith picked up his pen again. ‘Anyway, where were we? Machine guns.’
    They continued to fill in the order form but Jasper found it impossible to concentrate. After some time Mr Smith put his pen down again. ‘Silly me,’ he said. ‘Here I am natteringon about boring old assault rifles and hand grenades and forgetting to show you our newest and most exciting product.’ From the drawer of his desk he took a bright red object the size of a pea. He held it out so that Jasper could inspect it, and then he stood up. The two men crossed to the door of the room.
    Like all the doors in the factory it was stout and strong with a heavy lock. Mr Smith turned the key and then invited Jasper to try the handle, like a magician asking a member of the audience to make quite sure that the top hat was empty before he went on to produce a rabbit from it. The door was tightly locked.
    â€˜Now watch this carefully.’ Mr Smith removed the key and pushed the red object into the keyhole. ‘Stand well back please. Five, four, three, two, one …’
    BOOM! In the air between Mr Smith and Jasper the word appeared in large red letters. The door flew open wide – and as all of this happened, there was complete silence inthe room. The word looked as though it were made of coloured light. It hovered there for a moment and then slowly started to fade and dissolve, like the moment when a firework dies against a black sky. ‘Good, isn’t it? We’ve discovered the way to turn things you can hear into things you can see.’
    At Jasper’s feet was a little pile of red dust. He was too astonished to say anything. Mr Smith put his face up close and spoke softly, urgently.
    â€˜Take it!’ he said. ‘If somebody has something you want and you can’t have it, just take it! There’s no other way.’ His voice was hoarse now and even Jasper found it frightening to have Mr Smith’s cold face so close to his. ‘Even if you have to use force it doesn’t matter. If you want something Jasper, there’s only one way to get it:
    â€˜Just take it!’

14 Picnic
    The following day was hot with a clear blue sky and for once Barney didn’t feel like playing his piano after breakfast. Instead he threw the window of his bedroom open wide and looked out into the garden where Wilf was working. There was a pleasant grassy smell because he was cutting the lawn. Dandelion was also there, sunning herself and chasing birds. Afterwards when Wilf moved on to the flowerbeds, he stopped from time to time to talk to people who were passing the house.
    A couple wheeling their new baby in a pram paused so that Wilf could admire her. A shortwhile later the postman came by with his huge leather satchel. Some little children stopped and gave Wilf a boiled sweet out of a paper bag. In return he picked Dandelion up and held her so that they could stroke her head and tickle her tummy. Even from where he