Page 44 of Chaos & Carnage

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I pulled my bike to the side of the road in the street of terraced houses. The vets sat the last house on the end, taking up two premises as it sprawled across the pavement. The windows were lit and gradually, as I sat there, customers trickled out holding a box, leading a dog, carrying a cage. No one went in, the practice soon to close.

Glancing up and down the street again, I surveyed the parked cars. Mid-market vehicles. Nothing too old. Nothing brand new. But enough value to assume my bike was safe for a few minutes at least. So far, no one had nicked Cade’s, and he’d been here for days for what I could figure out. Letting the bike settle onto its side stand, I swung my leg over, dropping to my haunches to pull a heavy chain through the front wheel and locking it with a padlock the width of my palm. No one was stealing my baby.

There was a light tingle as I pushed the door open, walking straight into a waiting room. I’d expected it to be empty, but there were still two people waiting, one with a cocker spaniel like dog and the other hugging a cat carrier against herself. Pulling my gloves off, I stuffed them inside my jacket, replacing them in the spot I took my phone from. Six-thirty. The practice should have been closed by now. The sign on the door stating opening hours were 8.30 till 6pm.

The receptionist tipped her head up, and that’s all I could see over the desk that sat against the far wall, the woman’s head as she eyed me with interest.

“Can I help?” she asked, clocking the lack of animal I brought in with me.

“Aye. Here to see Kinobi.”

“Ah yes, our lovely Doberman guest. Alice has two patients to see first, then she’ll take you through.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, taking a seat at the bench that lined the wall.

So, I sat, and I waited. And I watched. Eventually, the door to my right opened, a woman stepped out. A white coat covered her green clothes; her hair pulled high on her head. Her eyes caught the patients waiting for her on the bench seats furthest away from me, and she smiled warmly, dropping to her haunches to accept the spaniel type dog that ran to her. The dog brought its head to hers, standing on top of her knees to reach her and she bent down too, so the little russet spaniel fussed about her face, licking and jiggling and wagging its tail.

When she looked up again, she looked straight at me, her grin changing but not fading, looking at me like she knew me. And she thought she did. Though she’d never met me. The vet mouthed ‘hi’ and a smiled back, wondering how my brother would have reacted to her. But she didn’t let my presence take her away from her patient, pushing up off the floor and guiding the dog and its owner through the door she’d just come out from.

And then there was one patient left, the woman cuddling the cat in the carrier to her chest. She looked at me too, her eyes sweeping over my bike leathers, studying me slowly, unsure whether to fear me or be attracted to me.

“You waiting to see Alice too?” she asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“She’s the best, isn’t she?” the woman relaxed a little, no longer strangling Fluffy through his own carrier.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“She’s so good with the animals. They all love her. Even when she has to stick needles in them.”

“She sounds like Doctor Doolittle,” I quipped.

“She really is. The best vet you’ll find. Much better than that Stuart.”

“Who’s he?”

“He’s the main vet. Owns this place but he’s hardly ever here and when he is…well he just doesn’t have the same bedside manner as Alice does, unless you’re some blonde young thing. Then he’s interested.”

“Sounds like a great guy.” And now I didn’t like Stuart. Even though I’d never set eyes on the fella.

Eventually Alice’s patients dwindled down, the woman with the half-suffocated cat the next to go in. Behind the reception desk, the older lady packed up, a jangle of keys, locking something. The only thing I could really see was the bob of her head.

Half an hour had ticked away. And all I had done was sit there and watch some woman in a white jacket and green trousers go in and out of a door to the side. Yet I had never just left, my curiosity getting the better of me. I needed to know why Cade didn’t want to share this one. We’d shared everything all our lives. A womb, a cot, a mother, a father, our toys, our fights, a house, a job, and our women. And this was the first time he hadn’t shared. Ever. Why was she so special?

The woman with the cat eventually came back through, walking straight to the receptionist and paying her bill. A few minutes behind her, the door to the side opened, the brown-haired woman stepping out.

“It’s ok Eileen,” the vet, Alice, called to the receptionist, “I’ll lock up. You get yourself away.”

And then she turned to me, the gentle smile for the receptionist morphing into something else. The smile for me was entirely different, her mouth slowly curling in the corners, her face animated, full of happiness, her eyes crinkling. No one had ever looked at me the way she was looking at me right now. There wasn’t a trace of a smirk or a pout, just pure, undiluted joy.

The woman moved towards me, a confidence in her step. “Hey, Cade. I didn’t think you were coming tonight.”

Her voice was light and feminine, but the words were well rounded, only a hint of Geordie. What would Cade have called her? I searched my brain for all the ways I’d heard him greet women and realised I had no clue.

“Yeah, babe. Couldn’t wait to see you.” I tried to contain my wince at the way it sounded, but if she noticed a difference, she didn’t show it.