Page 45 of The Family Remains

‘Oh, you know. A few years. I was on the lake before, doing boat rides, excursions, that sort of thing.’

I act as if I did not already know this. ‘So you’re from Chicago? Originally?’

‘Yup. Born and bred. What about you? Are you a born-and-bred Londoner?’

‘Yes. Yes I am. I was born in a hospital room overlooking the Houses of Parliament. Brought up on the banks of the River Thames. And now I live in central London. I am very much a born and bred Londoner.’ I pause as I try to think of a way to steer the conversation towards the information I need. Then I have it. ‘What happened with the girl from Milton Keynes?’

‘Ah, we broke up. Couldn’t hack the long-distance thing. Plus she …’ He pauses. ‘Well, she couldn’t hack my sexuality.’

My breath catches. Kris Doll is not straight?

‘You mean, you’re not just into girls?’

‘Correct.’ He runs his palms down the side of his lager bottle. ‘Yeah. I thought Brits were meant to be so liberal and tolerant. At least,allthe ones I ever met before were. But not her, it transpired.’

‘Do you know a lot of British people?’

‘A few. Yeah. Guys, mainly, you know. When I’m out at bars and the like.’

‘What sort of bars do you go to? I mean, is there a particular scene for queer boys who like big bikes?’

He gives a wry laugh. ‘No. Not really. There’s a biker bar I used to go to a while back. But then I got into a kind of messy situation with a girl there and now I tend to just go to normal bars. You know.’

‘A messy situation?’

‘Yeah.’ He laughs again. ‘I was really into her, but she was really into this other guy and she played us off against each other for months and then … well. Plot twist – turned out he was bi too and he and I, well, you know …’ He laughs and grimaces. ‘She was not pleased. So, yeah, I kind of stopped going there.’

I pretend that I am still listening but I’m not. I’m busy swallowing down the fireball of shock that has just jumped from my gut to my throat at the revelation that Phin is bi, actively bi, and that Phin,my Phin, has slept with Kris Doll, this man who I am currently sitting just a few inches away from, and that if I were to touch Kris, right now, it would be almost as if I were touching Phin and I should feel jealous, maybe, or angry, but I don’t, I just feel filled with wonder and a need to be close to someone who has been close to Phin.

‘What was he like?’

‘The other guy?’

‘Yeah. The other guy.’

‘Oh, he was British too, actually! Ha! From London. Kind of … posh.’Pash.

I swallow hard. ‘Oh, yeah?’

‘Yeah. He was kind of,possibly, the most interesting person I’ve ever met in my life.’

‘In what way?’

‘Oh, just in … He was kind of beautiful, but not vain. And he had this way of seeing the world, y’know? Just very … pure. But he also had this crazy backstory.’

‘Ooh,’ I say playfully. ‘Was he a child wizard?’

Kris laughs. ‘No. Ha! Not quite. Though he was locked in a room by his psycho dad.’ He checks to see that I’m suitably shocked by the revelation, which I do a good job of pretending that I am, before continuing. ‘He lived in, like, this mansion. Overlooking the Thames. And his dad was some kind of con artist, bamboozled this wealthy family out of all their worldly goods and then went mad, started locking people up. He escaped from there when he was a teenager and has been on the run ever since.’

‘On the run from his father?’

‘No, not from his father. I think he died, somehow. But there were other people in the house while all this was going on, people he didn’t want to know any more. Like, some guy who handcuffed him to a radiator or something.’

I swallow again, hard. ‘Sounds gothic.’

‘Yeah. Super-dark. But somehow this guy – Finn, his name was Finn – he managed to kind of rise above it. Radiate goodness, you know. Other people might have let the damage taint them. But he didn’t. He just ploughed his own furrow. Did his own thing.’

‘He sounds inspiring.’