Chapter 1

1.


Mark sat in the cafe nursing his cup of tea, his hands wrapped around it warming his hands. He could feel eyes looking at him, he looked in the mirror and saw two young girls sat in a booth. They were giggling amongst themselves and looking over at Mark, Mark recognised one girl immediately she was a student in his class. Her name was Gabby. Their had been many rumours in the teachers lounge and her but Mark had distanced himself from all conversations, she was after all only fourteen. Though to look her at her you couldn’t tell. She was tall, blonde haired and very well developed. When Mark had recognised her he didn’t stare long. He averted his eyes and stared directly forward at the empty chair in front of him and continued to nurse his drink. He could see movement from her table from the corner of his eyes. Mark dared not look but he could feel her presence moving closer toward him. She took a seat as his table while her friend smiled and walked out the door,
“I saw you staring Mr Underhill”, she said with a sweet smile across her face.
“It’s okay to look you know, I won’t say anything. You wouldn’t be the first”, she added, Mark forced his eyes to remain on hers and not to drift south at all not even for a second.
“I wasn’t staring Gabby, I simply noticed you were here that’s all”, Mark felt the back of his neck in a nervous manner and felt a wetness to it. When he inspected his hand he saw that it had white paint on the back of his neck, he placed his hand on his lap out of sight of everyone.
“I noticed you as soon as you walked in Sir, do you like it when I call you Sir?”, Gabby said, playing with her hair as she spoke.
“You can call me whatever you like Gabby”, he said flatly and plainly.
“Some of the other teachers love it when I call them Sir, in fact it drives them wild”, she said leaning in toward the table, emphasising her low cut top.
“And what teachers are these?”, Mark said, asking questioningly.
“You know, some of the childish young ones. Not the clever handsome ones like you, I like my men mature and handsome”, she smiled as she complimented him, his face was plain and white no hint of red embarrassment.
“I hate to be rude Miss Cunningham but would you excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom”,he said placing his coat and the chair he had been sitting on and giving his waiter a telling glance to tell him to watch over his coat.
“That’s not an invitation is it sir?”, Said Gabby, who had already stood to walk to the bathroom with him.
“No Gabby, I will see you in school. You have math homework to do anyway”, he said while walking toward the bathroom. He caught himself checking in the mirrors reflection to see Gabby leave, she caught him looking. Smiled and left the cafe.

Mark began to frantically wash his hands and the back of his neck to get ride of all trace of paint. He opened the the soap container and began to rub a large amount of soup into his hands, face and neck. He shook nervously as he held the soap in his hand, spilling it everywhere and creating a mess around the toilet. A man entered behind him and saw only a mess of soup as he did.
“Are you okay?”, the man said as he entered the toilet.
“Yeah, yeah”, Mark said laughing,
“I just dropped it and it exploded everywhere”, Mark said lying. The man laughed and grabbed some paper to help clean the mess up.
“I haven’t got any of it on my face or neck do I?”, Mark said, very aware that he couldn’t see the back of his neck.
“No, no. You’re neck is clean”, the stranger said.
“Good”, Mark said. He stayed to clean the toilet with paper towels, and then left just after the stranger, double checking himself in the mirror before he did.

As he left the bathroom, he looked over at the table and saw that there was a women sat opposite his coat on his table. At first he thought that Gabby had returned but then he realised that the time was now quarter past eleven. He was fifteen minuets late, he must have been in the bathroom cleaning a lot longer than he thought. He was still quite shaky since the bathroom but he took a deep breath and walked towards his table steadying his hand.
“Aunt Susan, how are you?”, he said, planting a kiss on the womens cheek before pulling out his chair and sitting down.
“I am fine for a change, how are you?”
“Yes, I am fine. Sorry I’m late, I had a little trouble in the bathroom”, Mark said, checking his hands once again for paint.
“Now Mark aren’t you too old for that”, Aunt Susan said jokingly, Mark laughed then Aunt Susan did.
“I have been to see your mother Mark”, Susan said, very seriously now as was obvious in her tone.
“How is she?”, Mark said, with genuine concern in his voice.
“Well she is insane, their is never much change but they told me you went last month”, Aunt Susan with even more concern now than she did when she spoke of Mark’s mother.
“Yeah, did they tell you about the test then?”, Mark asked, Susan nodded.
“A denigrative brain disease, one that is passed down in the genes apparently. Who has heard such rubbish. They tested little Johnny, he doesn’t have it. But apparently that only heightens the chances of me having it, honestly they just seem to make it up”, he said with tears building up in his eyes, he didn’t want to talk about this but Susan would not let up.
“Lucy, your mother, my dearest sister was very brave. She has battled very bravely, we knew our mother had demons in her head and so does Lucy. You may be like them and you may have to deal with it one day Mark but if you don’t want to face it now you don’t have to”, Mark breathed slowly and sharply, he did this to control his breathing and to stop his eyes from betraying him of his real emotions.
“I can not face what my mother has faced, not now at least Susan. I have time to deal with all this when I am old and decrepit”, he smiled, knowing that his illness would inflict him long before then. Then the smile seemed to slide slowly from his face,
“When you know my time has come Susan. Tell someone, tell everyone. Let the world know that I am not well. Or kill me before the voices get too loud”, he almost cried when he had finished but held himself together.
“Anyway I cant leave Rachel and Johnny alone all day. I have to go now”, he left in a hurry but being friendly toward Susan as he left. She stopped for a second when he left, watching him walk away.