Ducks By The Lake [Part Four: This Side Of The Fence]

Sometimes, you have to open your mind...

It took a while to get the event out of my head. The event of that poor young man being brutally murdered by that gang leader. All these different thoughts kept racing through my head as I continually replayed the event again and again. Who was he? What did he do? Why was he singled out? But everytime I thought of this I had a massive sense of guilt too. On two different levels. One, that I didn't help that young man, and two, the guilt I'd feel at the end if I was shot, not being able to stay with Freya and the kids. And then came the nightmares of me dying, leaving them behind and how they'd cope, or rather not cope, without me. It was a scary thing to think about but I knew it had to stop. Otherwise it would mar the enjoyment of my life for the time being. (As if one could 'enjoy' their life given the society I lived in). But there were two things that I couldn't shift, no matter how hard I tried.

"OH, TROUBLE DOESN'T EVEN BEGIN TO COVER IT, WIRE!"

And

"Let's see how many times we can kick you until you can't feel anymore? Call it 'scientific curiosity'".

Every time I thought about it I got more and more curious as to why he called it 'scientific curiosity'. We're all taught human anatomy in school and, well, it's not rocket science to know that if you kick someone enough, it'll give them internal bleeding. So why be curious? Maybe Third Band education was as bad as the rumors suggested...

It was a Monday morning. A week after I'd seen the incident and I'd decided to do my best to put it behind me. It was 6am, time we always got up in our house. Because my two children, Peter and Abigail, would get up at 5:30 every morning and wait half an hour before getting us up in order to get ready for school. They knew how to occupy themselves with the television in the meantime. But I remember this Monday very clearly because it was a weird day. The weather was more erratic than normal and the acid rain levels were higher than usual. (And as you know reading this in the future, when the acid rain levels are high you stay indoors. Unless Government policy has changed...) The warnings were set to go right through lunchtime. So, for the meantime, we weren't going anywhere. The kids certainly weren't going to school and, well, Freya and I didn't have a job to go to so...

It was kind of family tradition that when the acid rain came, the kids and I would watch it out of the window while Freya made her famous 'Rain Soup'. (Which is just vegetable soup but we only have it on the occasion of acid rain). We kept the curtains closed for the most part, with a little gap so we could see the luminescent rain. Every time the rain came, the kids would ask me why the rain is like it is. But even I cannot explain the concept of acid rain to a 6 and 4 year old!

But the reason this Monday was weird because of something Abigail said. Abigail, the 4 year old, rarely lied which was weird for a child. She was always very honest and never even told a white lie! If you asked her if she'd eaten one of the biscuits from the jar she'd always admit to it. She was either a terrible liar or just too honest for her own.

This one day though, we were looking out the window at the rain, when Freya called me and Peter in to help her with something. She wanted me to help with chopping the carrots and wanted Peter to get some swede from the storage tank in the basement. We did so, but I remember hearing Abigail mumbling away to herself, which she very rarely did anyway. I couldn't hear much of what she was saying so I assumed that she was trying to work out why the rain was like it is. But then, eventually, I heard her say:

"It's ok! I'm not going to hurt you!"

Freya noticed as well. We looked at each other, put the knives down and went to see what was going on. Abigail was still looking out the window. And as we approached, she waved at something. Freya and I already looked confused and slightly worried.

"Abbie, honey..." Freya was looking at me more worried now, "who are you waving at?"

Abigail turned around and smiled at us.

"The man", she said happily.

Freya and I looked each other more worried than before.

"What man, sweetie?" I asked.

"The man outside!"

I could tell Freya was scared now because, if Abigail had recognized them, she'd have said their name. I looked at Abigail again.

"Was it Mr Monaghan from next door?"

Abigail shook her head.

"Was it Mrs Owens from across the road?" Freya asked, her voice breaking with fear as she did. Abigail shook her head again.

"Mr Craig? Mr Knight? Mrs Merry? Mr or Mrs Gordon?" I asked. Again, Abigail shook her head.

"Abbie, was it anyone we've had in this house before?"

"No! I've never seen him before. But he seems nice!"

Abigail turned back to see if he was still there.

"Aww...he's gone now..." She exclaimed sadly.

Freya and I turned to each other and started to discuss what had just happened. Freya was worried that someone was spying on the house. This sounds absurd but this was common practice at this point, (not sure if it still is), is someone had assaulted a robot. The spies were normally from the Robot Defense League and would stalk the houses of people known to have assaulted robots. Obviously, I'd just come out of prison. I was going to be on the list.

"What if they're coming for you?!" Freya exclaimed in fear. "What if they're going to take you away like they did Mrs Gall from St James Road?"

"Listen to me, no-one is going to take me away! I'm not going anywhere. Besides, we're missing one important thing in this whole situation. And that's Abigail saw someone OUTSIDE in the ACID RAIN". I had to do something to try and calm her down and reassure her. but Freya looked confused. "You know as well as I do that humans can't go out there due to the high acidity! If someone was out there, they'd be toast!"

Freya started to come around. She could see the logic I was presenting and started to accept it.

"But then, who did Abbie see? She's convinced she saw someone out there!"

"She said she saw a man. Only robots can go out in the acid rain because of their lead covering. As I've said, no human can survive that!"

"But who did she see then?!" Freya wanted a reason. Understandably, she wanted to be reassured.

"Freya, listen, there have been numerous studies and pieces of research into the effects of acid rain, and one of them is hallucinations from the chemicals in the rain. Not everyone's affected by it but some people are. Obviously, Abigail is! That's all it is. Her hallucinating".

Freya calmed down and accepted this. She took a few deep breaths and decided to go back to the soup. At this point, Peter returned with the swede and with an envelope. I looked down at him and he handed me the envelope.

"This was on the floor..." He said before walking into the kitchen to give Freya the swede. I looked down at the envelope and saw that it was blank on the front. No name, no address, no post code, nothing. Part of me wondered if the postman had put it through our door in a rush before the rain started but I couldn't be sure. I also couldn't be sure that it wasn't a poisoned letter from the Robot Defense League. That was one of their popular methods of attacking their targets, by lacing letters with a small amount of poison ivy. Enough to get you hospitalized but not enough to kill you. As always, my curiosity got the better of me. I just had to open it, one way or another, I had to.

"I'm just going to get something from the basement. Back in a moment". I called out to Freya. I looked back once more at Peter, who'd rejoined Abigail at the window to stare at the marvel that was the rain. Freya acknowledged the statement and I went down to the basement as proclaimed.

When I got down there, it was cold and the light was still on. Peter always forgot to switch the light off but I let him off this time as it was opportune. I reached the bottom of the stairs and placed the letter on the side while I attempted to find some gloves to open it with. It might not stop me from being poisoned, but at least I could try and minimize the damage as much as I could. I found some, put them on my sweaty hands and went back to the envelope. I was suddenly struck with a bout of fear and I questioned whether I should open it. What if it wasn't meant for me? What if it was someone's bank details? Well, I'd have to do my best to explain I suppose. My curiosity was fired up and, when that happened, there was no stopping it.

I peeled the tab carefully as not to damage it too much in case I had to reseal it. It took about 30 seconds to open it but the entire time it felt like I was trying to disarm a bomb. I was sweating more than I had with Abigail's experience and it took me back to the events of the week before. Feeling the same feelings twice in 7 days would not be good for my heart but I had to carry on. I'd thrown myself into this situation now and I had to see it through. I unfolded the paper and looked at its contents. It wasn't a bank letter, nor could I smell any poison ivy. I thought I was safe. It was hand-written but it wasn't named either. There was no name of the recipient or of who wrote it. But I knew it was for me. Because it read as follows:

I saw you. I saw you there on the other side of the fence.
I could see you wanted to help me but I understand why you couldn't.

This was uncanny. I couldn't believe what I was reading...

I imagine you have questions. LOTS of questions.
Questions for which I can supply answers. All I ask is for a
short amount of your time tomorrow night.
Meet me at the entrance of the new housing development on 
Winchester Road at 7:25pm and I'll do my
best to answer your queries. Privacy and solitude is
paramount. Come alone.

It wasn't signed. I had no idea who it was from. But my head and my heart raced. Who could it have been from? It appeared to be from that young man...but he was dead...wasn't he? I saw him killed! It couldn't have been from him. But then...it must be from the mafia boss! They'd found me! But they weren't allowed into the Second Band areas so how could they have delivered it? How could anyone have delivered it?

That's when it dawned on me. Abigail really did see someone out of the window. She wasn't tripping or hallucinating, she was telling the truth as always. My heart sank at the prospect but my constant curiosity overrode that. I did have questions. Lots of questions. For instance, who the bloody hell's personally delivering shady letters in acid rain? I knew I shouldn't go because, if it was the mafia, I wouldn't be coming back. But I also felt the need to get some answers once and for all about the things I've always been too afraid to ask. I knew that if I didn't go it would drive me insane for the rest of my life. So I had to go. It was the only way to help me sleep at night. If I wasn't killed that is! I knew that I couldn't tell Freya about this letter. She'd be terrified. So this was something else I had to burden on my own for the time being. And so, against my better judgement, I decided I was going to meet this individual.

Nothing could prepare me for what I was about to find out. I never could've dreamed in a millions years the truth I was about to learn. The reality of what goes on in our neat little world behind the scenes. And I'm not sure you'll be able to either...