Lolo was mewling all night, probably the cold breeze that kept crawling in, so Chicken Angel gently stroked her shoulders while Lolo morsed on her hands. I feel like I’ve been dozie and close my eyes. I start thinking about Cough Cough, and Africa, and all the animals from “The Natural World.” Nail boy will look after us, no leopards can get us, not while him, Jack The Cat, and Mrs Murdoe are watching.

We will ride the sky boat, and touch the stars, just like Mrs Murdoe said. I will be able to see Cough Cough. I turn around again, Lolo and Chicken Angel are cosy cosy under the blankets, so I close my eyes again. In my head I hear Lolo’s clock ringing, our time is up.



“This ain’t too bad at all really. Me, Nats, and those noddies. I hate to say it but I kind of like them, even though they make me shiver sometimes.” Nail turned around and closed his heavy eye lids, dry from the bitter cold. “WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY?” Nail hit his head hard on the broken desk behind him.
“For Christ’s sake, what do you mean where are they? You tell me!” Natalie was looking more pale than ever, not the sort of white chalkiness you get from the cold, but the ghostly paleness that makes you look slightly psychotic.
“I just woke up Nats.”
“So did I.”
“Well they can’t have gone far. There is no way they would have gone in the night, it was bloody freezing!” They both looked at each other, staring frightened into each other’s eyes. Natalie had never seen Nail, hard as frightened.
“Well get up and help me look for them!” He sat for a moment nursing his bumped head.
 He slowly grumpily mumbled as he stood up. “All I wanted was a morning kiss, the little ones to be asleep, and to go back home.” Deep down however, he could not lie to himself, he was worried.   

The wind was blowing furiously, and Nail was battling the violent weather whilst trying to cover his eyes as sand swept across the ground and soared through the air. “I can’t see them, Nail, I can’t see them anywhere.”
  “Just keep looking, just keep looking! We haven’t got long, the hyena men will likely be here soon. Just keep looking!”

After what seemed like an eternal three minutes, Natalie began screaming.
She began running across the sand; she had found something.
“Oh my God, NO! NO! NO!”
“What’s wrong, have you found them?” Nail shouted after her, then quickly ran and caught up with her. He looked down in a deep pit of sand. Two, fragile, innocent, limp, lifeless bodies lay shrivelled up in the sand.
Above them, a see-through X-Ray, tears of blood pouring down his face. He was throwing sand over them.

“You will be with Cough Cough. We are a family of monkeys, we will be together, on the sky boat, together. Together.” I was mewling, puking and bleeding. I felt like I was being tranked. Again, and again. But I would be with them soon, my skin, my onion skin will not keep this blood in me. Not even Angel blood.
Nail boy and the girl were shouting at me. They don’t understand.
“STOP STOP STOP!! What are you doing” Nail boy shouted. He jumped in the hole. He was mewling, so was the girl. They both started moving and nudging Lolo and Chicken Angel. So I threw in more sand. They don’t understand, but I will be with them soon.
“They are gone. They are on the sky boat. And I’m here” They both stared at me.

 “What do you mean they’re gone?” Natalie was shaking.
“They are gone, it was the lumpies.” Nail and Natalie both stood staring at the cold bodies. Sand was slowly burying them under three feet of the ground. There was a silence. Nail looked into the cold eyes of the boy crouching over the pit, throwing sand over the bodies. The veins under his skin shone purple as the sun eclipsed behind him, creating a silhouette. The purple child tucked himself into a ball, and lay perfectly still next to the picture of a boat drawn in the sand.
Nail looked down at X-Ray. “We’re Angel’s kid, you and me.” X-Ray climbed aboard the sky boat.