Eyesight fading, she turned away momentarily before giving a rip roaring sigh and returning to the freezer.
“Ah, that’s one offer I can’t refuse,” she exclaimed delightedly, as she opened a compartment just along from where Ed hid. She reached in and grabbed one Arctic roll, followed by another which landed in the small basket attached to her wheeled silver Zimmer frame. Her hand clasped the lid of the freezer in the open position, as from behind her a voice bellowed ignorantly,
“We’re closing the store; sorry, you’ll have to go to checkout now.”
She turned to confront the young man, long black hair, small black bobble hat and a blue shop assistant’s coat.
“It’s not 6.00 yet. Look, I have one more minute,” she replied assertively looking past him at the clock as she flicked the lid closed behind her. Ed took his chance and in the nick of time skidded across the transparent glass surface and slid into the freezer just before the door came crashing shut.
“Whatever. We’re closing. Anyway, look, it has just gone 6.00,” replied the young man petulantly as they both went their separate ways.
Ed slid along to the end of the cabinet, over the Arctic rolls and Haagen-Dazs vanilla and settled on the cheese cakes and frozen profiteroles. The bitter chill stung away at his soft paws like millions of tiny darts fired from a huge pistol, penetrating through his fur like he was being shot blasted. His breath virtually froze into little steamy clouds as it was expelled into the chamber. He settled down and stretched out as if he was lying on a bed of nails. He rested his head on his front paws whilst the chill crept into his brain, making it ache like a fireball of agony behind his eyes. He thought of Ali and Frank and his transitions, the tortoise, Sam and everything that had been going on in his busy schedule over the last few days.
He soon started to drift in and out of consciousness, the thoughts and reflections becoming more and more abstract and unrelated. Then suddenly, a tornado of a wind, the coldness disappeared in an instant and his journey into a supersonic kaleidoscope tunnel began, like a bullet being fired into a never-ending gun barrel. Gravity ceased to exist. One second he was up, the next down, forwards and then backwards, sideways to the left and then over to the right, all at such a speed that the transitions were hardly noticeable. Then he saw the light, the laser pinprick beam at the end of the tunnel that pulled him with unstoppable power. The noise and wind was deafening as he sped onwards, the light getting bigger and bigger. Then just like before, total darkness and absolute silence. If a pin dropped, it would just fall silently for ever. He had made the shift from deceased to Transient.
Chapter 10
The red leather saddle
Ed awoke to a loud squelching, slapping sound, staccato, like a powerful wet flipper on a marble floor. He was drowsily unaware of his surroundings but vaguely heard a stern voice yelling at him, piercing his dulled senses.
“There’ll be plenty of that for you after, boys; this is just to give you the taste.”
He felt disoriented and unsettled, like he’d been spun into a whole new dimension, blinded by a light and an intensity of sound and smell that overwhelmed him. He raised his eyelids languidly, like the heavy sails on an old clipper ship. Fierce rays scorched through, tazering his brain, reminding him of how he set fire to newspapers with a magnifying glass as a child. Soon, shapes and colours began to assemble into a vaguely comprehensible panorama, gradually focussing and sharpening his perception and confirming once more that he had not awoken in his bed at home with Abella. He also began to realise he hadn't arrived back in the labyrinth of tunnels and reluctantly began to prepare himself for the next unknown and strange adventure in the animal world.
The pain of the glare soon abated and in front of him he could see a small piece of uncooked steak splayed out on the stone floor, stains of blood splattered around its edges as if thrown from a height. His nostrils sniffed at the offering with a sensitivity he’d never experienced. It was as though he could taste every detailed aspect of it.
Just at that moment he saw two enormous feet in shiny black leather boots come towards his face. He was lying flat on the stone and started to wonder exactly what sort of animal he had become. He quickly stood upright before instinctually leaning over and tearing into the piece of steak, instantly devouring it. He had never felt so painfully hungry, as if he’d been starved or something.
“It’s just you two this time,” yelped the man as he bent down to Ed and started rubbing a fox brush in his face.
It’s fox fur; it smells just like Sam but it can’t be?
The man continued to rub the brown fur in his face, causing him to splutter on little bits that came loose. Ed then watched on as the individual wandered over to his left and over to a large, vicious and muscular hunting hound. Light and dark brown patches covered the body apart from a glorious white front and underbelly. The facial expressions went from intensely forlorn with a closed mouth to absolutely terrifying with it open. Ed was shocked with the realisation that he too must be a hunting hound and that they were no doubt being readied for a hunt.