Too many!" Roddy St. James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.
"Too many what?" asked Rita Malone.
"Too many kids in this family, that's what. Just too many!" Roddy stood fuming like a small angry locomotive, then stomped over to the window and stared out at the garden.
"I could hear you and some of the kids yelling." Rita put aside the book she was reading and stared at him. "What was that all about?"
"Wasn't anything," Roddy said. "Just stupid Liam again, bossing people around. 'Pick up this, don't touch that.' And Mimi joining in, too. You'd think this new house was big enough, but there's always people!"
They both looked out the window. The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. All the broad sky was gray, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere.
"Four days to Christmas." Rita said. "I wish it would snow properly."
"And your birthday tomorrow," pointed out Roddy.
"Mmm." She had been going to say that, too, but it would have been too much like a reminder. And the gift she most wished for on her birthday was something nobody could give her: it was snow, beautiful, deep, blanketing snow, and it never came. At least this year there was the gray sprinkle, better than nothing. Trying to cheer her up, Roddy pointed out the window.
"The pond is frozen. Want to go skating?"
Booted and muffled, they clumped out through the sprawling kitchen. A live Tom Jones concert was swelling out of the radio; Rita's sister Jojo was slicing onions for her mother and singing; her mum was bent red-faced over an oven.
"You two should go skating," she said when she caught sight of them.
"We're going!" Roddy shouted back.
The radio let out a sudden hideous crackle of static as the couple passed the table. They jumped at the sound before Mrs. Malone shrieked, "Turn that thing DOWN!" and the noise level returned to what passed for normal.
The shallow pond had frozen quickly, forming a milky, opaque surface that did little to improve the ambience. Roddy picked up a broom and swept the scattering of snow from it. There wasn't much. Snow hardly fell in London these days, even in midwinter, and the fact that the house was under a steel grate in a quiet corner of the drains didn't help. Even when the snow did fall it quickly picked up the accumulated dirt of the teeming city.
"Was you father able to get those skates working?" he asked, putting the broom aside. Rita was sitting on the bank, putting one up to her eye and squinting along the metal edge critically.
"Well...it's flatter than it used to be. And sharper. Amazing what some time with a Ronson and a hammer can do for you."
"I can always try finding you some new ones for your birthday," said Roddy. "No, wait, I can't possibly do that, it was hard enough finding you the present I already have." He grinned conspiratorially at Rita, who couldn't resist the urge to grin back.
"I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of asking what it is, Roddy, so forget it."
"Ah, well, another dream goes unfulfilled." Roddy shrugged and stamped his feet. Snow or not, it was still cold underground.
Their breath condensed into thick clouds of white vapour.
"I'm sorry to disappoint," said Rita. She pulled on the skates and tried to stand up, which resulted in her sitting back down again, albeit shorn of some dignity.
"Need a hand there?" Roddy extended an arm. Rita took it gratefully, then looked him up and down.
"You're not wearing skates?"
"Not yet. I thought I'd see how you went first." Roddy winked. Rita laughed and hauled herself up. The sudden shift threw Roddy off-balance, his flat-soled shoes flying out from underneath him.
He gave a squeak of surprise as he felt himself going down and grabbed onto the only thing available to hand- which was Rita. They landed on top of each other in the frozen shallows.
"That didn't exactly go according to plan..." muttered Roddy, attempting to extricate himself from underneath Rita.
"Oh.. I'm sorry, Rod," Rita said. She shifted enough so that they were laying next to each other.
"Not your fault." he replied, sitting up. He flicked the tip of her nose affectionately.
She managed to pull herself to her knees, and noticed a red spot of what was apparently blood on the ground. Rita looked around, trying to find the source of the spilt blood. As it happened, when she had fallen on top of Roddy, the sharp blade of her skates had dug into the side of his left leg, right under his shin. The cut wasn't very long or wide, but it looked rather deep.
"Oh, no!" Rita muttered. She scrambled over to him, took off her jacket, and pressed it against the wound to help stop the bleeding.
Roddy, who hadn't even known he was injured until he felt the sting of the jacket, being pressed against his leg, moaned and fell back at the sight of his blood. Rita, alarmed by his falling backward, put her hand on his chest and said, "Roddy?!"
He sat back up, saying, "No, no, I'm fine." He waved her away.
"Are- are you sure?" Rita asked him.
"Sure? Am I sure?" he stood up and started walking back to the house, a little unsteady. "Me, injured?" he continued. "The very idea is inde.. indi.. indeca.."
"Indecorous?" Rita guessed.
"Yes, that one." He put out a hand to help her up, and very nearly fell over again.
"Roddy!" Rita exclaimed, scared for her friend. He'd lost a lot of blood, that much was obvious. She took off her skates so she could stand up and help him.
"Suddenly I feel very dizzy.. " he started. He touched a hand to his head, overbalanced, and fell back onto the ice.
She helped him up, and put an arm around his shoulders to steady him. He leaned against her heavily. They started the slow journey back to the house. Roddy, barely conscious from blood loss, still managed to note that Rita was shivering violently. He remembered that her jacket was still wrapped around his leg. He put an arm around her, trying to keep her warm. His vision blurred. He tried to focus his eyes, but only saw white specks of light. He had a sensation of falling backward, then saw no more.
Rita, who had before only been supporting half his weight, was surprised by the sudden mass that pushed against her. She nearly collapsed, but pushed back up. She hooked an arm under Roddy's knees, and the other around his shoulders, and lifted him up, supporting all his weight with only her back and her arms.
The door seemed to be a long way off and her footsteps moved maddeningly slowly. Rita paused in front of the door and glared at the hinges. They opened out, preventing her from simply kicking the door in, and with Roddy occupying her arms there was no easy way to open it.
In desperation, Rita took the knocker in her teeth and winced as she felt her tongue freeze onto the chilled brass.
This was clearly going to be one of those days.
Wincing with every blow, Rita knocked on the door, willing the sound to somehow overcome the noise inside. Almost weeping with frustration, she rammed her head into the wood so hard that there was a splintering sound around the hinges. The noise inside finally ceased and her father opened the door. He stood for a moment, staring at the bizarre scene before him.
"Rita? What are you doing? What's happened to Roddy? And why are you-"
"Shup and lemme in," said Rita, speaking with some difficulty around the brass knocker. "'is no' funny."
Mrs Malone gently detached her daughter from the door while Mr Malone looked over Roddy's leg.
"It was an accident," said Rita, wiping her mouth anxiously. "We fell over and it just...happened."
"It's all right, Rita, he'll live." Mr Malone smiled comfortingly. "I've had to deal with worse. Put him on the table."
Mrs Malone was already soaking clean towels in hot water. Mr Malone tore Roddy's trouser leg open along the seam and began wiping the blood from the fur around the injury.
"Liam? Run to get mum's sewing kit, will you?" he said.
"What, dad?" Liam stuck his head in the doorway and took in the scene.
"Right now, Liam!" snapped Rita. "Right now!"
Her brother stared at her and disappeared. Rita grabbed a towel from her mother and pressed it hard against the wound. She was glad that Roddy was unconscious- the pain would have been intolerable had he been awake, but he had lost enough blood already. Mr Malone took the sewing kit from Liam and deftly threaded one of the finer needles.
"Are you sure you want to see this, Rita? It's not the prettiest thing in the world."
Rita nodded. "I think...I think the bleeding has gone down."
Mr Malone lifted a corner of the bloodsoaked towel.
"You did a good job, Rita. It's deep but very neat. This'll be easy."
As her father set to work, watched carefully by Mrs Malone, Rita sat by Roddy's head, stroking his cheek and watching his face anxiously for the slightest twitch.
As soon as Roddy woke up, his leg was on fire with pain. He touched a hand to his forehead, trying to remember what happened and why his leg hurt so much. He remembered something about skating and falling over.. and bolted upright. Was Rita alright?
She was sleeping on the end of the bed, curled up tight into a little ball.
Wait, he thought. This can't be right. How did we get inside? I must have passed out or something..
Rita's mum walked in, and caught sight of Roddy.
"Oh, you're awake! I brought some food for Ri, but seeing as she's the one sleeping now, you can have it." She whispered this, so as not to wake her daughter.
"Thanks," Roddy mumbled, and took a cracker from the plate. He nibbled at it quietly while taking inventory. Both legs were still attached, even if one of them wasn't doing him much good at the moment. He tried to remember what had happened after falling down, frowning in concentration.
Roddy stopped eating, the biscuit halfway to his mouth, and looked from Rita to his leg and then over to the set of skates sitting in the corner before coming back the same way. He decided to examine the skates closer and swung his feet off the bed. His foot touched the floor and Roddy immediately realised his mistake as he bit back a yelp of pain.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid..." he muttered.
"Hm..? What?" Rita stirred and opened her eyes slowly.
"I wasn't talking to you, Rita," Roddy sat back down and tried to relax. "Although I can see why you thought I was."
"You're awake?" Rita stood up and watched him nervously. "How...how do you feel?"
"I've had better days." Roddy winced. "But I suppose everything is still here. What happened? I remember falling on you and then it gets a little confusing."
Rita looked contrite. "Yeah...when we went down there was an incident with my skate blades. I'm so sorry, I honestly didn't mean it."
Roddy waved off the apology. "Nothing to be sorry for, Rita, it was an accident. At least I assume so? Yes, of course it was, if you'd really meant to do me in we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?"
Rita grinned despite herself. He had to be feeling better to start joking like that.
"If I really meant to do you in, Roddy, I'd have done it by now. You should stay in bed a while longer. At least until it stops hurting." Roddy nodded and lay back. "Besides, you probably shouldn't be up and around without your trousers on," Rita commented brightly.
Roddy froze and went crimson with embarrassment as he realised that she had a point. He pulled the covers up and bit higher and tried to laugh lightly. Rita grinned.
"Don't worry, Roddy, dad had to cut them open to sew you up."
"Just so long as it doesn't work both ways, I guess that's all right," muttered Roddy.