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Julian stared at the younger man in confusion, battling his own thoughts. He couldn't be believing this, could he? But his friend just seemed so…certain. And he'd just spouted off a load of things about Vince's life that he was certain Noel wouldn't have bothered to think up, unless it was related to a script. And a maternal suicide seemed very bleak to be thinking about putting into the Boosh…
He was shaken out of these strange musings by the doorbell ringing. Shooting a confused glance back at his friend, he went to answer the door.
"Mike. Hi."
"Hey Julian. How's he doing?"
"He's been watching DVDs of the Boosh. And now he's really freaked out, thinks I'm some sort of stalker. Listen though; I may be crazy but…"
"He doesn't think you're Howard anymore, then?" Mike sounded hopeful.
"No, but he does still think he's Vince," Julian said, gently. He wondered about telling Mike what he had been thinking, then thought better of it. No need to make the younger man worry that he was crazy too. "He just seems to think I've kidnapped him or something. Come through, maybe you can talk to him."
With a small groan, Mike followed the older man back through to the living room.
"Noel? Look who's here!"
Vince looked at the new arrival, and his eyes lit up. Then, almost as quickly, they narrowed in suspicion and dulled again. "You're not Naboo either, are you?"
"No. I'm Mike. How you feeling?"
"I'd feel better if someone would just tell me what the hell is going on! What is this, some sort of copy-cat thing? Can't you find anyone who looks like me? Why wont you let me go home?!"
Mike looked like he was about to cry. Julian took him gently by the arm and steered him out of the room. "Maybe we should leave him, hey?"
"You're probably right. Has he got a psychiatric appointment?"
"Not until tomorrow."
"You want me to watch him? You haven't been home in over 24 hours."
Julian hesitated. True, he would like to go home and see his family, change his clothes, etc. "Cheers Mike. I should only be a few hours, ok? Try and keep him calm."
Mike smiled weakly. "Sure."
Julian wondered about saying goodbye to Noel, then decided not to. "Bye." He said to Mike, then walked out the front door, closing it behind him.
Mike swallowed nervously and turned towards the sitting room. He had never thought he could feel apprehensive about spending time with his own brother.
Naboo walked through the front door to the shop, then frowned when he saw Noel sitting behind the counter. "What's he doing there?" he asked Howard, accusingly.
"He wanted to help out."
"What if something had happened? He wouldn't be covered by the insurance!"
Howard raised an eyebrow. "Naboo, you don't have insurance. You lost it for making false claims to get money for drugs, remember?"
"Oh yeah. Still though…"
Noel, who had been listening to this conversation, decided to join in. "come on, Naboo, it's been genius! I've sold loads! Even managed to shift two of those jazz records!"
Naboo and Howard both whipped their heads round to the dusty, gloomy corner of the shop where they kept the jazz records. Sure enough, there were two less than before.
"You managed to sell jazz?! Maybe you should work here more often!"
Howard frowned. "When did you sell those? I haven't been able to shift any for ages!"
"It was when you went to make tea, that second time when it was meant to be my turn but you volunteered to do it anyway. This young woman came in, God she was gorgeous. Long dark hair, big green eyes. Dressed a bit weird; too much brown and not enough accessories. And she said she absolutely adored jazz! But still, she was totally hot! Sold her the records for 100 Euros each! Oh, and she bought a couple of bookmarks as well."
Howard was staring at him in total disbelief. Noel grinned cheekily, then gulped and involuntarily stepped back as Bollo entered to shop. "Err…h-hey, Bollo."
"Hello Noel. Harold."
"Howard"
"Whatever."
Howard frowned after the retreating backs of the gorilla and the shaman. "Unbelievable! He's known you one day and he knows your name! Me; he's know for 10 years and he still doesn't know mine!"
"Hello? You guys in?" Julian called, letting himself back into Noel's with a key he'd borrowed from the front table.
"In here." He heard Mike call back. He followed the direction of the voice into the sitting room, where the two men were sat silently on different sofas. They might as well have had dust on them, Julian thought, it was so obvious they hadn't moved in a long time. "Is it alright if I head off now?" Mike asked. Julian wasn't sure if he was talking to him or Noel, but he nodded anyway.
"Sure. You going to come to the hospital tomorrow?"
"Cant mate, sorry. I'll come next time though, yeah? Will you call me after and let me know how it went?"
"Sure. See you."
Throwing a slightly guilty look behind him, Mike left the room. A few seconds later, Julian heard the door slam shut. He turned to his friend.
"So…you hungry?"
He just got a stony silence in return. "Come on, Noel, say something."
"Stop calling me that."
"Ok, ok." He thought for a minute. If he could only trigger some sort of memory… "What do you remember about the accident?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"You know, when you fell in the river."
"Me and you…umm, me and Howard had just been to the museum, it was totally genius. Did you know cavemen ate strawberry bootlaces? Anyway, we were next to the river and…"
"Hold on, museum? What museum?"
"You know, the big one, in town. Has these really genius statues in it."
Julian could feel the weird thoughts and feelings from this morning rising up inside him again. He knelt down so that he was at eye level with the younger man. He tried to think of a question to ask. Before he could think of anything however, the other man spoke up.
"When we go back to the hospital tomorrow, can I drive?"
"You don't know how to drive." Julian muttered distractedly.
"I do! I passed my test three weeks ago!"
Julian stared at him. The other man looked slightly indignant and annoyed.
"You can drive?"
"Yeah."
" Ok, answer me this. When should you use your hazard lights?"
"What?"
"Your hazard lights. When do you use them?"
"Why?"
"Answer the question, would you?"
"When you've broken down."
"Ok...You're driving in the rain and the car starts to skid out of control. Do you brake?"
The younger man looked at him nervously. "This is weird. What're you doing?"
"Do. You. Brake? Please answer the question, i need to know something..."
"What, whether to brake?" Vince attempted a joke, but found himself unable to laugh due to the confused, intense expression on the older man's face. "Ok, No. You should ease off the accelerator. Braking would just make it worse."
Julian gazed at the other man as he answered. This was seriously weird; he'd heard of people having new skills when they had had a head injury, but suddenly knowing how to drive? Julian wasn't even sure Noel knew which way round the brake and the accelerator peddles were…and then he knew, deep down in his stomach. He wasn't sure how, this was just too unbelievable. But he knew.
"Fuck!" he gasped, stumbling backwards and staring at the man in front of him with a mixture of disbelief and fear. "Vince?!"
Damn, I have totally lost my writing juju! I really need to get back into the habit of writing again, i'm finding updating really hard! Oh well, hopefully the writing i do do is still ok!
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