Day 5

The Meetings were always so depressing. Same story, different faces. Over and over again. Relationship problems. Work problems. Waking up in strange places. The inevitable transmutation gone awry. Most nights Seven wondered why he still bothered to come.

          Dots of Styrofoam littered the floor around him as he lurked close to the refreshment table picking at his empty coffee cup. The key was to not make eye contact. They tried to talk to you if you did. Every one of them desperate to prove they somehow had it worse than you. He’d developed the habit of always looking a little to the left of someone, which generally worked pretty well, except on those occasions when the eyes weren’t quite where you thought they should be.

          ‘This coffee kinda sucks.’

          His eyes slid sideways. And then there were the newbs. Leaches, more like. Once one latched onto you, you were screwed. You’d be babysitting him for eternity.

          This one looked like a whisper would knock him over. He held a Styrofoam cup at eye level and tapped the greasy surface with one long, slender finger. Thick tufts of dark hair stuck out around his head and the brown jacket draped over him like a tent looked like it had definitely seen better days. Otherwise, the kid looked completely out of place with the usual attendees.

          ‘I don’t think even chocolate syrup would make it drinkable.’ The newb moaned pure want. ‘What I wouldn’t give for a dark chocolate espresso with whipped cream and those little curly chocolate shavings on top.’

          Seven wished he had something more than a mostly demolished coffee cup to occupy himself. Maybe if he just pretended the kid wasn’t there he’d wander off and bug someone else. Or realise he didn’t belong here at all.

          ‘You know there’s a girl here who sneezed and created a race of amphibians that are eating the rings of Saturn?’ The kid flicked the tip of his tongue into his coffee and made a face. ‘That’s kinda neat.’ He flicked his tongue at the coffee again. ‘I bet these things get exciting sometimes.’ After one final flick, he abandoned the cup on the table.

          ‘Not really.’ Damn it. Now he was stuck. He’d have to spend the rest of the Meeting talking to this kid, and then some Advisor would stick him looking after him. Eight years he’d managed to escape it; there wouldn’t be any excuse he could use to get out of it.

          ‘Oh, come on. With this group? They’re hardly the leisurely game of Scrabble type.’

          ‘It’s not as interesting as you’d think.’

          ‘So why do you come?’

          Wasn’t that the question of the night. And every night. ‘What are you doing here?’

          ‘Court order.’ The kid snaked his arm out of its sleeve and tapped the silver bracelet he wore. He winked at Seven. ‘They’re watching.’

          ‘Aren’t they always.’

          The kid dangled the bracelet in front of his eyes, twisting his arm over his head until he was looking at it upside down.

          ‘What’d you do to get sent here?’

          The bracelet disappeared back into the coat. ‘Oh, I imploded a galaxy.’ He paused, then added, ‘Or twenty-three.’ His hands flared in a mimed explosion, accompanied by the imitative sound effect.

          Seven stared at the kid and tried to imagine such a tiny creature capable of doing that. ‘You imploded twenty-three galaxies.’

          ‘Yep.’ The kid grinned. ‘It was shiny.’